Chapter 159: Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
“Lai Er, I can write off your debts if you help me settle this matter. I can also give you a jar of wine, which is enough for you to take a bath for two days.”
After a pause, the man called Lai Er asked, “What do you need?”
Sister Xiang walked up to him, sneered, and briefed him on her plan.
…
After many sweet days with Ye Xiaoxian, Xiao Baoshan had to go back to the dock. Holding her gently in his arms, he said reluctantly, “My love, I have to go back to work again.”
“How long for this time?” she asked.
She was also sad about his departure. During these days they had spent together, she had found countless good qualities in him. He was knowledgeable, polite, kind and sympathetic. He even excelled in martial arts but never bullied the weak. He was friendly to everyone around him and he kept his thoughts to himself but never harbored any wicked ideas.
Everything verified the saying that beauty was in the eye of the beholder. His dark skin, in her eyes, only enhanced his dashing looks.
…
Lai Er was slightly more capable than he appeared to be. He had a relative who happened to be a fire tender in Ye Xiaoxian’s restaurant. Therefore, he pretended to visit his relative and was allowed into the kitchen.
When his relative was not looking, Lai Er secretly sprinkled a large bag of poisonous powder onto the washed meat. The powder was colorless and odorless, so ordinary people couldn’t spot it at all. Very soon, Little Five and Six threw the meat into the wok and began frying it.
The effect of the powder was not intense. It would take about 20 minutes for the drug to take effect, which was exactly when the customers finished their meals. After a while, cries broke the peace of the restaurant. Some customers groaned in pain, looking as if they had stomach aches.
Things got out of hand as more and more customers held their bellies with both hands and claimed to have stomach aches. Naturally, they thought the culprit was the food they had eaten. Then, all the customers put down their chopsticks and stopped eating. Daunted by the miserable groans, some people stopped in their tracks and did not enter the restaurant.
Li Hongmei was scared out of her wits. “Oh, what happened? What should I do?”
Hastily, she asked Little Five and Little Six to send the sick people to the nearby clinics and herbal medicine shops. But as more and more people began to develop a stomach ache, she was compelled to send for the doctors to come to them.
In the blink of an eye, the restaurant turned into a clinic. Some onlookers blocked the doorway gloating over the misfortune. The doctors did not bring enough medicine, which forced Li Hongmei to keep lavishing her money on buying more. Some anguished customers threw angry rebukes at her. They scolded her for having no conscience and questioned her why she didn’t guarantee the food quality. What was worse, they said that they would report the case to the authorities.
Li Hongmei almost fainted under the pressure.
Fortunately, Ye Xiaoxian arrived in time. She was steadier than Li Hongmei. Soberly, she asked what dishes the patients had eaten, who had bought the ingredients that morning and who had been to the kitchen.
Just as the fire tender told her Lai Er’s name, government troops rushed in. The officer in charge of the troops threatened to arrest Ye Xiaoxian, the owner of the “unscrupulous restaurant”, on suspicion of poisoning. It was clear that someone had reported the case.
Ye Xiaoxian said, “I’m innocent. Our fire tender just told me that an outsider came here today. Perhaps it was he who put the poison in the food. You can’t arrest me without good reason. If you want to interrogate me, please ask Lai Er to come over first.”