Novel
Madam Shen makes a last, desperate play to seize the ancestral kitchen ledger and reassert family control, but Luo Chen refuses and turns the room into a chain-of-custody trap. Shen Yulian openly confirms the broken seal and matching appendix numbers, crossing into evidentiary risk, while the bank liaison’s call forces the financing issue into the open. Luo Chen then exposes specific supplier-mark and appendix mismatches that implicate the altered valuation chain, leaving Shen Guohai exposed and Madam Shen cornered. By the end, Madam Shen realizes Luo Chen holds the only clean paper trail capable of saving the restaurant’s name before the tender deadline, and the chapter sets up the final sealed-bid confrontation.
The rosewood table, usually a symbol of the Shen family's enduring legacy, now felt like a polished execution block. In the private meeting room, the warm lights did little to dispel the chill cast by the city tender clock on Qin Zhen's tablet. Each digit that clicked away on the screen was a hammer blow, counting down the restaurant's final minutes under Madam Shen's control.
Madam Shen sat at the head of the table, spine rigid, chin lifted. Her hands, usually