Friendship Road, Huaiyang Restaurant.

This is the most famous Huaiyang cuisine restaurant in Haizhou City, and also the longest-running Huaiyang cuisine restaurant.

When Zhang Hui was a child, this restaurant was on Friendship Road, and now, after more than thirty years, it is still open.

It can be said that this restaurant is the pioneer of Haizhou City’s Huaiyang cuisine, and the business is booming.

Their braised pork and pufferfish soup are exceptional.

However, over so many years, Zhang Hui has only eaten at this restaurant once.

It was last year when he came with Lu Chuan; it’s not that the food here isn’t delicious, on the contrary, it’s very tasty, but it’s also very expensive; a pufferfish costs several hundred, and a person can finish it in a few bites.

Four or five people can’t handle a table without spending one or two thousand, which isn’t within the spending range of ordinary people, so those who dine here in Haizhou City are mostly Huaiyang natives looking to savor a taste of home.

"Welcome, how many people are with the boss?"

The receptionist at the door was very enthusiastic, smiling sweetly, attentive, and courteous.

Zhang Hui waved his hand and took out his credentials: "We are the police. Is your boss here?"

When the police visit, it usually isn’t good news, at worst it’s trouble.

Most people are like this: when they are in trouble, they desperately wish for the police to be by their side, appearing immediately.

But when they are not in trouble, the arrival of the police makes everyone nervous and jumpy.

The young receptionist’s face changed, but she quickly regained her composure: "Officer, would you like to sit in a private room first? I’ll call our boss over, as the other guests are still dining, you see..."

The young girl’s thoughts were thorough, not asking Zhang Hui and his team why they were seeking the boss, only concerned about affecting business.

Zhang Hui and his team were there on official business, not to cause trouble, so they nodded and followed the girl into a private room.

As it happened, the last time he and Lu Chuan came to eat, they also sat in this private room.

"Officer, please have some tea first, I will call our boss immediately."

"Okay, thank you."

A few minutes later, a chubby middle-aged man appeared in the private room.

"Hello, officers, I’m sorry, I was busy in the kitchen just now."

The man was very polite, much more relaxed compared to the slightly nervous girl from earlier.

In the business of opening a restaurant, he understands better than anyone whether he has anything to hide. If he’s guilty, of course, he’d be scared of the police, but if he’s innocent, he’d naturally greet them warmly.

Zhang Hui didn’t beat around the bush and directly inquired about the source and sales of the pufferfish at Huaiyang Restaurant.

"You mean this? All the pufferfish at our restaurant are farm-raised and supplied directly from the south."

"None of them are wild?"

The man hastily shook his head: "No, all of our pufferfish are farm-raised."

Zhang Hui frowned: "Boss... Doesn’t that seem wrong? I remember your pufferfish being priced at 499 yuan and another at 899 yuan, and the waiter said the latter was wild pufferfish."

The man chuckled wryly: "Officer Zhang, it seems you’ve eaten at our place."

Zhang Hui had already introduced himself, so the man knew his name.

"The pufferfish we sell are indeed all farm-raised, but even farm-raised pufferfish are categorized into grades."

"Pufferfish taste better as they age; the older they are, the firmer the texture and the better the flavor."

"However, due to the high demand for pufferfish in recent years, the supply of farm-raised ones has gradually become tight."

"So now, most of the pufferfish we eat are one-year-old, and although similar in size to older ones, their texture isn’t as firm, nor is their flavor as rich as the multi-year-old pufferfish."

"Additionally, in breeding bases, the multi-year-old ones are farmed in a semi-wild manner and consume not just artificial feed but also some naturally grown food in the breeding ponds, making them semi-wild."

"This is why the cheaper ones are 499 yuan and the more expensive ones 899 yuan."

"Because they’re semi-wild, we describe them as wild when introducing them, but strictly speaking, they’re not wild since they grew up in breeding ponds."

"Another crucial point is our multi-year-old pufferfish is not purely wild because they don’t consume toxic algae, they can’t synthesize a large amount of tetrodotoxin internally."

This was the first time Zhang Hui had heard of this.

"So, you’re saying your farm-raised pufferfish certainly don’t contain tetrodotoxin, right?"

"This can’t be said for certain, in reality, there is still a tiny bit, just in minuscule amounts and we treat the pufferfish cooking process as if they’re toxic, so even if there’s a little toxin, it won’t enter the dishes."

"Is there any possibility these pufferfish could be fatal?"

The man waved his hands repeatedly: "Impossible, impossible, absolutely impossible. The toxin amount in farm-raised pufferfish is measured in micrograms, extremely trivial, eating ten or twenty fish won’t even be fatal."

Zhang Hui thought for a moment and continued to ask: "Boss Sun, Huaiyang Restaurant has been in the pufferfish business the longest in Haizhou."

"Do you have channels to acquire wild pufferfish?"

"Officer Zhang..."

Zhang Hui waved his hand: "I’m not saying you have wild pufferfish, I’m asking if you have methods and channels to acquire them."

"Selling wild pufferfish is illegal, and it’s poisonous enough to be deadly, so we never mess with that, but to tell the truth, there are indeed channels to acquire them."

After leaving Huaiyang Restaurant, Zhang Hui headed straight for a Huaiyang cuisine hotel on Huaguang Street. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

According to related food regulations, the consumption of pufferfish is strictly restricted.

All pufferfish sellers in Haizhou City need to register with the relevant departments.

A Huaiyang cuisine hotel on Huaguang Street, albeit small, is rather well-known among Huaiyang cuisines in Haizhou City.

Because their pufferfish... are fresher.

Some regulars particularly favor their pufferfish.

The reason is simple: the Huaiyang Restaurant person in charge suspects they might be selling wild pufferfish.

Because ordinary farm-raised pufferfish mostly taste the same, but poisonous pufferfish are different, even in exceedingly tiny amounts, tetrodotoxin can enhance the savoriness of pufferfish.

But they’re more expensive too; such a pufferfish costs over two thousand yuan each.

While Zhang Hui was investigating pufferfish, Sun Jun’s investigation also made some progress.

Recently, something did happen on the construction site.

"Suicide, it wasn’t a safety accident, he jumped from the roof by himself."

It turns out someone died on that construction site a month ago.

A steelworker went up at night and jumped.

Since it was nighttime and no work was being carried out, the person jumped from above; it was suicide.

Moreover, the deceased left a suicide note, stating his intent to end his life.

"Come off it, why would Old Zhang commit suicide? Isn’t it because their wages were withheld, if he’d received the money, would he have committed suicide?"

"Didn’t the boss also say they would pay him? But they wanted him to produce proof, if he couldn’t, who’s to blame?"

"Nonsense, he’d been working on that site, who wouldn’t know? What’s there to prove? Just pay the wages he’s due, he couldn’t even read and write, what proof would he provide?"

Sun Jun had stumbled upon a significant lead.