The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 518 The Greatest Crisis for Deyue Tower (Bonus Chapter for Reader 2017……6434)

Time: Day 23 of the rest period, around 11:00 AM.

Location: Deyuelou, Panjiayuan Main Store.

At this time of year in the past, the boss, Hu Biao, along with his future boss wife (who might not even appear), a group of kitchen staff, waiters, and their own delivery team, would have made up a total of over eighty people.

Everyone gathered together for their lunch break before the business opened.

Our boss, Mr. Hu, has been so busy lately that he hasn't been personally preparing meals for the staff for a while.

It was all done by other chefs in the kitchen, and the skills between the two were completely different.

However, the ingredients used are all high-quality ingredients used in business.

Hu Biao didn't restrict the types of meat, such as chicken, duck, fish, etc., advocating that everyone should eat as much as they wanted, as long as there was no waste.

Therefore, while it's hard to say that the staff meals at Deyuelou are the best in the entire capital, they are certainly among the top-tier in Panjiayuan.

In addition, the store is doing well, everyone's income is good, and the work atmosphere is relaxed.

Therefore, at this time of day, everyone chats and laughs while eating, creating a relaxed and lively atmosphere.

Today, even though the work lunch was still quite plentiful, no one was in the mood for chatting or laughing.

They all lowered their heads, shoveling small bites of rice into their bowls, the atmosphere terribly somber.

The employees would occasionally look up and steal glances at their boss and future boss's wife, their eyes filled with sympathy, or perhaps some other unusually complex emotions.

The reason for this was clear to even the cleaning and dishwashing staff.
There are bad people targeting Deyuelou, trying to make them go out of business, but Boss Hu and his wife seem to have no good solutions to this.

The above situation all started three days ago.

Without warning, a lot of content criticizing Deyuelou suddenly appeared on online platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and other review sites.

They said that although the food here is cheap, it doesn't taste good at all.

Despite the restaurant's daily booming business, it's all an illusion created by the unscrupulous owner, Hu Biao, who hires people to queue up in order to lure customers in.

Some people even said vehemently that after eating food from Deyuelou, they suffered from vomiting and diarrhea for two or three days.

After sensing something was wrong, I secretly went to the kitchen of Deyuelou and found that while the front of the store was clean and tidy, the kitchen was swarming with flies and full of sewage.

In other words, the kitchen staff were watching too closely, and they were kicked out before they had a chance to take pictures.

Anyway, Hu Biao is just a heartless and unscrupulous businessman.

The staff in the store were naturally indignant about these rumors. Didn't they know whether their ingredients were good or not, clean or not, and how they tasted?
Immediately, many people spontaneously refuted the claims in the comments section, reported the incidents, and even posted video evidence.

What was the result? They only had a limited number of people, and even with the addition of a larger number of regular customers, their rebuttals in the comments section were either deleted or drowned out by the sheer volume of other comments.

None of the reports we filed resulted in the other party successfully taking the content down.

What's even more disgusting is that the videos they post as proof are often taken down after being reported within a night at most.

Also! The ordering mini-program on Deyuelou's WeChat account has been disabled.

It wasn't that the mini-program was hacked and rendered unusable; rather, a large number of accounts suddenly placed orders, taking up a lot of the order queue and preventing those who genuinely wanted to order from doing so.

However, these people quickly requested to cancel their orders, which completely disrupted the operation of the food delivery system.

Considering all of the above, they could easily tell that someone was behind the Moon Tower incident, and that these people possessed considerable power.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many online platforms like these, which are clearly biased and biased.

If it were only these factors, it wouldn't be fatal for Deyuelou.

Although Deyuelou has a bad reputation online, countless uninformed people are leaving comments cursing Deyuelou, saying that even dogs wouldn't eat there.

However, after several months of operation, Deyuelou still has many loyal customers thanks to its taste and reputation.

The key point is that Deyuelou's private kitchen and hot pot are completely unaffected.

The former's private kitchen dishes, in particular, have an excellent nourishing effect on men, and are still in high demand and difficult to book.

Despite relying solely on these loyal customers dining in, Deyuelou's business in the mass-market catering sector has suffered considerably.

But they won't starve; on the contrary, they can still make money.

The problem is that being falsely accused like this, without any way to explain the situation, is quite frustrating.

More importantly, everyone had a strange intuition:

Given the astonishing power displayed by their opponents, the online slander might just be the beginning; they have many more tricks up their sleeves... ******
The concerns that the other side had more tricks up its sleeve were quickly confirmed.

A minute or two later, after answering a phone call and saying a few words quietly, Chef Qin from the kitchen...

Because Hu Biao is getting busier and busier, he can only cook a few key dishes for the three private kitchens each day, leaving the rest to some skilled chefs.

Based on this approach, the Huaiyang cuisine chef we hired earned a fairly high monthly salary.

He stood up abruptly and said to Hu Biao:

"Mr. Hu, I'm so sorry! There's been a bit of an emergency at home, and I have to go home for a while, so I'd like to resign. Could you please settle my wages?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he brought several sous chefs and apprentices with him.

Even a few waiters and deliverymen, about ten people in total, stood up, shouting about why they wanted to quit.

Before Hu Biao could say anything, Ling Lanfang, the lobby manager, stood up and started cursing at them in heavily accented Mandarin:
"Have all of you lost your conscience?"

"You said you had family matters to attend to and needed to quit? Those people must have bribed you with a high price! You left without giving any advance notice and still expect your wages? Dream on!"

Upon hearing this, Hu Biao and Annie exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing: Don't let Ling Lanfang's somewhat simple and honest appearance fool you, she understands everything perfectly well.

These people in front of us have clearly been poached with high salaries; this is yet another tactic used to annoy them.

As for who's behind it all? Nine times out of ten, it's probably the work of 'Watermelon Investment'.

Faced with Ling Lanfang's scathing rebuke, several people among the group resigning showed obvious remorse and guilt, while Master Qin and a few others adopted a nonchalant attitude.

Once he rolled up his sleeves, he was ready to start acting tough.

Upon seeing this, Hu Biao blurted out, "Get lost!"

Perhaps out of sheer anger, he unconsciously revealed a hint of the imposing aura of Commander Hu, which he had cultivated through his experiences amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood during his transmigration.

Even though it was only a few points, it still left Master Qin and the others with blank minds and trembling legs.

It was as if the other party could crush him as easily as crushing an ant.

They didn't even dare to utter a harsh threat like "I'll go to arbitration and sue you." With their heads down, they took off their chef's uniform or work clothes and slunk away.

After watching these people leave, I could feel the extremely depressed atmosphere in the store.

Just as Hu Biao was about to say something encouraging, his phone suddenly rang.

After the call connected, a somewhat familiar voice, likely that of Mike, a senior executive at 'Watermelon Capital' Greater China region, rang out on the other end of the line with a very smug tone:

"Mr. Hu! Did you receive the little gift I prepared for you? Are you satisfied?"

I can say with certainty that these are just some insignificant appetizers. We possess energy that is unimaginable to someone of your level.

Whatever we want to say, as long as our voice is loud enough, then it is the truth.

We may not have your skills, Mr. Hu, to build a similar Deyuelou, but destroying it would be very easy for us.

Of course! I have no intention of actually doing that.

I just want you to know some of the real rules of how this world works.

If you agree to cooperate with us, I guarantee that all the bad things will stop immediately; so take advantage of the fact that the losses are not yet too great and quickly accept our terms.

However, our investment will decrease by 20%, while the shares we need to acquire will increase by 10%.

The above smug statements undoubtedly prove that Hu Biao and Annie's guesses were correct; it was indeed Xigua Capital that was behind it all.

This also allowed Hu Biao, a country bumpkin, to witness for the first time the power and greed of 'Ziben' (a type of business), and to realize that Deyuelou was facing its biggest crisis since its opening.

Faced with such a threat, Hu Biao did not answer directly, but turned to Annie and solemnly asked:
"If I lose everything again and have to sell boxed lunches outside the construction site, would you still be willing to stay with me?"

"Yes, you'll be in charge of cooking, and I'll be in charge of cleaning, collecting money, and serving the food. It's just a matter of starting over again," Annie replied calmly, her tone and eyes full of certainty.

Even Ling Lanfang chimed in, "Boss, boss's wife, take me with you! I'll help you wash the vegetables; no wages needed, just food and lodging."

After receiving such a response, Hu Biao seemed to have gained immense courage.

Once again, he gave the same answer to the person on the other end of the phone: "Get lost!"

"Fine! I'll be waiting for you to come begging to me, but I'll let you in advance: for every day that passes, our investment will decrease by 2%, and the required shares will increase by 1%."

The microphone on the other end of the phone started yelling fiercely...

(End of this chapter)