In Manhattan's Chinatown, Jason's restaurant was once again booked out today. This time it was not because the Lee family had something to celebrate, but because they asked Harry to pay to book the entire restaurant.
Because there were some important things that needed to be done in this restaurant today.
Jason invited Tony and Pepper to dine here under the pretext of food tasting, and besides Tony and the other two, the only person invited was Harry.
Jason's excuse was that he had specially emptied the entire restaurant and was only accommodating Tony and the other person tonight, and Harry had come in early in the morning in the car that was used to purchase ingredients.
Jason didn't want to leak the news of Harry and Tony's private meeting. The secret meeting between the leaders of two super large groups was enough to cause a storm on Wall Street.
In order to arrange this meeting, Jason also dismissed all other employees in the restaurant, giving them all a day off but still paying them their salaries.
When Tony drove his car and brought Pepper to the restaurant, Jason had been waiting at the door of the restaurant for a long time.
"Welcome, Miss Pepper and Mr. Stark." Jason opened the car door for Pepper very gentlemanly.
"Thank you." Pepper smiled and returned the greeting to Jason.
Pepper's status was different now. Since Obadiah's death, Tony had handed over the responsibility of running Stark Industries to Pepper.
Now this woman had become a representative of strong women in the workplace. Time magazine and Vanity Fair had both featured her on their covers and published special reports on Pepper.
"Is this your family restaurant?" Tony looked at Mr. Lee. The scale of this restaurant seemed quite good, and it was in a good location in Manhattan's Chinatown.
"Yes, thank you, Mr. Tony, for accepting my invitation." Jason nodded with a smile, pushed open the door of the restaurant, and invited the two in.
"Oh, Jason should be thanking you for your invitation. Have you finally decided to open a formal restaurant?" Pepper said with a warm smile.
In fact, Pepper Potts was usually very kind to people. Only when she was dealing with emergencies or matters concerning Tony would she appear decisive and even a little ruthless.
"If you really want to run a restaurant, I believe you will be able to get a Michelin rating soon. I can even have Michelin gourmets send people to inspect your restaurant directly."
As a woman who had already reached the pinnacle of business, there was a kind of dominance in Pepper's words—the Michelin star that chefs all over the world dreamed of.
In her opinion, it was not difficult at all. Of course, this was also because the dishes cooked by Jason had conquered her and Tony's taste buds.
"Thank you, Miss Pepper, but at least now is not a good time." Jason shook his head and declined, because he knew how busy he was.
Because of special arrangements today, the entire hall had been prepared in advance, and many counters had been moved to the side.
An open stove and all the ingredients were available in the center of the lobby, and of course, there was a beautiful dining table for two.
Since Tony and Pepper had been asked to taste the dishes today, it was unlikely that Chinese food with a lot of oil smoke would be used, as this did not quite suit today's purpose.
Because if they wanted to cook Chinese food, they had to go into the kitchen, so the subsequent plans and the discussions that Jason had planned could not be carried out.
Apart from Jason and the other two, there was only one waiter at the scene who was dressed neatly and cleanly. To prevent his hair from falling into the dishes, the waiter also wore a baseball cap.
"It looks like you've prepared well today." Tony nodded, and he strode toward the dining table. The waiter professionally pulled out a chair for him.
Then a chair was pulled out for Pepper, who was a step late, and Pepper said thank you with a smile.
"So, what have you prepared today? Is there a menu?" Tony asked.
"Today's menu is all behind me." Jason pointed to the prepared ingredients behind him. "All the main dishes and vegetables are here. You can mix and match them as you like. I will make the most suitable dish."
"You're quite arrogant." Tony raised his eyebrows and said.
"This is a kind of confidence." Jason said with a smile.
Because Tony had come by car, he didn't drink. Although Tony used to be a heavy drinker, he now had much better self-control.
Jason prepared red stewed venison, white wine braised mussels, Marseille fish soup, and hummus, which Tony liked very much since he had eaten it last time, as well as some vegetables.
"I still think that you should open a formal restaurant instead of a food truck." Tony was holding a non-alcoholic cocktail that the waiter had just mixed. Well, why could a non-alcoholic cocktail be called a cocktail?
Tony's inner complaints were the same as when Jason drank it for the first time.
But the taste of the mixture was not bad. Now the meal had reached the final dessert part, and Jason provided rum-flavored cake.
Pepper liked the whole dessert very much. She tasted the cake with a specially prepared drink and said, "This drink is very well prepared. I think I should give you a special tip."
Pepper smiled and said to the waiter who had been serving her attentively and wanted to take out US dollars from her wallet to pay the waiter as a tip.
The waiter, who had been working with his head down, looked back at Jason, and Jason nodded.
"Thank you very much, Miss Pepper. You see, my father always tells me that I shouldn't do this. He thinks it's a waste of time." The waiter smiled and took the tip that Pepper handed to him.
At the same time, he took off the hat he had been wearing on his head. Only then could Pepper see the waiter's face clearly.
"Oh my God, it's you!" Pepper stood up in surprise.
Beautiful blonde hair and a handsome face, but this was not what surprised Pepper. What was really surprising was the identity of this young boy.
Norman Osborn's son and also the new chairman of the Osborn Group, a super-rich man with a net worth of hundreds of billions of dollars and the helmsman of a super company that could almost stand on equal footing with the Stark Group.
And Tony had actually finished a meal with his service? And he had even given him a tip? Oh my God! This was too ridiculous. Even Hollywood screenwriters wouldn't write such a plot.
"I think I've seen you there." Tony looked at Harry's face with a thoughtful expression. Well, Tony's memory of men was not very good, and he had never really interacted with Harry.
"Tony! This is the Chairman of the Osborn Corporation, Mr. Harry Osborn. I'm sorry, Mr. Osborn, I'm sorry for my disrespect just now. And I'm very sorry about what happened to your father."
Pepper would not look down on Harry because of his age. Now Pepper understood that today's dinner might not be that simple.
She looked at Jason with a vigilant look, and Jason immediately stood up. It was necessary to make things clear at this time, otherwise it would backfire.
"I'm sorry, both of you. I arranged this informal meeting in the hope of keeping the news more confidential." Jason stepped forward to explain.
"Harry is my friend. I think everyone knows about the big things that happened in the Osborn Group recently."
"Harry's current situation is not easy. He doesn't even have someone he can trust to help control the company. As a friend, Harry needs my help, so I specially arranged this dinner. I'm very sorry, both of you."
Jason said with a hint of apology. His introduction was actually a bit tricky, as Harry's current situation was very similar to Tony's back then.
Like him, his parents died when he was a teenager, leaving him with the burden of a super enterprise, but unlike Tony, he only remembered the burden he had after wandering around for several years.
Harry took up the burden directly, and since he did not have Tony's excellent scientific research intelligence, he faced more difficulties.
So he wanted to use this method to arouse some sympathy from Tony. Although there were no father and son in the business world, based on Jason's understanding of Tony, he knew that outside of science, Tony was a person who was more emotional than rational.
"So you're going to ask the chairman of the Osborn Group to make cocktails for us?" Tony said with a little displeasure, but he didn't get up and leave immediately. This was a good sign, which meant that he was willing to stay and communicate.
"I don't think this will help him manage the company, especially since Stark Group and Osborn Group are still in competition."
"Not anymore, Mr. Stark." Harry spoke out the words he had already organized as he and Jason had rehearsed before.
"What do you mean by 'no more'?" Compared to Tony's unruly demeanor, Pepper had a more sensitive business sense.
Harry knew that the real key this time was Pepper, the real manager of Stark Group, so he began to explain.
"Currently, the areas where the Osborn Group and the Stark Group compete most fiercely are military weapons and energy."
"The Osborn Group can withdraw from the competition in the field of new energy." Harry said the lines he had prepared long ago.
This was the result obtained after repeated analysis. Although bioenergy was not completely defenseless against Stark's new energy, it would become unprofitable in the competition.
Rather than lingering on in the future, it was better to abandon it now as a gesture of goodwill.
"What do you want to get?" Pepper didn't believe there was a free lunch in the world.
"Stark Group's share in the weapons field and its customer base recommendation." Harry said. "And in exchange, Osborn Group will exchange its energy channels with Stark Group."
This young man didn't look like a pretty boy, and Pepper's mouth curled up slightly. She didn't know that behind Harry, there was a harmless-looking cook who was giving him advice.
"Is there a more private space, Jason? I want to have a good chat with Mr. Osborn." Pepper asked.
"Of course, there is a secure office on the second floor. Harry knows where it is." Jason pointed upstairs.
"Tony, do you want to come too?" Pepper asked Tony, who was sitting in his seat drinking a mocktail.
"No need, you make the decision." Tony had never been interested in business negotiations.
Pepper and Harry turned and went upstairs. This was a very private business meeting that could potentially cause global financial fluctuations, so the fewer people who knew about it, the better.
Harry could trust Jason, but that didn't mean Pepper would trust him completely.
"So this is why you asked me to come here today? To connect the Stark Group and the Osborn Group?" Tony said, looking at Jason, who was cleaning the stove.
"In a small restaurant in Manhattan, two giants held a secret meeting arranged by you, and then the two giant companies reached a secret deal."
"If you succeed, what you did today will probably become a business legend." Tony put the wine glass on the table and said with a hint of playfulness.
"Are you really just a chef? Not a corporate spy?"
"Of course, I'm a good chef, and everything else is just a part-time job." Jason made another non-alcoholic cocktail for Tony.
Tony looked at Jason for a long time, then smiled and shook his head.
When Pepper and Harry came down from upstairs with smiles on their faces, Jason already knew that the two had probably reached an agreement.
"I hope we can have pleasant cooperation in the future, Harry." Pepper shook hands with Harry and said goodbye before leaving.
Harry also shook hands with Tony and said that in the future, the Stark Group and the Osborn Group would form a tacit understanding, or even a strategic alliance to a certain extent.
Tonight's dinner was a success, and both groups got what they wanted.
Harry wanted to stay and help Jason clean up, but was driven away by Jason. Harry was now in a state of overexcitement.
It would be troublesome if he stayed here and accidentally got caught and photographed. You know, Tony was the most dazzling figure under the spotlight, and there were countless paparazzi following him.
"You'd better leave now. My car is at the corner. Don't let anyone recognize you." Jason gave Harry the key to his second-hand Ford.
He signaled him to go from the back kitchen, take a bag of garbage, and pretend to be a chef who was off work and leave quickly.
After everyone left, Jason felt somewhat proud as he looked at the empty restaurant.
Who could have imagined that he had done something so important today, that the heads of two multinational groups were able to cooperate under his mediation?
Moreover, such cooperation had far-reaching implications, and a giant strategic alliance had taken shape.
When they looked back on this story from a historical perspective one day, who would have thought that it was an unknown little chef who drove all this?
When Jason finished cleaning and was about to leave, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him.
"Night Walker, the Supreme Sorcerer wants to see you."
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