Didn’t Let Them Off at All
What was the point of just admitting defeat? Seeing Chef Qian and the manager sing ‘Tears Behind Iron Bars,’1 now that would be interesting.
Su Ruixi let out a cold laugh. Seeing that little devil-like expression of hers, Sun Miao knew that Su Ruixi was itching to cause trouble for someone. Of course, Sun Miao was unconditionally on Su Ruixi’s side. When she was being mischievous, Sun Miao would even stand behind her, waving a small flag to cheer her on.
“Chef Qian, I’m afraid this time it won’t be as simple as you just admitting defeat.”
Without even needing Su Ruixi to speak, the boss of Yuanfu Lou took the initiative. She said to the greeter at the entrance, “Get the manager out here too.” The employee agreed and turned to go into the restaurant. The boss whispered to her assistant for a moment, and the assistant also followed the employee inside.
Chef Qian was a bit baffled. He was already prepared to pay the 540,000 yuan in compensation, but he hadn’t expected things to be this complicated. When the manager was brought out, Chef Qian’s eyes widened. The manager wasn’t simply brought out; he was being physically restrained by security guards.
The manager was far smarter than the chef; he was the one who had pulled the strings, leading the chef to embezzle company funds and fill his private bags2. With such a major scene unfolding, the manager understood far more clearly than Chef Qian that this situation was serious and not to be taken lightly. When the employee came for him, he had already been about to flee, but he was immediately pinned down by the security guards the assistant had brought.
There was a reason for sending the employee to notify him first. The employee gave notice, but he intended to flee, which is why they had people pin the manager down. It wasn’t that the Yuanfu Lou side was proactively looking for trouble.
Truthfully, this matter should have been resolved privately. After all, this wasn’t exactly a glorious affair for Yuanfu Lou, and the boss couldn’t possibly have wanted to drag people to the restaurant’s entrance to deal with it.
It was currently mealtime, and people were coming and going in front of Yuanfu Lou. There were even some customers who had come for the Lion’s Head Meatball with Crab Roe but hadn’t been able to buy any and hadn’t left yet. Right now, they were all excitedly preparing to eat melon3.
Chinese people simply can’t resist eating melon. Even though they were all quite wealthy, this kind of spectacle wasn’t something you could see every day, so of course, none of them wanted to leave.
The Yuanfu Lou boss knew perfectly well what was at stake. This matter would soon be spread far and wide, letting all her customers know what had happened at Yuanfu Lou. Moreover, it would cause Yuanfu Lou’s credibility to be greatly damaged, and even her other businesses would be affected.
But if she didn’t do this, Yuanfu Lou’s fate would likely be even worse.
CEO Su’s side had already made it clear: as long as this matter satisfied his daughter, he would stop at that. If not, he would personally step in to get face for his kid. Comparing the two harms and taking the lighter one, the Yuanfu Lou boss was no fool.
For Young CEO Su to get her face back in front of everyone, this had to be made into a big scene. It was for Young CEO Su to see, to let Young CEO Su see the sincerity of their Yuanfu Lou, to satisfy Young CEO Su.
Thinking of this, the Yuanfu Lou boss became even angrier. She shot a vexed glance at the manager and Chef Qian, cleared her throat, and then looked at Su Ruixi. The other party had no reaction, which meant: You figure it out yourself.
The Yuanfu Lou boss began to speak: “Manager, Chef Qian, I have already investigated everything thoroughly. In the twenty-plus years you have worked for Yuanfu Lou, you were indeed conscientious and diligent for the first ten. But from 2015 until now, after the takeout window opened, not only did you start slacking off, you also used the convenience of your positions to embezzle company funds and fill your own pockets, lowered the quality of the takeout, and operated under the title of ‘Huaiyang Cuisine Head Chef,’ when in reality, you pushed all the work onto other chefs in the restaurant.”
“Your actions have not only tarnished the image of Yuanfu Lou and brought a very bad experience to our customers, but they have also broken the law. I have already called the police. Faced with the police and the evidence we have provided, any defense you offer will be futile.”
The Yuanfu Lou boss bowed toward Su Ruixi’s group and the surrounding customers. “Yuanfu Lou has truly failed the trust you all have placed in us. As the owner of Yuanfu Lou, I cannot escape the blame. I offer my most sincere apologies to all of you here.”
After doing all this, the Yuanfu Lou boss straightened up and looked at Su Ruixi, her expression asking: Are you satisfied?
Su Ruixi hmphed, the meaning of which was more or less: It’s so-so. Immediately after, her gaze shifted toward Sun Miao. In that instant, the Yuanfu Lou boss understood with perfect clarity. She immediately said to Sun Miao, “Little Boss, we are also extremely sorry for the impact this has had on you. We are aware of the bet between you and Chef Qian. In terms of skill, everyone, including myself and Chef Jiang Ping, is completely convinced by you.”
She glanced at the utterly dejected Chef Qian. When the Yuanfu Lou boss had been summarizing the situation, Chef Qian’s eyes had at first been wide with disbelief. He even muttered things like, “Boss, it has nothing to do with me, it was the manager who said this could…” but as the boss continued, he seemed to have realized the prison sentence that awaited him and could only hope uneasily for a shorter time…
In the end, he knew the Yuanfu Lou boss would absolutely not let this matter go lightly, and his complexion immediately turned ashen, looking utterly pale.
But right now, no one had the time to bother with him anymore. Seeing him in this state, the Yuanfu Lou boss gave up the idea of having him come over to apologize.
Sun Miao saw this scene as well. She didn’t say a word for Chef Qian, but she also didn’t let the Yuanfu Lou boss off the hook. She looked at the boss and said, “All of these things… before today, did you really not know a single thing about them?”
The Yuanfu Lou boss didn’t seem like the type to be a muddle-headed fool, nor was she the type to delegate everything to her subordinates. Sun Miao believed that she might have been somewhat negligent due to her busy schedule, and also thought too highly of herself, believing the manager and Chef Qian wouldn’t dare to do anything major right under her nose.
But after so many years, for her to claim she knew nothing of what they were doing—Sun Miao didn’t believe it. The manager and Chef Qian probably started with just petty theft. When the Yuanfu Lou boss later found out, she turned a blind eye, thinking it was just a small matter and didn’t bother with it.
Who knew that her indulgence would only make their appetites grow, which is how they ended up causing such a huge mess.
Sun Miao didn’t know how much power Su Ruixi had; she thought Su Ruixi was just a rich second-generation kid who also worked hard, but she was truly clueless about Su Ruixi’s background. She also didn’t know how large Yuanfu Lou’s business was, even naively thinking that the boss only ran this one restaurant.
So in Sun Miao’s eyes, the Yuanfu Lou boss was only bowing her head due to the pressure from the combined backgrounds of Su Ruixi and the Hip-hop Yabi Duo. Since things had already reached this point, Sun Miao also stepped forward and didn’t let the Yuanfu Lou boss off the hook at all.
Hearing Sun Miao’s words, the boss was stunned for a moment. She didn’t look at Sun Miao, but at Su Ruixi instead. Su Ruixi’s reaction, however, was intriguing. The Yuanfu Lou boss pondered for a long time before she understood: Why are you looking at me? Answer her question.
At this moment, the boss was actually caught in a situation where advancing and retreating were both difficult, because she did indeed know some things. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have separately found another Huaiyang cuisine chef, Jiang Ping, to gradually replace Chef Qian, nor would she have prepared a candidate for the manager position, getting ready to get rid of them both in one fell swoop.
But if she were to admit this in front of so many people, would Yuanfu Lou still be able to survive in the industry?
So, the Yuanfu Lou boss simply admitted to half of the mistake: “It was my poor management.”
She glanced at Sun Miao and saw that the other party wasn’t satisfied and was still waiting for her to propose a further solution. The Yuanfu Lou boss gritted her teeth and, like a brave warrior severing their own wrist4, said directly: “To compensate everyone, first, there’s the compensation payment Chef Qian previously agreed to, a total of 540,000 yuan. I will transfer every last cent of it to Little Boss Sun.”
The Yuanfu Lou boss was truly a shrewd person. She knew that neither Su Ruixi nor the Hip-hop Yabi Duo would care about that 540,000 yuan. Only Sun Miao, judging by her clothes and her little stall, had ordinary financial means, so she simply offered to transfer it directly to Sun Miao.
Su Ruixi was satisfied with this move.
But Sun Miao was still not satisfied.
This was also within the Yuanfu Lou boss’s expectations. She continued, “At the same time, to express our apologies to all our customers, Yuanfu Lou will be giving every VIP a gift package for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival5. Also, starting from tomorrow, Sunday, June 4th, for a period of ten days, we will give every customer who comes to Yuanfu Lou a complimentary Lion’s Head Meatball with Crab Roe made by Huaiyang cuisine chef Jiang Ping.”
After she said this, she even glanced behind her. Jiang Ping nodded, indicating her agreement. After all, this was the restaurant she had just joined. Jiang Ping really didn’t want the place to go out of business due to reputation issues just a few days after she started working.
Only after the Yuanfu Lou boss had done all this did Sun Miao’s expression finally relax a bit. “Boss, I hope that in the future, Yuanfu Lou will no longer engage in this kind of behavior of hanging a sheep’s head to sell dog meat and treating dine-in and takeout customers differently.”
This series of events had actually caused the Yuanfu Lou boss to suffer heavy losses, but she still smiled and promised, “We won’t. There will never be anything like this again in the future.”
At this point, the matter could be considered over. Neither Sun Miao nor Su Ruixi wanted to get any more involved in the affair between Yuanfu Lou and the manager and Chef Qian, so they left before the police arrived. Sun Miao told Su Ruixi and the others to go back first while she went to the wet market to buy some things, telling the Hip-hop Yabi Duo not to leave.
These two had shamelessly come over precisely for that invitation. Even if Su Ruixi tried to shoo them away, they would have stubbornly stayed put.
Su Ruixi was exasperated and told the two of them to hurry up and get in the car. After saying goodbye to Sun Miao, she drove behind her. When they reached an intersection and went in different directions, she stepped on the gas and sped toward home.
After the four of them finished lunch, the Hip-hop Yabi Duo finally took their leave. Su Ruixi and Sun Miao walked them to the door. The smile on the Hip-hop Mei’s face was a bit strange. “Su-jie, I actually wanted to mooch a dinner too, but today’s Saturday, so Little Boss Sun’s stall-setting time is still quite ample. We won’t disturb the two of you~ Have a great weekend~”
Su Ruixi just waved her hand, telling them to hurry up and go. It wasn’t until they were about 1 li6 away and Su Ruixi had gone back to the kitchen to wash the dishes that her face suddenly flushed bright red. She was so unsteady she could barely stand, and she bent over, supporting herself with her hands on the edge of the sink.
Saying “have a great weekend” and “time is ample” was referring to the two of them… um, going to… to do things that couples are supposed to do?
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