My Wife is Actually a top-tier Soldier King?!
Chapter 761 - 761 761 Conscience Eaten by a Dog!

761: Chapter 761: Conscience Eaten by a Dog!

761: Chapter 761: Conscience Eaten by a Dog!

“Mr.

Wu, Ninth Master showed up!”

Inside the car, Yu Hui cautiously gave a reminder.

Wu Jie instantly opened his eyes, straightened his seat back, and squinted towards the inside of the vegetable market.

The scorching summer heat was intense and distressing.

Handong City was typically in a landlocked region, with the urban area located in a basin.

At night, the heat of the day lingered for a long time, making it feel like being in a sauna.

It was incredibly dry and hot outside, but inside the car with the air conditioning on, it was naturally cool.

Suddenly.

A mini truck stopped near the entrance of the public restroom at an empty lot, and a short, fat man with a bare chest got out.

He was identical to the picture in the tip-off letter.

Bald, short, and chubby.

In the stifling heat, he was wearing just a pair of floral shorts and flip-flops, with a shoulder bag tied around his waist.

After getting out of the truck, he strutted along with a swagger, oozing ruffian vibes, with a cigarette in his mouth.

At first glance, one might think he had come to collect protection money.

He hadn’t walked far before a vegetable vendor approached him with a cigarette and small talk.

Inside the car.

Yu Hui quickly got the eavesdropping device ready.

This sophisticated little gadget had an antenna shaped like a pot lid.

Aim it at a specific place, and there was no need to get close to listen in.

Yu Hui, claiming to be the intelligence chief of the group, how could he be without professional equipment?

After tuning it, Yu Hui handed an earpiece to Wu Jie, and the two of them listened in on what Ninth Master and the others were saying.

“Ninth Master, I’ve got dozens of pounds of Celtuce, over thirty pounds of green peppers, and several pounds of baby bok choy.

Would you take them off my hands?”

“Take your sister!

Celtuce and green peppers aren’t cheap these days; I’m not buying!”

“What about the baby bok choy?

Zhang is selling it for one yuan fifty, how about I give it to you for one yuan twenty?

And it’s not even that fresh!”

“Fresh?

Then keep it to sell tomorrow.

If you really want to sell it to me, I’ll only give you eighty cents!”

“Oh come on, my dear Ninth Master, eighty cents…

my cost is already more than that!”

…

Ninth Master laughed heartily but didn’t agree to the vendor’s offer.

He strolled leisurely to the meat stall where three butchers playing Fight the Landlord immediately gathered around him as if they were greeting the God of Wealth.

They were offering cigarettes and smiles, having already prepared the unsold pork for him.

Lifting the greasy tarp, under the dim light, the quality of the pork looked poor.

Items like pig’s feet, ribs, and pork belly would be impossible to find.

What was piled on the chopping board were small chunks of fatty meat, leftovers after being picked over by customers, which simply couldn’t be sold.

“Dammit, Liu, you bought diseased pork again today?

This meat looks yellowish!”

“Oh, Ninth Master, I’m so unlucky!

I just got these pigs from the countryside three days ago, and who would’ve known, they suddenly died last night!”

“Last night?

You mean to tell me you haven’t sold them off yesterday or today?

For this rotten meat, I’ll give you no more than four yuan!”

“Hey, don’t do that!

Diseased pork is still pork, what about six yuan, Ninth Master?”

“I’ll add another fifty cents at most!”

…

After some haggling.

Jiuye bought several dozen pounds of pork and had the butcher quickly singe the hair off.

Too lazy to wash it, he simply used a meat grinder to grind it into minced meat, packed it into bags, and sent it off to his delivery truck.

A short distance away lay the sellers of frozen foods.

Everyone knows that buying freshly slaughtered items like chicken wings, drumsticks, and duck wings is extremely expensive.

However, frozen goods sold by the box are much cheaper by comparison.

These frozen products usually come from large farming operations where they use growth-promoting feed to rapidly fatten up chickens and ducks.

Then, chicken feet, wings, drumsticks, and the like are sorted, packaged, frozen, and distributed across the country.

But who is Jiuye?

Of course, he came to pick the worst frozen goods.

When people buy frozen ingredients, they look for the big, meaty ones, leaving the rest not only small but also skinny.

And if they don’t sell after a long time, they even turn black and rot.

“Chen, haven’t you been particularly lazy recently?

These chicken feet and drumsticks are almost changing color!”

“I’m sorry, Jiuye!

I’ve run out of formaldehyde and hydrogen peroxide, but once I restock, I’ll clean them for you, and they’ll be white and sparkling clean!”

“Also, freeze the dead fish quickly.

In this scorching heat, they go bad in a day, and no matter what you do, they taste awful!”

“Got it!

Rest assured, Jiuye!”

After getting some frozen goods to put on the truck, Jiuye leisurely made his way to the fruit stand.

He casually grabbed a large slice of watermelon and chomped down on it voraciously, like a pig scoffing its food.

Eating watermelon in the summer is, of course, very refreshing.

Rather than getting angry, the fruit vendor took out another large slice of watermelon from the cooler and offered it with a broad smile.

“Jiuye, if only I had known how much you like melon, I would have frozen some for you.

Frozen ones are much more satisfying to eat!”

“Darn it!

Why didn’t you say so earlier?

Keep it frozen for me; I’ll come back for it later!”

“Sure!

But you know, apples and oranges have gotten too expensive lately.

How about we get pears for the kids instead?”

“Pears…

Not bad!

But I’m resolute: if they cost more than one yuan eight per jin, I absolutely won’t buy them!”

“Don’t worry, Jiuye, I’ll cut off all the rotten parts for you.

Once you take them back and slice them up, who can tell they were bad fruit?”

…

Inside the vehicle.

Wu Jie, listening to Jiuye’s conversation with the vendors, was truly burning with anger.

Jiuye wasn’t looking for the best, just the cheapest.

It wasn’t about poor ingredients, but the fear of high prices.

Yu Hui had been keeping track of his purchases all this time.

Including the later purchases of rice, flour, oil, salt, vinegar, and the like, the total cost was less than two thousand yuan.

Yet the Auxiliary Business Association had allocated twenty thousand yuan for nutritious three-meals-a-day aid.

That’s a saving of eighteen thousand in a single day, and over half a million a month!

In a remote and backward place like Handong City, where salaries are mere two or three thousand yuan, and even less for farmers.

His ‘savings’ equal what others might earn in a year.

With such terrifying income, no wonder he uses the latest iPhone and smokes Zhonghua cigarettes!

After finishing the purchases and driving back, he walked with a swagger, sporting a big belly, grinning like Maitreya Buddha.

In such a small and economically undeveloped city, who wouldn’t grow arrogant and inflated with such a cushy job?

“This is really freaking absurd!”

Wu Jie removed his headphones, annoyed, he said, “Follow immediately!”

Without waiting for Wu Jie’s order, Yu Hui had already started the car.

She drove out of the vegetable market at a leisurely pace and informed two colleagues on the other side.

The city district was too old and too small.

Exiting the vegetable market, driving less than three kilometers took you to the suburbs.

The Ninth Master’s minivan left the cement road and bounced its way along a remote, rough track to the back door of the welfare institute.

By then, Yu Hui didn’t follow any further.

Tracking them closely was too likely to expose their target.

After parking in a relatively concealed location, Yu Hui contacted two colleagues who had already been deployed.

“The Ninth Master is back, keep a close eye on him!”

“Already on it!”

After hanging up the phone, Yu Hui immediately took out a laptop from her bag.

She placed the antenna on the roof of the car, opened a specialized software interface, and soon the drone’s aerial footage appeared.

In the infrared thermal imaging.

The Ninth Master’s minivan stood out starkly.

After all, a gasoline engine in operation produces a lot of heat, appearing like a huge infrared light source.

Infrared thermal imaging technology was no longer a novelty; it had been used in the Gulf War over twenty years ago.

Therefore, modern infantry fighting vehicles, main battle tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets all emphasize infrared stealth capabilities.

The Ninth Master clearly didn’t know someone would track and take aerial photos of him.

When the minivan reached the backyard, he got out to unlock the door with a key, indicating that this procurement and delivery had been going on for more than a day or two.

After driving into the yard and hurrying to lock the gate, he then drove the van to the canteen.

The three canteen aunties had already been waiting eagerly.

From the aerial footage, one could see they had prepared big buckets, large winnowing baskets, and insulated boxes.

As soon as the Ninth Master’s van stopped, they briskly approached and started offloading the ingredients.

Their actions of picking vegetables, peeling skins, and cutting were efficient.

Rotten potatoes, rotten tomatoes, rotten cucumbers…

Under the aunties’ practiced knife work, they were quickly tidied up.

After slicing and dicing, the ingredients were washed, tossed into winnowing baskets, then packed into insulated boxes before being sent to the freezer.

As for why this was done?

Because the freezer and the kitchen were both covered by surveillance from the Auxiliary Business Association.

Directly washing and neatly chopping the ingredients meant they wouldn’t be discovered substituting inferior goods for quality ones.

Moreover, cleaning and processing them overnight and freezing them meant there were no problems with cooking them the next day, whether frying, stir-frying, or sautéing.

Most importantly…

Even if inspectors came to check, or samples were taken for food testing, the ingredients would still appear fresh and clean.

The Ninth Master and the aunties’ methods were actually quite similar to many restaurants outside.

They would hit the vegetable market early in the morning to buy the day’s ingredients.

Quickly washed and cut, the ingredients were placed in baskets, shelved, or stored in fridges for later use.

Whatever the customer ordered, those were the ingredients used.

It wasn’t the case where food was prepared only after customers placed orders.

That would make the process far too inefficient.

However…

The Ninth Master was ruthless, his conscience eaten by dogs!

Purchasing the cheapest, nastiest, and most inferior goods, who would know after they were cleaned and processed just how bad they had been when bought?

Could the potato slices confess that they used to be rotten and broken?

After all, the twenty thousand budget for nutritional supplements was met with less than two thousand spent.

Such outrageous profits, how could one not be tempted?

Moreover, as long as the ingredients were cooked long enough, any bacteria would be killed, preventing any chance of the children being food poisoned.

Wu Jie knew.

This practice, this phenomenon, wasn’t unique to the Ninth Master and the three aunties in the drone footage.

Many school cafeterias and restaurants did exactly the same.

The only standard for ingredient procurement was that as long as it didn’t kill anyone, it was fine.

So, even if they busted in and took out the Ninth Master and his companions or got them fired from the welfare institute, what then?

New recruits would probably take risks to make money just the same.

Perhaps implementing full monitoring of the processes from ingredient procurement to cleaning, processing, and consumption might reduce the chance of swapping in inferior goods.

But as the saying goes, for every policy from above, there is a countermeasure from below.

New policies would surely breed new ways of cheating and skirting the rules.

Even under full monitoring, ensuring all ingredients were fresh, good-looking, and not expired.

Purchases could still be falsely reported!

Buy for one dollar, report two, and purchase whatever was cheapest.

Mr.

Wu certainly couldn’t arrange for someone to watch all day in every place, right?

“Mr.

Wu, they’re done.

Shall we take action?”

Yu Hui suddenly spoke up, bringing Wu Jie back to the present.

Glancing at the drone feed.

The aunties were cleaning up, and the Ninth Master had brought them watermelons.

The four laughed and joked as they ate.

With a snap!

Wu Jie lit a cigarette.

“No rush to act, keep close tabs on this Ninth Master, and investigate thoroughly!”

“If this guy didn’t have connections or backing, he wouldn’t have landed such a cushy gig!”

After Wu Jie finished speaking, Yu Hui immediately relayed the instructions.

Before long.

The Ninth Master came out from the back door on his electric bike.

That box van, a fixed asset of the welfare institute and cumbersome on rugged roads, was less convenient in the sweltering summer than a breezy bike ride.

After a short tail, the rogue headed to a small foot-bath store.

Wu Jie thought he’d wait a long time, but…

In less than five minutes, the Ninth Master emerged.

A heavily made-up woman saw him to the door, giggling that the Ninth Master was impressive tonight and to come again tomorrow.

Mounting his electric bike, the Ninth Master laughed heartily, waving with cigarette in mouth as he rode off to a teahouse, likely for a game of cards.

It wasn’t a long wait.

An old Audi slowly approached the teahouse.

The Ninth Master trotted up with a big smile to open the door.

Clearly, the big fish Wu Jie had been waiting for had appeared…