Once Qian Yongcai heard this, he felt like his scalp was going to explode, yet he still held onto some luck, arguing: "It’s not wrong, they are the original red-bud locust trees."
The developer, hearing what he said, also took a closer look, and from the planting and appearance, there didn’t seem to be any difference from the batch of saplings he had brought in.
"Are these saplings just recently planted?" The Forestry Expert asked the workers. Qian Yongcai was making faces at them from the side, and the workers did not dare to answer. However, both the developer and the Forestry Expert saw everything.
"I was almost fooled too, had I not seen the pods, I would have also been fooled today." Experts in research and experimentation despise any kind of fraud and trickery the most.
Seeing that Qian Yongcai still wouldn’t admit it, he picked up a pod mixed in the dirt and plucked off a few leaves, "What’s planted in these pots now are the Red Flower Locust Trees. The outward appearance and leaves of both types of locust are quite similar; to the untrained eye, it’s impossible to tell them apart, even the flowers they bloom are of the same purple-red butterfly shape. Red Flower Locust Tree blooms once a year, producing bean-like pods. On the other hand, red-bud locust trees bloom twice a year and do not produce pods, they reproduce through their roots. If you look under the tree leaves, there are locust tree rootstocks, these Red Flower Locust Trees are all grafted. It’s a classic bait-and-switch, deceiving others with such tricks, I can’t believe you’d stoop to this level."
Qian Yongcai, the more he listened to the end, the less he could make out what the Forestry Expert was saying. All he could focus on was the developer’s face stretching long; the workers had been blindly bustling about all morning, and when they heard they had been part of a fake operation, they all started spilling the beans, with someone even taking the chance to accuse Qian Yongcai of withholding their wages and refusing to pay for the greenery work.
The incident today can be said to be somewhat orchestrated by Xiao Xian, but it’s better to say that it’s heaven’s way of dealing with the evil Qian Yongcai. Initially, the group that came to check the greening progress today included only a few people responsible for the Blue Sky Apartment project; if it were just the developers who don’t know forestry, they wouldn’t have spotted anything fishy.
But coincidentally, the developer’s Taiwan headquarters had won a greening project from Guiyang City Government, needing to import a batch of expensive garden trees from Yunnan, hence they sent a Forestry Expert to accompany them. Confronted with this expert’s incisive and intense identification, Qian Yongcai had no choice but to throw in the towel early.
"It’s outrageous, to pass off inferior goods for good ones is bad enough, but to also owe workers their wages, if word gets out, you’ll tarnish our Lantian Group’s reputation. Call the security of the housing compound and hand Qian Yongcai over to the public security authorities immediately." The developer of the Blue Sky Apartment was so furious his teeth were gnashing, wishing he could bury Qian Yongcai along with a hundred pots of the counterfeit plants.
"No, I was also deceived, it was a young girl who sold me the saplings, she said that these were genuine red-bud locust trees, I even paid fifty thousand yuan for them. Can’t you go find her?" Qian Yongcai protested unwillingly.
Before he could describe Xiao Xian, the compound’s security, without further ado, dragged him off to the police station.
"Where are the discarded saplings?" After inquiring with the workers, the Forestry Expert led people to search for the abandoned saplings.
The location being developed by the Blue Sky Apartments was a newly opened plot, the nearby area was all collected to be developed, and it was all fallow land for construction. With the arrival of spring, wild grass as tall as half a person grew in the wasteland.
Some nearby building complexes, while constructing buildings, would secretly dump trash on the vacant land, making the area look messy, besides waste pickers, during the day hardly anyone walked nearby.
"What a pity, the saplings had already developed mold on the roots and contracted leaf spot disease during that time, even with the treatment of Bai Junqing Powder, it’s not guaranteed that the leaves will regain their beauty, they’re not suitable to be planted in the residential compound," the Forestry Expert found nearly a hundred abandoned red-bud locust trees and after a brief inspection, arrived at the same conclusion as Xiao Xian had that day. This Forestry Expert has been engaged in forest cultivation for over thirty years, if he says they cannot be saved, then they definitely cannot be saved.
"It’s all Qian Yongcai’s fault, we can’t let him off lightly this time, let him know the money of our Lantian Group isn’t for him to take as he pleases," one of the developers ground his teeth resentfully. "No other choice, the buildings are to be launched for sale in the latter half of the year, we urgently need to ship in suitable greening trees from Yanbian Province, even if the price is high, we have to accept it." Today’s demanding high-end residents are fussy; if the buildings are completed and the greening isn’t ready, it’s bound to impact the group’s reputation.
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