After being discharged from the military and returning home, Chen Zhiyuan invested all his savings, leveraged connections and ran errands to help his impoverished childhood friend Wang Jianjun secure the staff cafeteria contract of the county building materials factory. When the cafeteria began thriving, Wang Jianjun and his wife Liu Hongmei turned greedy. They forced Chen Zhiyuan out by offering merely 80,000 yuan for his initial investment. Chen Zhiyuan withdrew calmly, taking with him credibility, supply channels and regular customers. In pursuit of higher profits, the Wangs substituted inferior ingredients and imposed arbitrary rules. Their reputation quickly crumbled, and they lost all patrons. Eventually, their cafeteria contract was revoked. Burdened with debts and deserted by everyone, the couple fell from prosperous contractors back to destitution, reaping what they sowed.
