Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Xu Ling wanted to use her body camera to record the condition of the restaurant, both inside and out, as well as the soup base, to preserve evidence. But she suddenly remembered she was on vacation and hadn't brought the camera at all.

She could still use her phone to film, but...

Xu Ling looked around. There were quite a few staff members, and she didn't know if any of them knew the inside story. If they saw her filming, would they suspect her intentions?

Xu Ling whispered the problem, asking Chen Wen and Xiao Ze to figure something out.

"You want to openly film the whole restaurant?" Shen Dongqing interjected.

Xu Ling nodded. Filming in advance could secure some evidence before the inspectors arrived—once they got here, it might be too late.

"I'll do the filming," Shen Dongqing said. "I'm a live streamer. If I say I'm livestreaming a restaurant review, it shouldn't raise suspicion."

Shen Dongqing took out his phone and opened his account. He now had over five hundred thousand followers—which, considering how viral he'd gone, was actually on the low side.

Most people checking out the trending topics were focused on the case discussions, so few had followed Shen Dongqing. But for convincing the restaurant staff, it was more than enough.

Seeing Shen Dongqing walk in filming with his phone, a staff member immediately came over to stop him.

"I'm a live streamer. I heard your hotpot is really good, so I wanted to make a review video," Shen Dongqing explained.

Seeing the comments constantly scrolling on his phone and the viewer count on the livestream, the employee hesitated.

Even though the boss said no filming, this guy was an internet celebrity. Wouldn't the boss want the publicity?

The employee didn't dare stop him again and hurried inside to find the boss.

While she went to report to the boss, Shen Dongqing had already made his way past seven or eight tables, getting clear shots of the soup bases.

He also asked diners what they thought of the hotpot. Aside from a few shy people, a lot of people praised the hotpot on the livestream, saying it was delicious and they'd definitely come back.

Seeing the boss coming over with the employee, Shen Dongqing spoke first: "I'm doing this review for free. I found that your hotpot spot is really high quality, and every customer who's eaten here has nothing but praise. It'd make a great review video."

The boss eyed Shen Dongqing suspiciously. When he heard about the filming, he wondered if Shen Dongqing had caught on to something, but he couldn't read anything on Shen Dongqing's face.

Then, seeing Shen Dongqing's five hundred thousand followers, the boss's suspicion quickly faded.

This guy was definitely not some government inspector. The boss hesitated, unsure whether to stop Shen Dongqing from filming.

Technically, filming was against the rules. In the past, when diners tried to film, they'd shut it down by claiming other customers complained about being caught on camera.

But this guy was a minor internet celebrity, and he was planning to open a branch. If he refused to let the guy film, what if he trashed the restaurant online?

The boss told an employee to take care of Shen Dongqing, made up an excuse to step away, and went to ask other staff. Learning that Shen Dongqing had gotten there earlier but hadn't started streaming, and that he'd mostly ordered cheaper items with only a few expensive dishes, the boss had a hunch.

The guy was probably just trying to score a free meal. Fine, he'd let him have it.

So what if he got one free meal? Once he got a taste, he'd be hooked and keep coming back to spend money. Maybe he'd even give them some free promo and bring more customers to the new location.

"Mr. Shen, since you're promoting our restaurant, we can't just let that slide. Tell you what—we'll comp you some dishes. Whatever you want, just let our staff know," the boss said, returning to Shen Dongqing's side with a beaming smile.

Shen Dongqing tried to decline, but the boss insisted. In the end, he gave in to the boss's enthusiasm.

"I'd love some freshly sliced chuck roll. Could you cut extra, slice it thin, and make it quick? There are six people at my table, and I'm afraid it won't be enough if you're stingy," Shen Dongqing said.

The boss's smile stiffened. With the restaurant this packed, the kitchen was already swamped. There was no time to slice extra chuck roll for Shen Dongqing. But the words were already out—he couldn't take them back, so he had to agree.

Short-staffed, the boss had to pull several prep cooks to slice the chuck roll, putting other dishes on hold.

This naturally frustrated the other customers. Customers were calling out from every corner. The staff were running around like crazy, and no one paid any attention to Shen Dongqing's table.

The boss didn't get a break either—anything the staff couldn't handle got passed to him.

Even when he saw Shen Dongqing pushing aside the food he'd cooked in the pot, he just figured the guy was turning his nose up at the cheaper dishes now that he was getting free ones. It never even crossed his mind.

...

Du Wei and Zhou Hua finally picked up the inspectors from the Market Supervision Administration and the police, leading them toward the hotpot restaurant. They couldn't help but worry.

They'd been gone for so long. Shen Dongqing and the others were in the restaurant not eating a thing—would that make the staff suspicious? Would it alert the owners?

They worried the whole way there, then emerged from the stairwell and found the restaurant even livelier than before—no, busier than when they'd left.

Customers were calling for servers from all over, but the staff couldn't keep up. The unanswered calls got louder, while people waiting outside got impatient, constantly asking when a table would free up.

The boss finally finished dealing with things in the dining area and went back to check the kitchen. Hearing a commotion at the entrance, he poked his head out and saw the inspectors arriving.

"Hello, we're from the Ningchuan Market Supervision Administration. We've received a report that your establishment is suspected of adding illegal substances to your food..." the officer said bluntly.

With that, the officers strode inside, loudly telling everyone not to touch anything—they were going to inspect all the food in the restaurant.

Hearing this, a diner dropped his chopsticks, and they clattered onto the table. Seeing his friend across from him still eating without a care, he knocked the chopsticks out of his hand.

"Stop eating. Something might be off here."

"What?" The friend looked confused, then noticed the inspectors in the restaurant.

"They said someone reported them for adding banned substances. Who knows what they put in there," the diner said nervously.

"It can't be that serious, right?" The friend couldn't believe it. He'd eaten at this hotpot place several times. If they'd really added something illegal, he'd been dosed multiple times.

Seeing this, other diners who'd overheard also stopped eating, getting tense and worried.

The boss clutched the poppy seed powder he'd hidden, extremely anxious. The restaurant's supply was almost gone, so he'd just grabbed a new package—and today they got inspected.

He knew the soup base would definitely test positive for poppy compounds. They had no idea there'd be a surprise inspection today, so they hadn't prepared anything.

But getting caught with a small amount of poppy seed powder in the kitchen was different from getting caught with a large amount. The former might just get him probation; the latter meant actual prison time, and a longer sentence.

The boss looked for a place to ditch the powder, but the kitchen was already completely under the officers' control. He made a break for the restroom—but there wasn't one inside the restaurant, only outside. And in this situation, there was no way he could step outside.

The boss knew he couldn't hide it on himself. In this kind of situation, the police might search him. If they found it, he'd be in serious trouble.

He had to think of something.

The boss carefully scanned the room, looking for a place to stash it. But before he could find a spot, the officers were calling for him. Panicking, he spotted the cook who knew the truth coming back from outside, and shoved the poppy seed powder into his hands.

"Find somewhere to hide this. Don't let them find it. If they do, we're all screwed," the boss said, then plastered a smile on his face as an employee pointed him out to the officers.

The cook took the powder, stunned. Seeing the officers nearby, he pretended to be a regular customer and quickly walked away.

He instinctively looked for a place to get rid of the powder, but there was nowhere suitable in the restaurant.

Well... he'd just stash it somewhere. It wasn't his restaurant anyway. Even if he got caught, he'd just be an accomplice. The boss was the one really at fault. Why should he take on that much risk?

With that thought, the cook felt a lot calmer. He looked around and noticed many people had gone to the front to watch the commotion. There weren't many people around—just one guy at a big table, who wasn't pushing forward but was holding up his phone from a distance, like he was filming the action, totally oblivious to him.

The cook glanced left and right, still thinking Shen Dongqing's spot was the best choice. He pulled out the opium poppy powder, quickly tossed it under Shen Dongqing's chair, then hurried away.

He figured he'd picked a good hiding spot. He remembered that during the last big cleaning, there was some junk piled up under the sofa chairs. If he tossed the packet in there, maybe nobody would even notice.

Sounded like a solid plan, but he didn't know the hotpot place had just done a deep clean yesterday. The area under the chairs was spotless, so the packet stuck out like a sore thumb the second it landed.

...

The moment the cook walked over, Shen Dongqing spotted him, because he wasn't taking photos—he was live-streaming himself, so anything behind him was automatically visible.

The viewers in the livestream noticed the cook too. His shifty looks reminded them of the thieves Shen Dongqing had busted before.

"Is he trying to steal something while everyone's distracted?"

"Damn, the cops just walked in and he's already trying to steal? Dude's got some nerve."

"A bunch of people just left their bags on the seats to go watch. Too tempting—even a thief can't resist."

"I thought this stream was just a food review, but he's run into another thief. He should change his name to Thief Slayer."

"Am I the only one wondering what's going on? A regular health inspection wouldn't bring the cops."

"Yeah, something's off. A routine check wouldn't be this intense."

While they were chatting, Shen Dongqing and the viewers saw the cook duck his head, do something sketchy, and then walk off all relaxed.

"Wait, is he stealing?" someone asked, confused.

Shen Dongqing went quiet for a second. The front camera only caught the guy's face, not what he was doing, but he thought he heard something drop.

Shen Dongqing looked around. Thanks to his facial recognition skill, his short-term memory had gotten sharper. He didn't see anything out of place, so it might be on the floor.

Shen Dongqing scanned the floor, thought for a second, flipped the camera, and asked the viewers to help him spot anything weird on the ground.

While the viewers were still confused, Shen Dongqing pointed the camera at the floor and spun around 360 degrees.

"Holy crap, what's that?" Compared to the other junk on the floor, that little packet of powder stood out big time.

"Bro, there's something under your chair."

"Did that guy just toss it there? Pick it up and check what it is."

"With that color and setting, don't touch it. Go get the cops."

"What's wrong?"

"Looks like opium poppy powder. If that's in the food, people get hooked."

Shen Dongqing stepped back, bent down to look, and sure enough, there was a packet of powder just sitting there out in the open under the chair.

Shen Dongqing stayed quiet. If he was right, even if the place was hard to hide stuff in, this was way too blatant.

The cook tried to blend in as a bystander, but the staff recognized him the second he got to the front, and the cops brought him over to the employees.

The boss nervously glanced at the cook. The cook gave a small nod, and the boss relaxed a little, but then wondered—how did he hide it so fast? Hopefully he didn't screw it up.

The boss was already regretting having the cook stash the stuff. What if he didn't hide it well enough?

Just then, the test results for the clear broth came back positive.

Seeing the result, the officers looked around at how packed the place was and gasped. With that stuff in the pot, who knows how many people got messed up.

The diners had been watching the drama, but when they heard the officers say the broth tested positive for opium poppy, everyone froze.

"Wait, I ate drugs?"

"Oh my god, I've eaten here multiple times. Am I already addicted?"

"What kind of place did you pick? This is basically poisoning people!"

"Officer, we ate this. What do we do? Do we need to get our stomachs pumped?"

...

The boss had expected this. He dropped to his knees and confessed, but kept insisting it was a one-time thing, figuring the cops couldn't prove otherwise.

The cop who searched the kitchen came out holding a small bag of opium poppy powder.

"This is all we found," the cop said.

When the officers came in, Xiao Ze and the others had been helping keep an eye on the staff. Seeing such a tiny amount of the stuff felt wrong—with the place this busy, that wouldn't even cover today's orders.

Xiao Ze frowned, then got a call from Shen Dongqing. After listening, he paused for a second and said, "Keep an eye on it. I'm coming over."

Seeing the cop come out with the nearly empty bag, the boss kept begging, saying it was a one-time lapse in judgment and hoping the country would give him another chance.

Xiao Ze waved over a cop and whispered something. The cop's eyes went wide—they were still guessing where the rest of the stuff was, and Xiao Ze already knew!

"It wasn't me who found it—it was a customer," Xiao Ze explained, leading the cop over to Shen Dongqing.

Shen Dongqing was staring at the chair. When he saw Xiao Ze coming with the cop, he pointed underneath and said, "Right here."

The cop immediately got down to check, expecting the stuff to be tucked in some hidden corner of the chair, but instead, there it was, just lying out in the open with zero cover.

The cop froze for a few seconds. He'd never searched a hotpot place before, but he'd found this stuff elsewhere. People usually racked their brains hiding it in the most random spots. This time, it was like they were just asking to get caught.

Hiding it like this—low on damage, but maximum disrespect.

He had Xiao Ze hold the body cam, then dragged the chair aside and carefully picked up the packet.

The second he picked it up, the cop could tell it wasn't light—no wonder they tried to hide it.

Carrying the stuff out, the cop walked to the kitchen door and heard the boss still rambling, insisting he barely used any and it was his first time.

"First time? Then what's this?" the cop cut in.

The boss turned and saw the familiar packet in the cop's hand. He froze. Even if it wasn't hidden well, it had only been a few minutes, and the cops had been right there the whole time—how did they find it so fast?

The boss whipped his head toward the cook, who was just as stunned. Found already? Meeting the boss's furious glare, the cook looked down guiltily.

As the cop walked off with the stuff, Shen Dongqing turned the camera and mic back on, pointing it at the scene up front—mainly at the boss—so the viewers could get the full scoop.

"So that's why the host cut the stream earlier—he went to get the cops."

"Never admit anything until you're cornered. Took hard evidence for this boss to finally fess up."

"Probably thinking 'confess and get mercy, but still end up in jail,' so he figured he'd just deny everything and hope it blew over."

"All tough talk now, but he'll be crying when they hand down the sentence. He might've gotten a lighter sentence down the road, but now he'll be lucky if they don't throw the book at him."

"I'm just wondering about the guy who stashed it—how much does the shop trust this dude?"

"Seriously, I could hide stuff better when I was six."

"The world's a total circus, but hey, dumb crooks are fine by me—saves the cops the work."

"The boss's face was priceless—that mix of shock and fury. If the cops weren't around, I bet he'd've beaten the crap out of the guy who stashed it."

"If they're not put in the same cell, nothing'll happen, but if they are, I bet they'll throw down."

"But I think the stasher'd win—the boss looks scrawny, not as built as the other guy."

Once the poppy powder was found, the law enforcement officers had to tear the whole place apart, so the customers had to clear out first.

But before leaving, they got compensated by the restaurant. With the officers watching, the boss had no choice but to pay up—a full refund times ten.

Even so, the customers who got paid off were still pissed. Never mind the other stuff—putting poppy powder in the hotpot broth is basically getting people high. Who knows what kind of long-term damage it could do.

The officers told them to just take the money first. The damage to their health was already done, but at least they could get some cash out of it.

If they didn't grab it now, the boss might not be able to pay up later—there were too many customers, and he might not have enough to cover everyone.

Hearing that, the other customers shut up. Some quickly called up friends and family who'd eaten there to give them the heads-up.

The people who got the calls didn't even have time to cuss before hearing about the payout. Pissed as they were, they knew the officers had a point—if they didn't grab the cash now, once the cops left and the boss got hauled off, getting anything would be a pain.

Even if they sued, if he wouldn't pay up, chasing it would be a nightmare.

Shen Dongqing borrowed Xiao Ze's phone and went to get his refund too. When the boss saw him, his face scrunched up in fury.

He figured the market regulators had shown up so suddenly because Shen Dongqing had ratted them out. After all, the guy who'd been sitting at Shen Dongqing's table turned out to be a cop once the officers showed up.

If the boss knew the cook had stashed the poppy powder right by Shen Dongqing's seat, which is why it got found so fast, he'd be even more livid.

"I'm not refunding you. You're not a customer—you're a plant here to gather evidence, not a real consumer." At this point, the boss's head cleared. The food safety law's ten-times refund only applies to consumers, so he could use that as an excuse to stiff him.

He'd pay everyone else, but he flat-out refused to pay Shen Dongqing's table.

"Cops can't go out to eat? I made plans to have dinner with my friends and came to your place. Just because your restaurant broke the law, we're suddenly undercover agents?" Shen Dongqing sneered.

Du Wei, Zhou Hua, and the rest backed him up, saying they were just there for a meal. They had plenty of proof, and even the restaurant's security cameras could back that up.

The boss clenched his jaw and wouldn't give an inch.

Xiao Ze patted Shen Dongqing on the shoulder and told him to drop it: "You can sue to get it back later."

Seeing that, the boss got a smug look on his face, thinking he'd scored a small win, but he didn't catch the dirty looks the officers and cops were giving him.

Shen Dongqing was about to let it slide, but seeing the boss's face, he dropped one last line: "Boss, who did you get to stash that poppy powder for you? He shoved it right under my chair in front of me. A six-year-old wouldn't hide things that badly. You gave something this important to him—you must be blind."

The boss's smugness lasted about a second before his head nearly blew up at those words. What did he mean by shoving it under the chair?

"Goddammit, Wang Laosan, you moron! Who told you to stash it like that?" The boss lunged at the cook beside him, filled with regret and fury. If he'd known this guy was so unreliable, he'd have found a way to dodge the law enforcement himself rather than hand over the poppy powder.

The cook was caught off guard and tackled to the ground, feeling a searing pain in his ear. The boss, knowing he wasn't strong, bit down directly and tore off a chunk of flesh from the cook's ear.

The nearby diners never expected such a spectacle and quickly pulled out their phones to record it.

But despite his guilt, the cook's rage flared from the intense pain. The improved hotpot recipe could have slowly brought the business back. If not for the boss's greed and desire for a shortcut, they wouldn't have taken such a huge risk. Now that it was exposed, was it all his fault?

The law enforcement officers were already in the restaurant, looking around. When the stuff was handed to him, what else could he do but shove it somewhere?

The cook wasn't easy to mess with either. The boss only gained the upper hand by catching him off guard. The cook swung his fist in retaliation, beating the boss until his face was swollen and bruised.

The law enforcement officers and police tried to intervene, but the two were fighting so fiercely that the police could barely hold them back.

It wasn't until the cook saw his ear flesh on the ground that his fury surged. He bit down on the boss's nose, tearing off a piece, and only then did the police manage to restrain both of them.

Having vented his anger, the cook didn't resist further and let the police pull him aside.

"Officer, I want to press charges! He hit me and bit off my flesh. I want him locked up!" the boss shouted, clutching his nose.

"This counts as mutual assault," the police reminded him.

"I don't care! I want him to serve years! I need to go to the hospital and get this reattached!" the boss wailed.

Hearing this, the cook snapped back to reality and looked at the ear flesh on the ground, only to find it had been trampled several times during the fight—he didn't know if it could even be reattached.

Shen Dongqing stood outside the door, stunned. He never imagined one remark from him would trigger such a brawl.

Looking at the miserable state of the boss and the cook, Shen Dongqing felt no sympathy. They deserved it.