Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Jiang Chao readily agreed, saying he would ask the other party and let Shen Dongqing know as soon as they replied.

With that, all of Shen Dongqing's goals for his outing were accomplished.

Back home, Shen Dongqing used the leftover beef scraps to make himself a plate of fried rice.

With superb cooking skills and the host's premium beef, Shen Dongqing ate heartily, even forgetting the aches from his minor injuries.

But the relief from the pain was only temporary. Shen Dongqing went to the bedroom and took off his shirt, seeing the bruise on his shoulder and finally realizing why it still hurt a bit.

Shen Dongqing tentatively pressed it and let out a soft gasp. The pain wasn't as bad as the pain in his knee, but it was still a dull ache. His knee had little padding, so it was bone pain, while this was muscle pain.

Shen Dongqing pulled out the ice packs Xiao Ze had given him and applied them one after another.

Sure enough, after the cold compress, the pain really wasn't as intense.

While applying the ice packs, Shen Dongqing scrolled through driving test theory videos. If the market supervision bureau of another city really needed his help, he'd have to make a trip, so he needed to plan his driving school schedule.

But as he scrolled, the afternoon drowsiness crept in, and before he knew it, Shen Dongqing had fallen asleep sprawled on the bed.

Shen Dongqing was woken by a phone ringing.

"Brother Jiang?" Seeing the caller ID, Shen Dongqing answered, his voice still carrying a hint of sleepiness.

"I asked Chongshan, and they're thrilled you can come. They said you're welcome anytime—free room and board, regular pay, and they want to know when you can go." Jiang Chao said casually.

"Also, do you want to go to other cities? I was planning to ask around a few more places, but the first one I asked agreed right away, so I didn't want to push it. I was worried you might not have enough time." It was good news, but going back and forth between several cities would still be pretty tiring.

Most importantly, if he agreed to all of them, then who would go first and who would go second? Since this was a hard problem to resolve properly, Jiang Chao decided to avoid it altogether.

"Just one for now. I'll decide about other cities later based on how I'm doing." Shen Dongqing quickly responded after hearing Jiang Chao's words.

He did want to help out, but agreeing to go to one city for food safety inspections was mainly to gather material—that was the main goal, not that he actually wanted to do the work. But Shen Dongqing didn't dare flat-out say no.

"Alright, I'll tell them that then. So when do you have time?" Jiang Chao said.

"I'll have time in three days." Shen Dongqing calculated how much time he needed for watching videos, left himself some buffer, and replied.

With Shen Dongqing's answer, Jiang Chao didn't say much else and hung up.

After that chat, Shen Dongqing was no longer sleepy. He got out of bed and did a bit of exercise.

Speaking of which, the beef jerky he made earlier should be almost done marinating, right?

Shen Dongqing checked the time and realized it really was, so he immediately started a livestream.

Shen Dongqing took out a basin of the marinated beef from the fridge and gave it a quick sniff. He found that the aromas of the other ingredients had already been absorbed into the beef.

It wasn't the heavy fragrance of spices, but carried a fresh scent of the fruits and vegetables themselves. Looking at the state of the beef, Shen Dongqing was satisfied and began picking out the ingredients he'd put in earlier.

From the moment Shen Dongqing entered the kitchen, the Flying Camera started automatically following him.

"Daily prayer, hope I get chosen"

"I don't need to pray, I've already marinated my own beef, just need to learn the flavoring from the streamer"

"Seeing the streamer pick out the veggies from the marinated beef, seems like such a hassle. Couldn't you just blend those ingredients into juice and marinate the beef in that? Wouldn't that be simpler?"

Shen Dongqing was in the middle of working when he glanced at his phone and was hit by the audience's clever idea, unable to hold back a laugh.

"Streamer, is that not allowed?"

"It's doable, and it is indeed very simple. I also have the ratios for vegetable juice, but there's a problem—after absorbing the vegetable juice, the beef easily soaks up too much water, making it take longer to dry and prone to uneven heating." Shen Dongqing explained seriously.

"Secondly, vegetable juice ferments easily. Even refrigerated, this problem can occur, and that would ruin the whole basin of beef."

"Lastly, there's the flavor. The juice has a very strong, pungent taste that would completely overwhelm the beef's aroma. Even if it works out, the texture wouldn't be as rich as what we have now. Since everyone's already putting in so much effort to process the beef, don't skimp on this."

Hearing this, some fans who were originally thinking of taking the easy way out thought about it and figured it really wasn't worth it. After all, they'd already come this far—if they messed up trying to save a little effort, that would be a huge loss.

Shen Dongqing continued picking out the ingredients from the beef when a fan suddenly noticed the marks on his wrist.

"Streamer, what's wrong with your hand?"

"Oh, this? It was all a misunderstanding." Shen Dongqing didn't hide anything and explained the misunderstanding from earlier that day.

Some viewers were concerned about whether Shen Dongqing was okay and offered various suggestions, while others focused on the pressure cooker.

"Are pressure cookers really that dangerous?"

"They really are. My mom is the only one in my house who uses it—I don't dare touch it myself"

"One of ours exploded once and blew straight up to the ceiling. I was in the living room and was terrified by the sound. Good thing I wasn't in the kitchen, or who knows what would've happened"

"I know pressure cookers are dangerous, but I never noticed they could be modified into bombs. If the streamer hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have known"

"News like that usually isn't widely publicized, for fear people might imitate it. Let's drop the topic—if anything happens, the streamer might get in trouble"

"Right, let's stop talking about it"

Shen Dongqing hadn't thought much when he brought it up, but seeing that comment, he didn't mention it again and focused on making the beef jerky.

...

Meng Xiao was a fan of Shen Dongqing. She'd started as a fan of his looks but gradually became a half-career fan after watching him encounter several criminals.

She had to work today and hadn't watched the livestream at all. It wasn't until the afternoon, while running errands outside, that she had a moment to pull out her phone and watch. She caught Shen Dongqing talking about the pressure cooker misunderstanding and couldn't help but laugh at the thought of it.

Even though Shen Dongqing had it rough, the misunderstanding was just funnier the more she thought about it.

But being out in public, she couldn't laugh too openly. Noticing the strange looks from passersby, Meng Xiao suppressed her smile and searched for what a so-called pressure cooker bomb looked like. She couldn't find any actual images, probably to prevent ordinary people from copying it.

After finishing her errands, Meng Xiao saw it was getting late. If she went back to the office and then home, she'd hit rush hour and who knows how long she'd be stuck in traffic. Better to head home now.

Meng Xiao got lucky—she'd only waited at the bus stop a moment when a bus arrived. There weren't many people yet, so she boarded, swiped her card, and scanned the bus for an empty seat.

She lived at least a thirty-minute walk from the stop. If traffic jammed halfway, it could take forty to fifty minutes. She'd been walking all afternoon, and standing all the way back would make her calves swell.

She couldn't sit in the front—she'd have to give up her seat for elderly passengers, and refusing wasn't an option. The middle seats were reserved for the elderly, disabled, pregnant, and children, so those were off-limits too. Spotting a few seats in the back, Meng Xiao rushed over and sat down.

The back was much safer. Even if someone needed a seat, they wouldn't ask for the back rows.

Meng Xiao settled in comfortably but didn't play on her phone. She got mildly carsick, and playing with her phone only made it worse.

She wanted to listen to music to pass the thirty minutes, but when she rummaged through her bag, she realized she'd left her earphones at the office. She couldn't play music out loud on the bus, so she let out a helpless sigh.

She didn't dare close her eyes to rest, afraid she'd fall asleep and miss her stop. So she just had to find ways to entertain herself on the bus.

Meng Xiao looked up at the stop sign and the small advertisements, starting to pass the time. That's when she noticed a man acting strangely.

He was sitting in the priority seating for the elderly, disabled, pregnant women, and those with medical conditions. Sure, there were plenty of empty seats, so sitting there wasn't a big deal, and his face was pale—maybe he wasn't feeling well.

But besides his pale face, he also looked a bit nervous, glancing around anxiously. When he noticed Meng Xiao looking at him, his eyes started blinking even faster from nerves.

Meng Xiao looked away and noticed a large bag at his feet, though she couldn't tell what was inside.

The bus kept going stop after stop, and more people got on. The man's bag on the floor started getting in the way, and as people squeezed past, they ended up shoving it under the seat. The man was still looking at his phone and didn't notice.

The bus pulled into a stop, and the stop announcement rang out a few times. Seeing no one getting off, the driver was about to close the doors when the man suddenly realized it was his stop. He quickly shouted, "I gotta get off! I gotta get off!"

The doors reopened, and the man pushed through the crowd and rushed off the bus.

Another bus had pulled up behind them, and the bus didn't wait long before pulling away. After getting off and walking a few steps, it suddenly hit him—he'd left something on the bus.

His face instantly went white. Watching the bus drive away, he tried to chase it, but after a few steps he couldn't keep up and could only watch it drive off.

The man tried to flag down a cab, but it took a while before one stopped. When the driver asked where he wanted to go, he wanted to tell the driver to follow the bus, but he'd already forgotten the license plate number. How was he supposed to catch up now?

Meng Xiao saw the man get off and wanted to call out that he'd left something behind, but the bus pulled away before she could.

Even though she didn't have a great impression of the guy, Meng Xiao looked at the bag under the seat and, knowing she'd be getting off soon, walked up to the driver to tell him a passenger had left something behind.

"He'll probably come back for it, right? I'll just put the bag up front." Otherwise, if someone swiped it, he'd never see his stuff again.

The driver nodded and told Meng Xiao to bring the bag over.

Meng Xiao squeezed through the crowd, bent down, and dragged the bag out from under the seat. She noticed it was pretty heavy. As she pulled it, the bag came open a crack, and Meng Xiao recognized what was inside—a pressure cooker.

That alone wouldn't be weird, but what was odd was the wires sticking out of the gap in the lid. What was this thing?

If she hadn't watched Shen Dongqing's livestream, she might not have thought twice about it. After all, a pressure cooker was only scary when it was on a stove—what was there to be afraid of if it wasn't even being used?

But then Meng Xiao suddenly remembered Shen Dongqing's misunderstanding. His had been a false alarm—was this one a false alarm too?

Thinking back to the man's expression and demeanor earlier, and remembering what she'd looked up about pressure cookers being turned into bombs, Meng Xiao swallowed hard. Surrounded by the dense crowd, she barely managed to hold back the scream rising in her throat.

She couldn't yell. The bus was moving, and if she screamed, it would cause chaos. By then, even if the suspected bomb didn't go off, something would definitely happen inside.

"Are you gonna grab your stuff or what?" someone asked impatiently, noticing Meng Xiao hesitate.

"I'll—I'll just leave it here for now and come back for it later." Meng Xiao carefully pushed the pot back under the seat. She didn't know anything about bombs, but from what she'd seen in movies and TV, it was better to handle this thing with care.

"Where's the stuff?" the driver asked in confusion, noticing Meng Xiao come back empty-handed.

"Driver, can you pull over?" Meng Xiao's voice was shaking, and her legs felt like jelly. She didn't dare tell him the truth while he was still driving.

"Can't do that. We're not at a stop—I can't just pull over," the driver replied.

"Driver, I have something urgent to tell you. Please, just stop the bus. If you stop, I'll tell you right away." Meng Xiao's voice was almost tearful as she tried to plead with him once more.

If that didn't work, she'd just have to tell him while he was driving.

The driver frowned, but he could tell something was seriously wrong with Meng Xiao. After hesitating for a moment, he pulled over.

"If you need to get off, hurry up," the driver said, sounding helpless.

"Driver, that thing the guy left behind might be a pressure cooker bomb. Open the doors and get everyone off," Meng Xiao whispered into the driver's ear.

The driver's eyes went wide, and he was about to yell when Meng Xiao slapped her hand over his mouth.

The doors weren't open yet. If people found out, all hell would break loose on the bus.

The driver turned to look behind him. The passengers, clueless about what was going on, stared back in confusion.

"You're not messing with me, are you?" the driver asked, shaken.

"Driver, why would I lie to you? I'm dying to jump out the window right now—who knows when it's gonna blow," Meng Xiao said frantically.

The driver glanced at the packed bus and knew he couldn't tell the truth. If he did, there'd definitely be a stampede.

"The bus has a problem. Everyone get off now—this bus can't go any further," the driver shouted, quickly opening the front and rear doors and urging everyone to get out.

"What? The bus is broken? I haven't reached my stop yet!"

"Driver, can't you drive a little further? We're not even at a stop—we can't catch another bus from here!"

"I just got on! Can I get a refund?"

Many people were complaining, but the moment the doors opened, Meng Xiao bolted off the bus. Glancing at the bus beside her, she ran as fast as she could while dialing the police.

"Hello, I want to report that someone placed a bomb on the bus," Meng Xiao said breathlessly.

Meanwhile, the passengers grumbled a bit, and seeing that even the driver had gotten off, they knew complaining was useless. They cursed under their breath and got off too.

The driver didn't dare wander far. Seeing everyone else get off, he breathed a sigh of relief. He noticed an old man carrying a bag down and didn't think much of it, assuming it was the man's own luggage.

What he didn't know was that when the old man got off, he'd spotted the bag under the seat with no one claiming it. Thinking someone had left it behind and seeing no one else on the bus, he happily picked it up and took it with him.

Meng Xiao, still trembling, finished reporting to the police, told them her location, and got a response from the officer. She let out a sigh of relief.

Once the police arrived, everything should be fine, right?

"You're really not lying to me? There's actually a bomb?" The driver approached Meng Xiao, asking nervously. He was starting to regret running off without even seeing the pressure cooker himself. Now he wasn't even sure if it existed.

"Why would I lie to you for fun? I've already called the police. If this were a false report, I'd be breaking the law," Meng Xiao said irritably. "I don't know what's going on with that bomb, but at least it didn't explode while we were getting off."

Just thinking about it made Meng Xiao feel like she'd narrowly escaped with her life.

"We should stay far away. Once the police get here, we'll be fine," Meng Xiao said reassuringly.

Seeing Meng Xiao like this, the driver felt she wasn't lying. Though taking a look might have put his mind at ease, he glanced at the bus and didn't dare go back on. It hadn't exploded yet—but what if it blew up while he was checking?

The driver thought it over and quickly reported the situation to the bus company.

On the other side, the police who received the call immediately contacted the bus company, located the bus's position, and pulled up the live surveillance footage.

As they watched, the police frowned. The area under the middle seat was a blind spot—they couldn't see anything.

But the police didn't consider that someone might have walked off with the bag. They kept reviewing the footage to find who had placed the large black bag, while also dispatching officers to the bus's location to handle the bomb.