Chapter 27

Chapter 27

After what happened at the hotpot place, hotpot was obviously off the table, and everyone was starving, but when someone brought up going somewhere else, everyone went quiet.

"Let's just go home and cook. I'm not really feeling eating out," Shen Dongqing suggested.

The others looked at each other and nodded.

Even if the odds of another place being bad were low, they were already traumatized and didn't want to eat out for now.

The group went their separate ways. Xiao Ze apologized to Shen Dongqing for picking the spot, since Shen Dongqing didn't get to eat anything.

Shen Dongqing shook his head, saying he didn't mind, and pointed out they'd actually done a good deed today—if they hadn't discovered it, who knows how many people that place would've screwed over before getting exposed.

"I'm gonna hit the supermarket for some groceries. You go on ahead, don't wait for me," Shen Dongqing said, knowing Xiao Ze was hanging around to drive him home.

"I'll come with you. I need to grab some stuff too," Xiao Ze shook his head. "I've got nothing at home. Just had your egg tarts for lunch."

At first, Shen Dongqing thought Xiao Ze was just making an excuse, but after hearing the rest, he realized they'd both had a rough day.

He'd skipped meals all day just to enjoy that hotpot, only to run into that scumbag of a boss. So infuriating.

Shen Dongqing didn't say anything else and headed to the supermarket with Xiao Ze.

At this hour, the fresh veggie selection was pretty picked over. Shen Dongqing grabbed some fruit, and since Xiao Ze didn't need veggies either, he led him straight to the meat section.

Shen Dongqing frowned when he saw the meat wasn't all that fresh. Was he seriously not gonna get a decent meal today?

Meat that wasn't fresh would make crappy food.

"Hey, young man, hold on. Fresh meat's coming out soon—these all gotta go to the discount section," the butcher lady said, noticing Shen Dongqing had been picking through the meat case without finding anything.

Shen Dongqing paused, but his stomach couldn't wait—it was already growling.

"Want to grab a snack to hold you over?" Xiao Ze asked with concern.

Shen Dongqing just wanted to go home and cook, but it was a half-hour drive, plus cooking time—at least an hour and a half before he could eat.

As for eating out, Shen Dongqing was still scarred. He hadn't noticed anything wrong with the hotpot broth himself—he'd only caught on from how everyone else reacted. He wouldn't get that lucky with other food.

Shen Dongqing suddenly remembered—didn't he pull a Master Chef skill card yesterday? A Master Chef should be able to tell if food's good, right?

He hadn't decided when to use it, but now was the perfect time.

"If you don't wanna—" Xiao Ze started.

"No, I really can't stay hungry much longer," Shen Dongqing shook his head and asked the butcher lady, "Ma'am, when's the fresh meat coming?"

"It's running late today—about ten more minutes," the lady said. "You can look around and come back."

Shen Dongqing nodded, glanced at the checkout lines, and turned to put the fruit back. If he got in line, by the time he checked out, the meat would be there anyway, so why bother?

After leaving the supermarket, Shen Dongqing ducked into the restroom, opened the system shop, tapped the Master Chef Card, and confirmed.

The second the Master Chef Card activated, Shen Dongqing realized he'd made a huge mistake.

Clamping his nose, he bolted out of the restroom and didn't dare take a deep breath until he was ten meters away. His nose and brain were under full assault from the stench—if he hadn't reacted fast, he would've puked right there.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Ze, who had no idea what happened, hurried over and got worried when he saw Shen Dongqing's eyes watering.

"The restroom reeks—it hit me hard," Shen Dongqing explained, only relaxing after confirming the air outside wasn't as bad.

"Then you—"

"I'm fine, just need a sec to recover," Shen Dongqing shook his head.

The mall restroom was actually cleaned pretty often; it's just that his sense of smell was way too sharp now, and getting slammed by that much odor at once was too much.

Shen Dongqing sat down to recover, but his nose kept working overtime.

The wind carried scents from a distance. Shen Dongqing caught food smells, but his first reaction wasn't "yum"—it was analyzing the quality, how it was made, and what the final texture would be.

So this was what a Master Chef's nose could do?

Shen Dongqing was shocked and fascinated.

"Come on, I'll take you to eat the best thing around here," Shen Dongqing rarely made such bold promises, but the Master Chef skill was so strong it gave him that confidence.

He'd wondered why other skill cards had three-day trials but Master Chef only had one. Now he realized this card was like several cards in one—a better deal overall.

The best thing around?

Xiao Ze was confused but followed along anyway.

Right by the mall was a food street, also a night market. The sky wasn't dark yet, but the stalls were already out.

The first stall was a fried chicken leg stand. The legs smelled amazing, and the vendor, seeing Shen Dongqing checking out his stand, called out enthusiastically.

"Hey handsome, chicken legs are six yuan each. Wanna try one? We've been here six or seven years—quality's guaranteed."

Six yuan for a fried chicken leg wasn't bad, but catching a whiff of the oil, Shen Dongqing frowned. How long had that oil been sitting there?

It wasn't gutter oil, and it hadn't gone rancid, but the quality was iffy.

Shen Dongqing shook his head and kept going deeper in.

The night market was packed with fried and grilled stuff, and the strong smells lured plenty of passersby into buying. But when those smells hit Shen Dongqing's nose, his brain kept flagging: the aroma was fake, meant to cover up bad ingredients, it was...

As for the other snacks, one look was enough to spot tons of problems—too much oil, bad ingredient combos, way too much seasoning, some even slightly off...

In short, a lot of it was inedible, and the stuff that was edible his brain said was mediocre at best—not worth the money.

What kind of amazing food did a Master Chef normally eat?! Shen Dongqing screamed inside.

He'd used the Master Chef skill to find something tasty, but he couldn't find a single good option.

"Still nothing you wanna eat?" Xiao Ze watched Shen Dongqing walk past stall after stall without stopping once. They'd reached the very end of the night market, and Shen Dongqing still hadn't picked anything.

"Nothing looks that good," Shen Dongqing said honestly. If he had to, he could pick something, but making Xiao Ze eat that stuff felt wrong.

"Are you hungry? If you are, I'll pick something for you—I can guarantee it's the best on this street, just not up to my standards," Shen Dongqing offered.

Xiao Ze shook his head. He could tell Shen Dongqing wasn't happy with anything on the whole street, and he didn't really want anything either.

"Come eat at my place tonight. I'll make you my signature dish—my best one," Shen Dongqing promised.

He'd dragged Xiao Ze all this way and used up his time; he owed him something.

"The meat should be here by now. Let's hurry and grab it," Shen Dongqing said, turning back. After looping around and returning to the night market entrance, he noticed a new dessert stall had popped up—selling tiramisu topped with fruit and decorations.

Shen Dongqing frowned slightly. If he remembered correctly, this thing had to be made with raw eggs, and at this temperature, wouldn't it spoil in no time?

However, the stall was really popular. As soon as it was set up, many people crowded over to buy cakes, which made the neighboring stall owners a little jealous.

"You want some?" Xiao Ze noticed Shen Dongqing's gaze and asked.

Shen Dongqing shook his head. As long as they sold it fast enough, it should be fine.

When the two returned to the supermarket, the fresh meat had already arrived. Shen Dongqing picked out some beef brisket and bought a few potatoes, planning to make potato-braised beef brisket.

Coming out of the supermarket, Xiao Ze drove Shen Dongqing back. As they passed the night market street, Shen Dongqing glanced outside and saw that the tiramisu stall was still set up, and the tiramisu on the counter was almost sold out.

Shen Dongqing breathed a sigh of relief. Although he could tell the vendor's ingredients might not be top-notch, they weren't spoiled yet. Selling that fast, it probably wouldn't cause any problems.

Back home, Shen Dongqing started preparing the beef brisket and potatoes. Since time was tight, he skipped the slow method and went straight for the pressure cooker.

"The brisket'll be tender in a bit—just needs seasoning and it's ready to eat." Shen Dongqing set a reminder alarm and said to Xiao Ze.

"What are you looking at?" Seeing Xiao Ze looking at his phone, Shen Dongqing was curious.

"Someone posted the hotpot restaurant video." Xiao Ze said.

Hearing that, Shen Dongqing quickly opened Tianfeng and sure enough, he scrolled to the hotpot restaurant video. There were shots from every angle, even videos of the boss and chef duking it out.

The wounds were blurred out, though—otherwise the platform would've taken it down.

Even though Shen Dongqing did livestreams, he didn't spend much time scrolling short videos. After scrolling for a bit, he finally got why people loved them—they were genuinely entertaining.

The only problem was, after scrolling through a few, if he tried to recall what he'd just watched, his mind went blank. Almost nothing stuck. Great for killing time, but also a huge waste of it.

Shen Dongqing decided to stop. He'd rather spend that time on study materials. But as his finger tapped, the next video popped up.

This one wasn't a video, though—it was a livestream. A street stall livestream.

Shen Dongqing immediately recognized the tiramisu vendor. She was waiting on customers.

But weren't these different from the tiramisu she'd been selling before? Shen Dongqing remembered the earlier ones had grapes on top; these had mangoes.

Did she go home and grab new stock?

Just as he was thinking that, he saw the vendor pull out another tray of tiramisu from the side, and he was floored.

In this weather, leaving a dessert that needs refrigeration out in 30-plus degrees Celsius—is this dessert or a petri dish?

"Hey boss, what'd you put in this? Why's it taste a little sour?" A girl who'd bought a cake took a bite of the tiramisu and asked, puzzled.

"Really? Maybe it's the mango juice. Ours aren't the super-sweet kind of mango, so they're a little tart. That's normal." The vendor said with a smile.

The girl looked confused, but after another bite she couldn't find anything wrong, so she left.

After that exchange, Shen Dongqing was sure the vendor's tiramisu had gone bad and shouldn't be sold anymore.

"Hey boss, tiramisu has to be refrigerated at all times. It spoils super easily at room temp. That girl just tasted something sour, which means it might already be spoiled. For the customers' safety, you should stop selling it."

Shen Dongqing sent a comment, and to get the vendor's attention, he even sent ten yuan worth of small gifts.

But before the vendor could respond, fans in the livestream immediately started attacking him.

"Where's this hater from? If you're jealous she's making money, just say so. Don't go claiming things are spoiled. Was that girl just now your plant?"

"Probably an alt of that troublemaker from before. Their own kid has a weak stomach, but they insist it's food poisoning."

"+1, if your body's weak, stick to home-cooked food. Why eat street food? Trying to pull a scam?"

"What are the mods doing? Why haven't they banned this guy?"

"And he only sent 10 yuan. What a broke loser."

Several comments flew by, and soon Shen Dongqing got a notification that the mods had muted him—he couldn't even talk anymore.

Meanwhile, the vendor finally glanced at her phone, spoke softly to soothe her fans, and only after making them all happy did she slowly address Shen Dongqing: "Hey, I don't know who told you that, but I've never sold spoiled food. And these cakes, I keep them in a cooler. There's absolutely no issue."

A cooler?

Was she talking about that flimsy insulated box in the corner?

Shen Dongqing looked at the box in the corner of the livestream screen. Seriously, how much cooling could that thing even provide?

If the tiramisu in there didn't spoil, it was pure luck. Spoiling was practically a given.

As Shen Dongqing was thinking, he noticed several DMs in his inbox.

"You noticed the cakes at that stall were spoiled too?"

"I bought a cake for my daughter yesterday. She saw how pretty it was and asked for it. Not long after eating, she started having diarrhea and a fever. We rushed her to the hospital for IV fluids, and only then did it let up."

"The doctor said she ate something bad. Yesterday, besides that cake, everything else was homemade. There's no way it was anything else—it had to be that cake."

"I confronted her, and she denied it, saying I was deliberately framing her. How can she be so awful? Using spoiled ingredients for kids' food. So toxic."

Seeing the last message, Shen Dongqing realized something: besides young people, quite a few kids were buying cakes at the stall. After all, the tiramisu looked pretty appealing and easily caught kids' eyes.

If it had gone bad, young people with stronger stomachs might not even notice. But kids' stomachs are fragile—eating this could be disastrous.

Without that DM, Shen Dongqing might have tried to persuade her again. But now, he couldn't, and she wouldn't listen anyway.

"Can you call the Market Supervision Administration? Tell them this street stall is selling tiramisu without proper refrigeration. This kind of cake must be kept cold. At this temperature, the food can spoil in under an hour." Shen Dongqing said to Xiao Ze.

If he reported it himself, it would take time to go through the process. Xiao Ze making a call would be much faster, especially since letting that stall keep selling would only create more victims.

"No, it's already spoiled. A girl already tasted sourness." Shen Dongqing corrected himself.

"Is it that stall you were looking at earlier?" Xiao Ze immediately remembered.

Shen Dongqing nodded: "That stall has a lot of kids buying too. They're even more vulnerable to spoiled food."

Xiao Ze's expression changed at that, and he immediately started making calls.

But he didn't call someone at the Market Supervision Administration directly. Instead, he called the law enforcement officer still at the hotpot restaurant.

"Are you still at the hotpot restaurant?" Xiao Ze asked.

The officer was a bit puzzled to receive Xiao Ze's call, but still replied: "Yeah, we're here. Quite a few people have come demanding refunds from the boss. The boss and the chef both went to the hospital, so only the accountant is here handling refunds."

Because customers kept coming in for compensation, they couldn't leave. If they did, the customers might not get their refunds so smoothly.

"That friend of yours really said it well before he left. Good thing they fought—now the boss is in the hospital and the accountant's handling refunds. Otherwise, with this many people showing up, he definitely wouldn't have wanted to pay up." The officer remarked.

At the time, he'd thought Shen Dongqing was just trying to get back at the boss for Xiao Ze. He never expected there'd be this kind of benefit later.

The accountant was just an accountant; the money in the account wasn't hers anyway. She couldn't wait to refund the money and get this whole thing over with. As long as there was money in the account, she'd just refund it, no questions asked.

Xiao Ze froze for a second, then let that topic drop. Instead, he brought up the food safety issue at the stall that Shen Dongqing had flagged, and even shot him a link while talking.

"Take a look at this stall owner."

The inspector's face immediately turned serious at that. He clicked the link, and his brow furrowed.

They'd inspected dessert shops before and had a decent idea of how tiramisu worked. Other desserts weren't nearly as picky about storage, but tiramisu was a pain to store—it was super sensitive to temperature.

If the temperature went above the ideal range, the shelf life tanked. According to the shops, you had to eat it right away, because in this heat, it could go bad within an hour.

And according to Xiao Ze, they'd spotted the stall over an hour ago, and the owner was still hawking her stuff. The box she was using wasn't even a fridge—it was just an insulated cooler. What was that even supposed to preserve?

Then he looked again and saw a bunch of kids eating tiramisu. The inspector felt his vision go black. Then black again.

Were they seriously acting like they couldn't see them?

After hanging up with Xiao Ze, the inspector immediately waved over a few colleagues and filled them in on what had just gone down.

His colleagues, who were already beating themselves up over the mess at the hotpot place, were absolutely livid when they heard this. How the hell was this happening? They had to deal with it right now.

After leaving the others to handle the compensation stuff, a few inspectors from the Market Supervision Administration headed straight downstairs. They quickly found the night market street and spotted the stall, which was swarming with people.

They marched over, looking like trouble.

Shen Dongqing let out a sigh of relief when he saw Xiao Ze make the call, but watching people still buying cakes, he couldn't help but sigh to himself.

Young, healthy adults could probably handle it, but kids eating this? That was way too dangerous.

Just as he was thinking that, Shen Dongqing suddenly spotted a familiar face.

Zhang Feiyu?!

"Hey, beautiful, that cake looks pretty good. Give me a slice." Zhang Feiyu had no clue about the danger of these cakes. He just saw how good the tiramisu looked and grabbed a mango one.

"Haven't had this dessert in forever. First bite goes to the viewers, second bite's mine." Once he had the tiramisu, Zhang Feiyu held it up and waved it at the camera.

But juggling the camera and the cake was a bit awkward, so Zhang Feiyu found a spot to prop up the camera and started eating in front of it.

He ate so fast that by the time Shen Dongqing spotted him and jumped into his livestream, before he could even type a message, Zhang Feiyu had already taken a massive bite—polishing off nearly a third of the tiramisu.

"Mmm, this is pretty good, actually. It's just... it tastes a little sour. Maybe that's just how this cake is? I've never had it before." Zhang Feiyu chewed and chewed, struggling to get it all down, looking a bit confused.

But he didn't think much of it. He had an iron stomach—even if it was a little off, it wouldn't bother him.

Just then, he noticed someone in the livestream had sent him a ten-yuan gift, along with a message.

"Stop eating. That tiramisu's gone bad. Watch out, you'll get food poisoning."

The message itself wasn't weird, but who sent it was.

"Dongqing?" Zhang Feiyu blurted out. "What are you doing in my livestream? Long time no see!"

"Oh, it's spoiled?" Zhang Feiyu only then registered what Shen Dongqing had said. "That sour taste earlier—it was spoiled?"

"Hey friend, don't talk nonsense. My cakes are freshly made—I just made them before setting up the stall. It's only been this long. How could they possibly be spoiled?" The stall owner had noticed Zhang Feiyu from the start—the way he talked to the camera was too obvious, he was clearly a streamer. She had been watching him, and when she heard him badmouthing her stall, she warned him.

"What do you mean I'm talking nonsense? This thing tastes sour!" Zhang Feiyu turned around, annoyed.

"You just said you'd never had it before and thought it was a bit sour. Maybe you just can't appreciate such a fine cake, so it tastes sour to you." The stall owner seized on Zhang Feiyu's earlier words to argue back.

Zhang Feiyu frowned slightly. He had said that earlier because he wasn't sure at first, and also because he'd noticed the stall owner was a streamer and didn't want to say anything too harsh. But now, after a moment, the sourness in his mouth was even more pronounced—it even had a slightly rancid taste.

This clearly couldn't be normal ingredient flavor. This thing was spoiled.

Zhang Feiyu opened his mouth to fire back when he suddenly heard a commotion behind him. Turning around, he saw several people in uniform walking over.

Jiang Chao glanced at the stall's insulated cooler, and his expression turned even darker. In the livestream, the box was tucked in the corner and hard to see clearly, but seeing it in person—this thing could be used to refrigerate tiramisu?

If that were possible, dessert shops wouldn't need to buy expensive freezers. They could just use these and save so much money!

Jiang Chao identified himself, then asked the stall owner to produce her registration certificate.

The stall owner froze, her eyes darting left and right. She was a mobile vendor—how could she have something like that?

After speaking, Jiang Chao went straight to inspect the tiramisu sitting nearby. The customers hadn't paid much attention—after all, when you buy food from a street stall, you don't usually examine it closely. But as a law enforcement officer, he inspected it very carefully.

And that inspection immediately revealed the problem. Some of the cakes had already gone bad—the cream was weeping, the cakes were deformed, and they even felt sticky and stringy. Was this even cake anymore?

This was a certified stomach-poisoning device. Eat it, and you'd be guaranteed a trip to the hospital.

But that might not even be the most important issue, because Jiang Chao discovered that some of the tiramisu was decorated with lily of the valley.

Lily of the valley was pretty, sure, but it was a toxic flower. Using it as decoration—were they worried the tiramisu alone wasn't enough to poison people?

It wasn't until Jiang Chao said lily of the valley was toxic that the stall owner's face changed.

"I didn't know! I just thought it looked pretty." The stall owner scrambled to explain, then suddenly thought of something and quickly added, "It's fine—these are just decorative flowers. They don't taste good, so no one would eat them. It's not that dangerous."

The people around were all whispering about the spectacle, but the ones truly worse off were the customers who had just bought cakes and wolfed them down.

"Damn, this thing is spoiled. No wonder it tasted weird—I thought I just didn't know how to appreciate this cake."

"What? The decorative flowers are toxic? Then what do I do if I just ate some? Do I need to make myself throw up?" The person speaking started sticking their fingers down their throat right then and there—who knew how toxic this stuff was.

Other vendors nearby noticed the commotion. Some were shocked, but others were pleased. The night market had a lot of foot traffic, but people's stomachs were only so big—after eating cake, they wouldn't buy much else.

If the stall owner got taken away, their own business would naturally pick up.