"You're the one who couldn't control your mouth, yet you make others bear the consequences. How selfish of you!"

"What makes you any different from your half-brothers?"

Li Xiangdong really couldn't understand these people. Did they really think that he would rather betray the world than let the world betray him?

Technician Zhao's expression darkened. "What evidence do you have?"

Li Xiangdong leaned back confidently. "Anything done leaves a trace. Do you really think I have no evidence at all?"

"Besides, do you really need solid evidence to bring someone down?"

"When you teamed up with Zhang Anguo, did you have any concrete evidence?"

"Did my father really embezzle and accept bribes, and have problems with his lifestyle?"

"When you dealt with my father, did you say he was suspected of having the above problems and then send him back to his hometown?"

"When you helped the deputy factory director get promoted, did you ever think that one day others would feel you knew too much and want to get rid of you?"

Technician Zhao's psychological defenses crumbled completely at this moment. "What exactly do you want?! Did Li Jin send you? Why didn't he come himself?"

"My father never wants to see a despicable person like you again!"

"Am I a villain? Isn't he? Didn't he tell me that I was drunk and didn't say anything? Why did he still tell others?"

Technician Zhao was hysterical, his face contorted with rage.

"So many years have passed, have you been punished for this? I'm here to avenge my father, who was a virtuous man!"

Li Xiangdong suddenly stood up and approached him until he was forced to sit slumped on the ground.

"What do you want? Tell me!"

Technician Zhao looked ten years older in an instant.

Li Xiangdong tapped the table with his index finger and slowly said, "Give me the secret recipe for Yifengyuan's pickles. I won't mention your background again."

"You, you....."

After struggling for a moment, Technician Zhao got up and returned to the kitchen bedroom. Without avoiding Li Xiangdong, he took out a blue book from a hole under the bed.

"Here you go. This thing has kept me living in fear for over a decade. Take it and don't bother me again."

Li Xiangdong took the blue book, flipped through it, and found it was made of Xuan paper from decades ago, with neat handwriting recording more than a hundred kinds of pickle recipes.

Sure enough, the last page contained an improved recipe for Huichuan preserved vegetables.

Li Xiangdong contentedly stuffed the book into his pocket, got up, dusted off his clothes (which weren't actually dust), left him a message, and departed.

"If you've never done anything wrong, you won't be afraid of ghosts knocking at your door in the middle of the night. From now on, do less things that go against your conscience!"

Stepping out of the Zhao family's tenement building, it was already close to noon. The sun was casting a rather unfriendly light, and the northwest wind felt chilly on my face.

Li Xiangdong sighed inwardly, never expecting that Li Jin was the real naive and innocent one.

Just now, the old man across the street told him that the current winery manager hasn't accomplished much in managing the factory, but he's quite adept at personnel struggles.

He was originally Li Jin's deputy, and also the deputy of the previous director of the winery. He served as the second-in-command for more than ten years before being promoted to the top position.

Before the previous director of the winery left, he was the most popular candidate to be promoted to the top position, but then Li Jin was parachuted in. He endured another five or six years before Li Jin finally left.

What I just told Technician Zhao, although it was Li Xiangdong's own speculation, judging from Technician Zhao's reaction, it may not be entirely wrong, but it's not far off!

His initial plan was to buy the secret formula from Technician Zhao at a reasonable price.

However, since Technician Zhao falsely accused Li Jin, he deserves this secret recipe as a small compensation for the harm he suffered.

Li Xiangdong went straight to Zhang Yusong's house. He had just agreed with Li Xiangchao that they would come to Zhang Yusong's house to move their things after they got their divorce certificate!

Sure enough, as soon as he arrived at the door, he saw his own people carrying stools, tables, and wardrobes onto the small card.

Li Xiangdong found Li Jin, who was directing things inside the house, and asked Li Jinshan and Li Dagu to watch over him. He then pulled Li Jin into an empty room.

What were you doing just now?

"Dad, look what this is?"

Li Xiangdong took out the secret recipe and showed it to Li Jin. Li Jin's eyebrows twitched sharply. "You went to see Technician Zhao?"

"Yes!" Li Xiangdong briefly explained the whole story to Li Jin and shared his guesses with him.

To everyone's surprise, Li Jin wasn't surprised at all. "I guessed it myself, and that's probably how it is."

As he spoke, he gave a self-deprecating laugh, "It's all my fault for misjudging people, mistaking a bunch of scoundrels for my own family."

"Father, now is not the time to blame ourselves. We've come all this way to Yongxing, shouldn't we settle both our old and new scores together?"

"What do you suggest we do?"

"Technician Zhao contributed a secret formula, the future value of which is immeasurable. I have already promised to forgive him. It's this Zhang Anguo! He's utterly despicable!"

Li Xiangdong thought for a moment, "It's been so long, there's no point in reasoning with him. Why don't we just smash up his house and vent our anger!"

So, after taking away the last piece of honeycomb briquette from the Zhang family, they had Zhang Yusong lead the way to Zhang An's house.

Zhang's eldest daughter, Da Ni, born to Zhang's stepmother, married a man in Yilan, Northeast China. This year, she brought her whole family back to visit her parents.

The biological mother and stepfather first went to look for the brother's wife, but they couldn't find her. They said the two had gone to get a divorce. The stepfather, with a gloomy face, stayed in the house by himself and didn't even show his face.

Da Ni was a little unhappy and complained to her mother, who was cooking in the kitchen, "I told you we wouldn't come, but you insisted on calling us! What kind of situation is this! The Mo Pan couple didn't even show their faces, and they said they were going to get a divorce. Is this divorce just to show us?"

"And then there's my stepfather, his face is so long it almost reaches his ankles. If he doesn't want to host our family of six, he should just say so!"

"Let's go back to Northeast China right now!"

Hearing her daughter's complaints, Zhang's stepmother interrupted her softly, "Don't talk nonsense! How could we not want to entertain you! Didn't you see? Mopan was beaten black and blue by Dalanzi's family! I just went to Mopan's house with your father, and good heavens! Two large cartloads of people from Dalanzi's family came, demanding that Mopan get a divorce!"

Dani forgot all about complaining and asked repeatedly, "Are you really getting a divorce? Why? How will Dalanzi live after the divorce?"

"Who knows? Maybe her family found her another husband! She didn't get a dowry when she married Mopan, so maybe she'll get one in her second marriage!"

Da Ni didn't like hearing her mother say that. "Mom, you're also remarrying. I suffered so much when I was little! Now that Xiao Huan'er is about to end up like me, you're still making sarcastic remarks!"

Zhang's stepmother gently patted her daughter, "Don't talk nonsense. Can Da Lanzi compare to me?"

As the mother and daughter were talking, they heard a loud "bang" outside!