There's a saying that goes something like this: beautiful women deceive, and the more beautiful they are, the more they deceive.

However, this saying clearly doesn't state that beautiful women can't be deceived…

Before evening, while having an early dinner in a room on the second floor of the restaurant, Olivia had already been successfully led astray by Lina.

She seemed to think that the partners of the Detective Agency were concocting some kind of “Justice Investigation Team,” specifically to investigate wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice, “speaking for the living and advocating for the dead.”

At this moment, the unfinished exterior wall on the first floor of the restaurant had been temporarily sealed with vertical wooden boards, and with the help of the maid squad, the hall had been thoroughly cleaned again.

However, such a “construction site” was still unsuitable for receiving a potential big client like Olivia.

So, the Detective Agency temporarily moved tables and chairs over, laid tablecloths, and placed flower vases, which barely met the “standards” in the eyes of the housekeeper.

Space was limited, and only Olivia and the three partners could sit at the small dining table; even Emma had to be taken away by Willie first.

This coincidentally created an “information cocoon,” temporarily trapping Olivia inside.

“I see. Although you have now clarified the facts and the murderer has confessed privately, there is currently not enough evidence to overturn the case, so you need to take other methods to collect evidence.”

Olivia quickly accepted the premise and even seemed a bit “eager to help.” “It’s a pity that Father specifically instructed me when he came this time to forbid family members from getting involved in Virginia’s local affairs without authorization, otherwise I would also like to help.”

Wayne was not very surprised by Olivia’s “enthusiasm.”

After all, Olivia had a history of interacting with the Underground Railroad organization and was even kidnapped because of it, so it was normal for her to feel sympathy for the deceased and the wronged.

He hadn't actually intended to involve the Fisk Family—the favors of these old wealthy families might be “easy to borrow,” but not necessarily “easy to repay,” as there would be a large group of people behind them helping to “offer advice” and “vet.”

However, just then the housekeeper brought the team to serve the dishes. Looking at the sliced lunch meat served on large plates, made in a way that ordinary people couldn't afford, Wayne still couldn't help but join the ranks of “overdrawing favors”:

“Actually, if Olivia wants to help, she doesn’t necessarily have to use the family’s name. First, try this dish and see what you think?”

Upon hearing this, Olivia elegantly picked up her knife and fork, cut the already small slices of lunch meat into smaller pieces, and then dipped them into the sauce that had been shaped with a spoon beside it. “Hmm… this should be some kind of meat-based pastry. The texture is quite unique, and the taste is rather novel…”

To translate, this was probably a subtle and polite way of saying “not very good.”

After speaking, her gaze turned to him, seemingly waiting for Wayne to continue with the rest.

Wayne was slightly disappointed by Olivia’s evaluation, but he continued to speak according to the planned script:

“I plan to name this ‘lunch meat’ and reduce the proportion of meat in it, increasing the starch content, so that it becomes a meat substitute that even financially struggling people can easily purchase, and then promote it in the Dock Area. If we can arrange people to conduct visits under the guise of promoting this product, it should help with the case investigation.”

The so-called “lunch meat” in this era actually referred to cold cuts eaten at luncheons by people of the middle class and above, such as sliced ham or smoked meat, considered a “luxury for the upper class”—working-class people in those days usually didn't eat lunch much, or just made do with a few bites, and meat usually appeared in the evening meal.

Giving such a product name to “meat-containing starch food” was actually intentionally “piggybacking on traffic,” trying to elevate its status.

Olivia thought for a moment after listening, “What do you want me to do?”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Wayne explained. “If you don’t mind, I hope to get your authorization, for example, allowing us to promote it as ‘a delicacy recommended by Olivia,’ for the purpose of better promotion. We are not selling it to make money, but we can extract a portion of the profits as your endorsement fee.”

Strictly speaking, this still leveraged a bit of the “Fisk Family’s” prestige, but “personal preference” and “family certification” were two different things after all, not too much like a fox borrowing a tiger’s might, and easy to separate.

If it weren’t for the fact that there were no household-name movie stars in this era, and the poor had no chance to watch musicals or anything, Wayne wouldn’t have thought of using the name of an “upper-class young lady” to open up sales—if all else failed, he would do it himself, saying it was “a delicacy recommended by the great detective,” but he always felt it would be slightly lacking.

Olivia seemed to realize this as well, hesitating slightly, “Will doing this really help clarify the wrongful case?”

Wayne did not hesitate about this. “Of course. The Dock Area is so large, and there are definitely more than one or two small gangs within it. If things go smoothly, not only can the truth of this case be revealed. Perhaps we can also discover evidence of other gangs’ crimes, combat more evil, and fundamentally prevent similar wrongful cases from happening again.”

Looking at Wayne’s confident expression, Olivia pondered for a moment, “If that’s the case, then I am willing to help. But you can only promote it as my personal recommendation, and cannot use our family’s name.”

“Thank you very much!” Wayne then continued to ask, “So, regarding the proportion of the endorsement fee…”

Given the Fisk Family’s reputation and status in the South, this was probably similar to the food stories of “Emperor Qianlong’s travels to the south.”

The fast-food restaurant intended to rely on “taste” and “quality” as its selling points and didn't need such gimmicks. Instead, the “lunch meat” had a temperament that better matched this style.

Olivia clearly believed that the sales of such a product would not be widespread, and she didn't care about these small amounts of money. “No need, and I can also help you promote it at social dances. However, I think… it might not be particularly popular.”

Wayne was already content with this and smiled and nodded upon hearing her words, “This is already more than enough. If the profits are indeed considerable, we can discuss the endorsement fee later.”

…

Dinner was early because they had to accommodate Olivia’s schedule; she had been very busy these past few days and was still attending a ball in the evening.

However, Olivia was indeed reliable; she had the housekeeper pack up the remaining lunch meat products, saying she planned to take them to the ball for everyone to taste, so that when Wayne and his team promoted it later, it wouldn't sound like one-sided “rumors.”

After seeing Olivia and her entourage off, Wayne pulled Parker to the back kitchen to continue researching the affordable version of the lunch meat recipe.

The meat and the cured ham used for flavor enhancement could later be replaced with cheaper scraps, and further improvements could be made in the future, but the specific recipe could be refined and compared now. If it weren't for the chef who could tirelessly turn meat into mince, this step alone would be exhausting.

However, watching Wayne continuously add flour to the mold, and even directly throw peeled potatoes into the bowl for the chef to mash into a paste, several of the resulting products had weak meaty flavors and soft, mushy textures, which undoubtedly posed a huge challenge to the chef's culinary sensibilities: “Sir… why don’t you go back and rest? I can handle the recipe research alone…”

Yet, Wayne had his own insistence, “I’ve roughly calculated that the meat mincing and mixing processes can later be done by renting a windmill and using modified equipment, which can further reduce costs. But the meat content must not exceed the proportion I set, otherwise, it will be difficult to achieve the target cost—you can only improve the taste based on this requirement.”

Inessa and Lina were also in the kitchen at this time, but they were sitting at the prep table a little further from the stove.

Wayne, while busy supervising the chef, would occasionally jog over when free to share the day's investigation findings with them.

After initially confirming that the intelligence from both sides largely matched—the physical characteristics of the “suspicious person” described by witnesses were similar to that of the small gang leader—Inessa was also a bit curious why Wayne was suddenly so eager to tinker with new things. She turned to Lina and asked, “Is this a new product to be launched at the fast-food restaurant? And he even specifically asked Olivia to help promote it.”

“This should be something else,” Lina first shook her head, then her eyes rolled around twice. “But I think I have a rough idea of what he wants to do.”

Inessa was always eager to learn, so she asked when unclear, “Just as he said, to combat the gang indirectly?”

Lina smiled slyly, “I guess after he went around today, he found that the gang there was not large and their members weren't very formidable, so now he probably wants to become the ‘King of the Dock Area.’”