The owner’s face turned even paler, fine beads of sweat oozing from his forehead.
He knew very well in his heart that the raw-marinated food in his shop could not withstand inspection at all.
All the seafood in his shop was sold with good and bad quality mixed together.
After all, the price difference between dead seafood and live seafood was several times over.
Making raw-marinated dishes using dead seafood kept costs extremely low.
Those flower crabs looked large, but in reality, they were all dead crabs discarded by merchants.
To prevent customers from getting diarrhea after eating them, he had even secretly added Norfloxacin to the sauce.
Selling this kind of medication mixed into food was not something that could be resolved by a simple fine if discovered.
Seeing the law enforcement officer intending to follow him, the owner hurriedly changed his tune:
“Sorry… I… misremembered; the certificates are in the shop.”
The team leader’s gaze was already cold enough to freeze into ice.
“Oh, then let’s go into the shop to get them!”
Seeing that he had no chance of running away, the owner could only bite the bullet and enter the shop to retrieve the relevant certificates and account ledgers.
Seeing the owner’s out-of-sorts appearance, the team leader had a solid idea of the situation in his heart.
He quietly stepped to the side, pulled out his phone, and dialed a number:
“Hello, Old Zhang. I’m over at Starlight Shopping Mall; there’s a raw-marinated food shop here that might have issues. The owner is acting very off. Bring two people over to help out and prevent him from running.”
The team leader quickly inspected all the certificates.
“The account ledger is completely blank?”
“Where did you source the goods from?”
“Are there no receipts?”
Seeing the owner stammering and unable to speak, the team leader did not dwell on it.
“Explain it when we go back later.”
“Little Wang, stay with the owner and don’t let him leave the scene.”
“Little Li, come with me to take samples. Focus on checking the blood clams and flower crabs—take several extra portions of each.”
The owner’s face grew even paler, a fine cold sweat oozing from his forehead as he continued to babble and defend himself.
However, his voice grew quieter and quieter, until even he felt he lacked conviction.
The team leader wasted no more breath on the owner and walked into the shop with the other officer.
Inside the narrow shop, the freezer was crammed with food containers holding various raw-marinated items.
Skillfully using various test strips and testing materials, the team leader began inspecting the ingredients and sauces.
How could the onlookers fail to realize what was going on? Earlier, they had been duped by the owner’s line about “competitor framing.”
Now, seeing the owner’s deathly pale face and stammering speech, combined with the stern expressions of the law enforcement personnel, the crowd instantly erupted.
“Is this owner a bit off? How did his face turn completely pale?”
“No wonder that girl was stopping people earlier—turns out there really is an issue with this owner!”
“Look at his out-of-sorts appearance—how does he look like a legitimate merchant with full documentation?”
“Right?! And he even claimed his own kid eats it every day; I bet that’s definitely a lie from the owner!”
“Something’s wrong—ten out of ten, or rather twelve out of ten, wrong!”
“Thank goodness I didn’t buy any! I almost scanned the code to pay just now. If I had ruined my stomach eating this, what would I have done?”
“That young girl wasn’t lying! She kindly warned us, yet we misunderstood her…”
…
Discussions rose and fell one after another.
The passersby who had backed the owner and accused Lin Wanwan earlier all lowered their heads in somewhat sheepish embarrassment at this moment.
That pregnant woman touched her belly with even more lingering fear, her eyes filled with guilt as she looked toward Lin Wanwan.
Lin Wanwan had no heart to pay attention to everyone’s chatter, her gaze closely following the movements of the law enforcement personnel.
The team leader and Little Li proceeded in an orderly manner inside the raw-marinated shop, conducting various tests.
Ten minutes later.
Looking at the string of test results, the team leader’s face had completely darkened.
He strode out of the shop at a rapid pace and grabbed the owner’s collar with one hand, his face flushed red with anger:
“Salmonella and Vibrio parahaemolyticus were detected in the blood clams and flower crabs respectively!”
“On top of that, Norfloxacin and Compound Diphenoxylate were detected in all the other raw-marinated items?!!!”
“Are you fucking human?”
“Just to earn this bit of lousy money, you disregard other people’s lives and health?”
Hearing the team leader’s furious shout, the crowd instantly exploded.
“My goodness! He even dared to add prescription drugs? This owner is way too black-hearted!”
“What are Norfloxacin and Compound Diphenoxylate?”
“Norfloxacin is an antibiotic used to prevent intestinal infections, and Compound Diphenoxylate is a prescription drug used to stop diarrhea!”
“Thank goodness I didn’t buy any just now! If anyone ate this, who knows how much harm it would cause to their body!”
“No wonder that girl said she got diarrhea after eating it—how could anyone NOT get diarrhea from this stuff?!”
“Salmonella? How filthy does this stuff have to be to have that!”
…
The owner’s legs went limp, and he nearly slumped onto the ground, his voice trembling like chaff:
“I… I was just afraid the seafood wasn’t fresh and customers would get diarrhea after eating it, so… so I only added a tiny bit, really just a tiny bit…”
“A tiny bit?”
The team leader sneered:
“Do you know that pregnant women and children cannot consume Norfloxacin at all? Once accidentally ingested, the consequences are unimaginable! You’re treating other people’s health as a joke!”
As soon as these words came out, everyone’s gazes gathered onto that pregnant woman.
The pregnant woman turned pale from fright and instinctively took several steps back.
The raw-marinated food that had felt fresh just moments ago now seemed practically like poison in her eyes.
She walked quickly over to Lin Wanwan, tightly clasping Lin Wanwan’s hands with both of hers, her voice brimming with gratitude and guilt:
“Younger sister, thank you so much! Earlier I was being foolish and even misunderstood you. If not for you, if I had bought this raw-marinated food today…”
Speaking up to this point, the pregnant woman’s voice choked up, and tears could not help falling.
She was currently pregnant with her second child, which she had managed to conceive with great difficulty; if something had happened because she ate raw-marinated food contaminated with bacteria and laced with drugs, she really would not have known what to do.
Listening to the pregnant woman’s sincere apology, the small knot in Lin Wanwan’s heart was instantly smoothed over.
She patted the back of the pregnant woman’s hand and comforted her in a soft voice:
“It’s fine as long as you’re okay. Everything is fine now.”
Seeing the pregnant woman apologize, the surrounding passersby also gathered around one after another, apologizing to Lin Wanwan:
“Young girl, it was our fault just now; we shouldn’t have accused you without knowing right from wrong.”
“That’s right, thanks to your persistence, otherwise who knows how many people here would have ruined their stomachs!”
“This owner is way too black-hearted! Using dead seafood is bad enough, but he even added antibiotics—he must be severely punished!”
Looking at the angry gazes of the crowd, and then looking at the test report in the hands of the law enforcement officer, the owner knew he was completely finished this time.
He slumped on the ground without saying a single word, able only to let the law enforcement personnel step forward to take his statement.
Sorting out all the test results and collected samples, the team leader said sternly to the owner:
“Now that the evidence is conclusive, you are suspected of producing and selling food that fails to meet safety standards. Furthermore, you illegally added drugs into food. We will seal your shop in accordance with the law, and further investigations regarding you will follow. Please cooperate.”
With that, two law enforcement officers pulled out sealing strips.
With a “snap” sound, they pasted them onto the glass door of the raw-marinated shop.
The red sealing strips were exceptionally striking, completely cutting off the owner’s final hopes.
Seeing this scene, the onlookers applauded and cheered one after another.