Lin Fei’s words were not unfounded.

“On the day of my grandfather’s birthday banquet, all the guests experienced stomach discomfort after returning home!” Lin Fei said, “The severity varied.”

In such cases, the cooks were the first to be implicated and questioned. Especially since most of the guests at the Duke’s birthday banquet were not ordinary people, the news quickly spread back to the Duke’s mansion.

However, since most people at the Duke’s birthday banquet were there to make connections, and only a few came purely for the food, and most people didn’t eat much, there were no major problems. A few who ate more only had stomach problems for a day and a half; overall, nothing serious happened.

The cooks suspected of causing the problem were immediately taken to the Duke’s mansion for questioning. Especially since the cook surnamed Xing was a newcomer, while the other helpers and maids were all veterans who had worked there for many years without incident, he was the one who caused the problem. Who else would be suspected if not him? The cook, Xing, was utterly speechless and nearly sent to the authorities by the enraged Duke.

Fortunately, now that such an incident had occurred, one had to ask – what office under Heaven could be more suitable to take over the matter than the Dali Temple? With such a grand Dali Temple Shàoqīng present, he was naturally not merely for display!

“I’ve heard that quite a few people have been suffering from stomach troubles these past days,” Lin Fei said as he looked toward Liu Yuan. “After all, it was my Zǔfù’s birthday banquet, so naturally the people of our household were affected as well. The physician who was summoned said he had already visited several households these past few days to treat cases of stomach illness. Because of this, several cooks have suffered the consequences.”

Upon hearing this, Liu Yuan subconsciously glanced at Lin Fei, feeling a surge of admiration: ‘Our superior is indeed our superior. Even with stomach problems, he still has the mind to investigate cases. He’s truly a role model for everyone at the Dali Temple…”

Although he didn’t say anything, Lin Fei seemed to have guessed what Liu Yuan meant by that look. He paused, glanced at Liu Yuan, and moved his lips to explain, “I really like Chef Wen’s cooking.”

Because he liked Wen Mingtang’s cooking, on the day of the Duke’s birthday banquet, Lin Fei only drank some wine and ate a few dried fruits from the dried fruit platter. He had the main dishes of the meal fetched from the Dali Temple’s public kitchen and brought back to his courtyard.

The chef’s food was fine, so he was naturally unharmed. However, everyone else in the mansion suffered, all experiencing varying degrees of stomach upset!

Although the symptoms of stomach upset varied from person to person, they were generally related to the amount of food consumed at the banquet. Clearly, the problem lay with the food.

If the chef were to tamper with the food, the fact that so many mansions and so many people suffered stomach upsets simultaneously would eliminate the chef as a suspect.

“The problem must lie in the procurement of ingredients,” Lin Fei said. “Such a thing has never happened in the government kitchen, so the ingredients from the government estate are fine.”

In that case…

“Because of previous issues with unclean ingredients at the market, most of the dishes for Chef Xing’s birthday banquet were purchased from the estate. Only a few were added at the last minute for freshness,” Lin Fei said, pulling out a sheet of paper from under the inkstone on the table. He pointed to the dishes listed on it and said, “These are the dishes that were added at the last minute!”

The paper not only listed the dishes but also clearly stated where each ingredient was purchased.

Holding the bamboo skewer, Lin Fei forked another chicken strip from the oil paper package and put it in his mouth. A rich aroma of spices filled the air, but compared to the aroma in the main hall, it had a slightly pungent spiciness.

Glancing at the bright red chili powder on the chicken strips, Liu Yuan thought to himself again, “As expected of Lin Shaoqing.”

These past few days, boneless chicken strips have been in high demand. Knowing they had to line up early, the students were equally quick-witted, sending people early to “reserve” seats.

As a result, every afternoon felt like a battle; if you arrived late, you wouldn’t get any.

Because of the scarcity, those who managed to buy chicken strips dared not let them out of their sight, for the moment they did, a quick-thinking colleague would shamelessly snatch the bag away!

But he was certain that no one would try to steal Lin Shaoqing’s bag of boneless chicken strips; after all, the spiciness was unbearable for most people!

Lin Fei leisurely forked the bag of boneless chicken strips in his hand and said to Liu Yuan, “Wei Fu hasn’t come for a few days; we should go and visit him.”

Although their purpose in visiting Wei Fu wasn’t exactly what they seemed, and they figured Wei Fu would recognize them, it was the end of the year, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to go empty-handed.

Normally, they would have bought some food or ingredients as a “guest gift” on their way to visit Wei Fu, but now, considering they hadn’t found the culprit behind his stomach upset, they decided to just bring food from the local kitchen.

Ji Caimai’s takeout stall was thriving, and recently they’d even launched a takeout “snack gift box”.

Ji Caimai, Wen Mingtang, and the others had good taste, as evidenced by the Mid-Autumn Festival gift box, which was as impressive as those from upscale restaurants.

This “snack gift box” simply contained all the snacks sold at the takeout stalls, packaged in a single wooden box. The packaging was significantly better than the usual “scattered packaging”, with the five characters “Dali Temple Public Kitchen” carved into the center of the box as a seal.

While students eagerly grabbed the snacks, few actually bought the gift box. This wasn’t because they lacked money—the gift box wasn’t expensive! It’s just that the snacks themselves were gone once eaten, leaving no “evidence”. But throwing away the gift box seemed wasteful, while taking it home would leave evidence of stolen snacks. Family members would likely interrogate them about how they ate so many snacks, and explaining that the Imperial Academy’s public kitchen chefs weren’t good enough would be troublesome and exhausting!

So, although the snacks were already sold out, the “gift boxes” were still available. Liu Yuan and the others went to the public kitchen, bought the gift boxes, and chatted with Wen Mingtang and the others while they were packing the snacks.

Since they were going to see Wei Fu, the topic naturally turned to the recent stomach problems that had plagued many people in the city.

Upon hearing this, Ji Caimai didn’t even raise an eyebrow, saying directly, “Just go to the market to investigate. It shouldn’t be difficult, just troublesome! The vendors at the market are most afraid of getting into legal trouble, so they’ll all claim they don’t know anything. After all, missing a day’s work means missing a day’s earnings. These vendors aren’t like the wealthy and powerful, nor are they like the shopkeepers. For ordinary people, missing a day’s earnings might mean their whole family starves; how could they dare waste a day’s work?” Saying this, Ji Caimai shook his head. “The constables who go to question them will probably be quite busy. They might even be collectively driven away by the vendors for being in the way!”

The powerful and influential had their ways of dealing with each other, and ordinary people also had their own unique ways of interacting, no less complex than the intricate schemes of the powerful.

(End of Chapter)

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