Chapter 493 - 405: Fanning the Flames

The next day, Wu Yun arrived at the Little Red Car offices just before work hours began. This time, no one was occupying his private parking spot. He easily reversed the Aston Martin into the space, put on his hat, and then joined the crowd heading into the elevator.

"President Wu! Morning!"

"President Wu! Morning!"

Even with his hat on, the employees easily recognized Wu Yun as he made his way through the office.

After Wu Yun walked into his office, a woman with delicate features looked around before saying, "President Wu is in so early. It looks like the Little Blue Car situation has really blown up! This is the first time I’ve ever seen him come in this early."

Sure enough, a notice soon spread through the company’s management group chat.

"All department heads and branch managers are to attend a meeting at 10:00 AM sharp! Attendance is mandatory."

When Li Qiuliang arrived, a secretary had already tipped him off, so instead of going to his own office, he headed straight for the chairman’s office.

"President Wu! Morning! I just heard from Xiaowang that you were looking for me?" Li Qiuliang said, standing before Wu Yun’s desk.

Wu Yun pointed to the seat in front of him. "Sit. Have all the major influencers been contacted?"

Li Qiuliang smiled. "They’ve all been contacted! I personally found someone to reach out to them. For now, no one at the company knows about this!"

"It’s best if no one finds out. If word gets out, we’ll become public enemy number one. Not that we’re afraid, but less trouble is always better."

"If Dai Wei and his people knew that I was the one who arranged the backstabbing, they’d probably want to kill me!" Wu Yun said it as if he were concerned, but his expression betrayed him. Li Qiuliang could see the schadenfreude at a glance.

"Don’t worry, President Wu! I used anonymous intermediaries. They have at least that much professional integrity," Li Qiuliang said, patting his chest.

Wu Yun nodded. The two discussed the details for a little longer before Li Qiuliang left the office.

Soon, it was ten o’clock. Wu Yun was the last to arrive at the conference room.

After walking straight to the head seat, he glanced at the Tencent representative to his left, who nodded. Wu Yun then spoke, "Everyone’s here. Let’s begin."

Li Qiuliang turned on the microphone in front of him, cleared his throat, and began, "I’m sure everyone has heard, to some extent, about the situation with Little Blue Car and Coolqi Bike."

"If you’ve been paying close attention, you’ll have realized that our industry is about to undergo a massive transformation because of this—or perhaps, a seismic shift."

"Don’t underestimate the impact of these incidents. This is a vicious case of mass consumer fraud. I’ve spoken with President Wu and our partners at Tencent, and we all agree: what started as a local issue will soon sweep the nation. I believe the government is certain to launch a major crackdown on the entire bike-sharing market!"

"Therefore, I am announcing the following! First, the tech department must be fully prepared to ensure our app doesn’t crash when faced with a wave of refund requests from all users! Second, our logistics and customer service departments must be ready to face the coming challenge at a moment’s notice! Third!..."

...

Just as Little Red Car was holding its meeting, a silent undercurrent began to surface.

A major finance influencer published a deep-dive analysis of the secrets behind the bike-sharing industry.

"...In summary, bike-sharing companies use customer deposits to expand their fleets. As long as these companies continue to expand, this deposit deficit will always exist—and in fact, it will only grow larger!"

"As I’ve said before, bike-sharing companies can’t make much money from ride fees alone—in fact, they often lose money! The real money is in the deposits!"

"Therefore, I can state with certainty: If all users were to request refunds at the same time, I believe these bike-sharing companies would absolutely be unable to produce that much cash on short notice!"

"If you don’t believe me, try it! See if I’m right!"

The influencer didn’t name names, but any discerning reader knew they were talking about the three fastest-expanding companies at the top of the market.

Following the release of this post, droves of followers and other influencers immediately began to share the article.

In addition, other major influencers analyzed the event from various angles, leaving many netizens utterly convinced.

Immediately, related topics like "Bike-sharing companies are misappropriating deposits!" and "Have you gotten your deposit back?" shot to the top of the trending lists thanks to clicks from netizens.

That afternoon, Little Red Car’s tech and finance departments were suddenly swamped. The logistics department was also chaotically busy.

Many programmers were clicking their mice so fast they were about to start smoking. Fortunately, thanks to the pre-configured refund procedure, Little Red Car didn’t descend into chaos when faced with the massive tide of deposit refund requests.

Compared to Little Red Car’s orderly process, the other bike-sharing companies were a scene of bleakness and chaos.

"Fuck! My system crashed! Quick, quick! Get the backup server online!"

"Notify the bank, now! Tell them to withdraw the money from the fixed-term deposits immediately!"

...

Dai Wei’s face was grim as he looked at the company’s executives and investor representatives in the conference room. He said in a heavy voice, "How did a full-scale refund panic start all of a sudden!? Is someone behind this?"

Someone shook their head and said, "It’s likely because of the articles these influencers posted about the situation. According to our intel, Little Red Car and Mobike are also facing a large number of user refunds. In fact, Little Red Car’s situation is much more severe than ours! It’s sheer luck their app hasn’t crashed!"

"How many users can we afford to refund with our current funds?" A sense of powerlessness washed over Dai Wei. He knew Little Yellow Car’s situation like the back of his hand—they definitely couldn’t refund all their users. He doubted they could even manage half.