Upon hearing this, an officer threw up immediately, while the others hammered the table in anger, throwing the scene into chaos.
The boss stood on the stage and sullenly said, "You can leave if you can't accept this. I won't force you to be my comrades."
About a third of them left, but this man was obviously a part of those who stayed. On one hand, he was reluctant to lose his monthly salary, and on the other hand, eating pangolins and monkey brains had presented him with a new understanding of eating. He wanted to taste this Golden Grain Meal that he had heard so much about.
What he said next made both Xiaotao and I so disgusted we couldn’t stomach lunch. He described the Golden Grain Meal in detail, claiming it completely overturned his impression of food.
"It turns out you can even eat that sort of thing! My previous understanding of food was much too shallow. The boss is simply the greatest foodie in the world!" said the bodyguard as he drooled. "By the way, the Golden Grain Meal is excreted by a girl who’s fed only tomatoes for a week..."
"That’s enough!" Xiaotao waved impatiently. "Skip that, please. Tell us how the next training session went."
During the fourth session, he was finally served a girl's hand. As soon as the cloche was opened, these grown men started screaming in horror at the different body parts they were assigned.
The boss gave yet another speech that was all smoke and mirror, basically advocating the consumption of human flesh. In his words, forbidden foods were the ultimate delicacy.
This time, only three men chose to leave while the others accepted it without much difficulty, having passed the previous three tests.
Then came the fifth and final pre-job training session. With a wicked grin, the boss announced, "Congratulations, you’ve all become my comrades. I won’t give a speech today. Instead, I’ll let the food do the talking!"
The curtains behind him slowly opened, revealing a bunch of chefs who were slicing vegetables. There were several large cages holding naked men. Soon, they recognized their past companions who had left halfway through training. Like livestock, they had been raised plump and juicy.
Since the boss said they could choose whatever dish they wanted, this bodyguard went with the freshest option–sashimi. A piece of tender thigh meat was placed before him, with dip on the side, stimulating his salivary glands. Without the slightest bit of guilt, he savored a sumptuous spread of human flesh.
These men were finally qualified to become the boss's confidants and participated in maintaining the order of the club. After each dinner party, the remaining delicacies were used to reward them.
At the end of the bodyguard's narrative, Xiaotao and I were bereft of speech. Furrowing her brows, Xiaotao took a sip of tea while I continued the interrogation. "What's your boss’s name?"
"Crazy Six Tao Chef," he proudly replied.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know much about the inner workings of the club, including the origin of those victims. Thus, Xiaotao instructed the officers to escort him back to the holding cell.
Xiaotao was still deeply nauseated even after leaving the interrogation room. "This guy is too cautious. He brainwashes his men before using them."
"No, it’s not exactly brainwashing, he’s preaching!"
Xiaotao stared blankly at me, "Isn't that the same thing?"
"What the Dog Trainer does is brainwashing. He himself doesn't believe in what he teaches. However, the Crazy Six Tao Chef believes more than anyone else that cannibalism is the right way. He not only requires obedient men but also their approval,” I explained. “In fact, everyone needs a sense of belonging. For example, if you like an unpopular TV series or any commodity, you might go online to find like-minded people. Like Chef Tang, this man not only has a unique diet but also hopes everyone will accept it. But what makes him more terrifying and formidable than Chef Tang is his vast resources allow him to satisfy his abnormal hobby."
"To put it bluntly, he can do whatever the hell he wants. I wonder how he makes his money.”
"Well, that’s a question for Mr. Huang," I chuckled.
This man was very adept at training people and had contacts for locating ex-prisoners. I suspected he really ran a bodyguard company that dealt in both legal and criminal businesses.
This was definitely a job for Lao Yao!
Over the next two days, we identified five or six victims with the help of various jurisdictions and DNA from the body parts. In Xiaotao's words, our current methods were considered making an outward appearance as opposed to substantial work, that is, investigative methods that led to arrests.
Meanwhile, Lao Yao had his hands full with hacking into the internal personnel database of all the bodyguard companies in Nanjiang City. He found a large number of non-resident extra personnel in a database titled “Tieying Special Bodyguard Company,” headed by a man named Yang Xingdong.
When we went to search the company, we found that Yang Xingdong had absconded and transferred all his assets to Swiss banks. The employees were still unaware that the company had become an empty shell and were working in an orderly manner.
"As soon as there’s a hint of trouble, he runs. If this coward is really the Crazy Six Tao Chef, I’ll write my name the other way round!"
"Leave the rest to me!” Xiaotao clapped her hands. “I’ll inform the other jurisdictions. With our system for identifying all citizens, he won’t be able to leave Nanjiang City."
"By the way, what are you going to do with the wealthy folk who have been participating in this club?"
Xiaotao sighed, "At most, cannibalism is considered the crime of desecrating corpses, and the punishment isn’t heavy. Anyway, these people can afford bail so they’ll probably escape punishment."
"That's not the point,” I said. “They can't ingest foreign proteins like us. Yang Xingdong's trick is actually rather ingenious, tempting others to embark on the road of evil. Who knows, perhaps Nanjiang City will have another cannibalistic madman in a few years."
"Those people have to receive physical and mental therapy!" Speaking of this, she smiled sweetly, "The perks of our special team really comes in handy! We don’t need to go through the application process."
Thus, Bingxin contacted medical experts for their help. In order to cooperate with the research, Xiaotao and I contributed blood samples and urine samples. Unfortunately, even the experts failed to crack this poison. From the tests, the drug acted directly on the nerves of the hypothalamus that responded to taste. In martial arts novels, every poison had a cure but reality, that wasn’t always so.
An expert suggested I try blood dialysis, but I put off treatment for the time being due to fear of the pain. Going vegetarian for a few more days wasn’t a problem at all.
On a certain day when I was sorting out stock in the store, I received a call from Xiaotao. "Song Yang, come down to the station at once. A distinguished guest claims he can help us catch Yang Xingdong."
"Which expert are we talking about?"
Xiaotao grinned, "You’ll never guess. Interpol!"