The restaurant opens to a gathering of distinguished guests; Yi Zhonghai wants to be the

The night wind swept across Wangfujing Street like a knife.

Beside the trash can, Yi Zhonghai huddled tighter in his tattered shirt, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.

He got old and completely collapsed.

After being dismissed from the factory and fined for stealing waste materials, the woman suffered a stroke and died young.

He had no children and was all alone.

Now I can't even afford to buy a moldy cornbread.

Looking at the magnificent "He's Hongbinlou" not far away, Yi Zhonghai's chapped lips trembled.

"Pillar...Pillar's made a fortune now..."

He swallowed a mouthful of dry foam mixed with coal ash, a sliver of morbid hope flashing in his cloudy eyes.

He felt that although Sha Zhu was a bit slow-witted, he was actually a sentimental person at heart.

All I have to do is swallow my pride, plead and beg for a job sweeping the floor or washing dishes.

Based on the old relationship with "Grandpa", I should be able to make a living, right?

Thinking of this, Yi Zhonghai gritted his teeth.

He threw away the broken wooden stick in his hand, dragging his two deformed legs, which were deformed from long-term labor.

He limped toward the restaurant's wide, bright back door.

In the kitchen.

Ma Hua was directing several kitchen helpers to clean the stove.

Business was booming on the first day of opening, exceeding all expectations. Although everyone was tired, their faces were full of energy.

"Chef Ma, there's a beggar outside the back door who insists on seeing General Manager He."

A security guard walked in, frowning as he reported to his supervisor.

"Beggars? Just chase them away." Ma Hua didn't even look up, busy counting the ingredients.

"But... that old man said his name was Yi Zhonghai, and that he was an elder whom President He had watched grow up since he was a child. He stubbornly refused to leave."

Upon hearing the name "Yi Zhonghai".

Ma Hua's hand, which was chopping vegetables, suddenly stopped, and his face instantly turned cold.

How could he not know who this old man is?

Back in the courtyard house, it was this old fox who completely fooled my master, almost causing his lineage to die out!

"I'll go take a look."

Ma Hua put down the cleaver and strode towards the back door.

As soon as the door opened, a pungent, rancid stench hit us.

Yi Zhonghai, his face covered in soot, huddled at the bottom of the steps like a withered rat.

When he saw MCA come out, his cloudy eyes lit up.

"MCA... Little Ma! I'm your grandpa!"

Yi Zhonghai quickly stepped forward, reaching out his dark, withered hands to pull at the neat chef's uniform of the Malaysian Chinese Association.

"Don't touch me!"

Ma Hua took a step back in disgust, his voice icy.

"There's no one here, just General Manager He and Chef Ma. What are you doing here?"

Yi Zhonghai rubbed his hands awkwardly, forcing a fawning smile that looked more like a grimace onto his old face.

"I...I want to find Zhu Zi...I heard his restaurant has opened, and I'd like to find a job there."

"I'll do anything, from sweeping and washing dishes to emptying slop buckets, as long as I get a meal..."

Just then.

"What do you want from me?"

A deep, cold voice came from behind MCA.

Sha Zhu, dressed in a sharp dark suit, strode out from the kitchen lights.

At this point, Sha Zhu was no longer the "big fool" who used to flip the ladle in the cafeteria and be manipulated by others.

He exudes the aura of a seasoned, decisive restaurant tycoon.

Looking down at Yi Zhonghai below the steps, there was not a trace of warmth in his eyes.

"Pillar! Pillar!"

When Yi Zhonghai saw Sha Zhu, it was as if he had seen a savior.

Ignoring the mud and water on the ground, his knees buckled, and he knelt down heavily with a "thump".

"Zhu Zi! Please save this old man! He's starving to death!"

Yi Zhonghai wept uncontrollably, crying a truly heartbreaking scene.

He cried as he desperately kowtowed to Sha Zhu, his forehead hitting the bluestone slab with a loud "bang".

"Zhu Zi, I watched you grow up from a little kid."

"When you were little, your father ran off with a widow. Who provided you and your sister with cornmeal then?"

"We're from the same compound, you can't just stand by and watch someone die!"

Yi Zhonghai's combination of "bitter trick" and "emotional appeal" is a testament to his skill.

He was certain that Sha Zhu was easily swayed, and that as long as he cried miserably enough, he could evoke a trace of pity in Sha Zhu's heart.

however.

He underestimated the current state of Sha Zhu, and he also underestimated that some hatreds, with the passage of time, will only become more unforgettable.

Sha Zhu listened to Yi Zhonghai's hypocritical lament.

A chilling, extremely sarcastic smile slowly curled at the corners of his lips.

"Sending out corn noodles?"

Sha Zhu stepped forward, his eyes sharp as a knife, fixed on Yi Zhonghai's face.

"Yi Zhonghai, you still have the nerve to mention providing aid?!"

"You old dog, you embezzled all the fifteen yuan my dad sent back every month for living expenses!"

"What were you doing when my sister was so hungry she was picking at cabbage leaves to eat? You were living the high life with the He family's money!"

Sha Zhu's voice grew louder and louder, like an angry lion roaring.

"You've been brainwashing me every day, trying to get me to help the Jia family, to be a free laborer for that bloodsucking Qin Huairu!"

"What are you after? You just want me to become childless so you can wholeheartedly take care of me in my old age and see me off when I die, right?!"

Yi Zhonghai was so shocked by Sha Zhu's barrage of insults that he trembled violently.

His excuses, which he used to cover up his true intentions, were utterly shattered.

"Zhu Zi...I...I was doing it for your own good..." Yi Zhonghai was still making weak excuses.

"Bullshit!"

Sha Zhu suddenly kicked over an empty iron bucket next to him, making a deafening noise.

"For my own good? If it weren't for Brother Huaimin reminding me..."

"I, He Yuzhu, am now a penniless, dead man who has frozen to death under a bridge!"

"A selfish, rotten hypocrite like you doesn't deserve to live!"

Sha Zhu took a deep breath, suppressing the raging anger churning in his chest.

He looked at Yi Zhonghai, who was kneeling on the ground, trembling like a lump of mud.

His eyes turned completely cold and disgusted.

"Wash dishes in my restaurant? Your hands, stained with scheming and filth, dare to touch my plates?"

Sha Zhu turned his head and spoke to the security guards standing to the side, his voice as cold and hard as iron.

"Get him out of here!"

"From now on, if he dares to appear within fifty meters of Hongbinlou Restaurant, beat him every time you see him!"

"Yes, Mr. He!"

Several burly security guards immediately pounced on them like wolves.

They roughly dragged Yi Zhonghai off the ground like a dead dog.

"No! Pillar! You can't be so heartless! I'm your uncle!"

Yi Zhonghai cried out in despair, his legs kicking wildly in the air.

But the security guards completely ignored him, treating him like a bag of stinking garbage.

Without any mercy, they threw him far away to the side of a stinking ditch in the street.

"Bang!"

The back door of the restaurant was slammed shut.

This completely silenced Yi Zhonghai's final cries of despair.

Yi Zhonghai slumped down in the cold, dirty water.

Looking at that tightly closed door, a symbol of wealth and status.

He finally realized that he had truly been completely abandoned in this lifetime.

Faced with the wheels of time and the overwhelming power of Zhang Huaimin's dimensional-reducing tactics, he, a petty person who relies on scheming and underhanded tactics, is utterly insignificant.

In the end, they could only suffer the tragic fate of freezing and starving to death on the streets.

At the same time.

At the very top of Wangfujing Street, on the top floor of the Future Technology Group headquarters building.

In front of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows.

Zhang Huaimin was wearing a well-tailored casual suit and holding a glass of red wine.

His gaze, however, did not fall upon the bustling night view outside the window.

Instead, he stared intently at the enormous curved holographic display screen on the office wall, which occupied an entire wall.

on the screen.

The green data cascaded down like a waterfall.

That's a real-time candlestick chart of the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index.

The stock code representing Future Technology (International) Holdings is experiencing an extremely drastic fluctuation.

Countless massive amounts of unexplained funds are like a group of crazed, bloodthirsty sharks.

With a terrifying aura of destruction, it surged into the board from all directions.

"Chairman Zhang!"

Shen Miaozhu walked in quickly, her expression anxious, as she wore high heels.

He held a newly printed urgent report in his hand.

"It's been investigated!"

"It's Ichiro Sato!"

"He joined forces with dozens of top short-selling firms on Wall Street and mobilized a massive amount of funds exceeding 50 billion US dollars."

Shen Miaozhu took a deep breath, her eyes serious.

"They are shorting our Hong Kong-listed companies in an all-out, no-holds-barred manner!"

"This is tantamount to destroying our international financial chains!"