This is terrible! My future prime minister keeps trying to kiss me forcibly.

Chef Sun, who was standing to the side, replied, "It was delivered by Liu Daniu, just like every day."

He Jing knew that Liu Daniu was from a village near Qifeng Town.

He delivers fresh seasonal vegetables to Shuiyunjian every day.

Although Liu Daniu was a farmer, he was more meticulous than a woman. Every time he delivered ingredients, he carefully selected them, ensuring they were very fresh.

At this moment, He Jing noticed the unease among the chefs and reassured them, "You are all experienced chefs, and I have faith in your culinary skills. Don't worry, I won't fire you."

Upon hearing this, the cooks finally breathed a sigh of relief and became bolder.

One of them spoke up: "However, this poisoning seems to have come about in a rather strange way."

The others nodded, and they couldn't help but think of the possibility of being framed by their competitors.

Almost simultaneously, everyone's eyes turned to Chef Sun.

Chef Sun's eyes widened: "Why are you looking at me like that? Do you suspect I did it?"

Chef Sun was originally a chef at Yipinju Restaurant, but he was dismissed by Manager Li of Yipinju Restaurant due to various reasons such as being ostracized and framed.

After much searching, he decided to give Shuiyunjian a try. Unexpectedly, he was so lucky that he was selected!

He had met He Jing a few times before, so he worked even harder at Shuiyunjian.

At this point, the other cooks began to suspect him.

"Chef Sun, it's no wonder we're overthinking things, after all, you used to cook at Yipinju."

"It's inevitable that you'll feel nostalgic. If Manager Li asks you to do something for him, you can fool everyone without them even noticing!"

"You can't say that. Chef Sun was kicked out. How could he possibly still work for Manager Li?"

"Anything is possible. After all, money can make the devil turn the millstone."

As Chef Sun listened to the others' accusations, each one a slander against him, he felt a lump of cotton in his chest, a tightness in his chest.

He looked at He Jing, who remained silent. "Manager He, what do you think?"

He Jing glanced at everyone and said, "I trust Chef Sun's character. You don't need to overthink it; I will investigate thoroughly."

Chef Sun was relieved after hearing He Jing's words.

As for what others said, he didn't take it to heart at all; he just treated it as them talking nonsense.

......

Not long after Ye Xiaoxiao returned to the clinic, a woman helped her husband, who was limping, into the clinic.

The woman helped the man sit down, her eyes filled with anxiety: "Doctor, please take a look at my husband."

"Don't worry, tell me what happened first," Ye Xiaoxiao reassured her.

“My husband went up the mountain today and accidentally got poked by a tree branch. But this stubborn guy doesn’t seem to feel pain and didn’t want to come at first. So I had to drag him here.”

As she spoke, the woman pulled up the man's trouser leg, revealing a blood-stained strip of cloth.

The woman gently untied the bandage, her eyes filled with heartache, but she scolded, "Such a big gash and you say it's nothing? Are you trying to kill yourself?! You think you're so tough just because you call yourself Da Niu?!"

As he finished speaking, his eyes were already red.

The man touched her hand reassuringly, saying, "It's alright, it's alright. We're here to see the doctor, aren't we? You'll be fine in a few days, then you can go hunting in the mountains and fishing in the river, hehe—"

"Wait a few more days, or we'll suffer right now."

"Alright, alright! I know you're worried about me, don't worry."

Ye Xiaoxiao bent down and saw a circular wound on the man's calf. The wound was deep, and the blood flowing out of it had already formed a black scab.

"How did you get this wound?"

The man slowly said, "It rained last night, and I figured there must be a lot of mushrooms in the mountains, so I went up early this morning. After picking a whole basketful, I saw that it was getting late, so I thought I'd hurry up and deliver them to the restaurant to make sure they were fresh."

"Unexpectedly, I was walking too fast and bumped into someone from the same village on the mountain. He also had a whole basket full of mushrooms."

"As a result, both of them fell into the ditch next to them. My leg was poked by a tree branch that was sticking out of the ditch, and half a basket of mushrooms were spilled out."

"We didn't care about anything else, picked the mushrooms and left in a hurry."

"Now that I think about it carefully, it seems like that person deliberately tried to hit me. I had already moved halfway out of his way, but he still managed to knock me into the ditch."

As the man spoke, he unknowingly recounted everything that had happened that morning while he was picking mushrooms.

He found that talking could distract him and make him feel less pain from the wound.

In reality, he was in excruciating pain, but he didn't want his wife to worry, so he forced himself to endure it.

As Ye Xiaoxiao listened, she cleaned the man's wounds, applied medicine, and bandaged them all in one smooth motion.

"It's nothing serious. Just go back and apply the external treatment and take the internal medicine as prescribed. It will be fine in a few days. Be careful not to get the wound wet, otherwise it will get infected and cause trouble. If the wound becomes red, swollen and hot for two consecutive days, come back to see me."

As she wrote, she gave careful instructions.

The woman standing to the side memorized Ye Xiaoxiao's words and recited them several times, afraid that she would forget them.

Ye Xiaoxiao handed the prescription to the woman and then asked the man, "By the way, you said you were sending mushrooms to the restaurant, but were you sending them to Shuiyunjian?"

Upon hearing this, the couple nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, yes. We only send our ingredients to Shuiyunjian."

Shuiyunjian's prices are much fairer than Yipinju's. Moreover, the price they pay for ingredients is 20% higher than the usual market price.

Therefore, they always choose the highest quality ingredients to deliver.

"Do you know that all the diners at Shuiyunjian Restaurant today have been poisoned by mushrooms?"

"what?"

"what?"

Two surprised voices sounded at the same time.

Liu Daniu and his wife stared wide-eyed at each other.

how is this possible? ? ?

Liu Daniu stated unequivocally: "The mushrooms I picked are the most common ones I see every day, and there's absolutely no way they could be poisonous."

Da Niu's wife chimed in, "That's right. My Da Niu has been picking mushrooms on the mountain since he was wearing open-crotch pants. He's collected all the ancestors of mushrooms. He knows exactly which ones are poisonous and which ones aren't. There's no way he could make a mistake."

Liu Daniu was ashamed; saying that his ancestors for eighteen generations was a bit of an exaggeration.

Ye Xiaoxiao felt that the two people in front of her were pure and kind honest farmers. Could it really be just a case of poisoning, and not what she thought—a disaster caused by jealousy among her peers?

"That's it!" Liu Daniu suddenly clapped his hands, as if he had thought of something.

Then he continued:

"This morning I bumped into someone, and both of our mushrooms spilled into a ditch. I didn't notice, and just filled a basket and left—oh dear! Now that I think about it, could this be the cause of this trouble?"

After saying this, Liu Daniu looked annoyed and felt a pang of guilt.

He needed to hurry and apologize to Steward He of Shuiyunjian.

Thinking of this, he paid the consultation fee and then had his wife help him as he limped towards Shuiyunjian.