Soon, the Su family's medical stations were established, also in cooperation with the official channels.
The Su family invested heavily, purchasing a large quantity of medical supplies from surrounding cities and sending them to the front lines. They also hired numerous expert doctors to staff the stations and provide free medical care to the disaster victims.
The results were surprisingly effective.
Due to the Su family's efforts, the official relief agencies' burdens were quickly eased, allowing a large number of disaster victims to receive timely treatment.
Many lives were saved through immediate rescue efforts.
The establishment of these medical stations significantly elevated the Su family's reputation, placing them second only to the Wu family. The Su and Wu families were now hailed as the twin stars of Mist City. Both families had performed exceptionally well in the earthquake relief efforts.
News of this soon reached the Wu family.
Wu Lingxuan was in the midst of calculating accounts when Wu Hao rushed in, barely catching his breath, to report in detail on the Su family's medical stations.
He concluded, "The Su family's reputation has also soared. This is not good for us!"
Wu Lingxuan listened and sneered, "They set up medical stations while we're handling food distribution. They're certainly adept at tit-for-tat. It's a pity we're working with someone else's money, while they are spending their own. In the long run, after the disaster is over, our Wu family's strength will increase significantly, while the Su family will be burdened by the relief efforts. It's clear who benefits."
Wu Hao smiled, "Indeed. Not to mention, we've secretly skimmed off a substantial sum. I conservatively estimated we'd make 1 billion yuan, but now it looks like we'll make 1.5 billion. Haha, we're getting rich."
They had both earned money and gained prestige – a double victory.
The Su family, however, was in dire straits.
Although the Su family had garnered a good reputation, they had poured in their own hard-earned cash and suffered significant losses. The worse the disaster, the more precarious the Su family's situation became.
If the disaster dragged on, the Su family might even be pushed to the brink of collapse!
While others might not have realized the widening gap between the two families, Su Wanran was acutely aware of it.
At the front line.
A medical station.
Su Wanran watched as one disaster victim after another came for treatment, her brow furrowed. She had not anticipated the sheer scale of expenses for the medical stations. The initial investment was quickly depleted, and more funds were required.
Even with the Su family's considerable wealth, they could not sustain such expenditure indefinitely.
They were struggling to cope.
Furthermore, for some inexplicable reason, the number of patients kept increasing, exceeding even the initial surge after the disaster!
According to usual patterns, the number of patients should decrease over time. Why was it reversing?
It was truly peculiar.
Beside her, Lu Ming sat at a table, diagnosing a patient. After a thorough examination, Lu Ming's expression became somewhat strange.
He briefly inquired about the patient's condition and then prescribed medication.
After the patient left, Lu Ming subtly set aside the patient's information form.
In a single day, twenty-six such cases were registered.
In the evening.
Su Wanran and Lu Ming returned to the company to review the day's work. While others had little to report, Lu Ming produced the patient information forms.
A thick stack.
In front of numerous Su family executives, he announced, "I have an unexpected discovery today."
Hmm?
Everyone turned to look at Lu Ming, wondering what a doctor who used to treat patients could possibly discover.
Lu Ming calmly stated, "I believe everyone has also noticed that recently, the number of disaster victims seeking medical attention has not decreased but has, in fact, been increasing."
The others exchanged glances and nodded.
"That is indeed the case, and it's very strange."
"This completely contradicts objective laws. Could it be due to the earthquake, causing some kind of epidemic among the disaster victims?"
"No way? Then the problem is far more serious."
Lu Ming shook his head, "It's not an epidemic, but rather..."
He didn't elaborate directly but distributed the information forms of the twenty-six patients for everyone to examine.
Everything appeared normal, with no obvious issues.
Jiang Mengxin, however, noticed something. Her brow furrowed as she said, "How is it that all the sick people have eaten at the food stations?"
Huh?
Is that so?
Everyone took a closer look and realized it was indeed the case.
Jiang Mengxin queried, "Could it be that there's something wrong with the food provided by the food stations?"
Su Wanran replied, "Not necessarily. Almost every disaster victim has eaten at the food stations. Whether they fall ill or not, this is a common factor. We cannot conclude that the food stations are problematic based on this alone."
Indeed.
Based solely on this piece of information, it was impossible to definitively declare the food to be problematic.
Lu Ming said, "It's not difficult to clarify this matter. Tomorrow, we'll recruit a reliable disaster victim to obtain a sample of food from the food station. A simple test will reveal if there are any issues."
Jiang Mengxin nodded, "That's perfectly feasible."
However...
Su Wanran felt a faint sense of dread. She lowered her voice, "If the test results are problematic, does that mean the food from the food stations is indeed problematic? Does that mean... the Wu family is involved?"
Exactly!
Su Ru suddenly exclaimed, "Now I understand! The Wu family must be substituting inferior goods, passing off trash to the disaster victims, and making money from it!"
Su Wanran coughed, "Aunt, don't think so ill of others. Such a heartless act as substituting trash for quality goods… I don't think Wu Lingxuan would do something like that. Regardless, she's still known as the 'Living Bodhisattva.' There's no need for her to do this."
Su Ru chuckled, "Heh heh, Wanran, what time is it, and you still think so highly of Wu Lingxuan? She's someone who only acts for profit. What won't she do if it means making money?"
Seeing that they were about to argue again, Lu Ming interrupted, "There's no point in speculating now. We won't know anything until the test results are out. We should select three disaster victims now to collect three food samples to ensure there are no discrepancies."
Subsequently, the Su family selected three trustworthy individuals from among the recent patients to obtain food from the Wu family's food station and bring it back to the Su family for testing.
The three food samples were delivered sequentially.
The testing was simple, and the results were obtained in a short period: all three food samples were problematic!
The issues were with the meat.
The test results indicated that two portions of beef were expired, and the remaining portion of pork was from a dead pig. All were substandard!
Consuming such meat would be difficult even for a healthy person, let alone disaster victims weakened by the earthquake.
They were bound to fall ill after eating it!
Su Ru let out a cold laugh, "Now we understand why the number of patients has not only not decreased but has actually increased. It turns out they all fell ill from eating the Wu family's rotten meat!"
Su Ru was utterly enraged.
It wasn't just the increase in patients, which led to increased expenditure for the Su family, but also the Wu family's reprehensible behavior of treating human lives as trifles and profiting from ill-gotten gains!
In the conference room, all the Su family executives were filled with indignation.
"Damn, the Wu family is so greedy."
"What kind of 'Living Bodhisattva' is she? Wu Lingxuan is nothing but a painted facade!"
"Tsk tsk tsk, the Wu family substituted inferior goods and made a fortune. Meanwhile, we have to continuously increase our investment to treat more patients. The Wu family is getting fatter while we're being dragged down. How can this be tolerated?"
"Director Su, we must retaliate!"
Of course.
Retaliation was necessary.
Su Wanran was comparatively calmer. She said slowly, "We must retaliate, but how? Wu Lingxuan has such an excellent reputation. If we simply expose the Wu family's deplorable actions to the public, I'm afraid the world won't believe us, and might even suspect us of slandering Wu Lingxuan. Moreover, acting rashly might tip them off. They might then hide the tainted meat and replace it with healthy food, leaving us without evidence."
Indeed, Wu Lingxuan's reputation as a 'Living Bodhisattva' was too well-established. Without a meticulous plan, simply revealing the truth impulsively would not be enough to bring her down.
A foolproof strategy was needed.
Lu Ming narrowed his eyes and said, "The Wu family substitutes inferior goods, using dead or expired meat to pass off as healthy and compliant meat. They must have a supply channel. As long as we can find their supply channel, we can uncover evidence and catch them red-handed!"
Jiang Mengxin added, "Furthermore, the Wu family is purchasing this tainted meat at market prices, so they must be using dual accounting. If we can find these account books, it will further expose Wu Lingxuan's ugly true colors!"