Chapter 83 Chapter 83 The case is concluded. (Second update)...

Chef Zhou calmed down and called a servant on duty, telling him to go to the warehouse to get the ingredients he needed temporarily.

When the servant agreed and was about to leave, he casually asked, "I heard a few people talking about Brother Lu just now. Did he cause some trouble in the warehouse?"

The servant paused and shook his head, "This time it's either a disturbance or something really bad has happened."

Chef Zhou looked curious: "Oh? Tell me, how is it so frustrating?"

"Chef Zhou, it's understandable you didn't know. A while ago, there was a strange smell wafting through the warehouse. The closer we get to the winter solstice, the stronger it gets. Just the smell gives me a headache and makes me nauseous."

The waiter came closer, fearing that these unpleasant rumors would reach the diners' ears. "The warehouse manager said it must be the staff who weren't cleaning diligently. He ordered everyone to move everything out of the warehouse and clean it thoroughly to find the source."

"Guess what? Later, we found a nest of dead rats and two dead wildcats in the corner! Think about it, the warehouse is warmer than outside, so if all these things were rotting, wouldn't the stench be unbearable?"

"What does this have to do with Brother Lu?"

"I haven't finished yet. Actually, the warehouse manager had the rat poison sprinkled outside the warehouse to prevent it from getting on the food. It ended up getting inside the warehouse."

"After a closer look, we discovered that Brother Lu, too lazy to bother, simply sprinkled the powder into the warehouse, killing the cats and mice. Now, all the dried goods and grains piled nearby have been contaminated by the smell, and all the opened ingredients have to be thrown away. What a huge waste of money!"

At this point, the servant's eyes hid a hint of smile, and his tone was filled with a bit of gloating: "The warehouse manager was so angry that he docked his wages for three months on the spot and said he would report the matter to Cui the cook."

Brother Lu usually likes to bully the weak and fear the strong in the shop. Most of the servants and boys dislike him. Now that they hear that he is going to be in trouble, they are naturally secretly happy.

As Chef Zhou listened, the smile on his face faded a little, and a hint of disappointment flashed in his eyes. This was just an ordinary mistake and obviously had nothing to do with what he wanted to investigate.

But he didn't show any emotion on his face. He just said in a gentle voice, "That's also true of Brother Lu. Chef Tang has always valued him, but he is so rash in his work and caused such a mess."

"That's right," the servant replied, his face full of envy. He lowered his voice and whispered the inside story, "Actually, the warehouse manager should be able to sue him. Last time, Brother Lu got drunk and yelled in the warehouse, saying that the soup chef had already agreed to it, and that he would be the new warehouse manager of Juyou Building from now on."

"Tell me, will the warehouse manager be happy to hear this? He'll naturally be hoping to catch him doing something wrong so he can be sent away."

When Chef Zhou heard this, he didn't take it seriously. He just waved his hand and told the servant to go back quickly. He turned back to the kitchen and thought about how to catch Chef Tang's fault after work.

He didn't expect that the warehouse manager was holding his breath and going to Cui the chef's residence to complain. As soon as he arrived at the door, he ran into Zhao Sizhi who came to find Cui the chef to confirm the confession of Linzhi's family.

Seeing someone coming, Zhao Sizhi stepped aside and made way, saying politely, "You guys talk first. I'll wait for the officer to come back."

After saying that, he sat aside and concentrated on drinking tea. Unexpectedly, he overheard the conversation between the steward and Cook Cui.

When he heard that 'there was a foul smell in the warehouse before the winter solstice', Zhao Sizhi frowned slightly.

When the manager mentioned the time it would take for the smell to dissipate, he couldn't help but interrupt, "You just said there was a foul odor in your shop a few days before the winter solstice? When did the smell completely disappear?"

The steward was stunned for a moment, subconsciously looking at Cui the cook. Only after Cui the cook nodded slightly did he respectfully reply, "Sir, the smell faded significantly after the thorough cleaning that day. We also kept the windows open for ventilation for a few days, and it was only two or three days after the winter solstice that the smell was completely gone."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Sizhi's eyes suddenly lit up. This time was exactly consistent with the case!

Then he remembered that Juyoulou was a famous food restaurant in Bianjing, and there must be a lot of waste barrels in the backyard, and those barrels happened to be located on the side of the alley that Linzhi's family had passed by.

All the clues so far have been connected!

Zhao Sizhi immediately stood up and asked the warehouse manager to lead the way and took people to the backyard to verify the situation. Soon they found a row of half-person-high waste barrels beside the warehouse. The barrels were wide, and it was easy to hide a person inside.

More crucially, while reviewing the warehouse register, Zhao Sizhi discovered an anomaly: Juyoulou typically only removed forty barrels of waste every two or three days, but during the week of the winter solstice, a whopping 196 barrels were removed. He had someone calculate the figures based on Juyoulou's business performance, and even accounting for the increased customer traffic during holidays, the figures were far above normal.

As clues emerged one after another, the interrogation quickly made progress. First, a handyman who was on duty the day after the winter solstice said that when he arrived at the backyard that day, there were only four or five buckets of waste in the waste bin, which was more than half less than usual.

A moment later, another servant said that he had seen Manager Xie near the Juyou Building, but he didn't see clearly who Manager Xie was looking for.

Next, one after another, people said that they had seen Manager Xie, and the earliest time could be traced back to nearly two months ago.

In other words, someone in Juyoulou must have been in regular contact with Shopkeeper Xie. However, after searching through the files, Zhao Sizhi had never mentioned in anyone's confession that they had met Shopkeeper Xie, nor did anyone know who Shopkeeper Xie was meeting with, and this person had never appeared on the list of people the government had previously investigated.

As the official handling the case, Zhao Sizhi had a strong sixth sense in his heart at this moment: this is the person they are looking for!

While Zhao Sizhi ordered people to monitor everyone in Juyoulou, he also urgently called Xie Ping's wife and children, as well as the accountant and cook who used to work at Xie Da Mutton Restaurant, and asked them again if they knew about the dealings between Manager Xie and Juyoulou.

Everyone looked at each other, and soon Chef Cao offered a clue: "If I remember correctly, that person should be Chef Tang. Shopkeeper Xie mentioned it once... saying that the roast duck recipe we made earlier was provided by Chef Tang."

…

It was four or five days later that the truth of the case came to light. Listening to Chen Yan's account of the whole story, Lin Zhi was speechless. Her brows furrowed as she pointed at herself, her tone filled with disbelief: "You're saying... no, according to his confession, this incident was caused by my family?"

It turned out that after the interrogation at the Dali Temple, it was learned that the shopkeeper Xie was jealous of Linzhiji's good business, and secretly went to the soup chef to buy the roast duck recipe. Unexpectedly, after getting the recipe, the roast duck he made not only did not make money, but instead attracted a lot of bad reviews, and finally dragged down other businesses.

Manager Xie was so angry that he went to the soup chef's house several times and asked him to compensate him for his losses.

Especially on the day of the incident, after Shopkeeper Xie was chased by several shops for debts, he turned around and took out all his anger on the soup chef, and went to his house with a sharp knife to make a scene.

In his confession, Chef Tang said that he was "forced to resist" and accidentally killed someone, portraying himself as innocent and pitiful, as if others had forced him from beginning to end and he was just an unlucky victim.

However, this argument obviously failed to convince the crowd. After all, not to mention the officials in the Dali Temple who had seen all sorts of strange things, even Lin Sen slammed his head on the table when he heard it: "No one would believe this!"

"The person is dead, and he can still say whatever he wants. If he was really just resisting, why would he hide him in a waste oil drum and wait several days before transporting him out?"

Chen Yan also agreed with this and said to Lin Zhi, "Don't take it to heart, Sister Zhi. In fact, Brother Lu, who helped cover up the murder and clean up the bodies, also gave an explanation. According to him—"

Linzhi was curious just now, but as he listened, he fell silent, his head full of question marks.

After Chen Yan finished speaking, she fell silent. After a while, she couldn't help but raise her voice: "No, this guy is sick, right? I haven't even met Cook Cui, and he treats me as an enemy? Is this reasonable?"

"It's indeed irrational." Chen Yan spread his hands and couldn't help laughing. "So, initially, the people in the Dali Temple believed the former more than the latter."

"At first?" Lin Zhi was slightly startled. Before she could ask, Chen Yan changed the subject: "But."

Lin Zhi stared at him eagerly: "?"

Chen Yan's expression was suppressed. "The Dali Temple followed up on other matters related to Brother Lu's case and discovered that this wasn't the first time that Chef Tang had done something like this to frame someone. His methods against your family were only the most basic. He didn't show his true abilities at all."

He casually mentioned a few past cases. The experiences of several people in them were quite similar to Linzhi's. They were all suppressed by Tang Chu using various means just as their businesses were getting started.

It's just that their strength is too weak, and their reaction is even slower, so most of them ended up in failure and were suppressed to the point where they couldn't get up again. Some of them closed down, and some of them were even more miserable. They were even sent to jail by Tang Chu on pretexts, and they have not been able to clear their grievances to this day.

Chen Yan sighed as he spoke. "Brother Lu's confession has thrown the Dali Temple into chaos. All the old cases he mentioned will have to be reopened for investigation. If this matter isn't handled properly, everyone's evaluations next year will be ruined."

It is only a few days away from the Chinese New Year, and the government office is just trying to wrap up things peacefully, but something like this happened, forcing everyone to work around the clock.

Chen Yan shook his head, with a hint of sarcasm in his words: "Look, you see I can still sit here idle, but as for Brother Tao, I'm afraid he will have to sleep on the floor in the Dali Temple these days."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw that the three members of Linzhi's family all showed sympathetic expressions. Before Chen Yan could stop smiling, he suddenly realized that something was wrong and secretly gave the three of them a look.

Lin Zhi nodded with a smile in her eyes.

Chen Yan turned his head expressionlessly and saw Tao Yingce with a forced smile, followed by a group of yamen runners who were trying to smile or not.

The yamen runners stepped forward and placed a stack of food boxes on the table. At the same time, Tao Yingce placed his hand on Shen Yan's shoulder: "Good brothers should share joys and sorrows...right?"

Chen Yan opened his mouth but couldn't utter a single word.

Tao Yingce held Chen Yan's shoulder tightly with one hand, and without speaking to Lin Zhi's family, he said, "Sister Zhi, I want to order sixty-four meals... Here, this is the menu for everyone."

Lin Zhi looked at Chen Yan's miserable expression, unable to bear the thought of life, and finally couldn't help laughing: "I know, we'll send it over when it's ready."

"Thank you." Tao Yingce was about to leave with the drooping Chen Yan, but suddenly stopped and turned back: "I was confused. I have to order another one."

"Brother Yan, what are you eating?"

“…” Chen Yan had no expression on his face and didn’t want to speak at all.

Tao Yingce didn't force him. He smiled and said to Lin Zhi, "It's up to him. Just do as you see fit."

After saying that, he grabbed Chen Yan's collar and dragged him out the door like a chick.

Linzhi watched everyone go away, picked up the menu with a chuckle, looked at the list of dishes on it, then walked into the kitchen and busily started preparing.

As for Chen Yan, who was halfway there, he suddenly exclaimed, "Ah," and said, "There's one more thing I forgot to mention."

He signaled Tao Yingce to let him down, but Tao Yingce didn't believe it at all. He even tightened his grip and continued to drag him forward.

"I really have something to say—"

"Nothing?"

"Regarding the New Year's party for newlyweds, it was recommended by that soup chef." Chen Yan narrowed his eyes and said softly.

"Sister Zhi was invited?"

"Well, I was still thinking about it that day." Chen Yan shook his neck and turned his body skillfully, escaping from Tao Yingce's hands like a nimble cat.

He stood there, deep in thought. "I originally wanted to ask Sister Zhi if she had signed up, but I just saw what they've prepared in their shop, and I think Sister Zhi and her family have already agreed to participate."

Just now, he saw several brand new carts and a pile of clean pallets in Linzhiji.

The Linzhi family who owns a shop normally do not need to use these things, unless they have agreed to participate in the competition and want to take part in the warm-up activities, then they will buy them specifically.

"Then let's go back and tell him."

"Forget it, there's no point in saying it now. It will only make them nervous and affect their state of mind for the competition." Chen Yan thought about it and shook his head: "Besides, Sister Zhi will definitely participate. After all, the first place prize is one thousand strings of cash."

One thousand strings of cash was not a small amount even for him and Tao Yingce, not to mention that the Linzhi family was still thinking of buying Xie Da's mutton restaurant.

That thousand strings of cash was like a tailor-made bait. Even though there was a fishhook hidden behind it, the Linzhi family could not refuse it.

"Besides, Sister Zhi is capable of taking first place." Chen Yan lowered his eyes to look at the shoes on his feet, the corners of his mouth slightly raised: "As for the obstacles that Chef Tang may have set, now that he has been caught, isn't the problem mostly solved? As for the remaining ones, I will clean up first."