The returned products were hurting his business.

Naturally, he looked displeased.

Now, hearing the man’s words, Xie Changning gave the translator a slight nod. The translator understood immediately and quickly spoke up. "This is precisely why we need to resolve the machine’s issues as soon as possible, isn’t it?"

"You know how well our factory’s machines sell. So far, aside from your company, not a single other customer has called us about damage or refunds."

"What are you trying to say? Are you implying I damaged them on purpose?!"

Perhaps because the leader of the team was a woman, he acted with much more arrogance.

He figured that since Xie Changning hadn’t said a word and let her translator do all the talking, she must be a pushover and easy to bully.

Seeing the man’s blatant arrogance, the translator quickly glanced at Xie Changning. When he saw her expression remained impassive, his own face fell. "Sir, we are here to help you solve the problem. Your lack of cooperation makes it very difficult for us not to suspect that something is amiss."

"Say whatever you want. I’m not taking you to them."

"Sir, if you don’t take us there, we’ll inform other companies that you refused to cooperate. When that happens, don’t blame us for withholding after-sales service and refunds."

"...You!"

’How dare a mere translator be so arrogant?’

He sneered at Xie Changning. "You’re the one in charge, yet you don’t say a thing and let a translator speak for you. Don’t tell me you can’t understand what I’m saying."

He scoffed as he spoke, his contempt for Xie Changning palpable.

Xie Changning gave a cold smile and let the translator continue to speak for her.

"Sir, if I’m the one talking to you, things will be easier to resolve. If our factory director has to speak with you, lawyers will probably get involved."

He was telling the foreigner that making any more trouble would do him no good.

But the foreigner wouldn’t listen, insisting on confronting Xie Changning directly.

"Did you get that on record? He insulted me. I’m going to sue him here." Xie Changning smiled faintly as she spoke her first sentence.

Her fluent English made the foreigner frown.

What made him frown even more was what Xie Changning said: he had insulted both her and the Anong County Machinery Factory, and she, on behalf of the Anong County Machinery Factory, was suing him for defamation.

The foreigner: "?"

’Is she crazy?!’

"Do you understand now? Our factory director is not an easy person to deal with. You should consider carefully whether or not you’re going to cooperate with us and show us the machines."

"Let’s get one thing straight—I’m the customer here!"

"Which is why we came all this way. But if you won’t cooperate, what can we do?"

The translator had become just as difficult.

The foreigner didn’t want to be sued by Xie Changning. A lawsuit would inevitably affect his company, so he was forced to soften his tone. "You can come over tomorrow..."

"No." Xie Changning cut him off. "How would I know you won’t tamper with them today?"

Xie Changning’s composure made the foreigner grind his teeth in anger.

"I’m trying to help you. Someone’s machines are broken, right? We’re here to help fix them. The after-sales team came all this way to personally handle the repairs. How’s that for enthusiastic service?"

Xie Changning smiled, looking utterly innocent.

But the foreigner no longer dared to underestimate her.

She had put him in his place within moments of their first meeting. An Eastern woman like her was a rarity.

"I’ll take you there right now."

Only when the man agreed to take them did Xie Changning’s expression soften slightly.

The group arrived at the machine storage area.

"Which machines are the problematic ones?" the translator asked the foreigner patiently.

Xie Changning also looked at the foreigner.

The foreigner’s expression stiffened. He pointed to three machines in the corner. "Those are the ones," he told the translator. "Go look for yourselves." He couldn’t be bothered to move them for them.

Xie Changning didn’t press the issue.

She needed to see what was wrong with the machines that had prompted the customer to return the entire shipment.

Xie Changning gave her R&D team a signal. They all stepped forward, disassembled a machine on the spot, and began their inspection. After they were done, they all turned to Xie Changning and shook their heads.

"Director, there’s nothing wrong with it."

"Impossible!"

The foreigner might not have understood their words, but he could clearly see their actions.

He saw them all shaking their heads.

Xie Changning tilted her head to look at the machine. She then walked over to it, examined it for a long while, and finally discovered the problem: it was the connectors.

The connectors were all somewhat loose.

"Sir, I recall telling you when I sold you these machines that each port is meant for a single, corresponding machine. Did the end-user connect them to multiple machines?"

The foreigner frowned. "Impossible! I specifically told them about that precaution when I sold them the machines."

"Whether they did or not, you’ll know once you come and take a look with me."

Now that she had figured out the cause of the problem, Xie Changning’s attitude softened. She led the foreigner to the machine, pointed at the connectors, and began to speak.

"Every single one of these has been tampered with. Some were even swapped out."

As Xie Changning explained, the foreigner’s brow furrowed.

The technicians Xie Changning had brought with her hadn’t noticed the issue because the differences were minuscule. Xie Changning, however, could tell because she had personally assembled the connectors for this batch.

She had personally overseen the connectors for this entire batch of machines; she knew every detail about them.

With Xie Changning’s explanation, the foreigner’s expression finally relaxed. "I’ll contact them right now!"

Having had the problem exposed by Xie Changning, the foreigner was a bit embarrassed. He said to her, "If what you say is true, then I owe you an apology. The mistake was on our end."

"That’s not necessary. Just cover our travel, accommodation, and service fees."

The foreigner’s face fell at her words.

The memory of his confident assurances was still fresh in his mind. Now, having to bear the consequences themselves was a bitter pill to swallow.

But regardless, this was a man-made problem on the customer’s end. The compensation they had to pay should be minimal. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The other party ought to bear some of the cost too!

With this in mind, the foreigner’s expression hardened as he called the customer.

"Hello, Smith!"

"Hello, Viney."

After the two spoke on the phone, it was clear that Viney refused to admit he had damaged the machines. He insisted that the problem was with the machines themselves.

Smith grew anxious. "The head of the Chinese factory is here, and she inspected the machines herself! If you don’t admit it, I will revoke your company’s purchasing rights!"

Smith’s company was a major electronics distributor.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have had the capital to make such a large purchase of printers from Xie Changning’s factory.

In any case, Smith’s threat worked. The other party finally admitted that they had swapped the connectors themselves, only to find the printers no longer worked properly afterward.

Left with no choice, they tried to swap the connectors back to their original machines, but the result was even worse than before!

"Even if we were wrong to swap the connectors, her machines are so fragile! Shouldn’t she be the one compensating us?!"