Chapter 2027: Theft

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Qian’e spent a lot of money to settle and suppress this matter. However, the reputation of the factory’s popcorn was already tarnished and business deteriorated day by day.

When this issue was no longer in the limelight, Qian’e finally had time to investigate the source of the matter. She did not expect the problem to lie with Ding Xiang!

“Tell us! How did the recipe for the popcorn get leaked! How did your brothers know how our factory made the popcorn! If you don’t make things clear! I’ll send you to the police station! On account that we are old friends with Zhao Fei, you’d better tell us the truth!” Qian’e said angrily.

“I didn’t leak the recipe! My brothers figured it out themselves! What can I do!” Ding Xiang said as she pretended to be aggrieved.

What Ding Xiang did was just to demonstrate how to make popcorn in front of them. As for how much they understood and learnt, it was up to them. She did not consider this a leak of information.

“Nonsense!” Qian’e roared.

Their products were already being sold widely in the country, but they also had to keep launching new products, otherwise consumers would start to lose interest. Once that happened and sales decreased over time, they would earn less money than before. If their competitors made a move to take over their market share during such a time, that could lead to a challenging situation. Qian’e would never allow such a thing to happen.

She specially set up a “Creative Department” and recruited many experts with extensive culinary knowledge to come to the factory to develop new flavors.

It was only then that Qian’e realized that the taste of the products in the factory had never been dependent on the ratio of the seasonings, but on the quality of the base ingredients. What was most important was the ingredients and not the ratio.

Ding Xiang and her brothers also realized the same thing. They started with white sugar and corn, but the taste of the popcorn they made was very different from the taste of the popcorn produced by Qiao Mei’s factory. If they continued to make it their way, they would not be able to make any money at all. Hence, they spent a lot of money to buy butter but of poorer quality. Although it seemed similar, the taste of the popcorn was still far from the real thing.

Even though they wanted to buy the same type of butter as Qiao Mei, they did not have that much money. The cost of good butter was too high and a small workshop like theirs could not afford it at all.

The warehouse where the seasonings and seeds were kept had always been guarded by the security team hired by Qian’e. Nothing had ever gone wrong all these years. When the popcorn business was handed over to Ding Xiang and Zhao Fei, Qian’e left all the decisions to them and the guards started to take instructions from the couple.

Just before the new year, Ding Xiang suddenly came to the factory and told the guards at the door that they could go home for the festivities. She said that she and Zhao Fei would take over the job tonight.

Since Ding Xiang was their boss, the guards did not raise any objections. Everyone thought that she was such a rare and nice boss and they thought even more highly of her. That day, all the guards left the factory feeling satisfied, but that very night, the seasonings in the warehouse disappeared without a trace.

By the time Qian’e and the others made their way back to the factory, the entire warehouse was empty and they only saw Ding Xiang lying unconscious on the floor. Blood was still flowing out from the back of Ding Xiangs head and it scared Qian’e so much that she took out her portion of medicinal wine to save Ding Xiang. When Qian’e thought about that incident now, she felt that she had wasted such good medicinal wine!

“I thought that you were really attacked by thieves that day, but it’s clear to me now! It was actually all part of your arrangements!” Qian’e said.

“I was really knocked unconscious! Why would I endanger my own life! Those people must have been targeting me for a long time! They came to steal things while I was guarding the place alone!” Ding Xiang said.

“Hmph, why are you alone when there are so many warehouses to guard! Do you dare to say that you did not purposely give the guards the night off? This is what makes you such a vicious woman. You can even be so ruthless to yourself, what more to us,” Qian’e said mockingly.

That night, Ding Xiang had asked her brothers to enter Qiao Mei’s warehouse to take all the butter. They did not take Qiao Mei’s corn seeds because firstly, it would take time for the seeds to grow and they did not have that much time. Secondly, they had all grown up in the city and did not know how to farm. The seeds were useless to them..