Chapter 30: uninvited guest

In Maya's office... A middle-aged man, wearing a vest and a large golden chain hanging around his neck, sat opposite Maya and stared at her lustfully. "Geoff, I don't know if you come to the store and want to give me some advice?" Maya frowned and asked in a deep voice. She really didn't like the way Geoff looked at her, his eyes were squinting, which made her feel uncomfortable. "Haha...it is not a small shop." Geoff said with a smile, "Now in the whole county, Fresh Fruits is the best. We are oppressed and almost have no food to eat." Geoff was also in the fruit business. Before the rise of Maya's Fresh Fruits, he ran the largest fruit supermarket chain in the county. With the rise of Fresh Fruits, Geoff's business had been affected to a certain extent, but it was far from the point where he couldn't afford to eat as he said. "You are joking." Maya looked calm and said, "I only have five fruit supermarkets, and they are relatively sparsely distributed. Compared with your fruit shop, there are fewer. I am struggling to make ends meet." "You are so humble." Geoff laughed and said, "Although you have few stores, your sales are large. Let's take your store in the center of the county for example. In the past two days, the daily sales have been three to five million, right? One store earns more than all ten of my fruit shops, which really makes me jealous." "Actually, I came here today because I want to cooperate with you." Here came the point! Maya shivered and asked, "You are willing to cooperate with a small store like mine. I'm really honored. I don't know, Geoff, why do you want to cooperate?" "Well...then I won't beat around the bush." Geoff narrowed his eyes slightly and said in a deep voice, "In the past two days, there has been a kind of orange that has been very popular in your store. I would like to ask if you can give it to me evenly? As for the price, I know you sell it for eighty-eight dollars one pound, but the cost shouldn't be that, right? I'm going to get it from you for fifty dollars per pound. What do you think?” Obviously, he came here for Qingshan Orange. Maya had thought before that the popularity of Qingshan Orange would inevitably attract others to covet her, but what she didn't expect was that this day would come so quickly! "I'm sorry, Qingshan Orange is an exclusive business at Fresh Fruits, so I can't give it to you equally." Maya looked calm and refused without thinking. Qingshan Oranges were of extremely important strategic significance to her, and it was impossible for her to hand over the sales rights to other fruit merchants. "Do you really not think about it again?" Geoff narrowed his eyes slightly and said in a deep voice, "Through this cooperation, we can gradually deepen the relationship in the future. In this way, by joining forces, the entire fruit business in Qingyang County will be ours in the future. I believe that other fruit sellers, within our cooperation, will not be able to fight back." "No!" Maya refused again without thinking. Her target was not in Qingshan Village. She needed to use Qingshan Orange to gain fame and occupy the market in other places. Qingshan County was a very small piece of cake. Even if she ate it all, what would happen? Seeing Maya's extremely determined attitude, Geoff's expression turned completely gloomy, and he said, "Okay, Maya, I hope you won't regret!" "I, Maya, never regret anything I do." Maya stood up and said coldly. There was no way to compromise on Qingshan Orange's matter. She would be tough on this matter to the end. "Snort!" Geoff snorted coldly, turned around and left the office. As he walked, he said, "Let's wait and see!" Looking at Geoff's leaving, Maya frowned slightly. She was not afraid of Geoff's business methods, but she was afraid of his other despicable methods. After all, Geoff was a native, while she was an outsider and had no foothold at all. The business of Qingshan Oranges was as hot as ever. Every morning, before the store opened, there were many people lining up in front of the fruit shop. Three thousand kilograms of Qingshan Oranges every day were simply in short supply. Many citizens arrived late and could not buy them. They could only return disappointed. In the office of the County TV station... "Harper, Qingshan oranges are so popular recently. Should we do an exclusive interview for the fruit shop?" A girl in her early twenties said with a smile. Like Harper, she was a reporter for the county TV station. They were on the same team and were very concerned about some of the developments in the county. The most popular thing in the county recently was of course Qingshan Orange. If they could do an exclusive interview at this time, they wouldn't have to worry about not having an audience. "Of course." Harper's heart moved. In fact, she had been paying attention to Qingshan oranges. She even wanted to buy some of these sky-high-priced oranges to try, but unfortunately, they were so popular that she couldn't buy them at all. "I'm going to apply for an exclusive interview with the station director." Harper stood up and went to find the director. However, at this moment, the office door opened and the director walked in. "Hello, Director." Harper and the other little girl stood up quickly. "Um!" The director of the station, named Carl, was a middle-aged man. He nodded and said, "Qingshan Orange has suddenly become popular recently. You must have noticed it, right?" "Um." Harper smiled sweetly and said, "Director, I was thinking of going to you just now to apply for an exclusive interview with Qingshan Oranges." "I also have this plan." Carl said with a smile, "But that was after we ate the Qingshan Orange." Only then did Harper notice that Carl was holding a bag in his hand, and the bag contained some oranges. "Is this Qingshan Orange?" Harper exclaimed and asked. "That's right." Carl Zhang said with a smile, "I just came back from outside and passed by the fruit shop opposite. I found that they were selling Qingshan oranges, so I bought some for everyone to try. Don't let everyone down with such expensive oranges." "Director, are you talking about the fruit shop opposite our TV station? Does the store also start selling Qingshan oranges?" Harper frowned slightly and asked. "Yes." Carl nodded, handed the bag to Harper, and said with a smile, "Please go and give one to each person in each department, so that everyone can try these eighty-eight dollars a pound of oranges and know what it feel like!" A few minutes later…… "This orange is sour and astringent, not like the legend at all." The girl opposite Harper said with a crying face, "It's not as delicious as ordinary oranges." "Yes." Harper frowned and said, "These oranges are very ordinary, but they sell for eighty-eight a pound. It's really a scam. I didn't expect that so many people would line up overnight to buy this kind of oranges." "Hmph! Why are they queuing up all night to buy?" The girl opposite Harper snorted proudly and said, "I think those people are paid shills hired by the fruit shop. They are just hype. Their purpose is to raise the price of oranges. What do people nowadays do in order to make money? They can do it all without any bottom line.” "You are right." When Harper thought about it, it was really possible. If oranges were not promoted to an incredible level, who would be willing to buy eighty-eight pounds of oranges? "No, we have to expose them and we can't let this kind of thing continue!" Harper clenched her fists with a look of justice on her face.