Chapter 35

Kaesok-bbang

I approached Dang Young-young from behind and quickly whispered in her ear.

"Miss Dang."

"Ah!"

Dang Young-young, who had been looking at the steaming dish with a loving expression, was startled.

Startled, she hurriedly looked around, her face turning red, and she didn't know what to do.

Then, she made a shy expression that she had never shown before, and her voice began to ring in my head.

"Sir, whispering in someone's ear in front of so many people!"

'Ah! This is a telepathic message?'

I was amazed by the telepathic message I had never heard before, but her voice continued to ring through the telepathy.

"If you have something to say secretly, use telepathy... Oh, wait, you can't use it... "

Then, she made a frustrated expression, her face turning red, and she quickly got up from her seat, walking in the opposite direction of the back gate we had entered earlier, leaving me a telepathic message.

"Don't follow me right away, come to me a little later!"

Her voice was like a cold wind.

But now wasn't the time to argue about that.

The old man, the host of this birthday party, would soon appear and thank the guests, and then the meal would start. Even with the most powerful martial arts, no one could train their insides, so the restroom would be flooded with people from the afternoon.

Or, perhaps, a ridiculous outcome where a martial arts master dies from food poisoning could happen.

That's why I couldn't bear to wait as she told me to and immediately chased after her.

Time was running out.

But as I quickly chased after Dang Young-young and turned the corner behind the hall, something suddenly grabbed me and hung me up, then quickly ran to a corner inside.

"Ugh..."

My body flapped like a flag, and the wind mercilessly hit my ears.

When I came to my senses, I was already in a wooded area behind the hall, where Dang Young-young was standing with her arms crossed and a 45-degree side profile, glaring at me.

Dang Young-young glared at me like a wild beast.

Then, her angry voice immediately struck my ears.

"Sir, why did you whisper to me like lovers in a crowded place, and even though I told you to wait a little, you immediately followed me, making it look like we were secretly going somewhere together in front of everyone? Can I hear the reason for this?"

Dang Young-young's voice shot out without a pause.

My body flinched with each word she shot out.

"Why can't you speak? Speak up!"

The excited Dang Young-young grabbed both of my shoulders and shook me like a bartender shaking a cocktail.

"Ah, no, no, no, no, no, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!"

"Huh? Stop? Ah!"

Dang Young-young's trembling hands finally stopped, and she realized she was shaking me.

She seemed to be flustered for a moment, then quickly removed her hands from my body and changed her expression as if nothing had happened, making an excuse.

"Oh, I got a little excited."

'Oh, you, indeed, you are at the peak of maturity...'

After wobbling for a while as if I had been on a roller coaster five times, I blessed her with the future of the Dang family.

"Th, the future of the Dang family. I, I look forward to it."

"Huh?"

She looked bewildered.

But it wasn't a situation where I could continue talking to her.

"Anyway, that's not important, and now is not the time for this!"

I had to somehow remove Seohae from the banquet before Dang Wang appeared, so I spoke in a hurried voice. Suddenly, a cracking sound was heard.

-Crack

Then, a hot, angry voice from Dang Young-young rang out.

"Is there something more important than my chastity and integrity? Go on, tell me. What is more important than me? And if what you say is not important, I won't tolerate it! Go on, tell me!"

Looking to the side, I saw her fingers embedded about an inch into the side of a large tree.

-Swallow

I opened my trembling mouth and began to explain the whole story to her.

"S, so... crabs... "

"Crabs?"

"Yes, so... crabs... "

"Speak clearly!"

When you keep hitting a pet on the head when it does something wrong, it will blink even when you try to pet it, just like I was in that situation.

Worried that I might get hit again, I quickly explained.

"...The crabs went bad... that's how it happened."

As soon as I finished speaking, Dang Young-young's surprised voice rang out.

"Why didn't you say that earlier!"

"But, Miss Dang, you... "

Her surprised exclamation and the grip on my wrist.

Dang Young-young grabbed my wrist and, waving me like a flag, ran across the birthday table toward the back gate.

'You made such a fuss about whispering in front of people earlier... If I do it, it's lewd, but if you do it, it's urgent? How dirty.'

Arriving at the cooking area inside the back gate, where we had been waving like a flag.

As soon as she arrived, she shouted at the cooks.

"Where are the Sichuan river crabs that arrived the other day? And where is Zhang Daibai?"

The atmosphere turned tense at her words, and someone ran off to one side, leading us to where the crabs were.

In a brightly sunlit space, something covered with bamboo baskets.

I approached and opened the basket, and the sight of the crabs with their bellies flipped up and dead met my eyes.

Black liquid oozing from the crabs' mouths and a faint stench.

"This, this is..."

Dang Young-young's surprised voice.

If the Sichuan river crabs were freshwater crabs, they would have been fine if they had been kept in a shaded place or in a water container, but it seemed they had been left out in the scorching sun for two days after arriving.

In hot weather, they would die and start to rot within a few hours, and these were definitely not in a state fit for consumption.

Even considering that Sichuan is a hot place, it was clear they had been left at room temperature for more than a day.

No wonder the vinegar and flower scents were strong when I checked the Seohae earlier.

It was clear that they were trying to hide the state of the crabs.

As we were surprised by the state of the crabs, the man with the goat beard, whom we had seen earlier, appeared from somewhere, his face marked with the shape of a bamboo stick, in a hurry.

"Miss, why are you here again?"

He saw the basket we had just opened behind us and made a surprised expression for a moment, then began to explain without being asked.

"Don't worry. They've only been dead for a short time, that's why. Crabs naturally release black liquid when they die."

The man with the goat beard spouted nonsense.

Dang Young-young turned her head sharply toward me and asked.

"Is that true? Master Liu?"

In response to her question, I picked up a crab with black liquid oozing from its mouth, opened its shell, and showed her the inside while explaining.

"Crabs breathe through this part in the water. So when they die, this part rots the fastest. The fact that it has turned black means it has been dead for a while, and it is not in a state fit for consumption."

The pungent and foul smell from the crabs, which were already rotting.

When Dang Young-young glared at the man with the goat beard, he trembled and answered.

"No, I am Zhang San, a disciple of the Master Chef. No matter how high your status, no one can match me in cooking and ingredients. To humiliate me in front of others with something you don't know... Even if you are of high status, to treat my dignity like this..."

The man with the goat beard, who was a disciple of the Master Chef, was saying that we, who knew nothing, were spouting nonsense.

As his story began to drag on, Dang Young-young burst out in anger.

"Are you doubting the nose of the Dang family? The Dang family has been training their sense of smell since birth to detect poisons. I can clearly feel that these crabs are rotting. Are you saying they are not bad? And the Master here is also a cook. Do you think we are persecuting you based on unverified facts?!"

The man with the goat beard quickly snatched the crab from my hand and, tearing off the crab's gills, said.

"Miss, you may feel that way, but if you remove this part, there is no problem eating it."

If the gills were slightly blackened due to the start of decay, or if they were to be used in a soup or fried, it would be possible to remove the gills and eat them, but Seohae is eaten raw, which was absurd.

Moreover, the gills on the crab in his hand were already blackened.

After Dang Young-young finished her explanation, he turned to me with a mocking expression and asked.

"Are you a cook? From a top restaurant in Kaifeng or something?"

The "top restaurant" refers to the 72 largest places in the capital Kaifeng that serve food and drinks, and it seemed he was implying that I shouldn't show him my business card unless I was of that caliber.

"Well, I run a small inn."

The man with the goat beard chuckled at my answer.

'Look at this guy? Laughing? Is this guy really a disciple of the Master Chef? A guy who can't manage ingredients, responsible for the king's food?'

Usually, when someone cooks for high-ranking people, they are extremely careful about the taste and the quality of the ingredients. A guy who can't even do the basics couldn't possibly be a disciple.

If he was, he must have been expelled or was a fraud.

I decided to test him to see if he really was a disciple of the Master Chef.

"Since you are a disciple of Master Chef Zhang Daibai, do you know why the birthday banquet can't serve more than 19 dishes?"

The man with the goat beard chuckled and said mockingly.

"Because the official banquet for the emperor serves 20 dishes, right?"

'Oh, he knows that?'

"Official" is a term used to refer to the emperor in the Song Dynasty, and he answered my question quite skillfully.

Since he travels from house to house to set up banquets, he would know this