America's Greatest Villain: I Defeat Magic with Magic

The next morning, Chen Yuan went to a tobacco, alcohol and lottery shop called "Street Corner Tony" next to the restaurant.

This store's main business is selling various scratch-off lottery tickets, and it also sells some cheap alcoholic beverages and snacks.

Its main customer base consists of local residents, blue-collar workers finishing their night shifts, heavy smokers, and gamblers who occasionally pass by and want to try their luck at buying lottery tickets.

Because Rongding Pavilion's snack window is located not far from Tony's shop on the street corner, the long queues of diners inevitably block most of the lottery shop's entrance every evening.

Therefore, it is understandable that the boss, Tony, harbored resentment towards Rongding Pavilion.

Since it was still early, when Chen Yuan pushed open the door and entered, only the boss, Tony, was lounging on the counter, dozing off, looking bored.

Hearing the noise at the door, Tony, who had been dozing off, immediately woke up and sat up straight.

But when he realized that the person who came was the new owner of the Chinese restaurant next door, a hint of wariness and embarrassment flashed in his eyes.

After all, he had just signed a joint complaint letter against Rongdingge the day before yesterday, so he naturally felt guilty when the aggrieved party came to his door.

However, Chen Yuan showed no sign of accusation; instead, he greeted him with a familiar smile.

"Hey Tony! How's business lately?"

Tony's face darkened. The last time he saw Chen Yuan, the man was just a waiter at Rongding Pavilion.

But inexplicably, Chen Yuan has now become the owner of this wildly popular restaurant.

This upward social mobility made him feel very unbalanced.

So he couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark:

"The line of customers in your shop is practically blocking my door; how can I possibly have any business?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a red information panel popped up on Tony's forehead:

[Target: Tony Avakian, 48 years old, owner of Tony's Liquor Store on the corner]

[Recent criminal activity: Last night, the target illegally sold strong beer and nicotine-containing e-cigarettes to two students who were clearly underage, without verifying their identification.]

Looking at this message, Chen Yuan smiled slightly.

In the United States, selling tobacco and alcohol to minors is an absolute red line.

If caught in the act or reported, the consequences will not only include hefty fines, but also the revocation of the business license and even imprisonment!

But instead of immediately using his weakness to control the other party, he simply said casually:

"I have upgraded the equipment and increased staff, so there will never be long queues again."

"But my shop is so close to yours. If there are seven or eight people in line, it will affect my customer flow."

Tony clearly wasn't going to take the compliment easily and continued to complain impatiently.

Seeing this, Chen Yuan stepped forward and suddenly lowered his voice:

"Tony, did you know? Those leftist groups waving the environmental banner the other day weren't just targeting my restaurant. I heard they're preparing a new proposal to the health department and city hall to elaborate on their 'protecting the health of low-income groups in the community' argument."

Tony was taken aback by what he heard, and his expression immediately turned rather grim.

With a mysterious expression, Chen Yuan continued in a low voice:

"They demanded strict regulation of all the shops on the street, especially strict investigation of inducements to consume to minors and the sale of harmful items. Luckily, I was only selling fried chicken and grilled squid to those little brats, which is not illegal, at most I just got a few words of criticism."

As he spoke, Chen Yuan's gaze casually swept over the various cigarettes and spirits on the shelf behind Tony, and he asked with utmost sincerity:

"But I personally saw several high school students in school uniforms walking out of your store with e-cigarettes and beers in their hands. With things getting so tense lately, you'd better be very careful."

Despite Chen Yuan's concerned expression, as if he had only said so much to kindly remind Tony, Tony was instantly terrified!

He couldn't help but scream with regret: If he had known that those liberal college students would attract the authorities' strict investigation into minors' spending, he would rather starve to death than sign that damned "Joint Complaint Letter"! If this guy surnamed Chen had reported him, his entire life would be ruined!

Seeing Tony's pale face, Chen Yuan knew the time was right, so he changed the subject:

"Actually, I came here today to discuss a win-win cooperation with you."

"Cooperation?" Tony swallowed, looking puzzled.

"That's right!" Chen Yuan snapped his fingers. "You know, it gets pretty boring for customers to stand in line outside my shop for so long, so I'm going to give them something to do. For example, they can get a 5% discount on any snacks at my shop if they show a scratch-off lottery ticket they bought that day."

Upon hearing this, Tony's eyes flashed with a sharp light!

He knew very well how long the queues were every day in front of Rongding Pavilion.

If even just one-tenth of the hundreds of people queuing up every day buy a scratch-off lottery ticket from his store because of the discount, it will add up to a considerable profit!

With this steady stream of legitimate income, why would he need to risk going to jail to make a few dirty bucks off underage high school students?

He nodded repeatedly without hesitation, his face beaming with smiles:

"That's a fantastic idea! Don't worry, Boss Chen, as long as customers bring lottery tickets to you for a discount, I'll give you a commission on every profit from those sales!"

As a street-smart businessman, Tony completely disregarded any talk of joint complaints or community justice when faced with the pursuit of livelihood and exorbitant profits.

[Ding! It has been detected that the host has used coercion and inducement to force neighboring shops to cooperate with him. Villain points rewarded: 10 points]

That noon, a striking poster was displayed on the glass window of the "Street Corner Tony" liquor store:

"Exclusive Community Benefit for Tony & Rongdingge on Street Corner: Purchase any scratch card and enjoy a 95% discount on all snacks at Rongdingge!"

Not long after, Jamal, a thug who was in line, saw the poster in front of Tony's store on the street corner and bought a scratch-off lottery ticket on a whim.

He still didn't win after scratching off the coating, and cursed under his breath, thinking that buying lottery tickets was no better than buying free ones.

However, instead of casually discarding the lottery ticket as before, he carefully put it in his pocket.

Although the snacks at Rongding Pavilion are not expensive, you still have to spend money to buy them, so it's good to save some money.

After waiting in line for more than ten minutes, when Jamal finally arrived at the food window, he was disappointed to find that the most popular "Giant Squid on a Hot Plate" was marked as sold out.

"Fuck! Why isn't there grilled squid? I stood in line for so long just to eat this!"

Before Hu Dan, who was helping at the window, could explain, Chen Yuan, who had been standing behind her, stepped forward without making a sound.

Jamal immediately shut his mouth, after all, the gang leaders had repeatedly emphasized that they must not offend the owner of this store.

However, Chen Yuan wasn't angry. He just pointed somewhat helplessly to the light food restaurant across the street and whispered to Jamal:

"Brother, it's not that we don't want to sell, it's just that someone's eyeing our squid!"

"The light meal restaurant across the street that sells organic vegetables has been filing a lot of complaints with the health bureau these past few days. They say that the grilled squid we sell is high in salt and oil, pollutes the environment, and is junk food specifically designed to poison you guys in the South District."

Chen Yuan sighed and shook his head:

"Health officials come to inspect every day, so we have no choice but to suspend the sale of grilled squid indefinitely."

Upon hearing this, Jamal's already irritable mood, which was already fueled by not getting any squid, was instantly ignited!

"Fuck! Who do these grass-eating white pigs think they are? What I eat is none of their business!"

It turns out that the reason I couldn't eat the grilled squid I'd been craving was because of those hypocritical bad guys secretly causing trouble!

Jamal's eyes immediately blazed with fury!