Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

Chapter 166 Catching a Thief

Du Shaojie felt speechless. There were strict regulations on the storage and use of spice bags, and registration was required for entry and exit. How could two bags be suddenly lost?

One spice packet can make 10 [Spicy Chicken], which is not a small thing, and two packets are gone at once.

The most likely possibility is that someone took it, or someone stole it.

He found it incredible that there was commercial espionage in this day and age.

"Tingting, go back first and don't make a fuss about it for now. I'll be there soon and I'll take care of this matter."

Du Shaojie sent Huang Tingting away and had a meal with Xiaomei and her family.

Putting down his bowl and chopsticks, he rode his bike to the snack bar.

This kind of thing is not difficult to check. The spice bags are usually locked in the cabinet, and the entry and exit are recorded. The actual inventory is consistent with the account. It is that two bags of spices are missing from the 20 bags Huang Tingting took out today.

There were only a few people in the kitchen, and after questioning them one by one, they finally locked their target on an employee on the breakfast shift.

The male employee's name was Li Xiangyu. He was the last one to leave the snack bar during the breakfast shift and had a brief conversation with the employee in Huang Tingting's team who was responsible for feeding the materials.

During this time, the employee in charge of feeding left for a while. When he came back, Li Xiangyu had already left work.

"I didn't check the number of spice packets at the time, and only discovered two were missing around noon. It must have been Li Xiangyu who stole them. No one in our team left all morning."

"Li Xiangyu and I met when he was leaving the company. I saw that he was carrying a large canvas bag. I didn't know what was in it, but there was definitely something."

There was more and more circumstantial evidence. On the next morning, Du Shaojie called Li Xiangyu to question him. At first, the other party denied it.

"It doesn't matter if you don't admit it, I'll call the police right away. I can tell you that although the two packets of spices are not worth much, they involve a secret recipe, and stealing a secret recipe will result in a prison sentence.

If you explain yourself clearly now, I can still let you off, but if you refuse to admit it, you can go and tell the police. Their detection methods are very advanced. You know the lie detector, right? It is impossible to get away with it."

Du Shaojie said a lot of true and false things, which scared Li Xiangyu so much that his face turned pale.

He couldn't deny this at all, it was too obvious. Apart from him, no one else could have taken the spice bag away yesterday.

Moreover, this guy's psychological quality is not good enough. He was deceived and his defense was immediately broken.

"I said, I said, don't call the police. I was wrong. I shouldn't have coveted the 100 yuan promised by Tan Xiaoshan. I took two packets of spices and then handed them to Tan Xiaoshan."

Li Xiangyu also revealed Tan Xiaoshan's identity. He was the owner of the [Pepper and Spicy Chicken] shop closest to the snack bar.

"You bastard! You can't compete so you want to steal the secret recipe. Manager Du, let's call the police immediately. The secret recipe must not be leaked, otherwise the loss will be huge."

Dong Jun suddenly became anxious and wished he could take his men to kill them immediately.

Du Shaojie winked at him, then said to Li Xiangyu: "Go and explain to the police yourself that you don't need to come to the snack bar anymore. We don't need people like you. If you cooperate in testifying, I won't call the police."

"Thank you, Manager Du. I was bewitched. I can testify that it was Tan Xiaoshan who asked me to steal the spice bags."

Li Xiangyu secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was not that Du Shaojie was willing to let him go, but it was useless to call the police for such a small matter.

There is no such thing as intellectual property rights these days, and even if there is, it is not stealing secret recipes, and two packets of spice packets can't do anything to the other party.

But he was not so polite to Tan Xiaoshan. Du Shaojie immediately took a group of employees and Li Xiangyu and rushed to the other party's store.

"What are you going to do? Although there is competition between us, we can't solve the problem with force."

Tan Xiaoshan was still studying the spice package and had basically no clue at all.

The spices are not only fried, but also ground into granules. It is difficult to distinguish the types of spices in it, let alone analyze the ratio.

Then he saw a large group of people from the snack bar of Guangyuan Hotel rushing towards him aggressively.

Tan Xiaoshan felt guilty and started shouting, hoping to attract the attention of passers-by, otherwise he would definitely suffer. How many people were there? There were only three people in his small shop.

"Damn Tan Xiaoshan, hand over the spice bags you stole from us. Li Xiangyu has admitted it. You used a hundred dollars to lure him into stealing our spice bags, but you actually wanted to steal the secret recipe!"

Dong Jun came up with a strong first statement, but what he said was all the truth.

Only then did Tan Xiaoshan see Li Xiangyu in the crowd. He no longer dared to have any illusions. He was definitely in the wrong in this matter, so he ran away.

Du Shaojie stood on the periphery and moved as soon as the other party moved.

He was a long-distance runner who had been running for years. He had quick reactions and movements. He ran ahead of Tan Xiaoshan and tripped him to the ground with his legs.

Tan Xiaoshan fell on his face in the mud and couldn't get up for a long time.

More and more people gathered around, and soon, the police from the police station arrived.

"what happened?"

The police station was only 50 meters away, and the police arrived really quickly.

Du Shaojie revealed his identity and then told the whole story.

The police went to Tan Xiaoshan's store and saw two packets of spice, one had been opened, and the other was still there intact.

With Li Xiangyu's testimony, the right and wrong are clear at a glance.

"You two, come with me to the police station. Also, Comrade Du, please come with me as well."

The police immediately took the physical evidence with them and also asked Du Shaojie, Tan Xiaoshan and Li Xiangyu to go to the station together.

Du Shaojie just went to record a statement and then returned to his workplace. Tan Xiaoshan and Li Xiangyu's problems were not very serious, so they were detained for five days and fined.

After returning to the unit, Du Shaojie reiterated the rules and regulations and strengthened internal management.

At noon, Xiaomei and Xiaoya went to the snack bar to see their brother. Wang Yuxiu was too busy during the day to make lunch, so Su Dapeng was usually in charge of it.

He is also responsible for delivering meals to the two salesmen in the two stores, and the meals are prepared by Su Dapeng's mother to save time.

"Xiaomei, Xiaoya, what do you two want to eat?"

"I want to eat roast lamb."

"I want to eat cold noodles."

Xiaomei wants to eat roast lamb and Xiaoya wants to eat cold noodles.

So Du Shaojie decided to have barbecue cold noodles for lunch. He went out and bought some roasted lamb, and came back to have lunch with his two sisters in the lobby.

"Eh? Does the snack bar sell roast lamb?"

"Maybe not."

"Then why are they eating roast lamb?"

"They bought it outside, you can go."

The lobby was in a mess. Someone saw the roasted lamb on Du Shaojie's table and started to talk about it.

When Du Shaojie heard this, he couldn't help but feel moved.

The locals like to eat cold noodles with a few skewers of grilled lamb, but the snack bar does not have grilled lamb, which makes many old diners feel a little regretful.

It was very troublesome to run the roast lamb business in the snack bar by himself. Before he took over the contract, someone wanted to sell roast lamb in front of the store and agreed to pay a certain fee.

At that time, Du Shaojie could not make the decision, and it was very troublesome to ask for instructions again and again, so the matter was left unresolved.

Now that he has contracted the snack bar, he can reconsider it.

After dinner, Du Shaojie took Xiaomei and Xiaoya to People's Park for ice skating. When they were young, they liked sledding and had a natural passion for ice and snow sports.

But all three of them were beginners and they fell many times before they learned how to do it.

Strictly speaking, the three siblings are very well balanced and learn quite quickly.

"What are you two going to do this afternoon?"

The three of them skated for about an hour and felt a little tired, so they returned their skates and left the park.

Du Shaojie was going to the snack bar. After the incident with Li Xiangyu, people in the unit were a little uneasy and he was needed to take charge.

"We plan to go see Sister Mikoto, push her around outside, and then go home."

Xiaomei is a grown-up girl now, and the way she speaks and acts is much more mature than before.

Du Shaojie nodded, separated from the two at the intersection ahead, and went to work alone.

Tan Xiaoshan's [Spicy Chicken] restaurant saw a sharp decline in business, and soon put up a sign for sale. But this incident did not affect the enthusiasm of others to open restaurants. New restaurants continued to open on this street, and the number has exceeded 15.

"Let's not call the road in front of our house 'Democracy Road' anymore. Let's just call it 'Food Street'."

Dong Jun is in anxiety every day. Although the snack bar is not contracted by him, he cares about it more than Du Shaojie.

Just this morning, when he came to work, many people noticed the big blisters at the corners of his mouth.

Du Shaojie was touched and amused, but people nowadays are not used to the pressure of competition. If it were in the future, this pressure would be nothing, and it would not be considered a success unless you die.

"In fact, 'Food Street' is also very good, Brother Dong. If you don't believe me, just wait and see. In the future, more and more customers will come to this street to eat. This is called the agglomeration effect. With more restaurants and snack bars, there will be more choices."

Du Shaojie quickly comforted Dong Jun and explained what the "clustering effect" was.

Dong Jun was skeptical, but he was indeed not so anxious anymore.

"Manager Du, someone is looking for you."

While the two were talking, Huang Tingting knocked on the door of Du Shaojie's office.

Huang Tingting then moved aside, and Du Shaojie saw Qi Yan standing behind her.

"Yanzi, when did you come back? Come in quickly."

"I just arrived today. I'm a little hungry, so I came to you for alms."

Qi Yan walked into the office with a smile on her face, and Dong Jun and Huang Tingting said goodbye and left tactfully.

Du Shaojie knew the time of the train from Beijing. The other party should have returned home, dropped off his luggage and ran over, which made him feel a little emotional.

"You just got back, why don't you take a rest at home? You must be tired from running around. Come on, I'll take you home and make you something delicious for lunch."

Du Shaojie went to tell Dong Jun a few words, then rode his bike back to Chunfeng Lane with Qi Yan.

He said he was sending her back, but in fact he took Qi Yan to his own old house.

"Sister Yan Zi!"

"Sister Yan Zi."

Xiaomei and Xiaoya are at home. Wang Yuxiu went to the Lihua Street store and hasn't come back yet.

Although the store now has a salesperson, Wang Yuxiu still goes there several times a day to understand the business situation and collect sales money in a timely manner.

(End of this chapter)