Rebirth: She is Ready for a Counterattack!-Chapter 248 - 247: Verifying the Recipe (Part 3)

"Are you Shang Wenming?"

The police looked at the person in front of them and couldn’t help but frown. They didn’t expect such a mess here. Initially, they thought Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot and Gu Family Spicy Old Hot Pot were the same store, which was why there was talk of the recipe.

But today, upon hearing this young lady’s words, it turns out Gu Family Spicy Old Hot Pot isn’t from the same family, so this adds another layer of commercial secrets to the problem.

Shang Wenming tremblingly stepped forward and said, "I am Shang Wenming."

"Was it you who took 200,000 from someone to sell Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot’s Haidilao recipe to Gu Rushan?"

The police showed a bit of disdain. Who could have goodwill toward people who steal commercial secrets for huge profits?

This young police officer felt sorry for Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot; they had an inside traitor.

Shang Wenming opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say.

"Is it true or not?"

A stern shout, the police couldn’t stand people who were like parasites.

Shang Wenming was so frightened he quickly said, "Yes, yes, I sold it to Gu Rushan."

Denying was not an option. Gu Rushan had transferred money to him, and there were bank records of it. Even if he denied it, the police could still investigate and find out.

Gu Rushan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Shang Wenming admitted it, the matter would be cleared up.

He would have no responsibility.

There was an uproar among the journalists.

"Who is this Shang Wenming?"

"How could he have access to the core Haidilao recipe?"

"Yeah, 200,000 indeed."

"It’s quite a big move. Gu Family Spicy Old Hot Pot really paid a lot."

The police looked at Gu Xiaoqing and said, "Since the recipe came from your side, we certainly have the right to investigate your recipe issue to prevent more consumers from being harmed."

"Moreover, the epidemic center’s results show that once the recipe is proven to come from your side, your Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot will bear all the responsibility, including criminal liability."

Gu Xiaoqing remained calm and said, "Officer, since you say so, I don’t want to argue. I just want to say that Shang Wenming is merely a supervisor at our Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot, neither the boss nor a chef here, not even a chef, could access the recipe.

So, I want to ask how did this recipe get leaked out?"

Once these words were out, the staff immediately started talking, "Yeah, Shang Wenming was demoted to a supervisor by our boss. The spice room is inaccessible, only the Zhang Brothers have keys to go in and out. How could he have stolen the secret recipe? Isn’t this nonsense and trying to put the blame on our boss?"

Everyone didn’t know other things, but they knew if this matter got tied to their Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot, the restaurant would be shut down, and they’d all lose their jobs.

The owners of Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot, Gu Ruhai and Li Xuemei, were kind people, always friendly to the staff, not stingy bosses, nor the kind who treat waiters poorly and boss them around.

No one wanted such nice bosses to end up like this.

Shang Wenming saw the police glaring at him and felt guilt-ridden, but how could he explain it? He couldn’t say he sneakily entered the spice room, but he couldn’t clarify the issue with the secret recipe.

The internal struggle was real; what to do?

"What’s going on? Shang Wenming, your boss doesn’t admit you have access to the Haidilao recipe, how do you explain? Did you secretly make a fake Haidilao recipe to sell?"

The police couldn’t help but suspect. Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot’s Haidilao had been sold for a long time, yet no one had complained about getting sick. However, Gu Family Spicy Old Hot Pot claimed there was something wrong with their recipe, but the seller of the recipe had no access to it. The only explanation was the recipe was fake.

Shang Wenming was anxious. If the police confirmed he forged the recipe, everything would fall on him.

Not to mention he couldn’t repay so much, plus he would go to jail.

At his prime age, who would want to go to jail?

Quickly he said, "It’s not like that. I secretly made a copy of the key to the spice room, sneaked in at night when no one was around, and took down the recipes and proportions from the cabinet in the spice room."

This was directly exposing everything.

The police’s eyes showed more disdain.

"Miss Gu, it seems we still have to verify your recipe issue."

The police continued to say to Gu Xiaoqing.

This matter went back to square one; it had to be confirmed whether the secret recipe originated from Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot.

Gu Xiaoqing smiled and said, "Officer, now that it has come to this, whatever I say seems less convincing than if you saw the actual recipe. But you should know our recipe is a secret, not something found everywhere. If everyone sees it today, Haidilao wouldn’t be a secret; everyone could make it. For those of us doing business relying on secret recipes, the loss would be immense. You should understand

So, I hope only limited people can see this secret recipe, like the officers and the epidemic center people. We do not admit there’s any flaw in our recipe because it has gone through hundreds of trials. How could we serve customers without our own testing?

So, a simple comparison can reveal the truth."

The police nodded. They were right.

One couldn’t expose their secret recipe due to possibly being falsely accused. With so many journalists here, soon, Haidilao would be everywhere.

So Gu Xiaoqing took the police and two from the epidemic center into the spice room and carefully copied down the recipes on the cabinet.

The epidemic center compared the previous recipe with this one and found issues, as the two and Gu Xiaoqing came out.

Gu Rushan hurriedly came forward and said, "Officer, see, this recipe is from Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot, not our Gu Family Spicy Old Hot Pot; it has nothing to do with us. At most, we just bought a secret recipe, but it has nothing to do with us."

The police raised the papers in their hand and said, "We just compared the secret recipes with the epidemic center folks, even compared each ingredient, and the center confirmed the two recipes are completely different.

Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot’s recipe is safe, with no harmful effects on the body. Many of the herbs in Gu Family Spicy Hot Pot’s Haidilao recipe actually have beneficial effects on the body." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to vote for recommendations and monthly votes on Qidian.com; your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)