Chef Hua
Chapter 541: Episode 290: Forced Confession_3

Chapter 541: Episode 290: Forced Confession_3

After dilly-dallying for a long time, three or five of them, seemingly the ones who had indeed bought sauce at home, stepped forward and mustered the courage to say, "If it’s something inedible and you still want it, just take it. Who’s afraid of you? Hurry up and take out the money for compensation!"

Hua Xiaomai cracked a slight smile and waved over the Accountant, who had been watching from afar, and asked him to prepare pen and paper to record the names and addresses of these few individuals.

With these few leading the way, the rest of the troublemakers felt a bit more at ease, thinking that they just needed to hurry back to the city and seek out the person who paid them to claim their two jars of sauce, which shouldn’t be too difficult. Therefore, they, too, began noisily registering their names on the paper.

As expected, Hua Xiaomai had the Accountant bring out a box of money and counted out the exact amounts to them before sending them off from the village, accompanied by the shop assistants.

There were problems with the sauce, were there? It was rancid and foul-smelling, was it? Very well, today she actually wanted to see something new and watch how these people might turn the sauce into something interesting!

...

The commotion had lasted over an hour. When everyone from Zhenwei Garden had dispersed, Hua Xiaomai slowly got up from the table, patted her clothes, and smiled at Chun Xi.

"What a fuss, a fuss! If brother Yuhuai could see you climbing so high, he’d scold you to death if he didn’t kill you!"

Chun Xi, who had been anxious for a long time, finally felt relieved and glared at her, then dragged her out of the main door.

The Great Saint was no longer there.

"Great Saint brother he..." Hua Xiaomai couldn’t help but turn to look at Chun Xi.

"Caught!" Chun Xi replied irritably and then asked in rapid succession whether Hua Xiaomai was feeling unwell. Seeing that she looked quite well, she grumbled all the way back to Daoxiang Garden with her.

At this very moment, Daoxiang Garden was also bustling with activity.

Wang Zhanrui, Master Tan, Zhou Yunyun, Old Lady Meng, Qing You, and other attendants, one and all, were crowding around a table in the main hall. The Great Saint was sitting casually atop the table, staring at someone sitting on the ground and chuckling with a he-he, while that person was hunched over, not daring to move a muscle.

It was the apprentice from under Fatty Wei’s command.

Hua Xiaomai had been busy all afternoon and felt a bit tired. Standing at the entrance for a moment, she took a couple of deep breaths before walking in unhurriedly.

Hearing footsteps, the apprentice turned his head to see her and immediately began to wail piteously.

"Sister, sister!" he yelled hoarsely, "I was just mingling with others to earn a bit of money. If I knew this Zhenwei Garden was yours, I definitely wouldn’t have come! It’s all a misunderstanding, really just a misunderstanding!"

"Misunderstanding?" Hua Xiaomai sneered, "Who owns Sauce Garden, you wouldn’t know? When Chunfeng Restaurant started buying sauce from here, Fatty Wei hadn’t been kicked out yet, had he? You follow him around all day; don’t tell me you don’t know even this much?"

"My master..." The apprentice started but suddenly choked, hastily changing his words, "I haven’t been following Fatty Wei for a long time, since last year, don’t you know, sister?"

Is that so? Hua Xiaomai had only suspected that this trouble was somehow related to Fatty Wei, but she hadn’t considered this angle. Upon reflecting more carefully, she recalled that indeed, this fellow hadn’t been by Fatty Wei’s side during the selection of the great feast in May. So then...

"Don’t call me sister!" she rolled her eyes at the man, "I’m not concerned about other things, just tell me, who hired you to make trouble?"

"This..." The apprentice seemed reluctant, his face wrinkling up, "I’ve taken people’s money, pocketed it all, I can’t..."

With things having come to this point and still struggling? Isn’t he just asking for trouble? What on earth is this friend thinking?

Hua Xiaomai wasn’t in a hurry. She turned and smiled genially at Old Lady Meng.

"Mom, let me tell you something interesting. When I first came to Fire Knife Village a couple of years ago, I was making money by preparing banquets, right? Once, Brother Li’s family was raising the roof beam, and they set up two tables and asked me to help organize the secondary seats. But unexpectedly, one dish I made became very popular and caused another cook to lose face. He and his apprentices then tied me up—if Yuhuai hadn’t come to rescue me with my second sister and brother-in-law, who knows what would have happened next!"

As she spoke, she pointed at the apprentice who suddenly shuddered: "This one here, he was quite enthusiastic at that time."

Old Lady Meng’s expression darkened upon hearing this and a fierce aura surged forth. Without a word, she took off her shoe and smacked it across the apprentice’s face, back and forth, the smacking noise sharp and decisive.

The apprentice was dazed by the slap of the shoe, and with the Great Saint holding him firmly down, he couldn’t dodge it. A fiery pain spread across his face as he began to scream like a butchered pig.

"I’ll tell, I’ll tell! Isn’t it enough that I tell you?"

Whimpering and full of grievance, he murmured softly, "It’s... Sun, the boss of Gui Lin Inn from the south of the city—I was really just trying to earn some money!" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast a recommendation ticket, monthly ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)