I've been possessed by a culinary genius, and I've turned Shaxian snacks into a rip-off!

The waiters served Lin Qingyuan and her group set meals from the Suwei restaurant, and then brought them two more servings of Su Hongchen.

Zheng Keming's nose twitched when he saw the braised pork in front of him.

"Qingyuan, is this the vegetarian braised pork you mentioned? It does look quite good; the color is even more appealing than many restaurants that actually serve proper braised pork."

Lin Qingyuan: "President Zheng, please try it, you'll be pleasantly surprised."

"Since you've said that, I'd like to see just how surprising it is."

Zheng Keming picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of vegetarian braised pork and put it in his mouth. After chewing it a couple of times, his eyes lit up in disbelief.

"This tastes...is it really vegetarian?"

"Yes, it's a very special signature dish at my friend's restaurant," Lin Qingyuan said.

Since this dish can only be ordered when Li Zhibai appears, it's not wrong to call it special.

Zheng Keming picked up another piece and put it in his mouth, closing his eyes to savor it carefully.

"It truly lives up to its reputation as a Black Pearl restaurant. The texture, the chewiness, the richness... If you hadn't told me beforehand, I would have thought it was made of pork belly. This is even better than the braised pork at that private kitchen we had at our last get-together."

"Why didn't you share such a good thing with me before?" he couldn't help but complain.

Lin Qingyuan lied: "This dish is a recent addition to our menu, and I haven't had a chance to tell you about it yet."

Zheng Keming nodded: "Qingyuan, from now on, all the company's senior management dinners will be held at your friend's place. Have your secretary file the private room information and arrange it at least once a month."

Lin Qingyuan: "Okay, Mr. Zheng."

When it came time to pay the bill, Zheng Keming offered to pay. Lin Qingyuan tried to argue, but couldn't, so she had to let him pay.

After seeing Zheng Keming off, Lin Qingyuan stood alone at the restaurant entrance, enjoying the breeze for a while.

The food was delicious today, especially the vegetarian dish she had been looking forward to for so long; it was still amazing.

But she ate absentmindedly.

My mind keeps replaying those young faces who haven't been working there for long.

"Lin Qingyuan, Lin Qingyuan, how many orphanages did you blow up in your past life to end up with a boss like this in this life?"

However, since Zheng Keming said that future high-level dinners would be held at Su Su's place, a bold idea popped into her head.

............

Four o'clock in the afternoon.

Li Zhibai returned to the Shaxian store and finally began to recover from the grief of losing his money.

After finishing my work at noon today, I checked the accounts for September with Su Su, and found that several hundred thousand yuan had been spent. Then I went to the tax bureau to pay the taxes I hadn't yet paid for the previous quarter, which cost me another several hundred thousand yuan.

Then his small shop has been upgraded to a general taxpayer, and he will have to file taxes on time every month from now on, and there is no way to avoid it.

After all this trouble, his cash of over 4.9 million yuan shrank significantly, leaving him with only over 3.7 million yuan, including outstanding payments for goods from October.

That's a loss of over a million!

More than a million!

How many innocent people would we have to kill to make up for this million-plus?

In addition, there is another sum of money that needs to be arranged as soon as possible, which is donations.

Based on the operating profit in September, this would be another expense of several hundred thousand, and the tax revenue from donating this money wouldn't even cover a single penny.

Because his donation wasn't given to any charity, but directly to an individual.

The advantage of doing this is that the money will reach the recipient 100% of the time, without being taken advantage of by middlemen... no, it won't be deducted.

The downside is that without a donation receipt issued by a charitable organization, it cannot be deducted before tax, making it a pure expense.

As for the donation, he's a bit lost right now. He was somewhat hasty when he agreed to donate to Grandpa Huo.

If he had to personally go and verify the situation of each student he was sponsoring, it would be a huge waste of his time, and he wouldn't be able to do his business properly.

It seems he needs to find a reliable person to help him with this.

Li Zhibai thought for a long time, sifting through the people around him again and again, but he couldn't find a suitable one.

Everyone he knew had their own careers or studies; it was impossible for them to do this full-time.

"Never mind, let's take our time looking."

Li Zhibo tossed his phone onto the table, leaned back in his chair, and started moaning.

This emotional state lasted for almost half an hour before I finally readjusted my mindset.

"Money can be earned back, but you must never lose your composure."

"I must stay motivated and earn back 500 million!!!"

After giving himself a pep talk, Li Zhibai opened the system panel and glanced at the task progress.

[Cumulative sales of the Ink Glaze Dawn Egg: 72 out of 100.]

28 more are needed.

We must sell these eggs as soon as possible, otherwise we won't get the system reward.

The first consumerist that Li Zhibai thought of was Yang Chongwu.

This guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes has successfully raised funds; he should have some money by now, right?

It's time to come back and repay the debt of gratitude.

After being laid off by Xinglan, Yang Chongwu used his severance pay to start his own business, making enterprise software. At his worst, he could only order the regular version when he came to the restaurant, and his financial level dropped directly from purple to green.

Yang Chongwu's company eventually secured funding.

Li Zhibai wasn't sure exactly how much money had been raised, but judging from the guy's recent posts on WeChat Moments—including expanding recruitment and office space—he must have secured a substantial sum.

This also shows that the pigs raised are too fat and it's time to slaughter them.

Li Zhibai took out his phone and dialed Yang Chongwu's number directly.

"Hey, Mr. Li, what's up?"

"Brother Yang, how much money did your company's investor ultimately invest?"

"It's probably around 20 million."

More than 20 million?

Li Zhibai's eyes lit up instantly.

"Shouldn't you guys be throwing a celebration party? Oh, by the way, I just made a new batch of Ink Glaze Dawn Eggs, come check them out!"

Yang Chongwu: "........"