CH 14

Punishing evildoers.

The appearance of Liu Wen quieted the surrounding sounds for a second.

Cheng Yun’s footsteps paused, he turned his head and looked at Liu Wen with an unclear expression.

Liu Wen walked up to him with his big belly, and his tone carried a hint of reproach, “Why didn’t you say anything when you came? I have been waiting for you upstairs for a long time. I thought you wouldn’t come.”

Cheng Yun glanced behind him and saw the shopkeeper’s expression of great alarm, and he didn’t need to explain anything.

It wasn’t Liu Wen’s fault. The world always favors the high and looks down on the low. This principle applies everywhere, let alone in ancient times where social status was clearly defined.

But the feeling of being unable to breathe and feeling stifled in his heart made Cheng Yun very uncomfortable, not to mention Yang Hongjin, who was cowering behind him. They were invited to come, why should they be humiliated for no reason?

He smiled sardonically and replied, “Mr. Liu, that’s not very kind of you. I came as scheduled but was left hanging in the shop for half an hour without even being able to drink water. If you didn’t want to see me, I wouldn’t have bothered to come and waste my time and money on tea.”

His words were full of sarcasm, and Liu Wen’s face changed when he heard them.

He was a smart man, how could he not understand what Cheng Yun meant? But it wasn’t appropriate for them to quarrel like this in front of others, so he apologized and promised to give him a satisfactory answer, finally persuading him to follow him upstairs to a private room.

Once the door was closed, Liu Wen immediately sent someone to investigate the situation. The person he sent was Li Fan, who had delivered a message to him on behalf of Dr. Liu.

Li Fan was very efficient and it only took him a cup of tea’s time to understand the whole situation. He reported everything to Liu Wen in detail.

As a businessman, Liu Wen valued honesty the most. If someone could do such a thing right under his nose, he couldn’t imagine how many customers and people he had offended in the past.

Moreover, the shopkeeper had been secretly overcharging customers for tea, and he had yet to settle the account with Liu Wen. If he hadn’t caught him today, and if news of such deceit were to spread, it would only bring shame to his Yueqiong Building’s reputation.

Whether it was to put on a show for Cheng Yun or to truly punish his subordinate, he ordered Li Fan to call the shopkeeper and tell him to confess everything in front of Cheng Yun.

The shopkeeper knew he was in trouble the moment Liu Wen appeared, but he had been working in the shop for so long and was much more experienced than the inexperienced Cheng Yun. After a moment’s thought, he suddenly knelt down with a “thud,” tears streaming down his face as he said, “Boss, I was wrong! I really didn’t know that this young master was here to see you. It was, it was him!”

“He pointed his finger at Yang Hongjin and said, “It’s that idiot. As soon as he came in, he started teasing the guests in the restaurant. Many people were scared away by him at the door, and I had no choice but to let them sit in the corner!””

“I have worked at Yueqiong Tower for so many years, and even if I haven’t done anything great, I have worked hard for the restaurant. Isn’t it just to make the guests eat more comfortably when they come here?” The shopkeeper said, moved by his own words, he even shed a few tears and crawled to Cheng Yun’s feet. “I’m sorry, sir, but please understand my hard work. I apologize, it’s all my fault…”

Cheng Yun was so angry that his face turned red. He stood up directly and said, “What nonsense are you talking about? It’s just infuriating!”

“Ah ah ah, sir, please don’t be angry. I won’t do it again. I apologize.” The shopkeeper acted as if he was the victim, making it seem like Cheng Yun was being unreasonable and bullying the people under him, taking advantage of his relationship with the boss.

Yang Hongjin, frightened by the boss’s gaze, kept moving towards Cheng Yun, and even his hand was trembling slightly as he held Cheng Yun’s hand.

Cheng Yun protected his own, the shopkeeper shouldn’t have brought up Yang Hongjin. He looked at Liu Wen and said, “Mr. Liu your manager is really capable. I cannot deal with such a person. I may be offended today, and I may not care what others say about me, but I cannot accept unfounded accusations against my family.

“Hey, Cheng-Ge’er, let’s talk things out.” When Liu Wen heard this, he became anxious and quickly tried to mediate.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Cheng Yun snorted coldly. “I didn’t know that Yueqiong Tower was such a bullying place. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come to you to discuss cooperation. I, Cheng Yun, conduct myself uprightly and honestly. We haven’t done anything that the shopkeeper said. Justice naturally prevails in people’s hearts. You can just ask anyone in the store to find out who is lying!”

Cheng Yun pulled Yang Hongjin and was about to leave. Liu Wen quickly stood up to stop him, and his expression turned cold. The shopkeeper was completely stunned. Liu Wen was always easygoing and friendly, and he rarely got angry at his employees. However, after so many years of ups and downs in society, how could Liu Wen be easily bullied? He rarely got angry, but once he did, it was unstoppable.

“Do you not take me, your boss, seriously? Or do you think I’m an easy target to be fooled? I asked you to come here to give you a chance to explain this matter clearly. If you need to apologize, apologize. But instead, you made up lies to shift the blame onto my valued customer and still want me to support you. Who gave you the face to do that?!” Liu Wen apologized to Cheng Yun while scolding the shopkeeper, “It’s my fault for not informing my staff beforehand and for not managing them well. I’m sorry for bringing such a troublesome thing to you. If it weren’t for you coming to me today, I might have been fooled by this shameless person for a long time.”

Cheng Yun looked at him skeptically, not knowing whether this was his soothing words or not, but he couldn’t deny that he felt much better.

Liu Wen looked at Li Fan and waved his hand, saying, “Now, you tell me. I can’t swallow this dirty water.”

Li Fan obeyed and told the truth about what he had found out. He did a good job and asked several people. Some of them had benefited from the shopkeeper’s favoritism and didn’t want to reveal everything, but most of them told the truth. Some even stood up for Cheng Yun and complained about the shopkeeper’s behavior. Even the employees who were not on good terms with the shopkeeper spoke out about what had happened.

Li Fan had first received the news from Dr. Liu and told Liu Wen about Cheng’s situation. Now, after seeing Liu Wen’s attitude today, he knew who was more important between Cheng Yun and the shopkeeper. He summarized everyone’s statements and told Liu Wen.

“As Cheng Yun said, both of them came to the shop early in the morning and didn’t cause any trouble. Instead, the shopkeeper was too aggressive, first by not properly welcoming the customers, then by overcharging them by charging ten times the price for a cup of tea. He was threatening in his words and everyone saw it.”

“You, you are lying!” The shopkeeper was shocked and crawled to Liu Wen, crying and pleading, “Boss, don’t listen to his nonsense! He has always disliked me and wants to frame me!”

Li Fan didn’t waste any more time with him and respectfully said, “I asked five or six customers in the shop, and A’Bing and A’Liang can testify too. There’s no possibility of false accusations against the shopkeeper.”

Liu Wen kicked him away and said seriously, “I’ll give you one more chance. Will you confess or do I have to bring everyone here to confront you?”

The shopkeeper’s face turned pale, and he alternated between blushing and paling. After thinking for a moment, he finally changed his tune and kept kowtowing, “I was wrong, boss, please forgive me. I will never do it again.” After that, he turned to kowtow to Cheng Yun while slapping himself, “Young master, you are a generous person. Don’t lower yourself to my level. I was ignorant and couldn’t recognize Mount Tai. I apologize to you.”

Cheng Yun had never received such a grand gesture before, but he could handle it. He stood there like a mountain, looking down at the shopkeeper as he acted like a clown, but he didn’t say a word of forgiveness.

Originally, Liu Wen wanted to have a good talk with Cheng Yun about their future cooperation. He was a businessman, and his first priority was profit. Although he had sympathized with Cheng Yun yesterday and wanted to ease their cooperation, it didn’t prevent him from maximizing his profit.

However, before they could begin their discussion today, this annoying guy challenged his authority time and time again, and he let his subordinates fool him. Not to mention Cheng Yun, even Liu Wen couldn’t swallow this insult.

He waved his hand and asked Li Fan to take the shopkeeper away. Then he ordered someone to bring paper, ink, brush, and inkstone, and before anyone could react, he quickly wrote a letter of dismissal.

“Our Yueqiong Tower has been in business until today, relying on nothing but the word ‘integrity’. Today, you charge customers at will, go against their word, and even lie. I, Liu Wen, cannot tolerate such a two-faced, shameless person in my small shop.”

“This is your letter of dismissal. Keep it yourself. Because of your improper charges and insults to customers, your salary for this month will be halved,” Liu Wen pointed at Li Fan, “Take him to get his money. Watch him carefully and don’t let him take our things. Write another notice and post it, so that everyone knows what he did. Our Yueqiong Tower never condones the wicked, and we cannot let anyone splash mud on us.”

The matter was handled properly, and Liu Wen’s words put the matter to rest. The shopkeeper’s crying and shouting was useless at this point. Only now did he realize how wrong he was earlier to belittle and bully others. But even if he regretted it now, it was too late. When Yueqiong Tower’s notice came out, no one would ever be willing to hire him again.
RECENTLY UPDATES