Chapter 40: The Kid Is Such a Nuisance

Jiang Luan had no idea that his "first kiss" had vanished into thin air along with yesterday's drinking session... and to make matters worse, he was the one who initiated it.

He was still grieving and infuriated: why on earth wasn't the other person a slim-waisted, long-legged young lady?

Damn it, it was a man a whole head taller than him, someone who could kill a bull with a single punch.

"This time doesn't count!" Jiang Luan said gloomily.

Qi Shaolin nodded in agreement. A fresh start from now on wasn't a bad idea either.

Before Jiang Luan had the chance to lecture Qi Shaolin about how adults shouldn't just go around "smacking lips" at random, he heard a commotion break out from the direction of the restaurant.

...

...

"What's going on?"

Chef Li rushed out with his apprentices, only to see a middle-aged man kneeling on the ground, retching incessantly.

"I saw him eat this plate of vegetables, and then he just couldn't stop vomiting," a young man said.

The dish he pointed to was a newly served one, and barely anyone had touched it with their chopsticks.

Upon hearing this, Chef Li's face darkened instantly. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with my food!"

Hearing the commotion, Jiang Junyu and Jiang Hao also walked out to investigate.

Standing beneath a tree, they couldn't find Jiang Luan or Qi Shaolin, but only saw two youths directing the scene.

"Take him to see a physician first," Zuo Lang said.

"I am a physician, let me check his pulse!" The young man from earlier squeezed out of the crowd, volunteering to feel the pulse of the vomiting man.

Almost the moment he placed his fingers on the man's wrist, his brows locked tightly, and he cried out in alarm, "It's poisoning! There is poison in this food!"

"What?!"

The crowd erupted into an uproar upon hearing this.

Initially, they had merely gathered around to watch the excitement, only to discover that the food was problematic.

The "Have a Bite" restaurant operated on a "buffet" model, offering a hundred or so dishes on-site.

The diners instantly dropped their chopsticks, and those with quick reactions had already run over to the water's edge to vomit.

"What are you talking nonsense for!"

Ruibao had a fiery temper. Hearing that fellow boldly assert that the restaurant's food was at fault, he immediately grabbed the man by the collar and hauled him up.

The young physician stated loudly and righteously, "It is your food that has the problem in the first place, are you not even going to let people speak the truth?"

"You!"

Ruibao swung his fist, intending to strike the man, but was stopped by a sharp shout.

"Ruibao, stop!"

Jiang Luan walked over with a frown, followed closely by Qi Shaolin.

When the diners saw that the young boss of the restaurant had arrived, their expressions varied.

After the events of the past two days, many residents of Lushuizhou held a rather favorable impression of Jiang Luan.

Firstly, they knew nothing of Jiang Luan's promiscuous reputation in Yunjiang City; secondly, the young boss possessed a refined appearance and handled matters with calm composure. He did not engage in petty verbal disputes with malicious speakers, nor did he cower, shrink back, or act timidly. He was quite simply the epitome of a graceful and dashing young gentleman.

"The young boss looks like an upright person; surely there couldn't be anything wrong with the food, right?" someone whispered. "I came yesterday, and I was fine after eating."

"Who knows? You shouldn't judge a book by its cover..." another replied. "Besides, the Lord of Yunjiang City is still right here; he will surely investigate the matter until the truth comes to light."

They exchanged glances, casting their eyes toward Jiang Junyu and Jiang Hao, who were standing far from the crowd under the tree.

"Why does Young Master Jiang always encounter such distressing matters?" Jiang Hao asked, his expression full of indignation, as if he were fighting an injustice for Jiang Luan. "Surely there must be some misunderstanding?"

As he spoke, he observed the expression of Jiang Junyu beside him.

Jiang Junyu furrowed his brows slightly, gazing from afar without speaking.

Jiang Luan walked briskly to the side of the vomiting man and helped him up.

"Brother, are you alright?" Jiang Luan asked.

The man was so pale from vomiting that he looked as though he had contracted a severe illness.

He wiped his mouth with a patched sleeve and said in a thread-like, breathless voice, "My stomach hurts terribly, all because I ate this plate of vegetables..."

Jiang Luan looked in the direction pointed by the man's finger.

Sitting on the table was merely an ordinary plate of stir-fried greens. Aside from the fact that no one had touched it yet, leaving the portion relatively larger, it seemed no different from any of the other dishes.

"Sir physician, did you just say this diner's symptoms are those of poisoning?" Jiang Luan asked the person who had taken the pulse earlier.

The young physician nodded. "His pulse clearly indicates as much."

Jiang Luan looked at the two men before him, then glanced down at the foul matter the man had vomited onto the ground.

Chef Li said to Jiang Luan with sweat pouring down his face, "Young Madam, this is impossible! Every single dish passed through my hands; how could there be poison?"

"Master Li, calm yourself." Jiang Luan offered a word of comfort, then instructed Zuo Lang, "Bring a silver spoon."

"Is the young boss going to use silver to test for poison?" a woman in the crowd asked. "You can use my hair hairpin for a test."

"Thank you."

Jiang Luan accepted the silver hairpin from the woman, who smiled at him and said, "Young Master Jiang, I believe in your character."

Jiang Luan was startled for a moment upon hearing this, recognizing that the woman was from the household in Yunjiang City that had provided them with hot water on that previous day.

Standing behind her was a red-faced, burly man—the very man who had helped pull Qi Shaolin out of the river that day. He patted his chest and said, "Don't you worry, Young Master Jiang, we are all on your side."

There were several other familiar faces in the crowd, evidently townspeople from Yunjiang City who had come to show their support after he rescued Xiuxiu that day.

Jiang Luan felt a sudden surge of warmth.

Ever since transmigrating here, although he had encountered many repulsive people and matters, there was no shortage of such righteous and loyal ordinary folks.

Jiang Luan earnestly said to the gathered crowd, "I will definitely not let you all down."

Holding the silver hairpin, Jiang Luan turned around.

The residents of Lushuizhou were quite puzzled and whispered among themselves, prompting the red-faced burly man to softly recount how the couple had risked their lives in the freezing river to save a drowning young girl.

Jiang Luan walked up to the table, dipped the silver hairpin into the vegetable dish for a brief moment, and then withdrew it.

All eyes focused on the hairpin in Jiang Luan's hand—the silver had not changed color.

"As expected!"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"I said it was all a misunderstanding."

"That's right, perhaps this person ate something wrong at home..."

"The young boss has had nothing but a rough ride opening this restaurant. It's only been two days; why does he keep running into such awful things..."

The onlookers actually began to pity Jiang Luan.

Jiang Hao's expression remained normal, showing no sign of a failed scheme.

He exchanged a glance with someone in the crowd, and that person nodded.

"No poison."

Jiang Luan displayed the unchanged silver hairpin to the people before him.

The vomiting man still looked terribly unwell, saying feebly, "But my stomach really hurts unbearably, and I feel nauseous..."

"My diagnosis cannot be wrong," the young physician stated. "His pulse displays the exact symptoms of poisoning!"

Jiang Luan said, "I think we should still send him to a medical clinic..."

Before he could finish his sentence, another commotion erupted in the crowd.

"He's vomiting! This one is vomiting too!"

"My newly made shoes! Why did you vomit on my feet?!"

The crowd automatically parted, revealing a second vomiting individual.

This was an older man clad in patched, faded clothes, with an aged face and white hair. After vomiting all over the ground, he couldn't even steady himself on his feet.

"...I don't know why, but my stomach hurts too," the old man said weakly. "I also ate that plate of vegetables."

With the appearance of a second suspected poisoning victim, the watching crowd lost the composure they had maintained just moments before.

Someone asked in a low voice, "What on earth is going on? Didn't they say there was no poison?"

"...The food at this restaurant really is delicious, but could it be that it's unhygienic?"

"I... oh no, I don't remember if I ate that plate of vegetables or not."

Faced with the doubts of the crowd, Jiang Luan remained entirely composed.

He wove through the crowd to inspect the condition of the second victim, his gaze finally resting on that puddle of vomit.

Seizing the opportunity, the old man grabbed Jiang Luan's arm to keep him from leaving. "There is something wrong with this food, and you must take full responsibility!"

Seeing this, Qi Shaolin could no longer sit still and shoved his way through the crowd to get closer.

However, Jiang Luan gestured for him to stop, signaling that everything was fine.

"Rest assured, elder," Jiang Luan patted the old man's hand. "Since the problem arose from my restaurant, I will certainly give you a proper explanation."

"But clearly, there is no poison in this dish," Ruibao said, deeply puzzled.

In truth, Jiang Luan knew very well that there was no need to investigate this matter further; all he had to do was watch these people perform their little act.

Sure enough, the young physician from earlier stepped forward and said, "Everyone, I recall something... The incident of collective villagers' poisoning in Dongzhuang, Lincheng, bore symptoms extremely similar to this."

Prompted by this remark, someone among the onlookers immediately chimed in, "I know about that. I heard they couldn't find the source of the poisoning for the longest time, and it even alarmed the imperial court."

"What? Could it be an epidemic!" Many panicked instantly.

"There's no need to worry about that; I heard it's not contagious."

"Oh, I heard about it too. They say it's related to crop contamination..."

"Precisely so," the young physician said. "When the villagers of Dongzhuang, Lincheng, were sowing their fields, they mistakenly used toxic seeds. Those seeds had been kept in the Dongzhuang granary and distributed to the villagers for collective sowing. City Lord Jiang should be well aware of this."

The young physician bowed respectfully from afar toward Jiang Junyu, who was standing beneath the tree.

Seeing that the villagers' gazes were all focused upon him, Jiang Junyu could no longer simply sit back and watch.

He nodded to the townspeople and explained, "The incident of collective poisoning among the villagers of Dongzhuang, Lincheng, was caused by defective white cabbage seeds. Those seeds had accidentally been soaked in golden scorpion venom while stored in the granary. However, the villagers' lives are not in danger; applying the correct antidote will suffice."

The mass poisoning incident in Dongzhuang, Lincheng, had remained unsolved for a long time. The imperial court attached great importance to it and dispatched the city lords of neighboring cities to jointly investigate the matter, and Jiang Junyu, as the City Lord of Yunjiang, naturally could not be left out.

When the crowd saw that the problematic dish in question was indeed stir-fried white cabbage, they immediately believed most of the story.

"But Dongzhuang of Lincheng is separated from us by a mountain," someone asked in bewilderment. "How could a similar poisoning phenomenon occur here in Lushuizhou?"

"This... I'm afraid you'll have to ask Young Master Jiang of the 'Have a Bite' restaurant," the young physician said softly.

Before Jiang Luan could reply, Jiang Hao took the initiative to step forward and demand, "What do you mean by that? Don't mumble and hesitate, speak clearly!"

"This..." The young physician rolled his eyes around a few times, lowering his head submissively as he said, "This humble one wouldn't dare to speak of it."

"What is there not to dare? Are you afraid of retaliation?" Jiang Hao asked with feigned astonishment. "City Lord Jiang is right here; he will naturally uphold justice for everyone!"

Jiang Junyu glanced at Jiang Hao, feeling that his nephew was being overly enthusiastic about this affair.

Jiang Luan smiled as well and told the young physician, "Whatever you've thought of, feel free to speak your mind."

"Since Young Master Jiang says so, please forgive this humble one's offense."

The young physician walked to the center of the open space and announced in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, "I have heard that Dongzhuang of Lincheng is impoverished and has always relied on selling grain for a living, with white cabbage being a particularly famous crop. But ever since the poisoning incident occurred, the crops grown in Dongzhuang went overnight without a single buyer, and their prices plummeted. Understandable, really—who would dare to buy these 'poisonous' vegetables? It is only said that certain unscrupulous merchants seized the opportunity to acquire these low-priced 'vegetables'..."