Chapter 81 Chapter 81 Red Bean Buns. (Second update)...
It was not just Linzhi's family who were questioned. The shop owners of Dongji Restaurant, Furongzhuang and other restaurants who had disputes with Xie Da Mutton Restaurant, the shop owners who were heavily in debt, and Chef Cao and others were all visited one by one by the police and questioned carefully. Even their wives and children were included in the list.
Despite several days of investigation, there was still no progress. Lin Zhi made some inquiries and learned that other families, like her own, had seen Shopkeeper Xie for the last time that day. Many had seen him hurriedly leave for the market.
The only thing that is certain is that Shopkeeper Xie did not escape at all, but went to a certain place, met a certain person, and was then killed.
After confirming this, the merchants on Dali Temple Front Street, including Linzhi's family, were quickly ruled out as suspects. Instead, the shop owners who came to collect debts, the Fengya man who had reminded Shopkeeper Xie that he would put the shop up for sale, and Shopkeeper Xie's wife and children became the main suspects. Not only were they taken to the yamen for questioning for several days in a row, but all kinds of rumors also emerged.
Due to the seriousness of the case and the tragic appearance of the corpse, the news spread all the way to the higher-ups. Even though Tao Yingce and Shen Yan were not in charge of the case, they were able to find out a lot of inside information.
"Despite the large number of inquiries, most of them have been cleared of suspicion."
"Has the suspect been ruled out? Does that mean they haven't identified him yet?" Lin Zhi lifted the curtain and emerged from the kitchen. She placed a plate of food in front of Shen Yan and asked, "Is that true? I heard from the neighbors that the police have been keeping an eye on them, and it's causing panic among the people."
"Of course it's true." Chen Yan answered casually, lowering his eyes to look at the food in front of him with curiosity. The food in front of him looked a bit like steamed buns and a bit like pancakes, but it was much smaller.
He raised his hand and poked it, and was surprised to find that although it looked golden on the surface, it was actually soft when pressed.
Chen Yan calmed himself down and answered Lin Zhi's question first. "Actually, the officers in charge of this case asked the people who collect waste oil on weekdays. They said that the price of waste oil is high, so they usually filter and collect it very carefully. Especially before the winter solstice, merchants discard waste oil more frequently. They also want to have a good holiday, so they clean it to the bottom every day during that time."
"Even the officers confirmed that they only had the winter solstice as their day off. They had been there every day before. If Manager Xie's body was among them, it should have been discovered long ago."
Lin Zhi was shocked: "So the body was most likely dumped there by the murderer on the winter solstice?"
"That's right." Chen Yan nodded, then sighed: "The problem is that Shopkeeper Xie has indeed been dead for many days, and judging by the condition of his body, he must have been hidden in the waste oil."
Hearing this, Lin Zhi suddenly realized: "That means the person who killed him must have had enough space to store the waste oil drums, and even left them for several days without anyone noticing."
"With this kind of environment and space, even owning and transporting large waste oil drums is a no-brainer." Lin Zhi pondered, "It's either a medium-sized canteen, restaurant, or hotel, or someone in the subdistrict office is helping them."
"But," Lin Zhi asked in confusion, "if they already had a place to bury the body, why did they rush to dispose of it directly on the winter solstice? Was there some uncontrollable reason?"
"It's not clear yet. The government is still investigating this matter." Chen Yan replied. Then he raised his hand and pointed at the food in front of him, asking curiously, "Sister Zhi, what is this?"
"This is a red bean paste bread, freshly baked, and it's still hot!" Lin Zhi came back to her senses and introduced with a smile. The ingredients for the bread were very simple, so she gave it a try. Unexpectedly, the result of baking in the kiln was unexpectedly good. The red bean paste bread had a golden crust and was full of milky aroma.
"Red bean paste bread?" Chen Yan picked up the bread he had just poked, blew on it twice, and then put it to his nose to sniff it.
The bread in front of me has a slightly different aroma from the steamed buns and steamed buns we usually see. The latter usually have a pure flour aroma, occasionally with a unique fermentation aroma, while the bread in my hand has the aroma of roasted grains and a faint caramel aroma.
Chen Yan used his hands to exert a little force and split the red bean paste bread into two. The fluffy bread texture and the steaming red bean paste inside immediately caught his eye.
"What a nice smell." As the aroma of the red bean paste gushed out, it blended well with the aroma of the noodles and burnt aroma. The sweet fragrance became more and more intense, making Chen Yan's mouth water.
He couldn't help but put half of it into his mouth. The fluffy and light bread was different from the solidity of the steamed bun, and it seemed as if his saliva could melt it.
Half of the red bean paste is extremely delicate, while the other half is granular, sweet and light, with the aftertaste of osmanthus fragrance.
"You have a rather sharp tongue. You can actually taste the sweet-scented osmanthus."
"Eh? I said it."
"What else?" Lin Zhi couldn't help laughing. She explained while packing up another portion of red bean paste buns: "I added osmanthus syrup and malt sugar when I fried them."
Immediately, she said to Song Jiaoniang, "Mother, please give it to Madam Yu to try. Tell her that it's made with the osmanthus syrup she gave us."
Song Jiaoniang responded with a smile. Those osmanthus syrups were prepared by Madam Yu when she was making osmanthus almond syrup. In addition to keeping several jars for herself, she also gave two pots to the Lin family.
She went out with a box of red bean paste buns, but before she reached Madam Yu's shop, she saw a carriage parked at her door. Immediately, a group of men in blue clothes got out of the carriage and walked towards her shop.
Song Jiaoniang hurriedly handed the box to Yu Niangzi, said a few words quickly and walked back. As soon as she entered her house, she heard the exclamations of the father and daughter.
"Invitation?"
"New Year's party!?"
Song Jiaoniang paused, her heart pounding. She quickened her pace and hurried into the house. The leading man in blue had a big smile on his face. He bowed and said, "That's right."
He took out a piece of letter from the tray held by the person behind him and handed it to Lin Zhi with both hands: "Please accept it, Chef Lin."
Linzhi subconsciously took the letter, but did not open it. Instead, she stood there with a frown.
The man was used to this. Every year, nine out of ten chefs who received invitations would be so excited that they would become incoherent. It was normal for them to just stand there blankly, while some would rush over and give him kisses and kisses.
The man delivered the letter, his mission complete. He was about to leave when a voice suddenly rang out from behind him: "Can you refuse?"
Lin Sen and Song Jiaoniang were startled at first, then screamed in shock: "Sister Zhi!?"
"Big brother, don't listen to my daughter's nonsense."
"Why are you refusing for no reason?" Meanwhile, Song Jiaoniang took two quick steps forward, took her daughter's hand, and walked aside, lowering her voice. "Madam Yu and the others said that business would increase several times over after participating in the New Year's party."
"I think we should just take it one step at a time. There's no need for any false reputation. Besides, our shop is already packed with people, with long lines outside every day."
"What if..." Lin Zhi had truly thought this through. She stretched out her tone, prompting Song Jiaoniang to imagine: "How can we continue to do business then? We might even ruin our reputation."
Song Jiaoniang lowered her voice, but Lin Zhi did not, so when she said this, the man in blue clothes next to her was stunned.
The man in blue was really shocked, the kind that he could hardly hide. Every New Year's meeting is an opportunity for many newcomers to make a name for themselves, but this was the first time he heard of someone refusing an offer because they were afraid of becoming famous and had too much business. No, are you so sure that you can do good business?
The man in blue was speechless, swallowing the words that had been lingering on his lips for a while. He interrupted the mother and daughter with a smile, "Excuse me, Chef Lin, this is a collaboration between the catering association and the government. Since its inception, I have never heard of a member refusing to participate."
After a pause, he added, "Why don't you discuss this with your family first? If you still insist on this idea, then go talk to the restaurant?"
"Yes, yes, let's discuss this further."
"Big brother, I'll take you out."
"Hey!" Lin Zhi stomped her feet, but was taken to the kitchen by Lin Sen and Song Jiaoniang. "Girl, how can you refuse just because the shop is small?"
Lin Zhi was speechless: "I just said that there are only three of us in our shop, and we can only handle the workload of our family. If the business triples, the line will stretch all the way to the market."
“You can still make an appointment.”
"Then we won't have to do anything else, just one thing." Lin Zhi said helplessly, hands on her hips. She felt it was difficult to fight two people alone, so she went out to ask the local Chen Yan for help. "I don't believe there's ever been a new shop that hasn't encountered this kind of problem in the past!"
When Chen Yan heard this question, he frowned and hesitated, "I haven't paid much attention to this matter, and I don't know how the participants in previous years are doing now."
"Should we ask Madam Yu?"
"Last year, the winning dish was called Garlic Wings, and the name of the shop that made it was... " Madam Yu was pleasantly surprised when she heard that Linzhi was invited, and she quickly recalled the winning dish and shop from last year.
However, she remembered the dishes but not the name of the shop, so she simply asked Shopkeeper Wu: "I asked my husband to buy it there before! He must remember it."
"Ah, that shop." Shopkeeper Wu really remembered it, but he scratched his head and said, "That shop has closed down."
Lin Sen and Song Jiaoniang's expressions changed: "Huh?"
Shopkeeper Wu said with a smile, "You don't have to be so rude. I heard he was hired out to a restaurant in the city as a cook and just closed his own shop."
"What about the year before last?"
"That family went to work as a cook in the mansion of the former Imperial Censor Tang. I haven't seen them in several years." Shopkeeper Wu said with a smile, "Why are you asking this?"
When he heard that Linzhi had also been invited, Shopkeeper Wu was immediately delighted: "This is great news!"
Lin Sen and Song Jiaoniang: "Look!"
Lin Zhi scratched her head and said, "But I don't want to go to the official's house, nor do I want to be a cook in other restaurants."
"There are also some who opened their own restaurants and later became more and more famous." Shopkeeper Wu said with a smile, "For example, Huixianlou, Wuxianlou, and Jiangxing Restaurant in our Bianjing City... The chefs of those shops also came from the New Year's Club!"
"Here, take a look."
"It's a restaurant. It's no problem for them to double, triple, quadruple their business. But what if our shop doubles its business?" Lin Zhi said expressionlessly, bringing the topic back to the beginning.
Linzhi, her parents, and the other two couldn't convince each other, so they just sat there angrily. Shopkeeper Wu watched with amusement, picked up a small red bean bun, took a bite, and was amazed: "What a unique texture!"
"It's soft and fluffy, and very sweet."
"Hey, let me try it." Madam Yu couldn't help but joined in.
Mr. and Mrs. Lin Sen originally wanted to keep a straight face, but after hearing the constant exclamations of praise, they couldn't help but quietly join the group of people who were eating.
"However," Shopkeeper Wu said suddenly while eating, "Your family is quite confident. You're already convinced you'll win before the competition even starts."
"Cough cough cough cough!" Lin Sen was just swallowing bread and couldn't help coughing when he heard this.
Even Lin Zhi felt awkward. She chewed the bun and silently changed the subject: "Thank you, Shopkeeper...ah...hmm?"
Lin Zhi's chewing gradually slowed down, and after a while he uttered four words: "On the winter solstice?"
"Wait?" She was suddenly startled and turned her head sharply to look at Lin Sen and his wife. "Mom and Dad, when we arrived at the Juyou Building that day, did you see a truck carrying a waste bin leaving?"
Lin Sen thought for a moment and said, "Yes."
Song Jiaoniang also nodded: "Yes, there is such a car. I was saying it's rare to see someone so diligent."
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