Birgitte headed to work as usual.
As she pulled up to Bree Technology that morning, she glanced out the window and suddenly stopped. Realizing something was wrong, she quickly got out of the car to investigate.
Someone had put up a large banner in front of their office building. A crowd had gathered. She immediately sensed trouble.
Grossing the street, she noticed it wasn’t just banners. Some people were holding pictures, wearing black, and many media. reporters were already on site.
“Bree Technology is evil! Why are all those merchants allowed on the platform?”
“My poor child! So young and already seriously ill. I might as well die with him!”
“Bree Technology, give my child’s life back!”
Birgitte furrowed her brows and grabbed someone in the crowd to ask, “What happened here?”
“You don’t know?” The onlooker, a rather helpful bystander, began to explain, “After a round of financing, Bree Technology allowed all sorts of shady merchants onto their platform just to boost profits. A lot of their products are problematic. Many people got sick because of them.”
Birgitte thought, ‘Impossible! Who would actually dare sell something lethal?‘
Birgitte’s face turned cold. The attack came swiftly and without warning. She immediately thought of the Wilson and Yurchenko families. This had to be their plan.
And she had to admit, it was a clever one.
Recently, the platform had seen a spike in negative reviews about product quality. The budget–shopping section had faced the most criticism, offering cheap goods with no quality assurance. If something were to go wrong, it wouldn’t be surprising.
“Bree Technology’s pretty much destroyed itself this time,” the bystander lamented.
No matter what business, once their reputation was ruined, it was game over.
“No, it’s not!” Birgitte’s voice was firm. As long as she was around, she wouldn’t let GrabCheap fall victim to such schemes.
The person was startled by her tone, gave her a closer look. Then, he found that Birgitte looked familiar. “Wait, aren’t you the CEO of Bree Technology? What’s your name again?”
Her highly publicized fallout with the Cherniavsky family had made her face widely recognizable. Once the words were spoken, others in the crowd took notice too.
“Birgitte? She’s the boss of this heartless company!” And just like that, she was surrounded.
Even if all this were true, the ones they should be after are those shady sellers. But once those sellers shut down their accounts, it would be hard to find them.
Under provocation, these “victims” decided to go straight to Bree Technology.
Before Birgitte arrived, security had already been holding people back. Management tried to calm the crowd, but with little
success.
Now, with the boss herself appearing, the rage was instantly reignited.
“Go to hell!” someone shouted, throwing a piece of lettuce at her, Immediately, it was like a switch had been flipped. People began hurling anything they had in their hands.
Birgitte had no choice but to shield her head and dodge. “Everyone, calm down! We’ll investigate the matter thoroughly!” she shouted. But no one was listening.
Once the crowd got riled up, all reason went out the window.
The company’s security couldn’t hold back so many people. But with their CEO under attack, they couldn’t just stand by.
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Other employees rushed to help, but the more they tried, the angrier the crowd grew.
Suddenly, a bang sounded.
“Ms. Cherniavsky!”
A loud ringing filled Birgitte’s ears. Her vision went white before slowly clearing.
Suddenly, the surroundings fell silent.
Warm liquid trickled down her forehead. She reached up in a daze. Her hand came away covered in blood.
Someone had thrown a rock. Her head was bleeding.
She swayed but managed to steady herself. “Had enough?”
Her voice was weak, lacking its former strength, yet it silenced everyone.
Half her face was smeared with blood. They were all suddenly afraid this might actually turn deadly.
J’Call the police!” she said coldly. The head of security quickly answered, “Already done.”
Just as he finished speaking, the sound of sirens blared through the air. The rioters panicked.
“What are you afraid of? This heartless company killed people. An eye for an eye!”
“Exactly! An eye for an eye!”
“Who did I kill? Do you have any proof? You only cause trouble here. Why don’t you call the police?” With those questions, Birgitte fixed her piercing eyes on the ringleader. Her icy stare made him instinctively shrink back.
‘Damn, how could a woman be this scary?, the ringleader thought.
Birgitte asked, “Since the police are here, how about we all go down to the station and talk this out properly?”
With that, the crowd completely lost its nerve.
Not far away, in a luxury car, Quantavius sighed regretfully. If only that mob had broken into Bree Technology, that would’ve been ideal. Still, seeing Birgitte injured was satisfying. A good lesson for her, and a nice release of all the frustration he’d built up from being suppressed by Bree Technology for so long.
After a brief hospital visit to treat her head wound, Birgitte didn’t rest. The moment the wound was stitched and bandaged, she returned to the office for an emergency meeting.
The people behind this attack didn’t care if she had the strength to deal with it. They’d keep pressing forward.
“Ms. Cherniavsky, after this morning’s incident, there’s been a surge of negative press about us online.” The head of PR handed her a report.
Birgitte had no doubt the Yurchenko family was behind this. It was clearly premeditated.
Overnight, a wave of supposed victims appeared online, claiming to have gotten sick from fake products. They even presented lab test results. Their posts stirred panic. Even users who weren’t affected began to doubt the products.
People started blaming every recent health issue on their purchases from GrabCheap.
The morning protestors were interviewed by the media too. They were sobbing, angry, and dramatic.
“We’re just ordinary people. We wanted cheap goods, but some things are cheap because they’ll kill you!”
“We were healthy, then suddenly we collapsed. The doctors traced it back to what we bought online! Anyone selling that stuff is inhuman!”
“Find the sellers? How? They vanished the moment things got bad!” These were working–class people. Their words struck a powerful emotional chord.
Birgitte’s face darkened as she reviewed the data. They were currently negotiating a second round of financing with Manchotech Group. This scandal could seriously jeopardize that.
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Chapter 373
She asked, “Have you looked into those problematic sellers?”
Someone answered, “We did. Their accounts were registered long ago. But oddly enough, just before this all started, they all deactivated their accounts.”
Birgitte frowned.
A worker reported, “Ms. Cherniavsky, we’re also seeing a sharp rise in returns, refunds, and order cancellations.”
But Birgitte showed no panic. If anything, the more pressure she faced, the steadier she became. “Report the situation to Ms. Miller immediately. PR, step up your response. Security, tighten up. Do not allow a single unauthorized person inside. Postpone or decline all media interview
