Chapter 286: The Divide and Conquer Strategy Fails

Chapter 286: The Ruse Fails

"Don't worry, we'll sell them. We still have another supplier. Tell Mom and Dad not to worry about it—just take it easy. If push comes to shove, we can always sell them at a discount. There’s always a way."

Besides, if they truly couldn’t sell them, she could always make durian pastries, durian cakes, durian crisps, and other durian-based desserts to sell.

But that would be too much work and too time-consuming, so Su He thought a discount sale was the way to go.

"Alright, I’ll head back now."

"Hold on, big bro, make a call for me first," Su He stopped Fu Guoqing.

She wanted to check if Lu Qiming was still buying durians, to see how the previous two batches had sold.

If he was still buying, it meant the earlier sales had gone well.

If not, it meant he’d lost money on them.

The call was picked up after just one ring.

"Is this Miss Su?" Lu Qiming’s voice on the other end sounded slightly excited.

"Sounds like you’ve been raking it in lately, Mr. Lu?" Su He teased.

"Hahaha, all thanks to you, Miss Su. Couldn’t have done it without you! I’ve been waiting for your call. Didn’t want to bug you right after the holiday, or I would’ve come straight to your shop."

"Perfect timing, then. Just a heads-up, Mr. Lu—durian season’s in full swing now, so our supply intervals will be shorter. If all goes well, you can swing by for a batch every couple of days." Su He laid it out plainly.

"Oh? Really? No wonder you were running a sale yesterday." Lu Qiming’s tone was perfectly normal, with no trace of annoyance.

Su He knew he wasn’t one to hold a grudge.

Still, even if he didn’t mind, he’d probably appreciate an explanation.

After all, the discounted price she’d offered yesterday was even lower than his wholesale rate.

"Mr. Lu, thing is, we were closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so we hadn’t harvested or sold any durians for a while.

A lot of them were already overripe and would’ve spoiled if not eaten soon.

The discounted ones were from that batch—not the same as what I send your way.

The ones I send you always have a longer shelf life.

Since I know you ship them out of province, I always set aside the best for you.

As for the discounted ones, better to sell ’em cheap than let ’em go to waste, right?

At least this way, we get some money back."

Su He explained patiently over the phone, knowing that honesty’s everything in business.

Besides, she was already thinking ahead—once the sugar oranges came in, she could wholesale those to Lu Qiming too.

After all, sugar oranges had a much higher yield than durians.

"Haha, just making conversation—no sweat, I get it." After hearing her out, Lu Qiming laughed it off good-naturedly.

"As long as there’s no misunderstanding, then are you still coming to pick up the goods later?" Su He asked again.

"Of course, do you have more this time?"

"I can do about 150 for you." That’s way more than usual.

"Great! I'll send someone over right away."

After hanging up, Lu Qiming said to his partner beside him, "Good thing I already trusted Miss Su and didn’t let anyone mess with our deal."

"Yeah, with things as they are, the sale makes sense," the partner agreed.

"It seems Miss Su’s been raking it in lately, and someone got jealous and tried to drive a wedge between us," Lu Qiming couldn't help but sigh.

That morning, someone had called Lu Qiming—a guy he’d done business with before—saying he’d been screwed over.

Lu Qiming was puzzled. This guy was a close friend, so he immediately asked what happened.

The man said that yesterday, Su He had sold durians directly for just one yuan each and sold a large quantity.

He also griped about getting no stock all day, yet she was running a discount sale herself, not playing fair with their partnership.

Basically, he was saying Su He couldn’t be trusted.

At first, Lu Qiming was indeed a bit angry.

But then something didn’t sit right with him—knowing Su He, she would never do such a thing.

He held back from calling her out, thinking she must be busy just after the holiday.

Fortunately, he didn't rashly question Su He, or he’d have looked like a jerk.

If he came off badly to her, their future business dealings might lack mutual trust.

"Maybe he saw how hot the durian market was and wanted to partner with Miss Su, so he tried to sabotage our collaboration first?" the partner suddenly suggested.

Lu Qiming thought about it and realized that might indeed be the case.

"Damn it, Old Zheng was trying to play me!" Lu Qiming fumed.

"Forget it, he didn't succeed anyway. We’ve still got deals with him, but after this deal, let's not work with him again—he’s shady."

Lu Qiming nodded in agreement after some thought.

The person who tried to sow discord between Su He and Lu Qiming was Zheng Zhicheng, who’d tried to get durians from Su He before.

Since durian yields weren't high, Su He never considered taking on more suppliers—she wouldn’t have enough to go around.

So she didn't even negotiate with him and shot him down flat, saying she already had fixed suppliers.

Zheng Zhicheng hit the roof. In Wencheng, he was among the first to prosper after private businesses were allowed.

He never expected such a small shop to disrespect him like this.

So he had people keep an eye on Su He's store, tipping him off about anything.

Just yesterday, Su He gave him the perfect ammunition.

As soon as he got the news, he immediately called Lu Qiming to tell him.

But Zheng Zhicheng never expected that Lu Qiming would put so much faith in Su He's character.

He and Lu Qiming had known each other for so many years, yet Lu didn’t immediately believe his words.

Zheng Zhicheng was still waiting for Su He’s batch of durians to go unsold—after all, as everyone knows, fruits don’t stay fresh for long.

Now that the durian fad had died down, fewer people were willing to spend money on them, so Zheng was certain Su He must be itching to unload her stock.

He planned to send someone to buy her durians at a low price once she got desperate.

But to his surprise, Lu Qiming was such a pushover—no sooner had Zheng called to sow discord in the morning than Lu showed up in the afternoon and scooped up more than half of the durians.