Chapter 87: Mad Cow Disease (1/2)

As we spoke, steam kept rising from the stove, until at one point, Shopkeeper Tang stood up and said, “I’m sorry, but it seems that the buns are ready.”

“Go ahead.” I waved my hand.

While Shopkeeper Tang went to work on his buns, Xiaotao whispered to me, “Was he lying?”

“No,” I answered. “Every word he said was the truth.”

Shopkeeper Tang placed a dozen buns on a big plate, then sliced some cucumber, cooked a dish of peanuts and prepared a pot of rice wine. He then served them all neatly on the table and asked us, “Would both of you like to join me? I’ll get you two pairs of chopsticks right away.”

“No, no, no! We’re good!” We both quickly stopped him.

“Then do you mind if I eat while answering your questions?”

“Please go ahead.”

Shopkeeper Tang then proceeded to bite into a bun with relish. He savored the taste in his mouth and took a sip of wine.

“Do you like buns that much, Mr. Tang?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes, I do!” he replied. “My family was very poor when I was a child. The best thing I ever ate back then were the big juicy meat buns in the market. Because of that, I fell in love with the taste of meat buns ever since. Nothing compares to them!”

The man spoke with considerable pride. Then he continued, “Every day, before I sell the buns I make, I have to taste them myself first. I have to make sure if the dough rose high enough, or if the filling was flavorful enough.”

After that, he took another big bite of the bun in his hands. I couldn’t keep myself from grimacing as I looked on. After all, these came out of the same pot that the human flesh buns did just yesterday.

“Haven’t you thought of the fact that you must’ve eaten a lot of human flesh buns?” I asked.

Upon hearing this, Shopkeeper Tang stopped chewing and spit out everything.

“Officer! Here I was trying so hard not to think about that! Why did you have to ruin my appetite?”

In truth, I was testing him to see his reaction. It seemed normal.

I felt there was nothing left to ask him, so we excused ourselves. As we were about to leave, Shopkeeper Tang asked us if this case would affect his business.

“No,” I reassured him. “You can rest assured that every detail of this case will be kept confidential.”

“Then I am relieved. Oh, why don’t you bring back some buns with you and share them with your colleagues?” he offered us enthusiastically.

“No! No, thank you!” We anxiously refused.

When we were outside, Xiaotao looked at her watch and said, “It’s already one o’clock. Let’s find something to eat.”

We went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered some side dishes to go with rice. When all the dishes arrived, I noticed that we had unconsciously ordered exclusively vegetarian dishes. The sight of Shopkeeper Tang tucking into those buns probably turned us off from eating meat because it reminded us of the buns we had there yesterday.

“You know, there’s one thing about what Shopkeeper Tang said that’s been bugging me,” Xiaotao pointed out during the meal.

“What is it?” I put down my chopsticks.

“Ma Jinhuo is supposed to be obsessed with eating human flesh, and he went to great lengths trying to obtain it. He didn’t eat it himself, but opted to give it to Shopkeeper Tang to turn it into bun filling. Isn’t that a bit weird?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I thought of that too. It really is weird…”

“By the way, you mentioned that when a human being eats human flesh, they’d go crazy. Is that true?”

“Yeah. Have you heard of how the mad cow disease broke out in Britain?”

Xiaotao shook her head.

“At that time, in order to reduce the cost of raising beef cattle, they processed some leftovers from the slaughtered cattle like the bones and hoofs and fed them to the cattle. As a result, the cows that were fed those things developed mad cow disease.”

“How do you know so much, Song Yang? Your nose must be buried in books all the time. No wonder you’ve got no girlfriend!”

“Aww, come on!” I groaned. “Why did you have to twist it that way?”

Xiaotao smiled and whispered, “Want me to introduce you to a girl?”