Chapter 119 – I’m Flipping the Table

Old Wang.

Full name: Wang Quanming.

Person in charge of Quanming Food Processing Co., Ltd.

Calling it a “company” was a stretch—it was basically a large-scale semi-processing slaughterhouse.

The daily routine was collecting a huge number of chickens, slaughtering them, then turning them into all kinds of meat products and delivering them to various places around the city.

A few years ago, Old Wang’s factory was tiny—just a few hundred square meters. He only had a few people working under him, and business came mostly from small local restaurants.

But everything changed when he gritted his teeth and invested a good sum to get into the school cafeteria business.

He wasn’t raking in millions, but his assets doubled every so often, which wasn’t bad at all.

Old Wang was a sensitive man, but he had ambition and dreams. So after saving up some money, he transformed the slaughterhouse into a semi-finished food processing company.

With the help of machines, his processing speed multiplied.

He set his sights on big chain stores like KFC and Golden Arches.

But those companies had their own supply chains—they didn’t need an outsider like him.

Meanwhile, his factory was churning out processed chicken every day with no buyers in sight. The pressure had Old Wang so stressed, he even lost a few inches off his beer belly.

Thankfully, someone from a school introduced him to a fried chicken shop.

At first, to be honest, he looked down on the place.

It was just a few dozen square meters, smaller than the smallest KFC branch.

But the sheer volume of their orders completely changed his mind.

That tiny shop, during its opening phase, consumed enough chicken daily to match one-third of the nearby Jiangzhou University’s cafeteria.

That was a university with tens of thousands of students.

Old Wang was stunned when he saw the order sheet. Even after things stabilized, their daily consumption still reached one-fourth of what Jiangzhou University used.

And just as he was still reeling from the shock of the first store, a second fried chicken shop opened at the bus station—also sourcing from him.

During its launch, the daily chicken consumption even matched half of Jiangzhou Normal University’s cafeteria.

With such massive chicken usage, Old Wang nearly emptied all nearby farms of their supply.

Later, when he heard the store was planning to open two more branches, he was overjoyed.

He immediately reached out to a few more distant farms and placed large orders, even shelled out money to upgrade the machines at home.

But just as the new machines were set up, he received a call from the Restaurant Association.

They named him directly, demanding a price hike on all goods supplied to “Shi Ning Ji.”

To be honest, he already regretted the last price increase.

If he’d known earlier how well this fried chicken store would sell, he’d have considered giving them a discount, not raising the price.

He almost refused the request outright.

But then he remembered the person who helped him get into school cafeterias was from the same group—and that guy had a lot of pull in the city.

In the end, Old Wang agreed to the request.

A price hike was a price hike.

But he played it smart—he only raised prices by 20%, and even that was negotiable.

Still, even with this compromise, Old Wang was anxious after telling the young man from “Shi Ning Ji” about the price hike.

Fortunately, the guy didn’t say much—just later asked to switch to a post-payment model.

Old Wang crunched the numbers: delaying payment by a month would put a lot of pressure on his cash flow.

But as long as the business kept going, it wasn’t a big problem.

Since Old Wang agreed so quickly, Tian Wenhao didn’t say much either. He simply signed an updated contract when Wang delivered the goods, then went back to his work.

Tian Wenhao was under immense pressure lately.

Ever since he learned someone from the Restaurant Association had their eye on his shop, he hadn’t been sleeping well.

Some nights, he even dreamed he was standing in a pitch-black field, surrounded by glowing red eyes staring at him.

It made him feel very uneasy.

He would often sit up in bed in the middle of the night, sneak out to the dorm balcony, and smoke one cigarette after another.

His mother, Tian Cuixiang, even though her son didn’t come home often, could tell something was wrong from his recent state.

When she tried to talk to him, he shut her out.

Since her son wouldn’t open up, she thought of her clever and quirky niece.

That afternoon, Tian Cuixiang cooked some dishes and went to the gate of Jiangzhou No. 1 High School.

After the security guard made a call, it wasn’t long before a graceful girl came running over from a distance.

“Auntie, what are you doing here?”

Jiang Ning beamed as she grabbed Tian Cuixiang’s arm and walked with her toward the school.

Stepping onto the campus, surrounded by laughing and joking students, Tian Cuixiang could feel the vibrant energy of youth.

She smiled.
“Auntie missed you.”

“I happened to cook some of your favorite dishes, so I thought I’d come see you.”

Hearing this, Jiang Ning remembered—ever since Chen Zhenguo got taken away, she hadn’t visited her aunt’s place at all. And with how busy she’d been running the business…

Feeling a bit guilty, Jiang Ning quickly said:

“Auntie, I’m sorry.”

“I’ll come visit you every week from now on.”

“No need.” Tian Cuixiang chuckled and gently patted Jiang Ning’s head.

“You’ve got a lot on your plate right now—don’t waste your time on me.”

“As long as you remember your aunt, and call me now and then to say you’re safe, that’s enough.”

Catching her aunt’s meaning, Jiang Ning giggled.

The two of them continued walking and soon arrived at the grapevine trellis in front of the school laboratory.

Found a stone bench and sat down.

Jiang Ning opened the lunchbox to take a look.

Sweet and sour pork ribs, pan-fried crucian carp, and corn stir-fried with shrimp.

All were her favorites.

“Thanks, Auntie!”

The girl dove excitedly into the meal.

After a good while, once her little belly was full and round, she patted it with satisfaction.

“Auntie, did you come see me today because something’s up?”

“Knew I couldn’t fool you.” Tian Cuixiang hadn’t originally planned to tell her clever niece.

But she still got seen through.

No choice—she had to share everything she’d noticed, one by one.

After listening to her aunt finish, Jiang Ning took a sip of the soup.

Then looked up with a playful grin.

“Auntie, don’t worry. It’s all good.”

“Cousin’s just growing.”

“Once the next few days pass…”

“You’ll realize you’ve got a brand new son.”

“Really?” Tian Cuixiang asked again, a bit worried.

But what she saw were Jiang Ning’s confident, unwavering eyes.

After a moment—

Jiang Ning stood at the school gate and waved toward the distant, gentle figure.

Only when that figure had disappeared from view did she finally withdraw the smile on her face.

Cousin still wasn’t seasoned enough.

He hadn’t even mastered basic facial control.

But that in itself showed…

He was already nearing his limit.

If it dragged on any longer, it wouldn’t even be training anymore.

So Jiang Ning thought it over.

She walked to a quiet spot, pulled out her phone, typed a message, and sent it out.

【The materials are almost ready, right?】
【Submit it.】

Once sent—

She didn’t even wait for a reply. She shut off the phone and stuffed it into her pocket.

——————

Yang Lili was a regular staff member in the mailroom of the Jiangzhou municipal government.

She was in charge of handling all incoming and outgoing mail, and she had her own unique process.

First, she sorted all the letters by department.

Then, based on the requirements of each department, she categorized them as regular, urgent, or sensitive.

The first two types came in large numbers daily—usually newspapers or inter-department mail.

The third type was different.

It was either red-titled notices from higher authorities…

Or whistleblower letters.

Either way, they were both hot potatoes to her.

The former was manageable—just forward it to the right department.

But the latter had to be dropped into a special mailbox, and someone from the disciplinary committee would come by to deal with it after some time.

Originally, Yang Lili thought the whistleblower letter she got today was the same—someone exposing a leader or a department.

But when she read the contents, she paused in surprise.

Even so, because of the special instructions, she slipped the letter into her pocket.

A moment later—

After organizing the day’s mail for the building, Yang Lili pushed her mail cart, going office by office, floor by floor.

When she reached a temporary office on the 12th floor—

Inside sat a square-faced middle-aged man, head lowered, writing something.

Yang Lili knocked on the door.

“Director Ji, today’s newspapers and letters are here. Where should I put them?”

Without even lifting his head, the man pointed to an empty desk nearby.

“Just leave them there.”

“Okay.”

Yang Lili nodded, grabbed a big stack of papers and magazines, and tried to move them inside.

But being a woman, she couldn’t manage it in one go.

Just as she was about to split the load and try again—

A broad, muscular hand blocked her.

“I got it.”

She looked up—

A rugged man had silently appeared beside her. He reached out with solid arms, took the entire stack, and set it on the table.

“Th-thank you…”

Yang Lili dazedly thanked him, then suddenly remembered something. She pulled that thick envelope out of her pocket.

“Director Ji, there’s also a letter for your department…”

Hearing this, Tian Gang seemed a little surprised.

He set down the papers, turned, and took the envelope.

Then waved her off casually.

As the mail clerk walked away, Tian Gang smacked his lips.

“She’s my type.”

“Shame we’re leaving.”

To that—

Ji Changping replied without even lifting his head:

“You could request a transfer. Bring her to the provincial office.”

“No can do.” Tian Gang shook his head with a sigh.

“Can’t break the bureau’s rules.”

With that, he picked up the letter to take a look—

And immediately froze.

“Director… a whistleblower letter??”

The last three words caught Ji Changping’s attention. He furrowed his brow and finally looked up.

“Give it here.”

“Okay.”

Tian Gang, like a schoolboy, handed it over.

Ji Changping examined the envelope front and back, tore it open, and took out the contents.

A few sheets of paper. Six or seven photos. And a cassette tape sandwiched between the pages.

Ji Changping immediately focused on the documents.

Meanwhile—

Tian Gang looked on, puzzled.

“Director, getting a whistleblower letter during audit season—who pissed someone off this bad?”

“That Li guy in Qinghu District?”

“Or the Huang from the development zone?”

“Maybe Du in Guanglin?”

“Or Ma from Chentian Town?”

Perhaps annoyed, Ji Changping flicked one of the photos toward the edge of the table.

Tian Gang instinctively glanced at it—

And let out a gasp.

Then he let out a startled cry.

“Good grief.”

“It’s him?”

Stunned for a moment—

Tian Gang stared blankly at Ji Changping.

“Director, if he got reported… are we still going ahead with the audit?”

“Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we?” Ji Changping put down the document and paused for a moment.

“You and Xiao Ye’s team continue reviewing the promotions for the district and township levels.”

“Also, book me a ticket—no, get me a car. I’m heading to the provincial office tonight.”

“So urgent?” Tian Gang was thoroughly confused.

After all, according to standard procedure, even if a whistleblower letter came in during an audit, the first step should be to verify its authenticity.

Then sit down with the reported person for a discussion—that’s the proper way.

Unless…

As if sensing Tian Gang’s thoughts—

Ji Changping lightly tapped one of the photos on the table with his finger.

“The stuff in here…”

“Isn’t ordinary.”

(End of this chapter)