Chapter 391 Making trouble
I took new chopsticks and picked up a little bit of each dipping sauce to taste it. After making sure there was no problem, I tasted the soup base next to it for adding to the pot.

The soup base is just water with wolfberry, dried shrimps, etc. After tasting it carefully, I didn't find any problems.

"It seems that the problem lies with the mutton." Xia Mingyue didn't care about anything else at this time. She just picked up a piece of raw meat with chopsticks and chewed it carefully.

Even if the blood has been removed completely from the uncooked meat, it still has a slight meaty smell, and beneath the slight fishy smell is a subtle, imperceptible sour and bitter feeling.

Xia Mingyue frowned, spit out the meat, rinsed her mouth, and said affirmatively, "Sure enough, there is something wrong with this mutton."

He Shunzi was immediately panicked when he saw this. "The sheep was slaughtered alive yesterday. I was watching from the side and there was nothing wrong."

"After the slaughtered sheep was delivered last night, I cut the mutton into large pieces and removed the blood according to the method taught by Madam Xia, and nothing went wrong." The person in charge of the ingredients in the kitchen is a man named Dunzi. He has worked for Manager Fu for many years. He has good knife skills and is very diligent in his work.

After hearing what the relevant people said, Xia Mingyue frowned. She went to check the kitchen again and all the knives, water, chopping boards, etc. used to slaughter the mutton, but she didn't find anything wrong.

"It looks like the problem is with this live sheep." Xia Mingyue guessed.

He Shunzi said, "But these live sheep are all purchased from farmers. Every time I go to purchase, I choose those that are in good spirits and strong. The ram slaughtered this time is the most ferocious and does not look like a sick sheep."

Xia Mingyue had also looked at this sheep yesterday, and it certainly didn't look like a sick sheep.

"Could it be that this sheep, like humans, has a hidden disease and there is no sign of it from outside?" Steward Fu guessed.

Xia Mingyue pursed her lips and finally set her eyes on Yin Lingyou who seemed to be thinking about something. "Doctor Yin has any discoveries from time to time?"

"It feels like it, but I'm not sure." Yin Lingyou stroked his beard and said, "Wait for me for a moment. I need to check one thing before I can make a conclusion."

After saying that, Yin Lingyou got up and walked home. After a while, he came back with a packet of medicine powder. He scooped some with a spoon, dissolved it in a bowl with warm water, and after it cooled down completely, he soaked the sour and bitter mutton in the water.

There was no problem with soaking the mutton in cold water at first. In fact, because the mutton was cut as thin as a cicada's wing, it floated in the water, and the color gradually turned white due to the bubbles.

But after half a cup of tea, the mutton, which had originally turned pink and white, gradually became covered with a layer of light blue-green, which looked very strange.

"That's right." Yin Lingyou slapped his thigh, and then looked at Xia Mingyue and the others, "It can be basically concluded that this sheep ate white deer grass recently."

"White Deer Grass?" Xia Mingyue was puzzled. "What is this?"

"White Deer Grass is somewhat similar to the common nightshade grass, but its leaves are wider and thicker, its root system is also stronger, and it blooms red rice-like flowers in the summer."

Yin Lingyou explained, "This white deer grass is slightly poisonous and tastes sour, bitter and astringent, but because it has the effect of stimulating the appetite and strengthening the spleen, and its efficacy is extremely strong, a small amount is often used to treat patients with severe indigestion."

"But if you take this grass for a long time and in large doses, it will make you irritable, emotionally unstable, and damage your liver and kidneys. I just heard you say that this sheep looks a bit fierce, probably because it ate the grass. Its meat is sour and bitter, probably because it ate a lot of grass in recent days."

"In other words, it is because the sheep accidentally ate white deer grass when the farmers were feeding them, which caused the mutton to taste bad?" Xia Mingyue said.

"No." Yin Lingyou said, "Although this white deer grass looks similar to the common night grass here, it likes hot and humid places with less light, and almost never grows near dry weather." In other words, this was not something the sheep accidentally ate while foraging, but someone deliberately fed it.

Xia Mingyue thought for a moment and asked, "What's the price of this white deer grass?"

"Madam Xia has asked the right question." Yin Lingyou stroked his beard and looked at Xia Mingyue with a look of satisfaction that "a young man is teachable". "The price of one pound of dried white deer grass is comparable to five pounds of mutton."

That said, this stuff isn't cheap.

Such things are not common in farmers' homes, let alone being used as fodder for sheep.

Someone is feeding it intentionally, and the purpose may be to make a Yipin hot pot.

If a live sheep is in good condition and has been freshly slaughtered, people generally would not think that there is anything wrong with the mutton. However, when the mutton cut in this way is served on the table and eaten by diners, they will definitely feel that the taste is not good.

Some people may even think that the mutton is not fresh, which makes them have a worse impression of Yipin Guo and they will never patronize it again.

If one's luck is worse, the mutton that has eaten a lot of white deer grass may be poisonous and may have an impact on the diner's body. In serious cases, there may be a risk to one's life.

If something like this happened, the opening of Yipin Guo would mean its closure, and even other Xia Ji businesses would be affected, and there might even be a lawsuit involving murder.

What a poisonous thought!
Xia Mingyue suppressed her anger and asked He Shunzi, "Where did you get these sheep from?"

"These sheep were purchased from nearby villages..." He Shunzi said as he took out a small notebook from his arms and flipped through a few pages before saying, "The one we slaughtered today was purchased from the home of a man named Li Fulu in Lijiazhuang."

He Shunzi has been in the purchasing and selling business for a long time. He has encountered many disputes and has become more cautious. For example, when purchasing live sheep, he will simply make a few notes on the size, weight, and characteristics of the sheep, and then ask the seller to put his fingerprint.

And every time he did business, he liked to bring an assistant with him and shout loudly in the village to attract many people to watch, so there were more than one witnesses.

If you want to hold the other party accountable, they cannot deny it.

"It seems that we should go to Lijiazhuang to inquire about the situation." Xia Mingyue said in a deep voice.

Let's see who is targeting Yippin Guo and why he wants to do so in such a roundabout way.

"I'll go." He Shunzi volunteered.

Something went wrong with the sheep he collected, and he felt that he was responsible for poor supervision and needed to be responsible for getting to the bottom of the matter.

Xia Mingyue shook her head and said, "No, you usually walk around in various villages, and those people all know you. If you go there, I'm afraid you will attract attention. Even if the villagers know something, I'm afraid they won't tell the truth."

"It's better than..."