CH 38

Mo Ling and Mo Yan went to sell their wraps again. This time, they bought their meat at Shunlai Restaurant instead.

Taking advantage of the fact that there weren’t many customers yet, Mo Ling made a dozen wraps, wrapped them in paper, and neatly stacked them in a basket. Then, she added a few tea eggs, and let Mo Yan sell them on the streets.

Mo Yan was selling them all the way along the streets, “Egg wraps, egg wraps, braised and smoked meat optional!”

Her nice childish voice made passersby stop and turn around. She walked to the door of the Zhou family’s braised meat shop, and deliberately raised her voice, but no one came out after she called several times.

When everything was sold out, Mo Yan returned to their stall and saw Zhou Liangsheng standing there, watching Mo Ling make the wraps.

Was Manager Liang actually correct?

Seeing Mo Yan coming back, Zhou Liangsheng cupped his hands towards her politely.

Was such an obedient boy really a “thief” who stole the recipe for braised pork? Mo Yan didn’t truly believe it. Butshe was selling the wraps outside their braised meat shop just then. They didn’t buy it, but instead came and bought it here, which was really strange.

“Young shopkeeper Zhou, when I was selling the wraps on the street, why didn’t you buy it? Why did you come over and buy them here?”

There was nothing wrong with asking about some things directly.

Zhou Liangsheng cupped his hands again and said, “I heard you hawking, but my mother hadn’t gotten up yet. I was afraid that it would cool down after I bought it.”

This sounded perfectly reasonable. After all, who knew when his mother woke up?

Mo Ling gave Zhou Liangsheng three wraps with braised meat. He took it and asked, “You didn’t go to my store to buy meat today, did you go to…?” After saying that, he glanced at the Shunlai Inn.

Mo Yan replied perfunctorily, “We set out quite late today. Shunlai Restaurant is close by, so I bought a little meat here.”

Zhou Liangsheng looked at the wrap in his hand and sighed, but he didn’t say anything, just turned and left.

On the road, a white horse came galloping along. It was Lu Junming. Without him having to say anything, Mo Yan said to him, “Two scrambled eggs and smoked meat wraps!”

Mo Ling quickly prepared them and handed them to him. Lu Junming took two bites and said, “The meat isn’t as chewy today, it’s different from usual.”

“Don’t you eat his meat every day?”

“That’s the reason I think it’s different today.”

Mo Yan put a small piece into her mouth. It did taste somewhat different from yesterday, being softer and having a stronger flavour. It must have been smoked for longer!

Lu Junming said that he was going to the calligraphy and painting shop to buy writing utensils, and he rode away after eating. After about forty-five minutes, Lu Junming came back on horseback. He looked like he was ill.

When Mo Yan asked him what was wrong, Lu Junming covered his stomach and said, “My stomach hurts.” He glanced at the meat on the chopping board and said nothing, then went to the back of Shunlai Restaurant to find a toilet.

At this time, a few people came out from the market. There were both men and women. They seemed aggressive and were looking for a fight.

Initially, they just seemed like passersby, but they walked up to their store. A chubby woman spoke up first, “The wraps you sell made my children have diarrhoea. You’re so young, but why do you have such dark hearts? You sold rotten meat to us!”

A few other people yelled similar meanings, and a ruckus sprung up.

Mo Ling hurriedly said, “Impossible! We’ve been selling wraps for three days, so why didn’t we have any problems for the first two days?”

Mo Yan’s brain was working fast. She remembered that Lu Junming had said that today’s meat was different, then when he hurried to the toilet just then…

The group of people became angrier and angrier, and some people said they were going to demolish their stall. The stalls next to them turned a blind eye, and didn’t even bother to come over to see what was going on.

There were definitely no problems with the flatbread, sauce, and eggs, so something must be wrong with the meat. Mo Yan grabbed a few pieces of leftover meat and went to Shunlai Restaurant, rushing inside and shouting, “Why did you sell rotten meat to us!”

The guy working in the meat stall immediately responded aggressively,”Don’t talk nonsense here and affect our business. This meat has been braised all night, and it came out of the pot in the morning. How can it go bad?” He called the manager loudly.

Manager Liang came out of the gate of the inn. He didn’t have the pleasant expression on his face from yesterday and said fiercely, “How can you be so vicious and say that our meat is rotten for no reason? Are you trying to ruin my business!”

Mo Yan held up the meat in her hand and shoved it at him, “This is the meat we bought from your stall today, do you dare eat it?”

Shopkeeper Liang turned his head to one side and frowned, “How would I know if this is meat from my stall or not? Who knows what you put in it!”

“If you don’t want to admit it, I’ll make you admit it!”

When Mo Yan returned to their stall, Manager Liang followed. The people got angrier and angrier and were now clamouring for a refund.

Mo Yan wrapped all the meat left on their chopping board in paper and put it away.

“Everyone, take the people with food poisoning to the hospital first!”

This sentence pointed out what was most important, and everyone agreed.

“Let’s go to the Cao’s clinic over there. Mr. Cao is from the same village as us. Don’t worry, we won’t run away. We’ll go right after we pack up.”

Now they knew that they were all locals and couldn’t travel far, the people hurried back to take the people with food poisoning to the clinic.

At this time, Manager Liang asked, “Did Zhou Liangsheng come to buy anything today?”

“Yes!”

Only then did the sisters realise that no one from the Zhou family had come over. If the meat was the problem, why were they fine after eating it? It was very suspicious.

The two hurriedly packed up and went to the hospital. After Lu Junming came out of the toilet, he saw them running in a hurry, so he followed them.

Mr. Cao just came to the clinic. When he saw that the sisters were in a panic, he quickly asked what happened. Mo Yan briefly explained the matter. Mr. Cao reassured her, “Don’t worry, let’s take a look first!”

People came to see him one after another, but still no one from the Zhou family appeared. Mr. Cao saw them one by one, and there was no serious problem. It was like eating a laxative, it wasn’t that harmful.

They believed what Mr. Cao said, and were also ordinary people, not some scumbags. Seeing that the sisters sincerely apologised and bought each of them dim sum and some fruit, they went back after seeing the doctor and taking their medicine.

After sending these people away, Mo Ling sighed, “We can’t do this anymore.”

When Mo Yan saw Lu Junming standing at the door, she also asked him to come over and let Mr. Cao look at him, who said that his situation was the same as the others.

Lu Junming said, “I told you that today’s meat was different.”

Mo Yan took the meat out of the paper bag and showed Mr. Cao. He picked up a piece of meat and looked at it carefully, smelled it, then licked it with his tongue, “There is no poison, there are just ordinary seasonings, but judging from the colour, there should be too much nitrate.”

“What is nitrate?” Mo Yan asked.

“Many sellers of braised pork will put nitrate in when braising the meat. It looks better, and it’s softer. However, if you add too much, people will get diarrhoea after eating it.”

Post-edit notes: Is this some actual drama here? I’m excited if this is the case.