New Gods of North America.

Chapter 596 Changes
Many plans often fail to keep up with changes.

Connor's trip to the West wasn't just about recruiting for the detective agency; more importantly, it was about delivering a message from Wayne to the mayor.
With the mayor's help, it wasn't difficult to arrange for some pigs, cattle, and wheat to be sent over via steam train. The slightly troublesome part was that these western goods could not directly enter the market for the time being and could only be "internally consumed" through the workshops first.

This is like having relatives or friends from your hometown send you a bunch of local specialties. If Wayne were only going to "eat them himself" or "give them to friends," then no matter how large the quantity, no one would care.

However, if those things are to be sold, it will involve things like paying taxes and business licenses. Moreover, Virginia has similar industries such as livestock breeding and wheat cultivation, and its sales channels have been stable for many years. If someone were to steal someone's livelihood, it would be like "killing one's parents," and they would likely face a combined attack from both the local political and business circles.

Some agricultural products in the west are now generally facing this situation:
If you choose to partner with merchants and wealthy individuals in the prosperous states of the East Coast to sell your goods elsewhere, you'll have to give up a significant percentage of your profits. Sales volume might increase directly, but the increase in revenue will be disproportionate; the lion's share will likely still go to them.
However, if they don't sell their products abroad, some towns in the west will already have excess production capacity. No matter how much the landlords and merchants enjoy eating meat in the west, it certainly won't be as satisfying as having real US dollars.

In recent years, due to the war in the Old World, American agricultural products have had no trouble finding a market, and this "export" situation has been relatively win-win for everyone.

However, as Wayne's message to Connor that "the Old World is about to cease hostilities" was secretly delivered, the mayor's pressure in this regard obviously increased sharply—once the Old World stopped importing large quantities of American agricultural products, the profits that Westerners could obtain from them would probably drop precipitously.

One of the reasons Wayne chose to establish workshops and restaurants in such a roundabout way was to bypass the existing stable market and avoid competing directly with local wealthy individuals and plantation owners. Instead, he aimed to carve out a new niche, similar to luncheon meat or hamburgers.
The reason is probably similar to that "steel mills mostly reject steel produced outside the local area from entering the local market, but they welcome downstream industries such as automobile factories to set up in the local area."

With the supply of goods initially secured, Wayne's current task is to address the workshop's "absorption capacity" issue.

Unlike buying "meat" directly in the market now, the livestock coming from the west were all "whole animals". Slaughtering them was easy, but the scraps left over after being cut up were also "money", so we had to find ways to make use of them.

Therefore, apart from focusing on the dock area, Wayne has been putting most of his energy into the workshop recently.

Two days later, Wayne was still working with the chef on how to use cheap pigskin and beef bones bought from the slaughterhouse to make gelatin and continue to improve and upgrade the regenerated cheese product line when the police sent people over to summon him again.

Americans really love cheese. It wasn't so obvious when the restaurant first opened, but once repeat customers started coming in, the effect became unstoppable.

The reconstituted cheese produced in the workshop actually has a different texture and flavor from the original cheese, but it is indeed cost-effective. Moreover, after being heated in restaurants, the reconstituted cheese with added edible coloring and thickening agents looks even more tempting, which is somewhat of a dark humor that "simulated fruits often look better than natural fruits".

If this momentum continues, the workshop won't need to produce anything else. Just by buying cheese and other raw materials from the market and "reprocessing" them, it seems like it could operate indefinitely just from the profits of this single product, recycled cheese...

One of the officers who came to summon them had apparently been to the restaurant.
Upon hearing that he could have lunch with Wayne, prepared by the chef himself, before returning home, his reaction was quite representative: "Please put double, no, triple the cheese in my burger. And double the ketchup with the fries too."

At the police station, the questioning process was similar to the last time, but this time, Wayne needed to post bail to leave.
This means the case has entered the "preparing to prosecute" stage. The next time Wayne receives a summons, it will likely be a court summons—in other words, someone has found evidence or witnesses pointing the finger at Wayne. Whoever can provide fabricated evidence is naturally the culprit in framing him, or at least an accomplice.

Lina, with her "softened" approach, worked at full capacity, questioning informants, posing as a reporter, and even spending the night in bars. By the next morning, while there was no concrete information yet, preliminary news had emerged:
"The police have found two witnesses who said they saw you near the scene of the incident. Their specific names are still under investigation, but their identities have been confirmed. One of them is a member of the 'Sailor Gang,' and the other is that guy's relative, I think he's a younger brother or a cousin, anyway, he's a young kid."

James Damotic had already hinted that the Sailors Gang was behind framing Wayne when he was trying to incite conflict with him.
It's not too surprising that the Sailors' Guild is now providing two additional witnesses; it just goes to show that their after-sales service is truly excellent.

But those guys are really something, actually letting a child give false testimony.

It's not that doing this will affect the child's future healthy development, but according to the American jury system, the probability of a child's testimony being accepted is actually very high.

The fact that they would resort to such a tactic shows that their malice is almost overflowing—and to be honest, this doesn't fit the image of a gangster; it's more like the work of a "civilized person."

Now that things are starting to escalate to a point of no return, the detective agency has no choice but to react.

Wayne had Doug call over a few new members. After hearing the whole story, one of them immediately raised his hand. "Boss, we're good at dealing with bad guys. Tell us what they look like and their address, and I guarantee they won't see the sun tomorrow."

You guys learn nicknames really fast...

The detective agency had already established this as a standard practice, so Wayne didn't complain. Instead, he patiently taught these true Americans what real "American-style crime-solving" meant:
“Gangsters aren’t wanted criminals, so you can’t treat them like bounty hunters or Western criminals. Besides, even if you want to silence someone, you should usually do it before the witness gives a statement or after the case has died down. Otherwise, if word gets out, it can easily provoke the jury’s disapproval, and it’s not advisable to do it unless absolutely necessary…”

At this point, Wayne spat, "No, that's not what I meant. Our detective agency is a law-abiding organization, and this whole thing is a complete fabrication. We don't do things like murder to cover it up. We've brought you here so you can do legal things."

The faces opposite them all looked puzzled. "A legal thing?"

“Yes.” Wayne nodded. “I need you to set up stalls near the docks to sell luncheon meat, and also to maintain order around the stalls. During this time, the detective agency will provide you with a guaranteed base salary, plus additional sales commissions. However, before that, you will need to undergo some basic sales training.”

(End of this chapter)