Chapter 22: Independent Personality is Worth Four Hundred Dollars

Anderson was smoking in the chair in the back alley. He liked this leisure after being busy, although it was only a short one.

The business in New Jincheng has actually not been so easy to do these two years. Everyone in the Federation and even the world knows that New Jincheng is creating an economic myth. Countless "adventurers" and "gold diggers" have come here from all over the world.

The most common ones are those illegal immigrants.

At this time, the Federation has 36 states and hundreds of cities. It just so happens that most of these people who smuggled into the Federation came to New Jincheng, which actually already explains the actual situation here.

If there were no banknotes emitting a strong smell of printing ink attracting them, how could they cross the ocean to come here?

Are they really just here to add bricks and tiles to the Federation's construction?

No, they are all here to find the miracles that belong to them.

A large number of various people poured into here, making the commercial competitiveness of New Jincheng very large. Competition became fierce, profits became lower and lower, and they had to face other problems.

Last year, the restaurant had a small problem. First, his partner broke up with him, and he gave all the money he had left to the other party in exchange for 100% equity in the restaurant.

Secondly, his wife had an accident and was injured.

The insurance company refused to pay her any expenses, the reason being that she didn't actively explain that her blood pressure was slightly high when buying insurance.

At the same time, they couldn't produce proof that high blood pressure was contracted after buying insurance.

So they had reason to believe that her injury this time had a direct relationship with high blood pressure, and she concealed her medical history, leading to such a result, so they refused to pay and even fought a lawsuit for this.

Undoubtedly, they lost the lawsuit.

This is also the most infuriating thing!

According to the insurance policy, the insurance company only needed to pay him about 8,000 dollars in insurance fees, but they would rather take out more than 10,000 dollars to fight a lawsuit with him than fulfill the contract and give them money.

In the end, he not only didn't get compensation but also had to pay for the treatment expenses himself and paid a lawsuit fee.

At that time, he didn't have any money left in his hand.

He went to the bank for a loan. Because he had just fought a lawsuit with the insurance company, the bank used his loan application risk abnormality as a reason and needed to go through a strict review process, which would take at least a month or so to get the loan.

He didn't have any money in his hand at that time. He had to get money as soon as possible to maintain the restaurant, as well as some family expenses, so he finally gave up the idea of a bank loan.

Then, introduced by friends, he found several finance companies. Those greedy hyenas hoped to swallow his assets and vainly hoped to get his restaurant shares with a few thousand dollars.

Finally, he found Lezhu Company. Although the interest was slightly higher, the other party didn't ask him to mortgage anything at all, nor did they covet his restaurant.

After a year of operation, the situation of the restaurant finally improved, especially the marketing opinions recently put forward by the manager he newly recruited, keeping the restaurant in a hot state.

He took out 400 dollars in the morning to buy an advertising space in "Today's New Jincheng" and planned to rent the storefront next to the restaurant to expand operations.

Although there have always been phone calls to him, hoping that he could fulfill the contract and pay the principal and the interest that had stopped being calculated, he never agreed.

The expansion of the restaurant needs money, marketing needs money, and he also plans to rely on this restaurant to live a luxurious life in the second half of his life. At this critical moment, how could he satisfy that bastard Alberto who is full of money?

He just borrowed 2,000 dollars, and actually wanted him to pay back 5,000 dollars. He had never seen such high interest. He refused to pay back the money and didn't mind fighting a lawsuit with the other party.

One is a restaurant owner who is upwardly mobile and changes his situation through hard work, and the other is a social residue hiding in the sewer relying on gray business to make money. His lawyer told him that there was no problem at all in ignoring the Lezhu Finance Company.

If they fight a lawsuit, the money the finance company spends on fighting the lawsuit far exceeds the part of the cost that can be recovered, and it's not necessarily going to win.

If they don't fight a lawsuit, if they dare to mess around, they can directly sue them and make them pay.

So just dragging it out is fine.

With the lawyer's guarantee that there was no problem with this matter, Anderson naturally wouldn't be willing to pay the 5,000 dollars he earned through hard work to Alberto.

I borrowed the money based on my ability, why should I pay it back?

The vast majority of people who owe money and don't pay it back have this mentality.

Just when he was considering how to talk about the house next door these two days, suddenly the manager ran over. "Mr. Anderson, there was a small accident in the restaurant."

Anderson turned his head to look at him. "Did someone's boots catch fire?"

He was indicating that the manager was a bit hurried, but the manager knew that now was not the time to chat with Mr. Anderson about elegance.

"A guest found a cockroach in the soup, and what's more troublesome is that he also bit the cockroach into two pieces, and then spat it everywhere..."

Mr. Anderson was stunned for a moment, hurriedly stood up, threw the cigarette on the ground, and walked toward the restaurant.

When he arrived at the restaurant, his blood pressure suddenly rose a lot. The sour smell of vomit permeating the air made most people stop dining.

People were discussing around that table. On the table, there was a snow-white napkin, and two half-cockroaches were placed on the napkin.

From their situation, it should be possible to piece them together into one cockroach.

Anderson has been in the restaurant business all his life. When he was young, he was an apprentice, then a cook, and finally a head chef at a well-known restaurant.

Until a few years ago, he saved some money and planned to be the head chef while also being the boss, and then he had this restaurant.

He regarded this restaurant as more important than his own life!

He had encountered many things related to restaurants when he was young, and he knew how to handle this situation.

While letting the staff clean up the sour vomit on the ground, he walked toward Lansi. Just as he was about to use a napkin to wrap the cockroach, Lansi blocked him and the cockroach. "You want to destroy the evidence?"

The scrutinizing gazes around made Anderson's scalp numb. "I just want to solve the problem. If you don't mind, we can go to my office to talk. I believe we can talk it over."

His implication that "I can give money to solve it" was almost seen by everyone, and Lansi also saw it.

So his voice became much higher. "Do you think I want to blackmail you?"

"My friend and I came to your restaurant to dine, and now we found a cockroach, but you think we are here to blackmail?"

"If you really want to talk to us about this, you should talk to us here in front of everyone. After all, we are not the only victims; perhaps there are other victims here, but they don't know it themselves."

Lansi's words changed Anderson's expression, and the expressions of other guests watching the fun also became unnatural.

If a cockroach crawled into someone else's thick soup, does it mean that the tableware they used, the food they ate or didn't eat, might also have been crawled over by cockroaches?

Immediately, someone dissatisfied requested to call the police and let the Health Bureau check it.

If a restaurant is rumored to have food hygiene problems, this is definitely a huge blow!

And he just bought an advertisement!

Although it seemed inevitable that it would spread, Anderson still didn't want the matter to be too big.

He glanced at the two cockroach pieces and hated the two young people responsible for hygiene in the kitchen into a hole in his heart.

He whispered two words in the manager's ear. The manager walked to the place where the crowd was watching and separated their sight. "I'm very sorry for the bad influence that today's accident has brought to everyone. Just now Mr. Anderson told me that everyone's lunch today will be free..."

And Mr. Anderson, at this time, also noticed Aierwen's dress.

He didn't look like someone who could come to such a high-end restaurant to dine, so Mr. Anderson was even more certain of his guess: these two people were here to cause trouble.

With such thoughts, he also had doubts about whether the cockroach came from his kitchen.

However, he also knew that this was not the time to discuss whether these two people were blackmailing, he must first solve the hygiene crisis and trust crisis in front of him.

He lowered his voice slightly, didn't try to touch the cockroach again. "100 dollars, I apologize to you, and this matter ends here."

"I know who you are, and I know what you want to do. 100 dollars is not a small amount. Don't force me..."

Aierwen, while vomiting, said, "100 dollars can't buy my personality!"

Lansi just looked at him, without any intention of compromising. Mr. Anderson took a deep breath. "200, this is the last price I can offer..."

"500."

"This is extortion, blackmail. Aren't you afraid I'll call the police?"

Lansi raised his hand and pressed it on Aierwen's back. "You scared me. I don't want a penny now..."

Aierwen made a louder vomiting sound again.

Mr. Anderson pursed his lips, cursing Lansi in his heart, but finally made a concession. "400 dollars."

"Deal!"

Lansi stepped aside, Mr. Anderson grabbed the cockroach corpse wrapped in the napkin, and stuffed it directly into his pocket.

The manager had already handled it almost the same. When Mr. Anderson and Lansi were talking about compensation, he used "These two people are here to blackmail, they did it very excessively, beyond our imagination, so the restaurant will apologize to you for what happened today, and all the expenses will be free."

"And, next time you come, you can use this card to get a bottle of 10-dollar table wine from us." He gave everyone a card with his own signature, indicating the use of this card.

The table wine he gave away was marked at 9 dollars and 99 cents on the menu, but its actual cost was less than 5 dollars.

On the surface, giving away a bottle of wine would lose 10 dollars, but these people who came for this 10-dollar red wine definitely wouldn't just order food worth 3 or 5 dollars.

As long as the price of their order exceeds 20 dollars, plus the wine sent, it can't be said that it doesn't make money at all, it can only be said that it doesn't make much money.

The manager handled this matter very smoothly. Most people accepted his statement, but some people maintained a questioning attitude at all times.

When they saw the guest who ate the cockroach leave with Mr. Anderson, they realized that this matter was over.

But it actually didn't end completely... ===== CHAPTER 23 =====