379: A link in a chain of schemes

As Liu Long returned to Muxin Hotel, he immediately took Yu Qing to the back kitchen.

If anything went wrong with the ingredients, the chef should be the one who knows the truth best.

As long as they found the chef who cooked that day, the truth would surely be revealed to the public.

However, as soon as they arrived at the back kitchen, they found the kitchen was a complete mess, with many things thrown on the floor.

Liu Long looked at Yu Qing with a face full of anger: "What's going on? Where are our chefs?"

Yu Qing listened as Liu Long placed the blame on him, his face filled with confusion, he also didn't know what had happened.

Yu Qing shook his head repeatedly: "I don't know, I've been dealing with the reporters' issues this whole time and haven't been here at all."

In his memory, the chefs should all be resting in the kitchen, how could they have inexplicably disappeared?

Liu Long looked at Yu Qing, who didn't even know what was happening in their own hotel, and couldn't help but take a deep breath: "You tell General Manager Su yourself."

They both knew that if Su Yue found out about the chefs disappearing, they would likely lose their jobs.

As expected, Yu Qing heard Liu Long say that he needed to tell Su Yue about the matter, and immediately shook his head: "You must help me, I..."

Liu Long looked at Yu Qing wanting his help, but he didn't have that much ability.

Just as Liu Long was about to tell him to make the call, a staff member walked in from the doorway with a panicked look on his face and stood in front of them.

Yu Qing happened to have a belly full of anger with nowhere to vent it. Now seeing the staff member come in, he immediately walked up to him.

However, before he could even speak, many reporters walked in from outside.

Because they were holding cameras, Yu Qing didn't dare to be too disrespectful to them.

Otherwise, these people were very likely to cause trouble for him, and leaving behind evidence would also be troublesome.

Luckily, Liu Long had been arranged to be here by Su Yue. He immediately blocked the reporters: "How did you get in?"

The reporters didn't pay attention to them at all, pointing towards the cabinet: "We received a tip-off that you have a lot of expired food."

Speaking of this, a few slightly more cunning reporters had already come to the freezer and opened it.

Indeed, the meat in the freezer was basically two or three years past its expiry date.

Using such ingredients in the catering industry had basically sentenced them to death.

When Liu Long saw such ingredients in the freezer, he was naturally stunned on the spot, completely unaware of what had happened.

Suddenly, as if he thought of something, he patted Yu Qing's shoulder: "Aren't our invoices with you every time?"

With the invoices, it would be clear whether the ingredients in the cabinet belonged to them.

When Yu Qing heard Liu Long tell him to bring such invoices, he agreed readily and quickly walked towards the office.

At the same time, Liu Long used a trick on the reporters, taking out his phone and walking to the doorway.

Such a big incident had happened at Muxin Hotel, and he felt that his authority was no longer sufficient.

If something major went wrong at Muxin Hotel, Su Yue might put the blame on the few of them.

Soon, Su Yue answered the phone and put it to his ear: "General Manager Liu, how is the investigation into the kitchen matter progressing?"

Liu Long heard Su Yue's serious words and helplessly recounted everything that had happened here in detail.

When Su Yue learned that many reporters had come to Muxin Hotel, he immediately walked out of the hospital: "Tell those reporters not to leave, I'll be there right away."

He knew that once the reporters were out of sight, they would become like wild horses running free.

At that point, no one would know what the reporters would write in the newspapers.

In just a few minutes, Su Yue drove back to Muxin Hotel and saw the reporters at the entrance at a glance.

When the reporters at the entrance saw Su Yue rushing back from outside, they immediately came over with microphones and surrounded Su Yue.

Su Yue's mind was full of the meat in the kitchen; he had no intention of accepting their interview.

Su Yue glanced at a few reporters and pointed inside: "If you have any questions, you can organize them for now. I'm going inside to understand the situation."

The reporters understood what Su Yue meant and immediately followed behind Su Yue; the group came inside.

At this moment, Liu Long was standing at the doorway, looking at Su Yue with a face full of anxiety: "General Manager Su, take a look."

Su Yue took the ingredients from Liu Long's hand and found that the date on the ingredients was exactly two years past.

If they used such things to cook for guests, how could the guests be comfortable?

Su Yue placed the meat in Liu Long's hand: "Where is Yu Qing? What do the chefs inside say?"

Liu Long looked at Su Yue asking about the chefs and said with a troubled expression: "The chefs inside don't know how long they've been gone."

Originally, he intended to get the personal information of those chefs, but no one expected that Yu Qing hadn't kept any information about those people at all.

When Su Yue heard Liu Long say this, his eyes immediately widened: "The chefs have been here for a week, and you didn't even have them fill out a form?"

Liu Long nodded somewhat awkwardly: "We are indeed in the wrong about this, but... we don't have any other way now."

Now was not the time to assign blame. If Su Yue didn't handle the matter of the chefs well, Huashi Hotel and Muxin Hotel could both end up on trending searches.

At that point, not only could the two hotels face trouble, but even Yuantu Investment might face unprecedented difficulties.

Just at this moment, the phone in Su Yue's pocket rang, prompting him to take the phone and walk to the side.

Originally, the reporters intended to follow behind, but Su Yue immediately had Liu Long receive the reporters and take all of them to the conference room.

Reporters could be considered a double-edged sword. As long as they could be utilized well, the reporters could provide free publicity for them.

Conversely, if the reporters were not utilized well and they publicized their issues, both hotels could face bankruptcy.

Su Yue walked to the window and answered the phone: "What is it?"

Lan Zijun heard that Su Yue had time to answer the phone and immediately asked: "What happened at the hotel? Many reporters have come to our company to ask."

Originally, Su Yue thought the hotel matter would only affect the development of the two hotels, but who knew that many reporters had gotten wind of it and gone to Yuantu Investment.

To prevent Yuantu Investment from being affected, Su Yue immediately said to Lan Zijun: "You can respond to the reporters now and say that the two hotels are merely hotels that we invested in, and we will inquire about this information."

Regardless of whether the hotels could be saved, Yuantu Investment and the two hotels could never be linked together.

Otherwise, once something happened at the hotels, Yuantu Investment would inexplicably get caught in the crossfire.

Even if Su Yue was willing, he believed Lan Zijun wouldn't want such a thing to happen.

Soon, Su Yue returned to the kitchen and found that only Yu Qing was there.

Su Yue came in front of Yu Qing and extended his hand: "Give me the purchase invoices. Now we need to show evidence to the reporters."

When Yu Qing saw that Su Yue needed the purchase invoices, he said with a bitter face: "Someone changed our computer data. These invoices should all be fake. I've seen those invoices before, and they are definitely not these."

Su Yue learned that the invoices in Yu Qing's hand had been modified, and his face was filled with anger: "Look at what else you can do? You can't even keep the most basic invoices. I really don't know what you guys are good for?"

Without saying anything to them, he took a deep breath and pointed outside: "You come with me. Don't talk nonsense to the reporters; let me talk to them."

Su Yue knew that the two of them had no sense of propriety at all. If he let the two of them speak up, he believed they would definitely talk nonsense.

In just a few minutes, Su Yue pulled Yu Qing to the entrance of the conference room.

As he had predicted, Liu Long was standing at the entrance waiting.

When he saw Su Yue arrive here, he immediately said to Su Yue: "General Manager Su, the reporters are arranged inside. Nothing should go wrong, right?"

Su Yue heard him say this, pondered for a moment, and shook his head: "Nothing should happen in the short term, but if we don't explain to them, then I don't know. You guys come in with me."

The two of them held important positions in the hotel, so Su Yue had no reason not to say anything.

Soon, Su Yue brought the two people into the conference room.

When the reporters saw Su Yue come in, they immediately adjusted their cameras, wanting to record all the footage.

Su Yue glanced at the reporters below and chuckled: "I'll give you three minutes now to adjust your equipment, and then I'll talk about what happened at our Muxin Hotel."

The reporters originally thought Su Yue would come up and apologize, but no one expected that Su Yue had no intention of apologizing at all.

In just three minutes, Su Yue walked to the front of the stage, glanced at the few of them: "I will now tell you about what happened here. You can record it in advance, but you cannot publish it."

Speaking of this, Su Yue interrupted the reporters' questions: "I currently don't have evidence, but I believe if you give me a few days, I can give you enough evidence, and then you will be the ones with the firsthand scoop."

This sentence of his hit home with all the reporters; they came here to report news, wasn't it just for money?

Since the reporters were silent, Su Yue chuckled: "I believe you should all be willing to trust me. I think this matter was likely a setup, so we will prioritize finding the chefs who cooked for us and have them talk to you."

This meeting was very brief, leaving everyone present unsure of what they should write.

Afterwards, Su Yue pointed to the location of the kitchen: "There are many expired products inside. You can go and film now. If I cannot produce favorable evidence, then you can take the evidence from here and use it as a tool to make money."

His two proposals offered the reporters very substantial profits, making the reporters willing to trust Su Yue's information.

In just a few seconds, one of the reporters said to Su Yue: "General Manager Su, you want us to give you time. How much time do you need us to give you?"

"That's right, you can't keep us waiting indefinitely. If so, the information we have..."

Although they didn't mean to break ties, Su Yue understood what the few of them meant.

Afterwards, Su Yue looked back at Yu Qing and Liu Long: "Hand over our invoices and the contents of the freezer to them, let them gather sufficient evidence. I'm going out to find the chefs now."

Without revealing too much to the two of them, he walked out alone and sat in the car.

Just as they had finally seen the two hotels starting to improve, no one expected such a thing to happen.

As soon as he sat in the car, the phone in his pocket rang again.

Su Yue subconsciously glanced at the phone next to him and answered it with a helpless look on his face.

As he had judged, the call was from Lan Zijun.

She wanted to ask Su Yue if he needed help from online commenters, after all, the public opinion online was very serious.

If Su Yue delayed in finding a solution, finding online commenters was the only best option.

Su Yue heard her say this and couldn't help but take a deep breath: "There's no need to tell me so much. I have a solution; you don't need to worry about it."

Speaking of this, he hung up the phone, his mind pondering the matter of those chefs.

There were no such coincidences in the world. They had just posted information about hiring chefs, and immediately a complete team of chefs showed up.

Originally, they thought it was just because they were lucky, but now Su Yue felt that their luck wasn't that good.

In order not to waste time, he could only open his System again, wanting to see the chefs' locations.

[Name: Liu Lu]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 34]

[Resume: Formerly served as the person in charge of Huasheng Group's canteen, currently the Back Kitchen Manager at Huasheng Hotel]

....

Su Yue looked at the information displayed in the System and slightly furrowed his brow: "It's Huasheng Hotel again. It seems I can stake out that place."

Just as he was planning to go to Huasheng Hotel, he suddenly remembered that Liu Sheng also had the surname Liu.

Now, Liu Lu and he shared the same surname. Su Yue felt that this matter was definitely not a coincidence.

It didn't take long before Su Yue drove to the entrance of Huasheng Hotel and parked the car there.

He didn't get out of the car to prevent anyone inside from recognizing his identity.

In just half an hour, Liu Sheng walked out from inside, with a smile on his face.

According to common sense, Huasheng Hotel was now on the verge of bankruptcy, so he had no reason to show such an expression.

Now that Liu Sheng had appeared in this state, it indicated that the problems at the two hotels were very likely planned by him.

In less than a minute, Su Yue had already formulated a plan in his mind. He drove the car next to Liu Sheng and rolled down his window.