Novel
At the ancestral Shen family restaurant, Luo Chen, the live-in son-in-law, is publicly humiliated and relegated to the kitchen door while his family, led by Madam Shen and Shen Guohai, prepares to finalize a rigged auction for the restaurant with intermediary Qin Zhen. The city tender deadline looms, and the family dismisses Luo Chen's quiet queries about the valuation register. Despite their attempts to sideline him, Luo Chen's sharp observation reveals that the sealed bid records and valuation register have been tampered with, specifically noting a crucial missing signatory, confirming the auction is not just rigged but built on a deliberate omission, undermining its legitimacy.
Luo Chen stood by the kitchen door, a tray in his hands, a prop in his own home. The front hall of the ancestral restaurant, usually bustling with dinner service, was dressed for a different kind of business. Old carved screens gleamed. The round mahogany table held a tea service, a lacquered bid folder, and three copies of the valuation register under a glass paperweight shaped like a fish. Everything looked polished enough to lie.