Food: Selling Boxed Meals at a Construction Site

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: It’s Only Been One Night

Li Yingcai and the Short-haired Youth were both taken to the police station. The difference was that the former was detained as a criminal, while the latter was giving a statement as a witness.

From the moment he entered the interrogation room, Li Yingcai remained silent, no matter what he was asked.

However, the physical evidence brought back with them yielded a new discovery.

Inside the backpack, there were five ID cards with different names, but all with the exact same photo.

Two of them belonged to Li Yingcai, and the other three belonged to a man with a goatee.

They recognized this man. It was the Old Chinese Physician from the clinic across from the Hai City Library.

After the Old Chinese Physician returned, he lay in bed, unable to sleep. He thought that going to find the Short-haired Youth for company might help him feel more at ease.

But after calling out several times at the door to the youth’s room and getting no response, he pushed the door open to find only a rumpled quilt and an empty bed.

Just then, the sound of someone pounding on the main door downstairs echoed through the house.

The Old Chinese Physician walked to the window and looked down. Standing at his front door were four or five uniformed law enforcement officers!

He didn’t know what they wanted with him, but so many people showing up this late at night definitely meant something serious was happening!

Using the sound of the pounding as cover, he returned to his room, grabbed a pre-packed travel bag from under his wardrobe, slung it over his shoulder, and ran for the back door.

The moment he opened the door, he saw two more uniformed officers.

Like father, like son. One remained silent in the interrogation room, the other remained silent in the conference room.

But in the face of irrefutable evidence, all resistance was futile.

When the Old Chinese Physician saw the five ID cards that had been found in the abandoned house, he knew his son had been caught, and his own crime of harboring a fugitive was confirmed.

His only relief was that his actions since arriving in Hai City hadn’t been discovered.

Instantly, the Old Chinese Physician deflated. He slumped into his chair and confessed everything about his situation in detail.

What he didn’t see was that the security camera directly above him in the conference room had, at some point, swiveled to face him, its red light blinking incessantly.

Over in the interrogation room, an officer gave Li Yingcai a tablet.

At first, Li Yingcai didn’t know what it was for. But before long, the image of the Old Chinese Physician appeared on the screen, confessing everything in detail—and shifting much of the blame onto his son.

Li Yingcai panicked. He knew his father was abandoning him. ’He’s not going to carry this burden anymore!’

"I want to report him! I’m reporting my dad! He doesn’t know shit about treating infertility! It’s all fake, a whole charade he orchestrated himself! All those couples who came to him for infertility, they all ended up pregnant with his child! They’re all his children!"

Li Yingcai’s voice echoed through the interrogation room, hoarse, sharp, and shrill.

His face began to contort. A glistening thread of saliva dribbled from the corner of his twitching mouth, and his entire body started to tremble, beginning with his fingers.

The interrogator noticed something was wrong with his condition and quickly dialed 911.

Just then, police sirens wailed outside, accompanied by shouts of, "Hurry, save him!" and "This way!"

The door to the conference room where the Old Chinese Physician was being held was also pushed open. The person who opened it beckoned to the officer in charge of the old man, leaned in, and whispered a few words in his ear.

In the instant the door was open, the Old Chinese Physician saw several paramedics walk by, followed by a few police officers carrying a stretcher. On that stretcher was none other than his son, who weighed over three hundred pounds!

Seeing the law enforcement officer return, the Old Chinese Physician grew anxious. He shot up from his seat, grabbed the officer’s hand, and blurted out in a panic, "Was that my son they just carried out? What happened to him? Why did he suddenly get sick? He was fine!"

The officer didn’t answer his question. Instead, he stared directly into the Old Chinese Physician’s eyes, an inexplicable pressure emanating from him.

"A moment ago, your son reported you. I’m giving you one chance. Confess all of your illegal and criminal activities!"

The officer’s voice wasn’t loud, but every word was firm and powerful.

The commotion from Sister Wang and the others’ confrontation with the officers and their subsequent arrest was not small. Before long, news of the incident had spread throughout the construction site.

Zhao Peng, the logistics supervisor who dealt directly with Sister Wang, had just fallen asleep when he was woken by a phone call.

After hearing the news, he felt a knot of dread in his stomach and couldn’t get back to sleep.

He had been the one to strongly recommend Sister Wang. Now that she was in trouble, he wouldn’t get off easy either.

Most importantly, all of Sister Wang’s documents and files had been confiscated as evidence, so he no longer had a chance to destroy the sub-contract.

If the company found out he had tampered with the sub-contract, he would be finished, too.

But before Zhao Peng could make a move, the group’s internal investigation department was already on the case.

They were responsible for investigating whether any internal personnel were involved in the case and had profited from it.

"The cafeteria has been sourcing ingredients from Xingwang Wholesale Market since it opened. That suddenly changed ten days ago, when they switched to Anxin Food Processing Company."

"The accounts are clean. These ingredients were purchased at the standard procurement price."

"I found a flyer from Anxin Food Processing Company."

"The prices don’t match the ones on the receipt. This receipt is fake."

"Brother Fang, the contract here has a different price than the one the company signed!"

As soon as he said that, the other three people immediately stopped what they were doing and gathered around the computer, comparing the two contracts word for word.

"The meal standard in the contract Sister Wang signed is five yuan per meal, but the contract submitted by the person in charge on the company’s end shows eight yuan per meal."

"Who’s the person in charge?"

"Zhao Peng."

"Contact him."

Just as Zhao Peng was about to call in some favors, his phone rang.

He looked at the caller ID. It was the company’s landline!

So many things had happened in this one short night. But for Xu An, it was just another ordinary evening.

Waking up, cooking, packing lunch boxes, heading to the construction site—everything was the same as always, without the slightest change.

Because the aftershocks from the food poisoning incident at the Zijing Garden construction site hadn’t yet settled, he hadn’t managed to sell all ten of the lunch boxes he’d brought to his stall yesterday.

Today, Xu Heping decided to join him, and they went to set up their stall together at the Hai City Library construction site.

As soon as they arrived at the entrance to the Hai City Library construction site, they saw that the other stall owners on the street were all gathered in a group, chatting.

A little curious, Xu An went over to see what they were talking about that was so engrossing they weren’t even doing business.

The moment he got closer, the sheer amount of information in their conversation made Xu An’s head spin.

’They actually found three whole shops over at the Zijing Garden site that were using expired food, and arrested everyone yesterday?’

’A fugitive who committed a bloody murder back in 2000 was caught by the police last night?’

’The Old Chinese Physician from across the street was arrested, too?’

All of these things had apparently happened in a single night!

’In my past life, the only shop that was caught using expired food was the Good and Come Again Fast Food Restaurant!’

’I never even heard about the fugitive until 2027, and the Old Chinese Physician didn’t leave Hai City until two years from now. A lot of people were even sad to see him go.’

’So how did they all end up getting busted in this life?’

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!