Chapter 113 – Trouble Comes Knocking

That day.

Jiang Ning had just finished evening self-study.

She returned home, feeling a bit hungry, and washed an apple.

But before she could take a bite—The home phone started ringing.

“Ding-ling, ding-ling.”

It was already ten o’clock—who could it be?

Jiang Ning took a bite of the apple, walked over to the sofa, and picked up the phone.

Before she could speak, a very familiar voice came through from the other end.

“Ningning, around 3:30 this afternoon…”

“A group from the tax bureau came for an inspection.”

“Tax bureau?” Jiang Ning’s brow furrowed instinctively as she asked in a low voice:

“Routine check?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Tian Wenhao’s tone was a bit grim as he listed out what he had found.

When Jiang Ning heard the phrase “someone reported us,”

She instantly lost all interest in her apple.

She sat on the sofa, thinking for a moment.

“Our taxes are in order, right?”

“No problem.”

Hearing Tian Wenhao’s firm answer, Jiang Ning relaxed a little.

After all, taxes were something you absolutely couldn’t mess up—not even the slightest loophole.

Otherwise, it’d be easy for someone to use it against you.

And in this case, it was pretty clear—they had been reported.

As for who did it…

Jiang Ning didn’t have a clear idea yet.

After all, when you open a business, there’s no telling who you might have pissed off unintentionally.

So, for now—The best she could do was patch any vulnerabilities and make sure no flaws could be found, then dig out whoever was behind it.

So.

Jiang Ning recalled all her experience dealing with officials from her past life and shared it one by one.

On the other end, Tian Wenhao listened quietly.

After they hung up—Jiang Ning still felt something wasn’t right.

After washing up and getting into bed,

She turned on her phone.

Ignoring the handful of concern-filled messages, she directly typed up everything that had happened at the shop that day and sent it to Li Mingyu via text.

Once it was sent—Jiang Ning turned off the lights,

Lay alone in bed, silently staring out the window.

After a while—Li Mingyu’s reply came.

Jiang Ning opened it to see:

[Little Jiang Ning, I asked some friends at the tax bureau. They said they received an anonymous letter this morning accusing your store of tax evasion, which is why they did a surprise inspection.]

They did a surprise check just because someone reported it?

Jiang Ning was beginning to wonder if the tax bureau had it out for her, but before she could reply, another message came in:

[There were several stores mentioned in the anonymous letter. Aside from yours, most of them actually were evading taxes.]

Ah, now it made sense.

If her store had been the only one named, and the tax bureau came without any real evidence, then she’d probably offended someone high up.

But since other stores were listed too, then the culprit was likely a civilian.

So…

CFC?

Golden Arches?

Jiang Ning thought of the two professional managers at the station.

Suddenly, something clicked. She shot a message to Tian Wenhao:

[Cousin, did the tax inspection only happen at the Jiangzhou University location? What about the station location?]

A moment later—

Tian Wenhao replied:

[The station has its own tax unit. They periodically inspect every store there.]

Ah, I see.

Jiang Ning nodded in understanding.

But still—she couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t over.
—

And sure enough—The next night.

Tian Wenhao called again.

This time, it was the fire department doing a surprise inspection.

They checked fire equipment, open flames, electrical usage, and even the oil used for frying chicken—everything was scrutinized.

Still—no problems were found.

Then, on the third day—The commerce department showed up.

They checked the business license: registration details, whether the store’s operations exceeded its registered scope.

They even documented the stuffed toys in the store.

Luckily—When Jiang Ning first introduced the plush toys as part of a combo meal, she hadn’t listed them as individual items for sale.

Otherwise, this inspection might have turned up something.

This couldn’t keep going on.

Jiang Ning sat on a stool, propping her head up with one hand, staring out at the blue sky outside the window, lost in thought.

If she couldn’t find the root cause of all this—Getting hounded by these departments every couple of days—how was she supposed to run a business?

“Jiang Jiang, have you seen my chemistry homework?”

“On the floor.”

“Oh.”

Luo Shanshan looked down, picked her workbook off the floor, dusted it off, and looked over at Jiang Ning.

“Jiang Jiang, what’s up with you?”

“You seem kind of… distracted?”

At that moment, Jiang Ning was still mentally running through countermeasures to all these inspections. She replied casually:

“Nothing, just thinking about a problem…”

“Oh.”

Luo Shanshan believed her without a doubt and launched into some morning gossip:

Some girl in Class 2 had her nail polish forcibly scrubbed off by a teacher…

Some boys from Class 7 and Class 12 got into a basketball fight…

Apparently there was a tournament coming up…

As she chattered—Luo Shanshan turned into a little wife complaining about too much homework, how hard the math was, and so on.

And strangely enough—As Jiang Ning listened to her babble, all that stress in her mind began to melt away.

So what if they were being inspected?

If you’re doing nothing wrong, you don’t have to fear the shadow.

She honestly didn’t believe—Whoever was behind this could really manipulate these government departments to keep showing up day after day.

And sure enough—After the Food Safety Bureau did their inspection—‘Shi Ning Ji’s’ university location finally quieted down.

Several days passed with zero movement.

However—The people working behind the scenes clearly weren’t willing to let Jiang Ning off so easily.

Just as the university store incident blew over—Trouble at the Station Store Again

It was Saturday.

Jiang Ning was still in the office fiddling with her newly purchased, big retro-style desktop computer.

Suddenly—The door was flung open.

Xiao Mingxiu rushed in from outside, speaking urgently:

“Jiang Ning, come out quick—something’s happened!”

Huh?

Something happened?

“What is it?!”

Jiang Ning was filled with confusion. She instinctively stood up and asked while walking out.

“Someone’s lying at our store entrance…”

Lying at the entrance?

Isn’t that basically here to cause trouble?

What, the station security’s just sitting around eating dry rice?

Actually, it wasn’t unreasonable for Jiang Ning to react this way.

If it were the university store, she could understand someone causing a scene. That one’s right by the road, and there’s no patrol or security on the street.

But this was different.

This was the station.

A place where you need to go through security checks just to enter the waiting area.

How could anyone even get in to cause trouble?

However—

When Jiang Ning followed Xiao Mingxiu past a few customers and stepped outside the store, she immediately understood what “someone lying at the entrance” meant.

There, on the marble floor right in front of the Shi Ning Ji storefront…

A middle-aged man was lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth, face twisted in pain, clutching half a chicken cutlet in one hand.

Beside him knelt a plainly dressed middle-aged woman, crying and shaking him.

“Oh my god!”

“The father of my child! What’s wrong with you?!”

“Wake up!!”

“How are the two of us supposed to survive now that you’ve collapsed?!”

As more people gathered around, drawn by the woman’s loud wailing, Jiang Ning’s expression darkened slightly.

Her mind raced, carefully examining the couple’s expressions, movements, clothing—And every inch of the ground within several meters around them.

When she spotted a long milky-white trail where the man had fallen, her eyes sharpened.

She followed the trail with her gaze—

And spotted a white milk carton tucked under a nearby bench.

In that instant—A possibility popped into her mind.

She looked up instinctively and scanned her surroundings.

First, she looked in the direction of CFC and McRonald’s.

She only saw a figure standing on the second floor of CFC.

McRonald’s hadn’t even drawn its curtains.

Could it be them?

Jiang Ning frowned.

After thinking for a moment, she continued scanning.

When she looked toward the station’s administrative office, she saw the department director standing on the balcony, watching her.

He seemed to notice her gaze as well, and their eyes met.

Expressionless, he gave her a slight nod.

It was clear—The director wasn’t too pleased.

Understandably so.

After all, something like this happening in his jurisdiction—if it turned out to be nothing, fine. But if something did happen, it could end up being a major stain on his political record.

Troublesome indeed.

Jiang Ning retracted her gaze and looked around.

All the employees, including Store Manager Xiao Mingxiu, were completely at a loss.

They just stood there helplessly, letting the woman cry and wail on the ground.

Seeing this—Jiang Ning let out a small sigh.

Thankfully she was here today.

If she hadn’t been—With this bunch of girls, Shi Ning Ji might’ve ended up on the evening news the very next day.

So she pulled the dazed Xiao Mingxiu over and whispered a few words in her ear.

Xiao Mingxiu immediately nodded in understanding.

She turned around and gave a few orders to the staff to maintain order, then took out her phone and, in full view of the crowd, dialed emergency services.

“Yes, the station concourse!”

“Male patient, looks about fifty?”

“Foaming at the mouth, facial distortion.”

“Okay, got it.”

The woman kneeling on the ground clearly froze for a second upon hearing this.

Then she instantly turned around and shouted toward the onlookers in the station hall:

“It’s this store!”

“They used poisonous chicken! My husband got poisoned from eating it!”

“I’m just a poor woman!”

“Out working with my husband!”

“Now he’s lying here between life and death!”

“Waaah! I’m so miserable!”

She flung herself to the ground, crying loudly. Whether or not there were actual tears was unclear.

But just from that outburst—The crowd’s sympathy inexplicably leaned toward the middle-aged woman.

People started murmuring—

“Did the guy get food poisoning from fried chicken?”

“Is the chicken toxic?”

“Dunno, I’ve eaten it before—it was fine.”

“Could be an allergy, maybe?”

“You know… that might actually be it…”

…

“This poor woman. Why isn’t the store helping them?”

“Help how? Didn’t they already call an ambulance?”

…

Hearing all this chatter, and watching Xiao Mingxiu being run ragged by the woman’s performance—Jiang Ning sighed again.

She pushed through the crowd,

Walked up to the twisted-faced middle-aged man.

She crouched down and whispered in a voice only he could hear:

“Drop the act.”

“I’ll give you a thousand.”

“Just tell me who sent you.”

But—The man merely opened one eye, gave Jiang Ning a sideways glance,

Paused in confusion for a second or two, then went right back to curling up in agony.

Seeing this—Jiang Ning gave a cold snort.

“Don’t want it?”

“Then I’ll let the ambulance take you to the hospital—and I’ll give the money to your partner.”

“You won’t see a single cent.”

(End of Chapter)