Chapter 3
After we signed a new lease and involved a local designer to create drawings for Oliva’s design, we started construction. One night around 9pm, he called me to tell me that we had been cheated because the hole in the wall is fake and may be connected to our neighbor. I was shocked and kept asking how this could happen.
Oliva laughed, saying he knew something would happen because it’s China, and he is happy to have a partner who is under the same stress as him now. He had been lonely in a similar case before.
Then we have to postpone the construction schedule for the next day and have a café meeting to discuss the lease we signed and find solutions. The lease clearly states that the landlord promises a legal exhaust system for us, with a penalty clause. If we follow the penalty clause, then we will waste time and lose our construction down payment. If we continue moving forward, how can we obtain approval for a hot cooking facility with an exhaust system? This is a painful and stressful moment.
Suddenly, I remember Ms. Zhang from the environmental bureau of that area because I have known her since another project.After several stressful meetings, our solutions for the next steps are here.
Meanwhile.We have to push for the penalty clause from landlord Huang because if we don’t, we might be seen as weak and could face more issues in the future. I followed up with landlord Huang by phone to discuss why he lied to us and find a solution. After several rounds of pushing, landlord Huang agreed to pay the penalty according to the contract, and he insists that his hole for the pipe is real. Why he pays penalty to us then? Face problems.
We invited my contact, Ms. Zhang from the environment bureau, to help with our situation. Luckily, Ms. Zhang is friendly towards foreigners and me. She said that it’s a pipe issue in the building and we need to promise not to complain to the neighbors. We obtained approval for hot food.
So we placed the exhaust system behind an air conditioner and I started visiting the property management office. The manager, Mr. Yu, is an experienced guy with a noticeable difference in size between his eyes. Olivia said he looks like a pirate with a hook hand. Mr. Yu has the same pronunciation as “fish” in Chinese, so we started calling him Mr. Fish. We prepared fruits for Mr. Fish and after several times, he felt that we were polite and young. He said he was fine with our restaurant except for complaints from strong neighbors.
Luckily, the neighbor behind our shop is a company that doesn’t usually work at night.
After we obtained the environmental license, we encountered another leaking issue that caused damage to the garage. Mr. Fish from the management office yelled at us and halted the construction. Once again, we had to make amends by offering more apologies. He was nice to us again.
After a leakage incident, our FDA application was rejected due to the placement of a toilet next to the clean food line, posing a risk of contamination according to the policy at that time. We were once again shocked as the construction of the toilet was nearly complete.