Reborn as a landlord in Shanghai

Chapter 50 Scams

"Going back to your hometown?"

Just as Mao Xiaoyu was thinking about where to invest, she suddenly received a call from her father.

When Mao Xiaoyu saw her dad calling, she thought he was inviting her home for dinner tomorrow.

After all, since the last time they talked, this has happened three times in the past month. They would call on the first day and come back for dinner on the second day. Mao Xiaoyu has gotten used to it.

To everyone's surprise, after the call was connected, Mao Jun didn't call Mao Xiaoyu back for dinner, but instead asked her if she wanted to go back to her hometown.

This question stumped Mao Xiaoyu, since according to her memories from her previous life, she hadn't gone back at all this year.

I remember in my past life, my father didn't ask any questions. He just left me in the barbershop, ostensibly to study hard and look after the house, and then took my mother and sister back home.

Why on earth would you call me to ask if I'm coming back?

"Yes, isn't your literary cousin getting married on June 28th? That's only a little over ten days away. Since he's your cousin, and our families are quite familiar with each other, I was wondering if you'd like to take some time to go back home," Mao Jun asked on the phone.

"Then forget it, I won't go back. You know I'm very busy here, and I usually don't have time to go back to your place. If you make me go back to my hometown now, what will I do here?" Mao Xiaoyu hesitated for a moment, but still refused.

As for Mao Jun's so-called "literary and artistic cousin" of Mao Xiaoyu, he is just a cousin who is not even five years old. The blood relation is actually quite distant, but because they are from the same hometown and the same town, they can see each other regularly and are considered familiar with each other.

But to say they have a really good relationship is debatable. After all, they see each other all the time, so they'll definitely greet each other when they meet. According to seniority, they call each other "brother," so they've always called each other "cousin." Does calling each other "cousin" a couple of times mean they're close? That's wishful thinking.

After all, this cousin was much older than Mao Xiaoyu, and the two of them didn't play together when they were young. Also, because Mao Xiaoyu's parents were not often at home, the two families didn't usually have any contact, so their relationship was just so-so.

Therefore, Mao Xiaoyu was indifferent to whether or not to attend the other party's wedding. Although she didn't know why her father wanted her to go back for this wedding, she was still quite reluctant to do so.

It was precisely because she didn't want to go back, and because she had invested so much money here and was now just waiting for the results to come, that Mao Xiaoyu refused to go back to her hometown for her cousin's wedding.

"I thought you wanted to go back to see your grandparents, so I wanted you to go back as their representative. Since you don't want to go back, then forget it. Your mother and I will take your sister back in a couple of days." Hearing his son's refusal, Mao Jun didn't think much of it, knowing that his son was busy, so he just said it casually.

Grandpa, Grandma.

Upon hearing her father mention her grandparents, Mao Xiaoyu immediately pictured her grandparents in her mind.

Suddenly, something popped into Mao Xiaoyu's mind, causing her to frown.

"Wait a minute, don't hang up yet, Dad. If we go back, there's something I need to tell you," Mao Xiaoyu said, holding the phone and calling out to her father.

"Hmm, what is it? Tell me." Hearing his son's urgent voice, Mao Jun asked with concern.

"Regarding my grandparents' situation, I just asked Li Yong to come work here, didn't I? Recently, I was chatting with Li Yong, and he told me something that I think you need to take seriously," Mao Xiaoyu said earnestly.

Although Mao Xiaoyu said on the phone that Li Yong had told her this, it was actually not Li Yong who told her this, but something that really happened in her past life.

In her past life, her parents took her younger sister back home, and when they returned, they told Mao Xiaoyu about a major event that had happened in the family: many elderly people in the town had been swindled out of a lot of money by a Ponzi scheme, including Mao Xiaoyu's grandparents.

However, after this incident in her previous life, so many years had passed that Mao Xiaoyu didn't remember it for a while. It wasn't until her father mentioned going back to see her grandparents that Mao Xiaoyu recalled the incident.

Upon realizing the gravity of the situation, Mao Xiaoyu stopped her father from hanging up and prepared to tell him that the story was nine parts false and one part true.

"What happened to your grandparents?" Mao Jun asked with even more concern when he heard Mao Xiaoyu's question. Mao Xiaoyu's grandparents were Mao Jun's parents.

"Well, I heard from Li Yong that a company called Zhencheng Health Care opened on the pedestrian street in his hometown a couple of months ago. Since it opened, the company has been recruiting elderly people to attend classes. I heard that the classes are all about health care, wellness, and health preservation. After the class, they give away a pound or two of eggs for free. Because of the eggs, it seems that many elderly people in the town who have nothing to do usually go to that health care company to sign up and attend classes."

My grandparents also signed up for the classes, but you don't know, this "Sincere Health Company" is actually a scam. Right now, they're busy luring these old men and women to their company to listen to their health lectures. Once they've finished lecturing and brainwashed these old men and women, they'll sell them all sorts of health products, claiming they'll help them prolong their lives and allow them to live to be a hundred.

As for what products, such as super magnetic field resonance drinking cups, super magnetic field resonance pillows, super magnetic field resonance quilts, super magnetic field resonance socks, super magnetic field resonance shoes, super magnetic field resonance hats, etc., these things are actually just products with magnets added. They are no different from ordinary pillows, drinking cups, quilts, etc., at most differing by a few dollars in the cost of the magnets.

But I heard that these things are sold to old men and women for six or seven thousand yuan each, and some can even sell for ten or twenty thousand. Some old men and women spend 5 to 6 yuan, or even 7 to 8 yuan on a single purchase. When you go back this time, if you see your grandparents wanting to buy them, please, please remember to tell them not to buy them. You can also report this to the police. This is a serious case of fraud. The amount involved could easily reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan.” Mao Xiaoyu directly recounted her past life.

Because in her previous life, Mao Xiaoyu's grandparents spent more than 7 yuan to buy all sorts of random products that supposedly helped stabilize the magnetic field, but they were completely useless and a waste of money.

Upon hearing Mao Xiaoyu's account, Mao Jun was startled. After all, his elderly parents were no longer working and had no wages, relying entirely on their sons and daughters for support. If what his sons said was true, that they would use their savings to buy such frivolous things, which would be the death of them.

Therefore, she hurriedly asked on the phone, "Xiaoyu, is what you're saying true or false? Have your grandparents been scammed?"

"You haven't been scammed yet, have you? Because Li Yong told me that Zhencheng Health Company has only been open in our town for two or three months. They probably want to build up their popularity a bit more. After all, you can only sell these so-called products once. The longer they wait to reap the rewards, the more money they'll make," Mao Xiaoyu said after thinking for a moment.

"Then how do you know they'll sell products later?" Mao Jun breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that he hadn't been lied to, but he couldn't help but ask with suspicion.

Mao Xiaoyu really wanted to say that this was something she knew in her past life!

But he knew he couldn't say that, so after thinking for a moment, based on his memories from his previous life and making up a story based on reality, he said, "Because I do business here, I'm very knowledgeable. I've heard some things from the tenants when I have nothing to do."

Li Yong didn't say that these were all scammers. He just said that his grandparents often went to these health classes and received eggs every day. Moreover, not just anyone could take the eggs; only elderly people could take them. Young people weren't allowed to attend.

I happen to have a tenant here who also mentioned something similar. He said that a group of people rented a storefront in their area for six months, and then they invited some old men and women to attend classes, giving them eggs. After four or five months, they had pretty much "brainwashed" these old men and women.

Then one day, these elderly people were asked to bring their bankbooks to a class. Within a single day, all the money in their bankbooks was spent, and the next day the class was empty. It's said that thirty or forty elderly people in the entire town were scammed, with the total amount exceeding one million yuan.

So when I compared these two incidents, I felt that they were strikingly similar. It's possible that this group of scammers has come to our town. That's why I wanted to tell you to go back and tell your grandparents not to attend the classes anymore. Otherwise, they'll lose tens of thousands of yuan, and they'll be heartbroken when they realize what's going on.

Upon hearing this, Mao Jun was startled and scolded, "You brat, why didn't you say so sooner about something this important!"

"I just thought of this. Besides, Li Yong told me about it, and I only heard about what the tenant heard recently. I never thought something like this would happen in our family."

I only thought of this after hearing what Li Yong said, and when I put it all together, something felt off. After all, what company is so generous as to educate these old men and women about longevity and even give them eggs?

"These people don't want wages or money. They must have some other purpose in doing this. Now it seems their goal is to use a small amount of money as bait first, and then swindle a large sum of money from these old men and women," Mao Xiaoyu argued.

After all, if Mao Jun hadn't mentioned her grandparents, Mao Xiaoyu wouldn't have remembered this at all. But Mao Xiaoyu certainly couldn't say that, so she could only make up excuses and argue.

"Then I'll call back and tell my second brother to report this to the police. These scammers are despicable," Mao Jun said fiercely.

"It's no use, Dad. If you call back now and ask Fubo to handle it, you'll only alert them. After all, this company hasn't done anything wrong. They're just teaching people about longevity and health every day, which is helping the health of the whole nation. They're not guilty."

Only that last time was the real beginning and end of their evil deeds. Unless they started selling these counterfeit products involving millions of dollars, they could not be convicted. Otherwise, as long as they did not sell products, the Fubo Le organization could not arrest them.

"And if Fubo goes there, they'll become suspicious, stop selling, and move on to another place. In the end, Fubo can only watch helplessly as they leave, escape to another place, and start scamming money again," Mao Xiaoyu said speechlessly.

"Uh, um..." Mao Jun didn't know what to say for a moment, after all, what his son said left him speechless!

"If you want Fubo to arrest them, it's simple. You can find someone to call the police, and then have Fubo keep an eye on them. As long as they dare to put those so-called health products out for sale, involving a huge amount of money and constituting a major fraud, then Fubo can arrest them. As for now, let's have them send some eggs first," Mao Xiaoyu suggested.

Hearing his son's suggestion, Mao Jun felt that it was a better idea, so he felt a little more at ease. However, the matter was quite urgent, and he didn't know if his parents had been scammed. So he said on the phone, "Okay, that's settled then. I'll call home and ask if your grandparents have bought any of those high-tech products."

After saying this, Mao Jun hung up the phone immediately.

Looking at the phone that had been hung up, Mao Xiaoyu was speechless, but she could understand why her grandparents would be worried if they had really been scammed.

However, based on my memories from my previous life, my grandparents probably haven't bought them yet. After all, my father went back home and my grandparents bought these things one day. In the end, my father and his younger relatives found out and said they had been cheated and were busy returning the goods, but by then they couldn't find them anymore; the place was deserted.

Then, more and more people in the town found themselves being scammed, and everyone went to the police station to report it. In the end, after an investigation, Fubo Le couldn't find anything out.

After all, these people are planning their scams. They might only get money in one place, but once they leave the province, all the identities they leave behind are fake. So it's really difficult to find the money that was scammed out of. As for what happens next, everyone can only accept their bad luck.

Moreover, this kind of thing happens in rural areas every few years. And every time it starts, it begins with giving away eggs. After the eggs are all given away and everyone is familiar with each other, they start selling some high-tech products.

In the end, some farmers actually foolishly spent thousands of yuan to buy so-called high-tech products. Only after they calmed down at home did they realize they had been scammed, and when they tried to find someone to help them, they didn't know where to go.

It can be said that the same leeks are harvested in the same way, only the people harvesting them and the leeks are different, but the methods used are the same.