Chapter 438: The Apprentice Comes
The next task can be left to his son. Li Chengzhi has already learned about issues such as location selection for a hot pot restaurant, and as a college student, he is much better at thinking than Li Shengli himself.

After resting at home for two days, Li Shengli was preparing to continue thinking about how to expand the scale of his business. At this time, he suddenly heard Xiaohui, the lobby manager of his hotel, tell him that his apprentice Tian Shulin was looking for him.

This made Li Shengli very curious. Logically speaking, his apprentice had good skills and the restaurant he opened should have expanded by now. Why did he come to him at this time? Could it be that he encountered some difficulties?

And from what Xiaohui said, his apprentice is now very haggard, which makes Li Shengli a little confused. He remembers that his apprentice seemed to have opened a shop with Liu Xikui. Could there be some twists and turns in this?

Considering that he was his apprentice, Li Shengli drove to his restaurant.

"Where is the person now?" As soon as Li Shengli entered the hotel, he saw Xiaohui who was busy in the lobby. Li Shengli did not exchange too many pleasantries with her, just said hello and went straight to the point.

"In the conference room upstairs."

"Okay, you continue with your work, I'll go over and take a look." Li Shengli casually turned the car keys hanging in his hand, then walked upstairs.

This elegant scene aroused the envy of the new waiters.

When Li Shengli arrived at the reception room, he saw Tian Shulin, who had an unshaven beard and looked a little decadent.

"Shu Lin, what's wrong with you?" Li Shengli's tone was a little lukewarm. He had been good enough to your disciple. Normally, when he taught him, he just asked him to do some chores. It could be said that Li Shengli had done nothing wrong to his two disciples.

"Master, I..." Tian Shulin pursed his lips, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

"Just tell me what you have to say. Since you are my apprentice, I will help you if I can."

If it was just borrowing money, Li Shengli wouldn't care about it. After all, he was his apprentice. With his skills, he would be able to pay it back sooner or later as long as he didn't do anything illegal.

"It's like this, didn't I open a shop with my senior brother Liu Xikui before?" Tian Shulin began to explain to Li Shengli in detail why he had become like this now.

It turns out that when Liu Xikui opened a shop with Tian Shulin, he worked honestly in the beginning and his skills improved greatly. Although he was not as good as Tian Shulin, he had no problem making common home-cooked dishes.

Tian Shulin saw that the store of the two was becoming more and more prosperous, so he began to think about expanding the scale. Even Liu Xikui wanted to make a career.

So Liu Xikui and Tian Shulin used the current restaurant as collateral, borrowed money from the bank, and bought the shop next door, more than doubling the size of the entire restaurant.

"Isn't this a good thing? As long as you two can work hard, this restaurant will definitely grow bigger and bigger." After hearing this, Li Shengli also thought that there was nothing wrong with the choice of these two people. Even he would expand the scale of his business when business is booming.

"Master, but this is where the problem lies." Tian Shulin felt unwilling when he mentioned what happened later.

This aroused Li Shengli's curiosity. The next possibility was that the restaurant business was bad, or the customer had contracted some bad illness, or something happened to someone in the family. The most unlikely thing was that the store used inferior ingredients and there was a food safety problem.

Sure enough, Tian Shulin's subsequent narration proved Li Shengli's guess.

What happened later was not caused by Tian Shulin, but by Liu Xikui.

No one knew what kind of drug Liu Xikui had given Tian Shulin, but in any case, Liu Xikui had a share in their expanded store business. After the expansion, the two of them had a honeymoon period, and the restaurant business was still booming.

What Tian Shulin didn't expect was that Liu Xikui had become addicted to gambling at some point, and he didn't work properly every day, which affected the restaurant's business.

There is nothing wrong with Liu Xikui's cooking skills, but he is not focused on cooking and always makes some low-level mistakes when cooking.

In order to make up for these, Tian Shulin had to work harder, but he became more and more dissatisfied with Liu Xikui. You know, when Liu Xikui came out of the steel rolling mill, no one took him in, only Tian Shulin took him in.

The two of them ended up having a big fight, but that was not the worst. Liu Xikui was still a bad guy and eventually he owed a huge gambling debt. Then he mortgaged the entire restaurant when Tian Shulin wasn't paying attention.

That’s not all. Not only did he mortgage the restaurant, he also borrowed some money and ran away.

Now people go to his restaurant to collect debts every day. Even though Tian Shulin explained to them that the money was not borrowed by him, these people who borrowed the money don't care about that. Liu Xikui is gone, so who else can they go to if not Tian Shulin, since Tian Shulin is the boss of this restaurant.

"So what's the purpose of your visit this time?" Li Shengli didn't quite understand why Tian Shulin came to him. He could lend him money, but it was not certain that his restaurant would be able to continue operating for such a long time.

These little thugs go there to cause trouble every day. Most people can't accept this. If he backs down this time, he might become an ATM for those little thugs.

"Master, I plan to pay people back their money first and then sell the restaurant." Tian Shulin had no other choice. Liu Xikui had a stake in his restaurant. If Liu Xikui did something evil again, he really wouldn't be able to bear it.

He also did some calculations and decided that after he closed the restaurant and sold it, the money would be enough to pay back the bank and his debts. His most important thing now was to get the deed back from the owner.

"Can't you just say that your property title deed was lost and you need to reissue it? Then you can just close your restaurant. These bills are not owed by you, so why should you be responsible for them?" Li Shengli didn't quite understand what Tian Shulin was thinking.

"I don't want to pay it back, but these people have already found my home." He had no other choice, because Liu Xikui did not borrow the money in his own name, but in the name of the hotel.

"Well, OK, I can lend it to you." For Li Shengli, borrowing money is not a big deal. "Shu Lin, I can lend you money, and you can pay it back slowly, but you also have to know that this is almost the end."

Every time, it was these two apprentices who came to him for something. In the end, was he finding two apprentices or two ancestors? They were no better than his new apprentices, because at least they worked in his own restaurant.

"I understand, Master, I'm sorry to trouble you." Tian Shulin certainly knew that this would be the last time.

"By the way, Master, I have another piece of news that you might be interested in." Tian Shulin was relieved after achieving his goal. Only then did he remember a piece of gossip that his master might be very interested in.

"Oh? What?" Li Shengli was a little curious.

"When Liu Xikui went to gamble, he met a man in the casino. He was the son of Qin Huairu who used to work in our factory."

Li Shengli was happy to hear this. He was thinking about having someone break Banggeng's legs, but now that's not necessary. No one who gets addicted to gambling will have a good ending.

(End of this chapter)