He never expected that the woman who had been speaking so pleasantly was his master’s ex-wife!

He knew a little about his master’s situation.

’So this is the woman who drove my master from his home?’

Hu Yongfa put down his phone. He looked up coldly at the smiling Yang Yixue and said bluntly, "The recipe is not for sale. Get the hell out of my restaurant. You’re not welcome here!"

Yang Yixue’s smile froze.

She was completely stunned.

’Everything was fine a second ago, so why is he suddenly cursing at me?’

"What kind of attitude is that? I’m here to discuss a partnership! Do you have any idea about my restaurants..."

She still didn’t want to give up.

But before she could finish, Hu Yongfa cut her off impatiently. "My master is Jiang Liu. What kind of attitude do you think I should have toward you?"

"Remember how you disgusted my master? You’re trash. Ptooey! Now, hurry up and get out! We don’t welcome garbage like you in our restaurant!"

He held nothing back when he cursed people out. ’Anyway, my master has my back, so I’m not afraid.’

Hearing the name "Jiang Liu."

Yang Yixue and Li Xiaoyan froze for a moment. When it registered, their pupils constricted.

They stood there, completely dumbfounded.

The two of them were in utter disbelief.

’This restaurant belongs to Jiang Liu?’

’How is that possible!!!’

Yang Yixue muttered blankly, "It’s fake! It must be fake..."

Before, they had been gloating, thinking this restaurant was competing with Jiang Liu’s business.

Who knew that they would turn out to be the clowns themselves.

’This restaurant is actually Jiang Liu’s?’

"Xiaotong’s Restaurant... Tongtong..."

Belatedly, Yang Yixue realized, "So... it really might be his..."

"Go, go, go! Stop loitering in my restaurant. Just looking at the two of you annoys me."

Hu Yongfa had half a mind to grab a stick and chase them out.

’If only Old Yue were here,’ he thought. ’He would’ve just slapped these two ungrateful bastards across the face.’

Seeing that the two of them weren’t moving, Hu Yongfa couldn’t be bothered with them anymore. He gave a look to a waiter and turned to go back to work.

’Since Master entrusted the restaurant to me, I have to be completely responsible. It’s not worth wasting my time on these two animals!’

"Wait!"

Yang Yixue stood up and blocked Hu Yongfa’s path, her face a little pale. "I want to ask you a question. Where would Jiang Liu get the money to open a restaurant? His money and the house are all with me. It’s impossible for him to have any money!"

She just refused to believe it and wanted to find a reason to expose their lie.

"What business is it of yours? My master has plenty of money. Forget opening one new restaurant, I wouldn’t be surprised if he opened one overseas!"

Yang Yixue’s expression grew even uglier.

’I can’t believe this restaurant is actually Jiang Liu’s. This is so humiliating!’

As for Hu Yongfa’s claim that Jiang Liu had plenty of money, she treated it as a joke. ’The restaurant’s only been open for a few days. How could he have that much money?’

’He’s still just a poor bastard!’

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have divorced Jiang Liu in the first place.

She had even specifically sought out a master to have her fortune told before. The master had said Jiang Liu was not fated for wealth, but she was.

Li Xiaoyan asked jealously, "How much does Jiang Liu’s new restaurant make a day now?"

Hu Yongfa was happy to answer this question. "About a hundred thousand a day, give or take. We have plenty of customers, so we’re not worried about sales. If we hired another chef, we might even break two hundred thousand."

’A hundred thousand?!’

Yang Yixue glanced at Li Xiaoyan, absolutely furious inside.

’My twenty restaurants combined? Forget making a profit, I’m lucky if I break even!’

Li Xiaoyan’s face was dark. "Let’s go, Yixue. We shouldn’t stay here."

The longer they stayed, the angrier they got.

Why was it that Jiang Liu could open a new restaurant and make money, while they were losing it?

"Mm." Yang Yixue nodded.

She was utterly dejected.

Li Xiaoyan said, "Why don’t we go see Jiang Liu? His recipe is incredible. This new restaurant’s success is all thanks to that recipe. We need to find a way to buy it from him."

Yang Yixue suddenly flew into a rage. "Talk! Talk! All you do is talk! Can you just stop talking?!"

"Haven’t I messaged him? Has he ever replied? What’s the point of going to see him now?"

Li Xiaoyan’s lips trembled with anger. "What are you shouting for? I’m your mother! Who told you not to maintain a good relationship with Jiang Liu? If you had, we wouldn’t have ended up in this situation!"

Yang Yixue laughed in anger. "Heh, who was it that bad-mouthed him in front of me every single day? Who was it that kept pushing me to divorce him? Wasn’t it you? Don’t you know how much shit you talked about him?"

"And you have the nerve to stand here and say *my* relationship with Jiang Liu is bad?"

"How dare you!" Li Xiaoyan raised her hand as if to strike, but didn’t dare to follow through.

"Go on, hit me?" Yang Yixue stuck her face out. She started to cry.

She hated everything about her current situation.

She hated Jiang Liu even more. She had borne him a daughter, only to be treated like this by him.

Li Xiaoyan lowered her hand and muttered, "You make it sound like your mom forced you to get a divorce. Weren’t you so excited you couldn’t sleep the night you divorced him?

"Didn’t you also say that he had no idea how hard it was for you to earn money, while he just stayed at home with the kid, living off you, a complete and utter good-for-nothing?"

Yang Yixue said, "That part is true, but was that the key reason for the divorce? If you hadn’t been bad-mouthing Jiang Liu and his entire family, wouldn’t my father-in-law and mother-in-law have convinced him not to go through with the divorce?"

"Let me ask you, if Jiang Liu’s parents had tried to talk you out of it back then, would you have not divorced him?"

Yang Yixue didn’t want to talk anymore. She glanced at the surrounding crowd of onlookers and slammed the car door in a fury.

’If Jiang Liu were in front of her right now, she’d want nothing more than to slam on the gas and run him over.’

’If it weren’t for Jiang Liu, would she be in this mess today?’

「Once in the car.」

The two of them stopped arguing. The car fell silent.

Li Xiaoyan watched Xiaotong’s Restaurant, which was starting to get busy, her face twisted with resentment.

"If I had known, I wouldn’t have pushed you to divorce him back then. Otherwise, we could be using Jiang Liu right now."

Yang Yixue calmed down. She was a rational person. "Let’s not fight anymore. What I said just now was all in anger, so don’t take it to heart, Mom. The most important thing for us right now is to get Jiang Liu’s recipe. If we have the complete recipe, crushing him under our feet will be a piece of cake."

She believed that with her years of business experience, she was in a completely different league than Jiang Liu.

’He just got lucky and found a recipe somewhere.’

’If I had it, I could do it too!’

Li Xiaoyan said, "That’s true. Our restaurants might start operating at a loss in just a few more days. We can’t afford those operational costs."

"If only there were a better strategy than just getting the recipe."

Both of them were starting to panic.

This was their entire gamble; if they lost, they would have nothing left.

Yang Yixue suddenly remembered that back when her beauty salon’s business was struggling, Jiang Liu had designed a marketing plan for her. It was precisely that plan that had made her business more and more successful.

"Hah, he probably just stumbled into it by accident. He’s never run a business before, and his family is full of paupers. It’s impossible!"

Yang Yixue comforted herself.

「Back at Xiaotong’s Restaurant.」

Hu Yongfa saw the BMW leaving and sent Jiang Liu a message: "Master, I chased the two of them away!"

Jiang Liu: "Mm, don’t worry about them. If they come again, don’t let them in the kitchen. You should also make sure to rest and not get too tired."

He understood Yang Yixue. She was capable of anything for her own benefit, so it was best to be on guard.

...