Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

After hanging up the phone, Du Shaojie received a call from Pang Weidong's friend before he left the manager's office.

"I'm sorry, Boss Du, when I introduced the storefront before, I didn't know the situation inside. It's too late to talk about it now. The landlord wants to talk to you and try to solve some remaining problems as soon as possible."

"Okay, let's meet. You tell me a place and I'll go there."

Du Shaojie sneered in his heart. Now he was sure that Pang Weidong's friend was definitely not a good person.

And the landlord, these people use one trick after another, he wants to see what tricks they are up to.

Afterwards, Du Shaojie met the landlord and Liang Bicheng in a cafe.

Liang Bicheng is Pang Weidong’s friend. He is about 40 years old, bald, and always has a smile on his face.

"Mr. Du, I have suddenly encountered a problem. The house may have to be auctioned. I won't go into details, but I was cheated.

I'm trying to borrow money from everywhere, but I'm still short of money, so I came to you today. I hope you can lend me some money, and I'll settle this matter, and then I'll definitely sign a long-term preferential agreement with you."

The landlord spoke first, saying that he could not repay the mortgage loan, and now the creditor was suing and demanding the auction of the property.

In order to keep the storefront, he had to borrow money to pay off the debt. As long as the debt was paid off, the house would still be his. In other words, Du Shaojie's lease would not be affected.

The landlord agreed to use the rent to offset the loan and also offer a long-term preferential rent price.

Du Shaojie couldn't help but secretly shake his head. Did the other party think of him as a "rich man" or a "fool"?
He said a few perfunctory words and left in a hurry, making the excuse that he needed time to think about it.

In the evening, he received a call from Pang Weidong and told him about these things. The other party was so angry that he cursed Liang Bicheng.

"Dongzi, please don't make this public yet. I have to go to the court to apply for protection of my rights. Aren't you Lu Ziye? Quickly introduce me to someone who is familiar with this area."

It is too late to transfer people from the company now, so Du Shaojie has no choice but to rely on Pang Weidong.

Pang Weidong felt that he had misjudged the person and felt guilty, so he used his connections to find him an old comrade who had just retired from the court.

The old lady’s surname is Zhang, and her name is Zhang Cixin. She is very famous locally.

Du Shaojie politely set up a table at Xichuan Restaurant and sincerely asked Zhang Cixin for help.

"Boss Du, thanks to your foresight, I can now tell you responsibly that the rent, deposit and renovation money you invested will not be returned."

Du Shaojie, Pang Weidong and Zhang Cixin chatted while eating, and Zhang Cixin quickly understood the situation.

She then said something shocking, confusing both Du Shaojie and Pang Weidong.

"Aunt Zhang, didn't they say that tenants can apply to protect their rights before the auction?"

"That's true, but this matter is not as simple as it seems. The landlord and Ma Shiqi are in cahoots, and they used this property to cheat many people.

If I'm not mistaken, the two of them were setting up a trap for Mr. Du from the beginning. First they cheated you out of your rent and deposit, and then they'll find other ways to cheat you out of your money."

Zhang Cixin sighed. This Ma Shiqi relied on his background to cheat outsiders out of their money.

As long as you rent their house, unless you cut your losses and get out at the beginning, you will be hooked by the "sunk costs" and keep investing.

Just from what the old lady knew, the property was over-collateralized, and even if the property was auctioned off, the creditors would suffer huge losses.

"The conspiracy of Ma Shiqi and his gang is about to be exposed. Mr. Du, you are the last fat sheep they are looking for. After they get you, I guess they will run away."

The old lady is not only famous in the local area, but she also knows all kinds of monsters.

She advised Du Shaojie not to take chances and be prepared to stop losses in time. Reporting the case was useless, after all, he had not paid the other party yet, so the best way was to ignore them.

"Thank you, Aunt Zhang, you helped me a lot."

Du Shaojie expressed his gratitude to the old lady, and after eating and drinking, he sent her back.

Pang Weidong was a little unwilling and said, "Ajie, we can't let them off so easily. Next, let's collect some evidence and then report the case. According to Aunt Zhang, there are more than one victim. You can also contact them."

"Well, I still have to go to the court to file an application. No matter how much I can get back, I'll just have to get in line first."

Du Shaojie nodded, knowing that this matter could not be resolved peacefully.

There will be losses, and we will try to recover as much as we can, but we won't let Ma Shiqi and the others off easily.

The two worked for a few days and gained a lot, at least they found two victims. Du Shaojie pretended to be friendly with Ma Shiqi and others, while reporting the case in the name of the company.

The reason for reporting the case was naturally the other party's fraudulent behavior. With him taking the lead, other victims dared to show up. This shows how rampant Ma Shiqi and others were in the local area.

Pang Weidong also used some connections, and the landlord and Liang Bicheng were arrested, but Ma Shiqi got wind of it in advance and ran away.

"Damn it, this case was reported directly to the city, and the higher-ups took it very seriously, but it still ended up like this."

Pang Weidong was very dissatisfied with this result, but he had no way of investigating it further.

The relationship between Ma Shiqi and some local people is complicated, otherwise how could he have been so arrogant for so many years? But after the incident was exposed, no one dared to cover it up, but it did not mean that nothing could be done. Ma Shiqi disappeared, which made some people secretly relieved.

The business of [Xichuan Restaurant] is getting better and better, but Du Shaojie and others are not happy.

The storefront business is very troublesome, involving multiple creditors. No one knows what the future will be like, so we can just take it one day at a time.

Du Shaojie has also applied for rights protection, but the current situation is that there are too many people and too little resources, and it is difficult to recover much loss.

"Ajie, I have to go back now. I have a lot of things to do at home. Don't worry about this. Every failure is a lesson learned. We two brothers have paid for this lesson."

Pang Weidong left Chang'an in a depressed mood. He couldn't be blamed for this incident, but it was still somewhat related to him.

Du Shaojie was open-minded. It was better for this kind of thing to happen earlier than later. It was a lesson for the entire company. There were many scammers these days, and the laws and regulations were not sound. In the future, we should be more careful when doing things.

Privately, he and Zhang Cixin often interact with each other.

The old lady was able to give him a lot of professional advice, and he didn't want to let her work in vain, so he also gave her considerable hard work fees during this period.

"Mr. Du, you have to be mentally prepared. The court plans to auction this property next week, and the proceeds will be paid to everyone in order. You can only pray that the new landlord is easy to talk to, otherwise you will lose a lot."

The court is processing the matter very quickly and the judicial auction will be held next week.

Zhang Cixin told Du Shaojie in advance, suggesting that he could make a decision early, and if it really doesn't work out, he would have to find another job.

Du Shaojie thought for a moment and asked, "Aunt Zhang, I plan to bid for this property. I'd like to trouble you to take my people to register it later."

He thought about it over and over again these days and felt that the best way was to buy the storefront himself. He would definitely lose a large part of the rent and deposit he had paid before, but the decoration expenses would not be wasted.

"Mr. Du, your idea is good. However, since the debt involved in this property is too huge, the starting price is not low. You have to think carefully. If you have made up your mind, I will help you with the operation."

"I've decided to buy this property, Aunt Zhang, thank you for your help."

Du Shaojie was determined and didn't want to miss this opportunity.

Zhang Cixin nodded and immediately began to arrange the auction. After all, she was familiar with all aspects.

Meng Gang flew over a day in advance. He and the relevant employees are all responsible for this matter, and the aftermath cannot be left to the boss alone.

I thought the competition would be fierce, but on the day of the auction, there were only a few bidders.

Because the starting price was a little high, many people did not even bid during the whole process. In the end, Du Shaojie successfully bought the property at a high price of 43 yuan.

The "idlers" who came to cause trouble at the beginning of the opening no longer showed up, and Du Shaojie could finally return to Xijiang with peace of mind.

However, before leaving, he left a clue and asked someone to spread a piece of information. Whoever could provide the exact whereabouts of Ma Shiqi would receive a reward of 2000 yuan after catching him.

This kind of reward may or may not be useful, so just treat it as a casual move.

Du Shaojie accompanied his mother and Xiaoya back to his hometown for more than half a month. When the training center in Yangcheng was completed, he left first and went back to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"Master, the training center will be handed over to you from now on."

After the training center was completed, Liao Yongxin took office and became the manager of the center.

Chu Linlin is the deputy manager of the training center, responsible for daily work other than training.

In the future, the training of each store under the company will be institutionalized and standardized. Once it is up and running, there will be basically no need to worry about talent.

The first advanced training course (for Sichuan cuisine chefs) started, with Liao Yongxin and Zhou Huai'en serving as lecturers, and Du Shaojie also took the time to give a lecture.

The restaurant of the training center has drawn a group of backbone personnel from Xichuan Restaurant and Sichuan Cuisine House in various places, and they are responsible for both training and external business.

The same goes for the housekeeping department, which, in addition to receiving employees who come for training, is also open to the public.

The training restaurant and housekeeping department are under the management of Chu Linlin, and Liao Yongxin is responsible for the overall management and training work.

As the summer vacation was coming to an end, Qi Yan suddenly came to Guangzhou.

"Shaojie, my mother went to Beijing during the summer vacation. I came to see you right after she left."

Qi Yan missed Du Shaojie, but he had not been to Beijing, so she took the initiative to go see him.

This made Du Shaojie feel quite guilty.

"My mother hasn't come back yet, and Xiaomei and I are the only ones at home. How about you live here?"

Du Shaojie didn't know what Qi Yan was thinking, and Wang Yuxiu would be back soon, so he had to ask.

Seeing that his courtyard had many rooms, Qi Yan nodded and chose a guest room to put her luggage in. (End of this chapter)