America's Greatest Villain: I Defeat Magic with Magic

"Here's your grilled squid and typhoon shelter-style fried chicken leg, please take them!"

At the snack window of Rongdingge Restaurant, Su Nian was handing out fried snacks to diners as usual.

The only difference is that a high-definition wide-angle camera has been installed in the corner of the ceiling near the window.

Although working under the camera can be uncomfortable, Su Nian is, after all, a USC "undergraduate observer," so she can't just be a cashier like before; she still has to maintain the proper academic record-keeping demeanor.

Furthermore, Chen Yuan promised that only Su Nian herself could view the videos captured by the camera.

The camera's shooting angle has also been carefully adjusted. The footage only captures Su Nian's busy upper body and the dining table, completely avoiding diners outside the window, so there's no need to worry about any privacy issues for the customers.

At this time, there was a long queue outside the window, and the customers were still mainly ethnic minorities such as Chinese, blacks and Hispanics from the South District.

After all, these fried snacks have a strong flavor. It's fine for some white people to try them occasionally, but it would be a bit much for them to eat them often.

However, for diners with a larger budget, dining in at a restaurant is also a good option.

Many of Lao Cao's dishes have been modified to suit the tastes of local diners, while also retaining the traditional characteristics of Chinese cuisine.

As a result of the food stalls at the entrance, the turnover rate of dine-in customers is getting higher and higher. In the past two days, there have been many diners at two or three o'clock in the afternoon and after seven or eight o'clock in the evening.

Old Cao and Old Ma in the kitchen also started working non-stop. Although more customers meant higher performance-based pay, the intense work over several days still left them exhausted.

So these past two days, Chen Yuan hasn't done anything else but recruit new employees.

Standing before him was a middle-aged Chinese man in his forties named Zhou Xingye.

Zhou Xingye is about the same age as Lao Cao, but he looks much more weathered.

The reason is simple: he is a new immigrant who arrived in the United States in the last two years and has been unable to resolve his legal status, so he can only work illegally.

"You worked as a chef in the country for over ten years?"

In response to Chen Yuan's question, Zhou Xingye nodded: "I have a senior chef's certificate... but the restaurants here don't recognize it."

Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow and asked without any politeness:

"If that's the case, why don't you stay in China and be a chef? As far as I know, good chefs can always find a suitable job, right? Did you come here because you have a mountain of debt back in China?"

Faced with Chen Yuan's direct questioning, Zhou Xingye's face flushed red. As humiliation and anger welled up within him, an information panel simultaneously appeared above his head:

[Target: Zhou Xingye, 42 years old, an illegal overstaying worker.]

[Recent criminal acts: After being scammed in an investment, he broke into the kitchen of the "Juxianlou" seafood restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley a week ago and maliciously damaged the power supply to the cold storage, causing high-end ingredients worth tens of thousands of US dollars to rot and spoil.]

Then, the middle-aged man sighed and, barely suppressing his frustration, explained:

"I do owe a lot of money, but it was because I listened to a friend from my hometown and came to America to invest in a restaurant. I ended up being swindled out of everything. I'm too ashamed to go back to China and face my family, so I have no choice but to stay here and find something to do."

Chen Yuan had heard Huang Fugui mention the restaurant "Juxianlou" before, saying that their boss often used the guise of cooperative operation to lure investors from China to America.

It seems that Lao Ma was also scammed by this restaurant. He worked illegally there for several months, but not only did he not get paid, he almost got reported by the boss and sent to the immigration office.

The reason why these "pig butchering scams" targeting fellow countrymen are so common is that many people in China have too much of a "filter" for America, thinking that it is a land of opportunity where money can be made easily.

Little did they know, how could outsiders possibly get a share of the truly profitable business?

Based on the system information panel's prompts, Chen Yuan guessed that Zhou Xingye was probably not lying. Moreover, after being deceived, he still dared to secretly sabotage the air conditioning power supply at Juxianzhuang, showing he still retained some backbone.

So Chen Yuan put the other person's resume in the drawer, his tone returning to calm:

"Since you have a chef's license, you can work in the kitchen for a while. I'll pay you $10 per hour during your probation period. If you successfully become a full-time employee within a month, you'll be paid the California minimum wage."

Undocumented workers like Zhou Xingye typically earn only seven or eight dollars an hour in Los Angeles. Chen Yuan's offer of a starting price of $10 is already quite generous. Moreover, after becoming a full-time employee, they can receive $18 in pure cash, which is definitely considered a high salary in the undocumented worker community.

Chen Yuan's willingness to offer this price wasn't due to a sudden act of kindness. Rather, while Rongding Pavilion was currently extremely popular, the overall consumption level in the Southern District wasn't top-tier, so increasing production efficiency and focusing on high-volume, low-margin sales was key.

Having already experienced the harsh realities of American life over the past two years, Zhou Xingye was well aware that the conditions Chen Yuan offered, though seemingly ordinary, were actually quite generous within the Chinese community. He immediately expressed his gratitude profusely.

After having Lao Ma take Zhou Xingye to familiarize himself with the kitchen, Chen Yuan welcomed his second applicant.

It turns out he's the third brother!

However, judging from the other person's fair skin and sculpted features, he is clearly a descendant of a high-caste Aryan, and his family should be quite wealthy.

Upon closer inspection of the resume, it turned out that the person was an international student currently enrolled at USC.

Chen Yuan was somewhat speechless. Although Rongding Pavilion had become a "temporary pilot project for off-campus community observation and service learning" at USC, he did not publicize it extensively on campus in order to avoid attracting attention.

After all, it's easy for an obscure little restaurant in the South Campus to get official cooperation qualifications from USC, which could easily attract unnecessary controversy.

He understands the principle that a tall tree catches the wind better than anyone else.

Unexpectedly, some well-informed USC international students followed the trail and came to Rongding Pavilion to apply for jobs.

As soon as the Indian student named Sanjay sat down, he began reciting academic terms on “community equality” and “food ethics” in fluent English with a heavy curry accent, which he seemed to have read from a book.

Clearly, this Indian student was just trying to get credits at Rongding Pavilion.

This shows that international students are not stupid; they know very well that working at Rongding Pavilion, which is certified by the school, not only allows them to get paid legitimately but also earn academic credits—a win-win situation.

He even shamelessly stated that he hoped Rongding Pavilion could introduce more Southeast Asian-style snacks to improve the monotonous dietary environment for ethnic minorities in the southern district.

His condescending attitude made it seem as if his willingness to come to this small, smoky restaurant was a great favor to Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan listened quietly to his boasting for three minutes, but when he heard the other person think that more Indian waiters were needed to enhance "diversity," he finally couldn't help but interrupt his long-winded speech:

"Mr. Sanjay, you wrote on your resume that you are extremely concerned about poverty and hunger in the South District."

Chen Yuan leaned back in his chair, his gaze unabashedly sweeping over the other person's slightly ill-fitting trendy hoodie:

"But to me, your outfit makes you look more like a selfish person trying to cheat their way into college credits. Are you sure your hands, which have never done manual labor, can handle the greasy plates in my restaurant?"

This merciless questioning instantly ignited Sanjay's sensitive pride. He felt that his noble status as a business school student had been severely insulted by this Asian peer who owned a fast-food restaurant, and a surge of anger and hostility welled up deep in his eyes.

At the same time, a red information panel appeared above the Indian brother's head.

Chen Yuan laughed as soon as he saw it.