Chapter 23
Su Yuanzheng saw the menacing crowd coming from the opposite side, and hurriedly hid his daughter behind him. He said to the old lady, "Grandma, our food is all cooked fresh on the same day, and we have many customers every day, so there won't be any problems."
A middle-aged woman who had come along shouted, "What do you mean? My husband works at this sugar factory. How can we blackmail you?"
"I'm not saying you're blackmailing me. There's nothing wrong with my food. So many people have eaten it and nothing's wrong. Could your husband have been poisoned by something else?"
"Impossible! When he came back yesterday, he said he had a stomachache. He said he ate pork offal at the factory gate at noon! He didn't eat anything else! He was admitted to the hospital that night and hasn't woken up yet."
Amidst the clamor, it was time to get off work. When the workers came out, they saw that the porridge stall was not set up and the boss was surrounded by people, so they all came over to see what was going on.
The visitor insisted that his family had been poisoned by eating pork offal from the self-service porridge stall, and Su Yuanzheng was also sure that there could be no problem with his own food.
Su Miao had sneaked away from behind his father as early as when the middle-aged woman said that he was poisoned by eating pork offal at the factory gate at noon.
She ran to the guard room to borrow Grandpa Wang's phone and called the police. This kind of arguing was pointless and they had to find an authoritative department to investigate thoroughly.
Otherwise, even if the other party withdraws, the unclear situation will cause damage to their family's reputation.
Upon hearing that the incident occurred in front of the sugar factory, the police station immediately sent out the only two police cars in the station.
Fifteen minutes later, a police car with the words "Public Security" printed on it stopped by the roadside. When the old lady saw the police coming, she rushed up and filed a complaint.
"Comrade police officer, please help us! The food they sold was unclean and poisoned my son, and now they're denying it even if you beat them to death! They're nothing but scoundrels."
Su Yuanzheng said helplessly: "Comrade, our family has fresh and clean food. Not only do many guests come to eat every day, but my daughter and I also eat it ourselves, so there will be no problem."
"Yes, comrade, we eat porridge here every day. His house is cleaner than the cafeteria!"
"Yes, yes, yes! We can testify that we ate it yesterday and there was no problem."
…
The workers who were watching all spoke up for the Su family, saying that they finally had a stall that could satisfy their appetites, and they must not let it close down.
The leading officer waved his hands in the air and said, "Everyone, please be patient. Now that we're here, we'll investigate this matter thoroughly and won't just listen to one side of the story."
Su Miao stepped forward and said, "Uncle Police, since someone said there's something wrong with my food, the food we want to sell is right here. Could you please come and check it out?"
Su Miao asked his father to open all the lids and hand the dishes and chopsticks to the police officer in front of everyone.
Originally, the three policemen had no intention of tasting it directly. They just wanted to open it and smell it. If it looked wrong, they would ask comrades from the health department to come and take samples.
Now the bowl is in my hand, and with so many eyes watching me, I might as well try it.
The three of them took a small bite of each, which made the workers around them drool and feel a little resentful towards the old lady and her family.
Why didn’t he come at any other time? Why did he come at dinner time? Their stomachs are already rumbling with hunger!
The policemen put down their bowls and chopsticks, turned to the old lady and said, "Old lady, the food here is delicious and fresh. Besides, so many workers on site have confirmed that there have been no problems with the food. Did you make a mistake?"
The old lady stiffened her neck and said, "Comrade! You're right. My son is usually very frugal and won't eat out. Yesterday, he came home and said he ate some cheap pork offal at the door. He was rushed to the hospital before he even had time to eat lunch."
The police frowned and said to Su Yuanzheng, "Although there is no problem with our eating now, this old lady is sure that her son was poisoned by eating at your house, so we can't take the risk.
We need to get a notification from the health department to come and inspect it. Until then, you can’t sell your food outside.”
Su Yuanzheng nodded: "Comrade, I know what I eat at home and am willing to cooperate with the investigation."
Just as everyone was lamenting the fact that they wouldn't be able to drink porridge today, Su Miao raised a crucial question: "Grandma, did your son just say he wanted to eat pork offal, or did he mean the pork offal he ate at the porridge stall? Did he really mean it had to be from our family?"
The old lady exchanged a glance with her daughter-in-law and nephew, then hesitantly said, "Well... I just said that the pork offal at the factory gate was particularly cheap yesterday, so I ate some. But isn't this where you sell pork offal?"
Su Miao replied, "Although we serve a spoonful of pork offal with our porridge, it's two yuan per pound, which isn't cheap. Besides, we didn't have any price reductions yesterday, so it wasn't particularly cheap. And...it seems like we weren't the only one selling pork offal yesterday."
At this point, dozens of onlookers all turned their eyes to the right, at the noodle-mixing couple who were leaning against their small tricycle, eating melon seeds and watching the fun.
The auntie mixing noodles thought to herself: No...that can’t be.
Realizing that something was wrong, the noodle-mixing aunt told her husband to pack up quickly and run away if the situation was not right.
At this time, a worker who had just come over to watch the excitement recognized the old lady and her family and called out, "Aunt Li, sister-in-law, why are you here? Why didn't Brother Li come to work today?"
As if she had found someone to back her up, the old woman ran over and grabbed the man's arm. "Limin! Your brother Li got poisoned after eating the pork offal from this place yesterday! He's still in the hospital!"
"Ah? Poisoned? But he didn't eat from this restaurant yesterday!"
The whole audience was in an uproar when they heard this. They had been fussing for so long but ended up finding the wrong person. They had gone hungry for nothing.
The middle-aged woman started to panic. If she couldn't find the seller, how would she pay for the medical expenses?
"Limin, how do you know it's not this one? Did your brother Li tell you?"
The young man explained, "I ate with him yesterday at the place that sells mixed noodles. When we were eating, I felt that one piece of meat tasted a bit rotten, but we bought it with the mixed noodles and finished it all without spending any extra money. I also had diarrhea twice last night."
Someone in the crowd also echoed softly.
"Yesterday I saw a place selling pork offal with noodles, giving out a lot of pork and noodles for only 40 cents. I tried some, and it did taste a bit sour."
"I bought it too, but it wasn't very tasty, so I didn't finish it."
"I did finish it. It's a little sour, but it's meat after all! I have a good stomach, so I'm not afraid!"
…
The old woman burst into tears and cried, "My son has been sensible since he was young. He will eat everything in his bowl, no matter how much he eats. He won't waste anything. The more he eats, the more poison he will suffer! Where is this damn profiteer?"
The onlookers silently made way for a passage leading directly to the noodle stall, allowing them to bring the police over to arrest the man.
A police officer who was a step behind even turned around and said to Su Yuanzheng, "Since it has nothing to do with your family, then just go ahead and set up your stall. Your food is really delicious!"
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