Chapter 4

I neither admitted it nor denied it.

George panicked and grabbed my arm.

“Ethan, what the hell do you mean? This is our own family’s place. Why would you switch the ingredients?”

I shoved his hand away.

“George, don’t you think that sounds ridiculous?”

“What’s ridiculous?”

“Your own family’s place?”

He froze.

I went on, “This place belongs to both of us, not just you.”

“When I switched the ingredients, when did you see yourself asking me?”

I turned and walked out. “Fine, you can keep checking on your own. I’ve got things to do.”

He chased after me.

“Ethan, stop right there! We’re clearing this up today!”

I stopped.

Then I nodded.

“Fine. Then let me ask you—who handled this batch of beef for the branch’s opening?”

His face changed.

“Who handled the beef tripe? Who handled the beef aorta?”

He went silent.

“You found the suppliers, you negotiated the prices, you took the kickbacks.”

“What does whether I switch the ingredients have to do with you?”

He was so choked up he couldn’t say a word.

I looked at him.

“George, you think I didn’t know?”

“Starting in the second half of last year, you’ve been taking at least 20,000 yuan a month in kickbacks from the suppliers.”

“You also took 100,000 yuan for the branch renovation.”

“I never brought this up because I thought you’d stop on your own.”

“And what happened? You didn’t stop. You only got worse.”

“You say I switched the ingredients to screw you over? Then let me ask you—when you were taking kickbacks, did you ever think this place was half mine?”

His face went deathly pale, his lips trembling.

“Ethan, you can’t calculate it like that—”

“Then how should I calculate it? Give me your formula.”

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

I turned to leave.

After two steps, I stopped again.

“Oh, right. The broth base mix recipe the branch is using now was remixed by me.”

“The ingredients came from the small factory I found myself.”

“That factory only supplies the flagship restaurant. Nobody else.”

“If you want to switch it back to the original taste, fine.”

“But in the original recipe, there are a few ingredients that only I know where to buy.”

“If you want to find them, go find them yourself.”

Then I left.

Behind me, everything went dead silent.

At four in the afternoon, my phone exploded.

George called over and over again, and I didn’t pick up a single one.

My WeChat blew up with 99+ messages.

In the last voice message, his voice was shaking.

“Ethan! The branch had over a hundred tables at lunch today, and every one of them was a bad review!”

“Dianping’s already dropped us to 3.5 stars! What the hell are you trying to do!”

I muted my phone.

What was I trying to do?

Nothing.

I just wanted him to understand that this place wasn’t his alone.

That night, at eight, my mom called.

“Ethan, what’s going on between you and your cousin? He called me crying, saying you’re messing with him at the restaurant.”

I leaned back on the sofa and looked at the ceiling.

“Mom, he’s been taking kickbacks for over half a year. I’ve checked everything. It’s at least 300,000 yuan.”

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds.

“He’s still your cousin. Don’t be too—”

“Mom, because he’s my cousin, I put up with it for six months. If it were anyone else, I would’ve called the police long ago.”

My mom said nothing.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to make him pay back the losses.”

“But from today on, I’m in charge of this place.”

I hung up.

The sky outside was already dark.

I knew that starting tomorrow, it would be a different kind of fight.