What does it feel like to have five hundred towering men glaring at you with murderous intent?
Fat wealthy man: Thanks for the invite. My soul is fleeing and my bladder has already exploded.
Five hundred men might not mean much on a large battlefield, but in a typical gangster confrontation, it’s a scale that makes your soul scatter.
Especially since these men were all elite soldiers, every single one powerfully built with eyes like knives, their bodies radiating the chilling, hardened edge of countless battles. They wore identical armor and weapons, still stained with blood from their recent campaign against bandits.
One such man appearing in a busy market would already inspire fear, let alone five hundred.
The fat man peed himself on the spot. No exaggeration—he really did. A puddle quickly pooled beneath him.
The few vicious thugs who had been beating people were also scared out of their wits. They tried to flee, but Ying Siji and his men struck the backs of their knees with the flat of their blades, sending them crashing to the ground, unable to rise again.
Moments ago, they had been swaggering and fierce. Now they looked wretched and pathetic, completely losing control of themselves.
Pei Liang stepped forward to help Chef Sui up. Though their last meeting had been years ago, at Grandpa Pei’s funeral, Little Chef Pei’s striking features were hard to mistake. Even if she had matured, she was still recognizable at a glance.
Chef Sui immediately recognized her, both surprised and delighted: “Liang’er? What are you doing here?”
Pei Liang smiled. “I’ll explain later. Let’s deal with the problem at hand first.”
Then she turned to the fat man, who looked like he wished he could faint or just disappear, and said, “What was that you said just now?”
Qiu Sanxiang replied bluntly, “He said that if you could also bring in a few hundred men, he’d call you grandpa.”
“Then call me,” Pei Liang said coolly.
The fat man was drenched in sweat. The crowd of onlookers had retreated a few steps, intimidated by the soldiers, but seeing the disciplined army bark no orders or strike at bystanders, they didn’t scatter completely.
The sudden reversal was breathtaking to watch.
Murmurs broke out among the crowd: “Well, well. Fatty Wang has been throwing his weight around thanks to his sister, the eighth concubine of the magistrate. Looks like he finally kicked a metal plate.”
The wealthy fat man finally pulled himself together, his jowls trembling as he forced a fawning smile. “We’re all on the same side, same side. A real case of ‘the flood drowning the Dragon King’s temple.’”
“Brother Sui, if you had just made your connections clear earlier, none of this misunderstanding would have happened.”
He tried to slip out of the circle, shrinking his body. “Oh, I just remembered my brother-in-law invited me for lunch. I’ll be on my way.”
But the moment he took a step, a soldier blocked him, drawing a blade so sharp it seemed to cut the very light.
Pei Liang laughed. “No need to be nervous. These officers and men have been hard at work suppressing bandits. Today, they’re just here for a meal as a thank-you.”
“Chef Sui learned his craft from my Pei family, masters of the First Kitchen Under Heaven, personally honored by the late emperor. Naturally, he upholds the family’s reputation wherever he goes.”
“Since this gentleman insists that ‘Old Madam Wang fell ill after eating from Yixiang Tower,’ we need to get to the bottom of it. If it’s indeed Yixiang Tower’s fault, we won’t object to you tearing down our sign and smashing our restaurant. But if it’s slander, we won’t let it slide.”
“In the food business, we can’t afford any ambiguity. Since many regular customers are here today, I ask you all to bear witness. Let no one claim Yixiang Tower is bullying others with power.”
The crowd thought: You’ve just marched in here with hundreds of soldiers, and you’re saying you’re not throwing your weight around?
But everyone knew the truth. Relying on his concubine sister’s favor with the magistrate, Fatty Wang had recently partnered with local thugs to bully and extort, stirring up no small amount of outrage.
Passersby might not know the details, but longtime local shopkeepers and regulars understood perfectly: Master Wang had opened a big restaurant nearby, was jealous of the famous dishes at X Inn, and resorted to stealing recipes by underhanded means.
Those he had victimized earlier dared not speak up because of the magistrate’s influence. Now that he had kicked a real hornet’s nest, they weren’t about to miss the show.
Everyone filed into Yixiang Tower.
Old Madam Wang was still lying on her stretcher, drool running from the corner of her mouth. But her eyes were anxious, her expression evasive.
Shi Feiyu didn’t even glance at these people. He went straight upstairs with a few guards to a private room, leaving everything else to Pei Liang, trusting she could handle it.
Pei Liang helped Chef Sui sit down in a chair nearby. Then her eyes fell on Old Madam Wang, and she laughed: “Is this a stroke?”
Chef Sui replied, “No. This old lady enjoyed a dish of pufferfish at our restaurant yesterday. Today she was brought here, claiming she was poisoned.”
Meanwhile, Fatty Wang had secretly sent someone to the magistrate’s residence to fetch his sister. Even if he couldn’t get the magistrate himself, a few officers from the magistrate’s office showing up would bolster his position.
Hearing Chef Sui’s explanation, he said, “Pufferfish is toxic all over and tough to clean. My mother was fine yesterday, then this morning she was crooked-mouthed and stiff as a board. I lost my temper and came straight here.”
“But now that I think about it, I was too hasty. We should get a proper doctor first, find the real cause, then talk.”
Fatty Wang felt he had offered plenty of face-saving ground. Earlier he had panicked and made a fool of himself, but now, calmer, he tried a mix of threat and flattery: “I apologize for causing trouble for Brother Sui. Tomorrow, I’ll prepare a generous gift and personally come to make amends.”
“These military gentlemen have traveled far. Let today’s meal be on me. Brother Sui, please prepare the finest dishes so our honorable soldiers eat well and drink well. Even when they leave Jiangnan, let them remember its delicious cuisine as a token of our goodwill.”
The unspoken message was clear: Now you’ve got this powerful backer—these troops are just passing through. But in the end, we locals are the ones who live here. Take the olive branch, and we all go our separate ways peacefully.
Chef Sui’s face darkened, but he was forced to acknowledge the practical reality.
Just then, the window of the second-floor private room opened. Qiu Sanxiang poked his head out and called to Pei Liang in the hall: “The general says to hurry up and serve the meal.”
Fatty Wang’s heart leaped. He assumed this young niece of Chef Sui’s had merely curried favor with some military officer and was just putting on airs. Obviously, the officer had no interest in getting bogged down with their trouble.
He was about to press harder and force Chef Sui to concede, when the young woman said in a clear voice, “Fine, everyone’s hungry. Don’t delay the meal.”
She pointed at a random waiter: “Go fetch a few fresh pufferfish.”
Seeing her power when she walked in with the soldiers, and seeing how familiar she was with Chef Sui, the waiter immediately scurried off and brought several live pufferfish. They were still splashing and thrashing in a water basin. Knives, cutting boards, and clean water were set up as well.
Pei Liang tested the weight of the blade in her hand, then spoke: “In the Pei family’s training, you first spend three years perfecting your knife skills. You must slice a whole block of tofu into threads fine enough to pass through a needle’s eye. You must peel an entire radish into one unbroken sheet as thin as a cicada’s wing. You must hollow out bean sprouts and stuff them with meat filling. Only then are you qualified to move to the next stage.”
“Chef Sui was one of my grandfather’s prized disciples, exceptional among all his uncles and apprentices. Even blindfolded, he could clean a pufferfish of all its toxins. Besides, the Pei family has a rule: before serving any dish made with deadly ingredients, the chef must first taste it themselves. So careless mistakes are impossible.”
Fatty Wang, seeing that this woman wasn't willing to let matters rest easily, put on a fierce expression. "But it's a fact that my mother got sick from eating the pufferfish from your place. Even if I was a bit impulsive and rash, I believe the magistrate will excuse me out of consideration for my filial piety."
Pei Liang smiled. "Of course. I'm saying this for no other reason than out of genuine regard for your heavenly filial piety, Master Wang, and out of pity for your mother's stroke—unwilling to see you mother and son suffer the agony of a broken heart. That’s why I wanted to tell you, Master Wang, that your mother’s illness can be cured."
"Just give me the time it takes a single incense stick to burn."
Fatty Wang was stunned. He exchanged a glance with his mother and said anxiously, "Nonsense! Even doctors are helpless against stroke. What miraculous remedy could a young woman like you have? Don’t play with people’s lives."
Pei Liang replied, "So you admit it’s stroke? Not pufferfish poisoning? I was about to say that her symptoms—general weakness and numbness in the muscles—are similar to those of a mild case."
Fatty Wang realized he had been led into a trap but didn't know how to respond. If it was exposed in front of everyone that he and his mother were faking illness to extort money, it would give her the chance to strike back.
But Pei Liang didn’t argue with him over words. Instead, she quickly washed her hands and took out a pufferfish.
The live fish struggled in her hands, but she made a few effortless cuts, and the fins and tail fell off cleanly. After letting the blood out, she neatly sliced off the fish's lips and removed the eyes. Then, as if peeling a potato skin, she spun the pufferfish in her hand, and the whole skin came off in one complete piece without pulling away a single shred of flesh. The integrity of the fish was astonishingly preserved.
Next, she cut open the white, bloated belly. Her slender fingers reached in, hooked, and pulled out the pufferfish's entrails—cleanly removed, leaving not a trace behind.
Finally, she peeled off the black membrane, deboned the fish, and sliced the meat. Throughout the entire process, not a single drop of blood stained the fish. Everyone around watched clearly.
The pufferfish slices, thin as cicada wings, were laid out on a plate, each piece crystal-clear and translucent, glistening and springy, arranged like blossoming petals.
The gourmands present nearly drooled at the sight. Who, having tasted pufferfish, could ever forget its fresh umami flavor?
"Little Chef Pei's knife skills are unmatched!" someone praised. "And this took only a few breaths of time."
Pei Liang laughed. "I'm young and not very accomplished. I've only learned the surface. Compared to my Uncle Chef Sui, I'm far behind. But the senior chefs are down-to-earth and discreet; they're so skilled they stay in the kitchen without showing off. Now that luck is against them and they're injured, they can't work much, which has let me, a junior, steal the spotlight."
The crowd showered her with praise.
Pei Liang first tasted a piece of the pufferfish meat herself, showing it was safe to eat, then handed the plate over.
She said to Fatty Wang, "Master Wang, if you don’t mind, try some. If you don't like raw food, you can have someone bring a bowl of hot soup to blanch it."
Fatty Wang's face went pale, then red. He knew this woman was being deliberately difficult, but with so many ferocious soldiers backing her up, he had no choice but to cooperate.
Since the meat was presumably non-toxic, he decided to stall for time until the magistrate's men arrived.
He picked up a clean pair of chopsticks, took a slice of fish, and was about to put it into his mouth.
But Old Madam Wang, lying on her stretcher bed at a special angle, saw something her son didn't.
When Pei Liang tasted the fish and then handed the plate over, something dripped from her hand, blending into the fish meat.
Old Madam Wang turned her head and noticed that on the chopping board, the once plump and intact pufferfish innards had somehow become shriveled, as if they had been squeezed dry.
Pufferfish innards and blood are highly toxic. Seeing the fish about to enter her son's mouth, Old Madam Wang panicked.
Just as she was about to warn him, Ying Siji, who had stayed downstairs to watch the fun, stuck a needle as fine as a hair into her throat. Old Madam Wang found herself unable to utter a single sound, her soul nearly fleeing in terror.
In her desperation, she leaped up from the stretcher bed, rushed to Fatty Wang, and knocked the chopsticks out of his hand.
The hall fell into silence.
Then Pei Liang’s voice rang out: "Look, our Old Madam has recovered!"
"It’s a medical miracle!"
