Chapter 1608: Birds of a Feather, Secretly Joining Forces

Flying Speed Chinese.

Whether it is a chef or a restaurant.

If one wants to become world-famous, making snacks is not the best choice.

Although the noodles and wontons at Chenxin Snack taste very good, in the eyes of Huo Zhenteng, it is still a low-class affair.

He did not look up to what Zichen was doing, but that did not affect his determination to trample him underfoot.

To deal with Sheng Zichen, he could not take action personally.

……

Construction site.

The pot-bellied foreman held a teacup in one hand and waved a cattail-leaf fan vigorously with the other, while cursing foully: "Hurry up, what are you dawdling for? Trying to slack off right under my nose? Lazy as a pig."

"If you don't want to work, get lost! There are plenty of people waiting to work! I, your father, am not short of people..."

His cursing was very nasty.

The work on the construction site was also very hard, but everyone was struggling to hold on, and not a single person dared to quit!

The reason was simple; the foreman was right about one thing—there was no shortage of people to work here.

Xiao Huang was moving bricks on the construction site, drenched in sweat in the middle of the day, his back even blistered from the sun.

He gritted his teeth and worked desperately; he had endured hardships he had never experienced in his life, and now he was eating them all.

He used to think that being a chef was the hardest job, but now he realized there is no "hardest," only "harder"!

Even so, the foreman was always displeased with him, complaining that he worked too slowly.

"If you don't want to work, get lost! Just eating and not working, someone like you isn't worth three hundred yuan a day."

Hearing this made his teeth itch with hatred, but he could only pretend not to hear and keep a smiling face.

There was no other way; who told him to be in debt?

He regretted being impulsive; his intestines were green with regret. In a fit of rage, he had smashed Sheng Zichen's shop, paid him a lot of money, and was even detained.

By the time he came out of the police station, his reputation had already spread in that area, and naturally, he could no longer run a restaurant!

He had invested all his assets into opening the shop, and now that the shop couldn't open, his savings were gone, and he was bankrupt.

He was anxious and angry, ended up hospitalized, spent a lot of money, owed a lot of debt, and now could only move bricks to pay it back.

He couldn't be a chef anymore, but he still had to live.

He sweated like rain, laboriously pushing cart after cart of bricks, sweating like rain.

Xiao Huang did not notice that someone was standing not far away, watching him for a long time, observing him the whole time.

Noon break.

Time to eat.

One bowl of rice and one bowl of soup; there wasn't even a drop of oil in the cabbage and tofu soup, though one could eat as much rice as one wanted.

For a chef, this kind of food was something they wouldn't even bother to look at usually.

But Xiao Huang was wolfing it down now; for someone starving, anything is a delicacy!

At this moment, someone handed him a chicken leg.

"Thank you."

He took it and bit into it twice before realizing—who would give him a chicken leg?

He looked up and saw it was Huo Zhenteng.

He had seen Huo Zhenteng before; at that time, he was high and mighty, with assistants and bodyguards by his side, and many people fawning over him.

Xiao Huang also knew a little about him going to Prison later; it seemed to be related to Sheng Zichen.

But he had never thought that this person would have anything to do with him, let alone that the two of them would meet in such a place.

"Chairman Huo, why is it you?"

Huo Zhenteng was very approachable and said with a smile: "You eat first. Once you're full, I'll talk to you."

He looked at the foreman unconsciously.

The foreman was nodding and bowing to Huo Zhenteng with a fawning smile on his face, so he felt relieved.

He agreed: "Okay." He wolfed down the food, and in a few bites, he finished the chicken leg and the rice, not even leaving a drop of soup!

Huo Zhenteng asked him: "This work is so hard, why are you moving bricks at a construction site?"

In fact, he was asking something he already knew.

He had investigated Xiao Huang's background thoroughly before coming, and asking this was just to make him say the reason himself!

Hatred and love are much the same; the more you talk about them, the deeper the impression becomes.

Xiao Huang indeed gritted his back teeth in hatred and said: "I have to live. I was ruined by Sheng Zichen and can't work as a chef anymore. No one in the entire culinary industry wants me. If I want to make more money, I can only move bricks."

"Do you still want to be a chef?"

"Of course."

Xiao Huang's eyes lit up: "Chairman Huo, are you going to help me?"

"Yes, how about we cooperate?"

"How should we cooperate?"

Huo Zhenteng said: "I'll open a restaurant, and you will be my General Manager. I provide the capital and the ideas, you provide the face, and we work together to completely suppress Sheng Zichen."

There was such a good thing?

Every word Huo Zhenteng said hit his heart.

Letting him be a General Manager was a higher rank than an Executive Chef, and he would surely earn more.

While making money, he could also get revenge; it was simply too perfect. He had no reason to disagree.

He was a Second Chef at Sheng Zichen's place, but here with Huo Zhenteng, he was a General Manager; they were simply not on the same level. Since Huo Zhenteng called it "cooperation" and didn't even need him to put up money, he was certainly going to do it.

"Fine, I agree."

But he still had his own little agenda, and asked cautiously: "I still need to take medicine, and I have a whole family to support. I just don't know how my salary should be calculated? I can't live without earning money right now, and my whole family depends on me."

Huo Zhenting was an old fox; how could he not see through that little agenda of his?

He smiled slightly and said: "Although your title is General Manager, we also have to start small and gradually grow bigger."

"You should have heard a little about my situation. I am in a difficult spot right now, so let's tentatively set the monthly salary at ten thousand yuan, with bonuses calculated separately—ten percent of the profits. How do you feel about that?"

A monthly salary of ten thousand for a General Manager?

It was indeed a bit low.

It was only one thousand yuan more than moving bricks at a construction site.

But the position was different, the social status was different, and if one only counted physical labor, it was much easier.

A ten percent profit share was also not much, and he was not very satisfied.

Xiao Huang was not a very calculating person; if he was dissatisfied in his heart, it would show on his face.

Although he didn't say anything, Huo Zhenteng was an old fox, and he saw Xiao Huang's inner thoughts clearly.

He said: "Young people should set their sights further. Although the monthly salary and bonus I offered don't look like much, the prospects are vast. You can't move bricks or be a cook for your whole life, can you?"

His tone was somewhat sharp, and his dissatisfaction was ready to burst forth.

He despised Xiao Huang for being too greedy, wishing to become a fat man in one bite, wanting to rake in benefits before doing any work at all.

As soon as Xiao Huang saw that Huo Zhenteng was unhappy, he immediately explained: "Chairman Huo, that's not what I meant. You misunderstood me. You think highly of me, so how could I bargain with you? Fine, let's do it as you said."

Seeing that he had agreed, Huo Zhenteng handed over a contract: "Take a look, if you have no objections, sign it."

Two people, each harboring their own ulterior motives, were mutually wary even while cooperating.

Xiao Huang read it carefully three times before signing his name on it!

"Happy to cooperate!"

"Happy to cooperate!"

The two men's hands gripped together; at least at this moment, they were happy!