Chapter 436 – Meeting the Foreigners Again
Although her brother had said that, Xu Jinning still felt it was an important matter. After returning home, she thought about it for two days whenever she had some free time but still couldn’t recall what she had forgotten.
“It’s the third day today. Uncle Xiao should be giving his answer…” Xu Jinning murmured.
But this wasn’t something she needed to worry about. Today, she and her brother were still going to discuss store entry issues with a vendor providing daily necessities. They were negotiating with a vendor specializing in household goods today.
Of course, the supermarket could open because many items, other than staple foods, no longer required tickets.
Eventually, even rice and flour would not need tickets, but that was still a while off.
Xu Jinning didn’t expect such a coincidence. Just after she and her brother had finished negotiating and signing the contract with the household goods vendor, they encountered someone who seemed both familiar and unfamiliar, someone who was neither entirely known nor entirely unknown.
“Hey, little sister, isn’t that one of the two foreigners we saw at the Friendship Hotel restaurant yesterday?” Xu Xiangbei pointed to a person not far away.
“But the person standing next to him doesn’t seem to be the other foreigner we saw yesterday.”
Xu Jinning looked over and had to admit that her brother had a good memory.
Not far away, there were indeed two foreigners. One of them was unfamiliar, but the other was the same person they had seen at the Friendship Hotel restaurant yesterday, though not the one in charge.
The two foreigners were leaning against a wall, seemingly engaged in an animated conversation in Italian. From a distance, their expressions looked quite arrogant.
They were speaking Italian, but because they were quite far away, Xu Jinning couldn’t hear the conversation clearly.
Remembering the matter she had been unable to recall for the past few days, her intuition told her it was related to these foreigners.
So…
“Second brother, let’s pretend to walk past them. I want to hear what they’re saying.”
“Ah.” Xu Xiangbei was surprised.
His little sister had such an interest?
Although he couldn’t understand what the foreigners were saying, his little sister…
She was a teacher at the Foreign Languages Department of Beijing University and worked in the National Translation Department, so she would definitely understand.
Even though Xu Xiangbei thought eavesdropping wasn’t very nice, they were walking openly past them, so it probably didn’t count as eavesdropping.
Besides, since his little sister had asked, he, as her older brother, naturally wanted to indulge her.
So…
“Let’s go then.” Without hesitation, Xu Xiangbei started pushing his bike forward, with Xu Jinning following behind.
To help his sister hear more, Xu Xiangbei deliberately slowed his pace.
Xu Jinning pretended to follow behind her brother and, as they walked past, she didn’t look directly at the two foreigners.
After all, if they were going to pretend, they needed to do it convincingly.
With her brother’s cooperation, the two quickly approached the foreigners while pushing their bikes.
Perhaps the foreigners were confident in their ability to speak Italian, believing that no one else around could understand, so their conversation continued unabated despite Xu Jinning and her brother’s approach.
In fact, as they got more excited, their voices grew louder.
If Xu Jinning hadn’t happened to pass by and overhear them, their assumption might have been correct—no one else present could understand their relatively obscure Italian.
But, coincidentally, Xu Jinning was there.
And Xu Jinning happened to be fluent in Italian.
So, as they got closer, she was able to clearly hear what they were saying.
“…We’ll make a big profit this time, $100,000. Afterward, I’m going to chase after more girls.”
“Haha, these foolish XX country people, I can’t wait to see their faces when they realize this batch of equipment is junk.”
“Do you think they’ll cry? Haha…”
“I think they will, haha…”
Their laughter was unrestrained and arrogant, as if they were already victorious in their scheme.
Meanwhile, Xu Xiangbei, having already passed by the two foreigners, turned back to ask Xu Jinning if she had heard clearly and if they should walk by again to listen more closely. He was startled to see her serious expression.
Knowing his sister well, Xu Xiangbei understood that she was not just upset, but very angry.
“Little sister, what’s wrong? Who upset you?”
“Is it because you didn’t hear clearly? Should we—”
Xu Jinning suddenly looked up, her expression anxious. “Second brother, we need to go to the county government office immediately.”
“Ah, why do we need to go there?”
“Second brother, don’t ask right now. I’m in a hurry. I’ll explain later. We have to go now. It’s very important. I need to find Uncle Xiao.” She quickly got onto the back seat of the bicycle.
Seeing her urgency, Xu Xiangbei didn’t ask further. He mounted the bicycle and pedaled towards the county government office.
Sitting on the back of the bicycle, Xu Jinning finally remembered what she had forgotten over the past few days.
She had nearly forgotten about the biggest fraud case since the establishment of Anren County.
The case had only been briefly mentioned in a side note, which is why Xu Jinning hadn’t remembered it sooner. After all, this novel was 800,000 words long.
If Xu Jinwen were here now, she would have asked, “Why write so many words? A short story of ten or so thousand words would have sufficed. Why a full-length novel?”
Especially since this world was a blend of several long novels.
She was fortunate that she could still vaguely remember the plots of these novels after her transmigration.
If it were someone else…
Not to mention others, even Xu Jinning herself might have forgotten everything.
…
Lin Wangshu, who was having breakfast in Haishi, suddenly sneezed several times in a row.
Lin Wangshu: “Could someone be thinking about me?”
Could it be Shen Huai still scheming to sacrifice her and her child, planning to come over from Hong Kong?
…
Xu Jinning, sitting on the back of the bicycle, felt the urgency of the situation. Perhaps because of her anxiety, Xu Xiangbei pedaled the bicycle at lightning speed.
On the back seat, Xu Jinning recalled the arrogant and smug demeanor of the two Italians and felt a surge of anger.
They were nothing more than complete and utter fraudsters!
In the side plot, it was mentioned that in 1984, Anren County experienced a major international fraud case.
The victim of the scam was Xiao Changsheng.
Xiao Changsheng had previously been introduced to the Italians led by Jason and had purchased a piece of high-precision, expensive medical equipment from them.
This equipment was not yet produced domestically and had to be imported.
During his tenure, Xiao Changsheng had placed great importance on the county’s healthcare.
So, he spent a large sum to purchase this medical equipment.
As expected, the arrival of the equipment greatly improved diagnostic efficiency.
