Reborn in 1985: From Selling Braised Duck to Becoming the World's Richest Man

"No misunderstanding. Goldman Sachs caused me to lose a batch of goods last time. Since he sent you here, I'll take your life and collect some interest."

The boat captain said coldly.

Upon hearing this, Song Qiang quickly said, "Boss, actually I'm not very familiar with Goldman Sachs. We just chatted for a bit in the detention center."

"I learned from him that you have smuggled goods here, which is why I came."

"I'm here to make money. You lost your goods and want to make back your losses as soon as possible, right?"

Upon hearing Song Qiang's words, the boatman fell silent.

"How much cargo do you want?" the captain asked a few seconds later.

Without saying a word, Song Qiang took out a wad of cash from his pocket and handed it over.

The boatman took the money, counted it, frowned, and said:

"Only 1000 yuan? That's too little for you."

"There's nothing I can do. I just got out of there myself, and I don't have much money on me."

Song Qiang gave an awkward smile and said:

"But don't worry, after I sell this batch of goods, the money will multiply several times, and then I'll get you a big batch."

Upon hearing Song Qiang's words, the boatman cursed, "Damn it, this trip isn't even enough to cover the fuel costs. What bad luck!"

"Xiao Jie, give him the goods!"

Upon hearing this, one of his underlings immediately took more than a dozen smuggled foreign watches from the boat and threw them to Song Qiang.

Song Qiang was so frightened that he quickly reached out and caught them. These smuggled foreign watches were the key to his wealth and fortune.

He would feel heartbroken if even a small part of it broke.

"Captain, thank you for your trouble. We'll be picking up cargo here again in three days."

After inspecting the goods, Song Qiang spoke to the boatman.

"You bastard, I'll be back in three days, but you'd better bring more money next time, or I'll take you to the high seas to feed the sharks!"

The boat captain stared coldly at Song Qiang, cursed, and then steered the boat away.

Song Qiang was not angry when he heard this.

He couldn't afford to offend these people who lived on the edge of danger.

What he needs to do now is to make good use of these people and get rich quickly.

Once I've made some money, I'll find a legitimate industry to work in.

But before that, he had to deal with Liang Ming first, to let Liang Ming experience the suffering he had endured in the detention room!

……

Liang Ming was unaware that Song Qiang was secretly plotting to make money and then turn against him.

But even if he knew, he wouldn't care.

He could easily deal with such a clown.

"Boss Jiang, I'm here to be a food preparation chef, why won't you let us into the kitchen!"

"Exactly! If you won't let us into the kitchen, why are you even hiring kitchen apprentices?!"

As soon as Liang Ming drove his tricycle to Xiangmanlou Restaurant, he heard a commotion coming from the back door.

He frowned slightly, parked the car, and then pulled over.

All that could be seen was Jiang Meizhuang arguing with a group of restaurant staff and several new employees.

"Sister Meizhuang, what happened?"

Liang Ming walked over and asked Jiang Meizhuang.

Upon seeing Liang Ming arrive, Jiang Meizhuang's beautiful eyes brightened slightly, as if her pillar of support had arrived.

She pointed to the new employees in front of her and said:

"These people are the new food preparation chefs we hired at Xiangmanlou. We originally assigned them odd jobs like food preparation."

"This job doesn't require going into the kitchen; you can do it right outside at the sink."

"But they insisted on going into the kitchen to take a look, and they wouldn't listen no matter how many times we told them to."

After listening to Jiang Meizhuang's words, Liang Ming also looked at the chefs who were preparing the dishes.

Upon closer inspection, some clues became apparent.

Among these people, several had fair and delicate hands without any calluses, and they didn't look like they had done any manual labor.

Let them prepare the food, so they don't get their fingers cut off or anything while they're preparing it.

These are the people who led the trouble.

"Are you all here to be food preparers?" Liang Ming asked the group.

"Nonsense, what else would we be doing if we weren't here to prepare the ingredients?"

A burly man spoke first.

“You won’t learn any skills as a food preparer. Why would a grown man like you want to do this job?” Liang Ming asked rhetorically.

In this era, if a man were to work in the catering industry, his first choice would definitely be a kitchen apprentice.

Although there is little salary for apprentices in the kitchen at the beginning, the advantage is that after completing the apprenticeship, they can open their own small restaurant or go to other places to become chefs.

The vegetable preparation chef's job is actually to do the hard work of washing and chopping vegetables.

The salary is not low, but there is little career advancement, so it is generally only married women who are willing to do it.

The burly man was taken aback when Liang Ming asked him that question.

But he quickly realized what he meant and said, "I'll do what I want to do, why do I need so many reasons?"

"That's right, we're here to work, why is your Xiangmanlou Restaurant treating us like thieves?"

"If word gets out, aren't we afraid of ruining the reputation of Xiangmanlou Restaurant?"

The other two echoed this sentiment.

Several other food preparation chefs stood behind the three of them, clearly also somewhat dissatisfied with Xiangmanlou's actions.

Hearing the three of them say this, Liang Ming smiled and suddenly asked:

"Stop pretending. It's Director Bai Shi from the state-run restaurant who sent you to infiltrate our Xiangmanlou restaurant, trying to steal the recipe for Boiling Shrimp, isn't it?"

Upon hearing Liang Ming's words, the three men's expressions changed, and they all said in unison:

"You, how do you know..."

They realized their mistake halfway through their sentence and quickly corrected themselves:

"I do not know what you're talking about?"

"What Director Baishi? I don't know him."

"Yes, I'm here to be a food preparation chef."

Seeing the three people's reactions, Liang Ming's guess was confirmed.

He initially only suspected the identities of the three men.

Judging from the reactions of the three people, it has indeed been confirmed that it was the conspiracy of Director Shiraishi of the state-run restaurant.

Jiang Meizhuang, who was standing to the side, also noticed the changes in the expressions of the three of them.

Jiang Meizhuang is no fool for managing Xiangmanlou Restaurant to its current state.

She immediately understood and gritted her teeth, angrily saying, "That's despicable!"

"I never imagined that people from state-run restaurants would resort to such despicable means as stealing our restaurant's recipes."

The burly man at the head of the group was still feigning madness, saying:

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm here to be a food preparation chef."

"I'm just asking for the same right to enter the kitchen as other kitchen staff. Isn't that reasonable?"

"You!" Jiang Meizhuang was furious when she saw how shameless the other party was.

Just then, a warm, large hand patted her shoulder.

Jiang Meizhuang turned her head and met Liang Ming's reassuring gaze.

"Let me do it!"

Sensing the confidence in Liang Ming's words, Jiang Meizhuang felt inexplicably at ease and nodded slightly.

Liang Ming stepped forward and looked at the three men, saying, "Regardless of whether you are people sent by the state-run restaurant or not, I will only tell you one thing."

That means the newly hired food preparation chef really can't enter our kitchen.

The reason is simple: we're afraid someone will steal our Xiangmanlou's Boiling Shrimp recipe.

If you can't accept this, you can leave now.

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the three chefs preparing the dishes all changed.

Liang Ming had already made himself very clear. If they still didn't understand, they could just find a block of tofu and pretend to be dead.

"Fine, Boss Liang, you're ruthless!"

The burly man at the head of the group glanced at Liang Ming a few times before finally speaking:

"let's go!"

He failed to complete his undercover mission to infiltrate the kitchen of the Jinxiang Manlou Restaurant.

If they stay any longer, they will only humiliate themselves; it would be better for them to leave.

Anyway, this job was arranged for them by a relative who worked at a state-run restaurant.

Don't worry about being scolded if you don't finish.

"Wait!" Liang Ming called out to the three as they were about to leave.