All Chapters of Twentyfold Payback After a Potluck: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The moment Lucy Holt, a junior accountant, came into work today, she started flaunting the new handbag she'd bought to everyone.All of our colleagues looked on in envy, exclaiming over how rich she was. Once her vanity was adequately stoked, she giggled and said, "Soon, you'll all have the money to buy one for yourself!"She proceeded to place the luxury handbag on her desk before turning around and grabbing my arm."I heard you're resigning, Jess. Why don't we have a dinner gathering one last time?" she cajoled. "After all, this means we won't be able to enjoy your cooking anymore."I agreed to it and asked everyone to come up with a list of food they'd like to have so that I could make the preparations in advance.This time, I planned on cooking up a feast. Apart from Lucy's favorite, steak, I decided to make some seared halibut, a rack of lamb, some light appetizers, and a salad to go with everything.These were dishes that everyone complimented when I'd previously made them.

Chapter 2

Lucy's persistent cajoling wore me down. In the end, I agreed to it."This time, why don't you guys transfer the money to me beforehand? If there's extra at the end, I'll return the money to you guys," I suggested.Lucy's lips twitched. She was still smiling, but her words were a little biting."I thought you considered us your friends, Jess. I guess we were the only ones who thought that," Lucy said.I furrowed my brows. In the past, the grocery bill only ever came up to a few hundred dollars per meal. But this time, it would be a few thousand, at least. I'd have to be a fool to front the money without giving it any thought.All I could say was, "I've been financially tight lately. I don't think I'll have enough to cover the groceries."With a look of realization, Lucy said apologetically, "Sorry about that, Jess. I misunderstood you. I'll definitely come by earlier this Sunday to help you!"That night, Lucy began messaging away in the group chat we had with our colleagues. She

Chapter 3

The total came up to exactly 10,001 dollars. It was such a precisely calculated number. The sight of it stung me, like a thorn sticking in my heart, making it bleed."You guys don't have to worry about anything. What she's done is punishable in the eyes of the law. Forget about paying basically 20 times that amount in a fine. If the Health Department caught wind of this, even her home would get sealed off for investigations. There's no way she can refuse to give us the money." Other people started sending messages in the group chat. These were all my colleagues, who'd always been so nice and friendly to me."If not for the sake of achieving this, I wouldn't even agree to split the grocery bill with her. I still can't believe she asks for 20 dollars each meal. A meal outside would only cost 15 dollars!""That's why you're the accountant, Lucy. You're such a genius when it comes to helping us make money.""You're nothing like Jessica, who's such a schemer. Look at how much money sh

Chapter 4

A few years ago, I switched to the administrative job I'd just resigned from. The work atmosphere was pretty good, and my colleagues seemed nice.Once, I brought a braised pork dish I'd made for lunch, and Lucy tried a bite. She immediately showered me with praise before suggesting that we could have our dinner gatherings at my place, with the grocery bill split evenly between us.At first, I didn't want to do it. It felt like too much work.But my colleagues kept coming up to me with pitiful expressions, saying that they'd never had such tasty food before. They complained that eating out was too expensive, and the food didn't even taste good.In the end, I gave in and agreed to do it.Initially, I just followed my own plan. I bought about 100 dollars' worth of ingredients and prepared a hearty meal. Everyone enjoyed the food and asked to do it again.Later on, as the dinner gatherings became more frequent, I went from finding it a hassle to genuinely enjoying it myself.Before

Chapter 5

Diane had never paid me for the food I made for her son, but I didn't mind, figuring that life wasn't easy for a single mother.But now, I felt disheartened. It turned out I was giving her too much credit."Hurry up and give me the money, Jess," Lucy urged.However, I calmly met her gaze before shaking my head. "I won't be giving you guys anything. Since you think I broke the law, go ahead and sue me. Even if the authorities come to seal off my house, I don't care."As I tried to close the door, Lucy grabbed the doorframe to stop me."If we sue you, you're definitely going to lose the court case. Once that happens, you're going to have to pay the fine anyway. We used to be your colleagues, but you'd rather give that money to the court instead of us? How can you be so mean and heartless?"I couldn't believe Lucy was calling me the mean and heartless one. Weren't they the ones who were being utterly cruel and heartless toward me?I moved to slam the door shut, which made Lucy retr

Chapter 6

Lucy was probably afraid that I'd genuinely sue them for extortion, so she immediately reported me to the Health Department before I could do that.The next morning, someone from the Health Department called me and asked me to cooperate with their investigations.The Health Department arranged a meeting right away, with Lucy eagerly showing up as well. She even brought two other colleagues to act as witnesses.Lucy had a stack of documents with her to submit as evidence. It was the same ones I'd seen before.Alwyn Reed, the officer from the Health Department, asked Lucy to explain the situation. She shot me a smug glance before launching into her story."It's nice to meet you, Mr. Reed. I filed a report against this woman, Jessica Finch, for operating an unlicensed catering business for three years now."For the past three years, she repeatedly used these so-called dinner gatherings among colleagues as a pretext to charge exorbitant catering fees from us. For the last meal alone,

Chapter 7

When the officer, Mr. Reed, asked the two other colleagues who had initiated each dinner gathering and how the food expenses were calculated, the two of them stumbled and stammered their way through it.They couldn't give any concrete details. All they said was Lucy would organize everything, and they just chipped in accordingly.Mr. Reed fell silent for a moment before saying that the Health Department would continue the investigation based on the evidence provided. We would be notified once they'd come to a decision.Once he left, the disgruntled Lucy stood in my path and declared, "Don't celebrate just yet! I won't be dropping this matter so easily. I'm going to make you pay!"Ignoring her, I left with my lawyer, Mr. Chase. It didn't matter what she tried to do. I was going to meet her head-on.…Lucy's next move was to start a livestream. She tearfully accused me of being a malicious colleague who used the guise of dinner gatherings to trick everyone out of their hard-earned

Chapter 8

"Nope. Sorry," I curtly responded to Diane's message.Diane tried to appeal to my sense of sympathy. "This has nothing to do with me, Jessica. That bitch, Lucy, tricked me. If there's anyone to blame for this, it's that bitch, isn't it? I'm innocent!"But once Diane saw that I was still unmoved, she lost her cool and couldn't resist lashing out at me."What's the big deal? All I did was try to get like 20,000 dollars from you. Must you be this heartless? It's not like you can't afford to spare the money anyway. Would it be so hard for you to just give it to me?""Give it to you so that you can buy a luxury handbag, yeah?" I texted back mockingly.Diane fell silent for a while, but she soon found it in her to shoot me a self-righteous comeback. "So what if I wanted to buy a luxury handbag with the money? I just wanted to give myself a treat!"To give herself a treat by extorting money from me, huh?It was truly incomprehensible to me.None of her tactics worked, so Diane finally

Chapter 9

"I'm already in the restaurant business anyway," Maisie declared. "With how good a chef you are, it's such a waste to see you spending all your time at home. Why don't I invest the money for you to run a restaurant? I'm sure it'll be a hit with you helming the kitchen!"I was pretty hesitant about it."After everything that happened with them reporting me, I'm a little spooked, to be honest."Maisie patted me on the shoulder and reassured me, "There's nothing to be afraid of! We'll get the paperwork done properly. You'll have the proper permits and business license you need. It'll be fully compliant with the laws, so no one can pick any bones."And I'm sure that, with your culinary skills, you'd certainly attract a crowd!"She even winked at me, saying, "Since there's still some buzz online about this situation, we can use it as an opportunity to get some publicity going. Don't pass up on free exposure!"A few days later, Maisie came to me with a pile of documents. She said she'd

Chapter 10

"I pity Ms. Finch. She's so unlucky! She cooked for them out of kindness, only for them to try to extort her. Now that she's finally running a restaurant, her business almost got ruined!""I've never met anyone as malicious and despicable as that woman!"Lucy's lips trembled. She couldn't say anything, but she glared resentfully at me, as if accusing me of ruining her life.Well, that didn't surprise me. Someone like Lucy would never think that she'd done anything wrong.Maisie made a police report. As it was, Lucy couldn't be charged with anything concrete. All the police did was give her a warning.However, she couldn't find a job at all and was subjected to all kinds of gossip and criticism wherever she went. I heard she ended up returning to her hometown.My restaurant became increasingly famous. However, I was the only one manning the kitchen, and I didn't want the restaurant's reputation to be affected, so I decided to limit the number of tables the restaurant served every

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