Chapter 27: Turning the Tables

Zhang Qiang had grown wiser; he was not about to get involved in this business. After all, Chen Huajiang had already paid him five yuan to gather information. He immediately headed to the snack bar and found Chen Huajiang.

"Wu De came to see me. He asked me to bring some people tonight to wreck your place and offered me twenty yuan. I asked him for ten up front, told him I'd collect the rest after the job was done."

Even Zhang Qiang, for all his foolishness, wouldn't let Wu De trick him a second time. He told Chen Huajiang everything just as it happened.

Chen Huajiang thought for a moment. He hadn't expected that Wu De would actually want to smash up his snack bar. He considered having Zhang Qiang go to the police to expose Wu De, but if Wu De refused to admit anything, things could get complicated.

"I think this is what we should do," Chen said. "Since you've already taken his money, I'll give you another five yuan. Bring Wu De and his friend here tonight. Just say you couldn't find anyone else."

"Then tomorrow, I'll report it to the police. You turn yourself in. I'll say I'll settle privately with you, but not with the other two. That way, the police will let you go, but those two will get locked up for at least half a month."

Chen Huajiang felt that if he didn't teach Wu De and his friend a lesson, there would be even bigger problems in the future.

Zhang Qiang hesitated. He didn't really know much about these things. "Can you really settle something like this privately? What if I get locked up too?"

"Just go easy when you do it. Let the other two do most of the smashing. I'll definitely settle with you, and actually, I plan to squeeze some money out of those two as well. Why shouldn't I?"

Chen's plan was simple: make Wu De pay compensation for this, so he could replace all his equipment with brand new ones.

"I'll give you a cut when it's done. Won't that be more than what you're getting now? Trust me."

Chen was persuasive. Zhang Qiang was immediately tempted and nodded.

"I'll go find the two of them right now. I know what to do."

After all, smashing up someone else's place could easily cost Wu De and his friend at least a thousand yuan in damages. Surely Chen would give him a couple hundred at least, much more than Wu De's offer.

He returned to Wu De and tossed back the ten yuan.

Wu De and his friend looked at Zhang Qiang, puzzled. "What’s this supposed to mean?"

"Couldn't find anyone. They said they wouldn't do something like this, so I'm giving you your money back."

With that, Zhang Qiang plopped down on a chair, showing no sign of leaving.

"If you couldn't find anyone, why are you still hanging around?" Wu De was annoyed. He couldn't really go out and look for people himself.

"How about this: you two give me five yuan, and tonight the three of us will go together. What do you think?"

Truthfully, if Wu De and Gou Weidong had to go by themselves, they wouldn't dare. But with Zhang Qiang joining, the three of them would feel bolder.

"If you don't want to, forget it. That snack bar is doing so well, I’m almost jealous."

With that, Zhang Qiang got up to leave.

Wu De and his friend had no other options if they wanted to deal with Chen Huajiang.

"Wait, don't go. If it’s just the three of us, won't we be too slow?"

"How slow could it be? The door's so flimsy, one kick and it’s open. We can break whatever’s inside easily. Too many people would actually be worse—what if someone sees us?"

Zhang Qiang had a point; more people would only complicate things.

Wu De and his friend considered it and decided this might just work. Besides, if Wu De went, even the security office wouldn't dare interfere; after all, nobody wanted to cross him.

"Alright, but just so we're clear—you only get five yuan," Wu De said, standing and glowering at Zhang Qiang.

"Then why don't you go without me? I don't need your five yuan." Zhang Qiang made to leave.

"No, you have to go. Five yuan it is. Meet us here at midnight, and bring two hammers."

If Zhang Qiang didn't come, Wu De and his friend had no confidence.

Zhang Qiang nodded and left. He quietly returned to the snack bar and told Chen Huajiang what had happened.

Chen quickly came up with a plan.

When Liang Long arrived that afternoon, Chen pulled him aside and whispered, "I heard Wu De and Gou Weidong are coming tonight to wreck our snack bar. Get someone from the security office, and after they've done their damage, we’ll catch them and hand them over to the police."

Liang Long was stunned. He hadn’t expected Wu De and Gou Weidong to be so bold as to target their place.

"Isn't that a bit much? Why not have Brother Hu bring some guys over? That way they’d be too scared to do anything."

Liang Long didn’t know what Chen was really thinking.

"If they don’t smash the place, how am I supposed to get new equipment? I want them to do it. Once they’re caught, they’ll have to settle with us, whether they want to or not."

Liang Long immediately understood: Chen was setting a trap for Wu De and his friend.

"You really are clever. I admire you. Leave it to me. By the way, I talked to Du Ming—printing will cost a few dozen yuan, but we’ll have to make the blueprints ourselves."

The blueprints were no problem for Chen Huajiang, who nodded. The franchise was a top priority. He didn’t even need that many—if he could get ten locations around the city, that would be enough. After that, more and more people would want to join.

Since he was going to do this, he would have to register a company first—a restaurant company, specifically. He just wasn’t sure if he could get it registered in such a small place.

Lu Cheng went to Wei Meixian that afternoon. At that time, Wei Meixian had become the biggest restaurant in all of Nanming City. Many people doing business or with money came there.

But Wei Meixian’s specialty was also braised pork. However, after tasting the braised pork made by Da Guang, their chefs lost some of their confidence.