“Is that you?!”
“I was wondering why someone would buy things so early in the morning!”
“Speak up! Which competitor sent you here to stir up trouble?”
“Beautiful lady, you must absolutely not believe her!”
“This is clearly a competitor who envied how booming my shop’s business is and specifically sent someone over to cause trouble!”
“The raw-marinated food in our shop is all freshly made on the same day!”
“My own kid eats it every day—how could there possibly be a problem?!”
“Besides, you can look at the reviews for our shop; almost all of them are uniformly positive. It tastes great and is fresh—there’s absolutely no issue!”
The owner’s rhetoric could be described as exceptionally sharp. Opening his mouth, he directly characterized Lin Wanwan: she was someone sent by a competitor to cause trouble.
This way, customers would subconsciously believe that Lin Wanwan’s words were untrustworthy.
Then, he portrayed his own shop as a victim in a vulnerable position to elicit sympathy from customers.
Finally, using fake positive reviews as evidence, combined with the story of his own child, he added credibility.
A seamless sequence of defensive counterattacks, executed with fluid ease.
Lin Wanwan, who was naturally bad at arguing, was instantly left speechless by his aggressive rebuttal.
The pregnant woman was clearly soft-eared as well; after listening to the owner’s words, she actually believed him.
She looked at Lin Wanwan, her tone filled with complaints:
“How can you be like this?”
“It’s not easy for others to do business. Slandering people casually isn’t right!”
Perhaps taking into consideration that there was a child by her side, the pregnant woman did not speak too harshly.
Sighing, she walked right in front of the shop entrance and prepared to select her raw-marinated food.
Although Lin Wanwan was rendered speechless by the rebuttal, her mind still worked relatively fast.
She hurriedly pulled out the test kit box from her backpack:
“Beautiful lady, everything I’m saying is true!”
“This is the test I just completed!”
“There really is a problem with the raw-marinated food from their shop!”
Before the pregnant woman could turn around, the owner had already rushed over quickly and snatched the test kit box from Lin Wanwan’s hands.
“I say, are you ever going to stop?!”
“If you keep acting like this, I’m going to call the police!”
“Business is already hard to do right now, yet you’re causing trouble right at my shop front! Are you trying to force me to my death?”
“Is it just because the ingredients I use are better than yours and my prices are lower that you all joined forces to target me?!”
The owner’s move was extremely sudden; Lin Wanwan did not react in time, and the test kit box in her hands was snatched away directly.
The commotion from their argument was far from small, instantly drawing quite a few passersby to watch.
“This girl is quite pretty—why would she do something like this?”
“Hasn’t this shop been open for less than a week? Isn’t it way too miserable for someone to come causing trouble already?”
“Can’t people these days just do business properly? Why do they have to pull these dishonest tricks?”
“I ate from this shop yesterday; the seasoning was pretty good, and the meat of that shrimp was very springy. It didn’t seem like it wasn’t fresh!”
“I just searched online across three platforms, and the ratings were all at 4.85! There shouldn’t be any issues, right?”
“I’d bet eighty percent that this woman is just causing trouble.”
…
Listening to everyone’s accusations, for a single brief moment, Lin Wanwan indeed regretted why she had jumped out to stop it.
However, this kind of regret merely lingered in her mind for a fleeting moment before disappearing without a trace.
This time was completely different from when that old woman was hit a few days ago.
That old woman and her family were pure evil; for scumbags who repaid kindness with enmity, even if they truly died right there, she would not regret her decision.
However, the pregnant woman and her child in front of her were completely different.
They themselves had done nothing wrong!
Who could have expected that while happily buying delicious food on the roadside, one would end up losing their own unborn child?!
Under the premise of not harming herself, Lin Wanwan was definitely going to try to change an accident like this.
Looking at Lin Wanwan being accused by everyone, a triumphant smile appeared on the raw-marinated shop owner’s face.
Inwardly, he gloated to himself:
‘You’re still a bit too green to fight with me.’
Taking advantage of the fact that quite a few passersby had gathered around, he hurriedly called out:
“Everyone, take a look!”
“Authentic Chaoshan raw-marinated food!”
“The raw-marinated food used in our shop is all fresh seafood; we go to the dock to pick the freshest!”
“We get first-hand supply sources! Delicious, inexpensive, and healthy!”
Listening to the owner’s self-praise, quite a few drawn-in passersby actually gathered at the shop entrance, preparing to make a purchase.
Seeing more and more people gathering around Chaoweixian Raw-Marinated Foods, Lin Wanwan was completely stunned.
Looking at the crowd surging forward, she was so anxious that sweat broke out on her palms.
The pregnant woman had already selected a box of blood clams and was preparing to scan the code to pay. Lin Wanwan’s heart leapt into her throat, and she almost instinctively reached out to block her.
Just at that moment, a rush of hurried footsteps sounded, and a loud, clear male voice echoed among the crowd:
“Everyone, please step aside! Food and Drug Administration law enforcement inspection!”
Lin Wanwan turned her head sharply, only to see three uniformed staff members in navy-blue outfits walking over at a fast pace, the body-worn cameras on their chests flashing with red lights.
The team leader at the front had a tall, upright posture and tightly knit brows. Sweeping his gaze across the pile of raw-marinated food at the shop entrance and the crowd preparing to pay, his face instantly darkened.
“Everyone stop for a moment!” The team leader raised his hand, his voice booming.
“The food at this shop is suspected of having safety issues. Before our test results come out, please temporarily refrain from purchasing!”
The passersby preparing to pay paused their movements, and the shop entrance—which had been lively just a moment ago—instantly quieted down.
The hand holding the smartphone belonging to that pregnant woman froze in midair. She instinctively took two steps back, her eyes looking toward the owner with a few more degrees of vigilance.
As if grasping a lifeline, Lin Wanwan hastily squeezed her way in front of the team leader:
“Hello! I’m the person who made the report just now.”
“These are the test results I conducted; both the blood clams and flower crabs tested positive for Salmonella and Vibrio parahaemolyticus!”
“The other test kit box was snatched away by that owner!”
The team leader took the test kit box and examined it closely. Seeing the two distinct horizontal lines on it, his expression became increasingly stern.
The owner, whose face had been full of smiles earlier, now looked exceedingly pale.
“Please suspend your operations, and at the same time, present your Food Business License and health certificates.”
Looking at the owner, who clearly had a guilty conscience, the team leader sneered inwardly.
He had been on the job for over a dozen years, and the number of shops he had inspected was in the thousands, if not ten thousand.
Whether a shop had issues or not, he could roughly judge just by seeing how flustered the owner became upon meeting law enforcement personnel.
If it were just a minor issue like kitchen hygiene not being up to standard, the owner might feel guilty and nervous, but would by no means be overly panicked.
However, whenever a shop had severe problems, the owner’s performance upon seeing law enforcement personnel was bound to be extremely panicked.
The owner in front of him, whose face had turned pale from fright, was a very typical example of someone with severe problems.
The owner’s voice carried an obvious tremble, his hands rubbing back and forth at his sides:
“The… the certificates are all available; they’re in my car.”
“I’ll go get them from the car right now…”
As he spoke, he made to walk toward the back, only to be stopped by one of the law enforcement officers at his side.
“No need to bother. We’ll go with you to get them.”
The law enforcement officer’s tone left no room for doubt, his gaze fixed tightly on the owner, clearly not intending to give him any chance to act alone.