America's Greatest Villain: I Defeat Magic with Magic

The next day at noon, in the office of Mr. Huang, the owner of Rongdingge Restaurant.

As Boss Huang closed the door, even though she had prepared herself mentally, Su Nian was still a little uneasy.

The words Chen Yuan said to her last night were still vivid in her mind, but a sliver of hope remained deep in her heart.

Although Boss Huang is stingy, he usually seems kind. Surely he wouldn't just shift such a huge blame onto a lowly waitress just to shirk responsibility?

Boss Huang returned to his boss's chair and sat down, asking Su Nian with a friendly expression:

"Xiao Su, you've been working here for a while now. You don't have any complaints about the work the restaurant has assigned you, do you?"

Although Boss Huang spoke with the demeanor of a kind elder, Su Nian's heart sank the moment she heard those words.

Chen Yuan's warning from last night still echoed clearly in my ears: if you are called in for a talk by Boss Huang, never show any dissatisfaction with your work.

Every complaint she made was recorded on video and used as irrefutable evidence that she "deliberately poisoned the restaurant out of resentment."

Despite her heart pounding in her chest, Su Nian forced herself to remain calm and replied in a composed tone:

"No, I am very satisfied with my work at the restaurant, and I enjoy working with my colleagues very much."

Boss Huang frowned almost imperceptibly and asked again:

"What about your salary? The tuition at the university you're attending isn't cheap. Working odd jobs here probably won't be enough, right? Do you think I'm paying you too little?"

This remains a deadly trap.

Chen Yuan made it very clear that if she complained about the low wages, she would be framed for "poisoning food at the behest of her competitors for financial gain".

So she forced a smile and said:

"I'm quite satisfied with my salary. My family can easily afford the tuition. I'm working mainly to improve myself and earn some pocket money."

Boss Huang was completely shocked.

Su Nian usually seems a bit dull, but how come she's completely unyielding when it really matters?

Last night, Mr. Huang consulted a Chinese lawyer he knew. The lawyer said that the trouble he was facing was very serious!

Because the self-proclaimed lawyer representing the victim, Stephen Walker, is a notorious top litigator in Los Angeles circles.

He has handled countless extortion cases against merchants, and the vast majority of them ended with the plaintiff winning.

In the very few cases where an out-of-court settlement is reached, the defendant simply pays money to avoid further trouble.

Moreover, this time, Attorney Walker was clearly well-prepared. The obese man suffering from food poisoning had been lying in a private hospital ward, and various test results were extremely unfavorable to Rongding Pavilion.

Therefore, even if you spend all your money to fight a lawsuit against the other party, the final outcome is nothing more than the difference between paying three million and paying two million.

However, Mr. Huang was unwilling to accept this. He had struggled for over a decade in the lower rungs of American society, and the business he had painstakingly built was all his hard-earned money. Why should it be swallowed up by a white lawyer for no reason?

The only solution his lawyer suggested was to find a scapegoat who could take criminal responsibility. Prove it was a "poisoning incident of deliberate retaliation by employees," portraying Rongdingge Restaurant as a victim misled by its employees!

The perfect scapegoat was Su Nian, the international student in charge of the snack business who didn't have legal status.

Boss Huang's original plan was to use conversation to guide Su Nian to admit that she was extremely dissatisfied with her job or salary, thereby confirming her criminal motive of poisoning the food.

He originally thought that Su Nian had only been in America for a short time and was probably just a student who was focused on studying in China, with little social experience, so he could easily manipulate her.

Unexpectedly, Su Nian expressed great satisfaction with the job and salary, completely deviating from his script!

Now that things had come to this, Boss Huang was too lazy to beat around the bush with Su Nian anymore. His face suddenly darkened, and he revealed his true intentions:

"Xiao Su, you should know that a customer developed severe food poisoning symptoms yesterday after eating the fried chicken you sold."

Despite already knowing Boss Huang's sinister intentions, Su Nian still couldn't help but argue back upon hearing this shameless accusation:

"But the ingredients for that fried chicken were all supplied by the store, and my production process strictly followed the rules and regulations! Besides, so many customers bought fried chicken yesterday, it's impossible that he was the only one who got poisoned for no reason!"

However, Boss Huang slammed his hand on the table, his tone becoming very forceful:

"Now that it's happened, it's no longer important whether you were responsible. The key is that someone has to take responsibility for the consequences. How about this..."

As he spoke, Boss Huang took out a pre-printed agreement in English from his drawer and pushed it in front of Su Nian.

"You're an international student on an F1 visa, and working in our store is a serious violation. If the immigration authorities or your school find out about this, they'll definitely deport you immediately. Then, the hundreds of thousands of dollars your parents worked so hard to scrape together for tuition will be completely wasted."

Seeing that Su Nian kept her head down and didn't speak, Boss Huang thought his threat had worked, and changed to a more earnest tone:

"If the food poisoning incident blows up, the police and immigration authorities will definitely conduct a joint investigation. At that point, not only you, but Hu Dan will also be deported."

"As long as you sign this agreement, admitting that it was your mistake that you accidentally mixed a toxic substance other than the restaurant's ingredients into the food, I will use my connections to speak to the immigration authorities and have them only prosecute you for minor negligence and not hold you responsible for working illegally."

Boss Huang knew that Su Nian and Hu Dan had a good relationship, so he deliberately dragged Hu Dan into it. His purpose was to put more psychological pressure on Su Nian and force her to sign the "confession" that could ruin her life.

Of course he knew what Su Nian's signing of this agreement meant, but she was just a naive little girl who had never seen the world. He had seen plenty of these kinds of international students, and a few threats would be enough to make her behave.

Su Nian glanced at the English agreement and found that its contents were almost identical to what Chen Yuan had predicted last night!

What work error? This is practically a criminal confession admitting to "smuggling drugs and intentionally poisoning"!

Once she signs her name, she will spend the rest of her life in an American prison.

Thinking of this, Su Nian felt a chill and despair from the inside out. She finally saw through the true colors of this so-called "elder brother".

She stood up, pushed the agreement back in front of Boss Huang, and said coldly:

"Excuse me, boss. I suddenly have some personal matters to attend to, so I'll have to take my leave now."

After saying that, without waiting for Boss Huang's reaction, she turned around, opened the office door, and walked out quickly.

Inside the restaurant lobby, Hu Dan was pacing anxiously. Upon seeing Su Nian emerge, she immediately went up to her and asked with concern:

"So, what did Huang the Skinflint say?"

Su Nian's face was as pale as paper, and she remained silent.

With trembling hands, she pulled a tiny black voice recorder from her uniform pocket and solemnly handed it to Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan took the recorder and looked into the girl's stubborn eyes as she tried to hold back her tears, and he understood.

"Well done." He nodded, his tone still calm. "Don't worry, Boss Huang won't dare to do anything to you. Leave the rest to me."

Then he turned and walked toward Boss Huang's office.

Upon entering, one could see Boss Huang sitting in a chair, his face ashen and breathing heavily. He was clearly furious because his plan to coerce Su Nian had failed.

Seeing Chen Yuan walk straight in without knocking, he immediately vented his anger on the foreman, whom he had never liked:

What are you doing here?

Chen Yuan smiled slightly and closed the office door behind him.

At the same time, a new information panel popped up above Boss Huang's head:

[Target: Huang Fugui, 58 years old, owner of Rongdingge Chinese Restaurant in South Los Angeles]

[Recent criminal acts: In order to evade a surprise inspection by the health department, the perpetrators packed up a large quantity of near-expiry frozen goods used for making fried foods and hid them in a refrigerated truck early this morning, intending to take them away and bury them for destruction. They also instigated and threatened their employees to take the blame for them.]

Upon seeing the striking red characters, Chen Yuan couldn't help but chuckle softly.

"What are you laughing at?"

Boss Huang was even more furious. First, Su Nian disobeyed him, and now even a foreman dared to look at him with such a mocking gaze.

He risked being thoroughly investigated by the immigration authorities to give these illegal employees a job, so why can't these people stand up for him and take the blame when it matters most?

What a bunch of ingrates!

However, what Chen Yuan did next struck him like a thunderbolt.

"...As long as you sign this agreement, admitting it was your mistake that you accidentally mixed a toxic substance, other than the restaurant's ingredients, into the food, I'll use my connections to put in a good word for you with the immigration authorities..."

Listening to the sound coming from the recorder, Boss Huang's expression was priceless.

He pointed at Chen Yuan, opened his mouth, but like a duck with its neck being choked, he couldn't squeeze out a single word for a long time.

Instead, Chen Yuan pulled up a chair opposite the desk, sat down leisurely, and smiled:

"Boss, you don't want Attorney Walker to find out about threatening your employee to give false testimony and taking the blame, or about using near-expiry ingredients, do you?"