Chapter 1

I tossed the purchase order onto the table and looked at my cousin.

“This batch of beef. Market price is 320 yuan a case, and you quoted me 480.”

He was sitting in the office chair scrolling on his phone. When he heard me, he didn’t even look up.

“Why the hell are you calculating that? It’s tax and delivery included. How can that be the same as you going straight to the market for it from the kitchen?”

I stared at him.

His name was George Walker, and he was three years older than me.

He grew up in my house. My mom was his aunt, and she treated him like her own son.

Two years ago, we started this hot pot restaurant together. I put in 500,000 yuan, he put in 300,000, and we agreed on a 50-50 profit split.

He handled front-of-house operations, and I handled the kitchen and supply chain.

Business was booming the first year. By the end of the year, each of us took home 400,000 yuan in profit.

In the second year, he said we should open a branch, and he put procurement under unified management.

I figured we were family, so no problem.

Six months later, I noticed something was off.

The flagship restaurant wasn’t seeing fewer customers, but the monthly profit kept dropping.

I ran the numbers. Based on the current table turnover rate, we were making at least a third less profit.

So I started secretly checking the inventory records.

I didn’t know there was a problem until I checked.

Beef, beef tripe, beef aorta—every key ingredient’s purchase price was 30% to 50% higher than market price.

Just last month alone, we’d spent 80,000 yuan more than normal on procurement.

Eighty thousand yuan.

I slammed the bill down in front of him.

“Look at this yourself. Over the past six months, beef alone cost us over 200,000 yuan extra. Where did the money go?”

He finally looked up and tossed his phone onto the table.

“What are you getting at? You think I’m taking kickbacks?”

I said nothing.

He shot to his feet, his face flushing red.

“Fine, Ethan. You’ve really grown wings, huh?”

“I bust my ass out there running procurement, grinding prices down with suppliers, and you sit in the kitchen and tally up my accounts?”

“I asked where the money went.” I repeated the same thing.

“It’s with the suppliers! They’re giving us quality goods! You think those cheap market vegetables can compare to what we use?”

“I went to the market last week. Same brand, same size—beef is 320 yuan a case.”

He choked for a second, then flew into a rage.

“You don’t know shit! You’ve been stuck in the kitchen so long you have no idea how things work outside!”

“Suppliers don’t need to make money? Delivery doesn’t cost anything?”

“I’m telling you, if you think I skimmed off the top, fine. Let’s reconcile the books right now!”

He froze.

I went on, “Call every supplier over and ask them face to face how much this batch of beef actually costs.”

His expression changed.

“You’re insane. If we do this, who’s still going to work with us?”

“Don’t dare?”

We just stared at each other.

Five seconds later, he looked away and flopped back into his chair.

“Ethan, I don’t want to fight with you. If you really don’t trust me, then let’s just split this place up.”

I laughed.

“George, that’s all? And you’re already talking about splitting up?”

He thought I was backing down, so his tone softened too.

“Alright, alright, let’s put this behind us. I’ll have the suppliers lower the prices later, okay?”

I said nothing else.

I turned and left the office.

There was only one thought in my head: George Walker, since you don’t treat me like family, then don’t blame me for not treating you like my brother.