"What mysterious incident...? I don't understand, sir... As for the beef and milk you mentioned, oh, I admit that the environment and hygiene of the slaughterhouse are not good, but there is absolutely no trickery!"
Montero said obediently, looking confused.
"Uninformed...?"
Chen Lun thought to himself, his eyes slightly narrowed.
He then questioned the rest of the people, but the results were the same. They didn't seem to have come into contact with any mystery, and they didn't know there was anything wrong with the beef and milk... They were even very proud, thinking that the new batch of live cattle had the best meat they had ever seen. The milk given by the supplier was also mellow and sweet.
The Montero slaughterhouse was able to earn more gold pounds in Peacock City with this high-quality meat and milk.
"Captain, what should we do next?"
Morey asked softly from the side.
Chen Lun pondered for a moment.
"You and Barton go to Montero's office and see if you can find out where the so-called supplier came from through documents such as bills or purchase lists."
"Yes, Captain."
Morey and Patton looked at each other and nodded to Chen Lun.
Afterwards, Chen Lun drove the hypnotized slaughterhouse owner Montero and his men back to their respective posts... These ordinary people who were unaware of the situation were still in a daze and turned away obediently. They would not return to normal until several hours later and would not remember anything about their encounter with Chen Lun and the other two.
Watching Morey and Patton follow Montero away, Chen Lun went to the live cattle area to investigate in person.
As soon as he entered the large warehouse where the live cattle were stored, he smelled the strange smell of feces mixed with some rotting hay. Several workers who were busy in the cowshed, covered in stench and dirt, looked at Chen Lun with confusion and nervousness.
"Don't worry about me, just keep busy."
Chen Lun chuckled, and the shell necklace on his chest flickered.
The workers' expressions changed instantly, and they turned around and started working again, seemingly ignoring his arrival. Chen Lun ignored the workers and stepped on the dark brown mixture that could not be shoveled away, and inspected the beef cattle one by one.
Unfortunately, nothing abnormal was found.
They looked extremely healthy, with no signs of mysterious contamination.
'What went wrong?'
Chen Lun was a little confused.
When he tried to communicate with these cows in animal language, he found something unusual: these cows had no self-awareness at all... They seemed to be a body without a soul, eating and excreting by instinct, living mechanically.
They are even incapable of reproduction.
This doesn't make sense.
After a moment.
Chen Lun walked out of the bullpen warehouse, and Patton and Morey also came back with the results of the investigation.
"Captain, we found some clues in Montero's office. The latest batch of high-quality beef cattle came from the farm area in the western suburbs of Peacock City. That area is owned by the 'Gite Large Agricultural Group'."
Morey held a list in his hand and handed it to Chen Lun.
"And we have made an important discovery. The person in charge of breeding beef cattle in the western suburbs is named 'Dolim'!"
Chen Lun showed a hint of surprise and took the list. He did find the name "Dolim" on it, but he was not sure that this person was the farmer he had been looking for.
'In the original world line, Dolim never left his farm, but now for unknown reasons, his family moved away... Could it be that he went to the western suburbs and joined that so-called agricultural group? '
He guessed secretly.
After thinking for a while, Chen Lun immediately wrote a letter, recording what happened here and his speculation about beef and milk as a warning, and then asked Patton and Morey to return to the winery first and deliver the letter to the secret mailbox of the Peacock City Shelter.
The beef and milk from the Montero slaughterhouse have been circulated in the market in the past two days. Countless people have purchased and consumed them... But Chen Lun doesn't have the time to investigate. The most he can do is to remind the authorities and let them solve these problems.
*
*
*
After leaving the slaughterhouse.
Following the clues, Chen Lun used the "Cloud Leap" technique and instantly arrived in the western suburbs.
This is a vast grassland countryside where the agricultural area stands and expands along a tributary of the Weiling River. It not only provides the residents of Peacock City with fresh food, but also sends processed products to the East District Port, which is then shipped to other cities by merchant ships for sale.
Chen Lun looked out at the prosperous buildings in the western suburbs, the huge warehouses, sheds and fences, as well as neat wheat and vegetable fields, arranged in an orderly manner within the fences.
Immediately, he walked straight ahead, followed some buyers and caravan carriages, and entered the agricultural area. He made up some excuses to the receptionist sitting at the side of the gate, saying that he wanted to inspect the inside before deciding what to buy.
Seeing that he was well-dressed and had elegant manners, the receptionists did not bother him too much and even enthusiastically stated that the best products in the Git agricultural area were beef and dairy products.
Chen Lun declined the enthusiastic invitation of one of the tour guides and wandered around the entire agricultural area alone.
"Everything is normal. There is no trace of mystery at all."
He thought after exploring for a while.
But just as he passed by a simple farmhouse, Chen Lun heard dull thumping sounds coming from inside, accompanied by a man's suppressed screams.
"Damn it, how did you sneak in?"
another man questioned.
Pengpeng!
Two more punches.
"Tell me! Are you trying to steal something?!"
"This guy is wearing dirty old clothes and looks like a tramp..."
The two men were questioning and communicating.
"I'm not a vagabond! I'm a great bard, Alex! You actually accused me of stealing! I would never do such a despicable thing. I just came in to take a look and find inspiration for my creations... Ah!"
There were the sounds of punching and kicking again, and Alex's screams.
Chen Lun couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
"Alex...?"
He felt that the sound was somewhat familiar, and after a little thought, he remembered that when he and Flo Yin left Emerald Town and headed for Amber City, they encountered robbers who were capturing craftsmen in the wilderness near the outskirts of the city.
At that time, he eliminated the bandit camp, rescued a group of craftsmen, and had a brief contact with this boastful bard.
'go.'
As soon as Chen Lun raised his hand, his index finger fell off by itself, turned into a white snake and fell to the ground, then crawled in a winding manner and slipped into the crack of the door of the farmhouse.
Through this white snake, he used his five senses to monitor the scene inside.
A dirty blond bard was tied up in the corner, with two workers standing in front of him and beating him.
After a busy period, the two workers sat on chairs to rest, breathing heavily.
Apparently beating someone up is also physically demanding.
Alex's face was bruised and swollen, he was spitting blood, and he cursed the two of them angrily.
But the two workers no longer had the energy to teach him a lesson. They just stared at the down-and-out bard with a sneer on their faces, as if they were thinking about how to deal with him.
"Come and eat something. This guy is really tough."
One of the workers took out some dried meat from his pocket and shared some with his companions.
"When I think back to when we were helping the Lanfan Gang to make a living, we fought with people every day. Now that we're working in the fields, we feel a little rusty."
The latter chuckled, took it and ate it with relish.
"Yes, I thought I could get something out of this guy, but he's just a piece of broken wood. Maybe that fancy hat and cape are worth a few coppers, but I'm too lazy to run to the grocery store in the city for that little money."
The two of them ate dried meat, played with Alex's wooden harmonica, and laughed.
One of them smacked his lips.
"Well, I said this jerky tastes really good, where did you get it from?"
"In Dolim's place... Hey, even the person in charge praised the quality of the beef cattle he raised."
Chen Lun stood outside the door for a while and roughly understood what had happened. The two workers were gang thugs before. After seeing Alex sneaking in from the agricultural area, they planned to blackmail him, but because the Alex had no money, they beat him up.
He felt that there was no point in listening to any more of this nonsense, and was about to go in and knock down the two workers, then ask Alex how he knew his alias "Jack".
But at this moment, something strange happened!
Inside the farmhouse, the two workers sitting on the chairs suddenly widened their eyes, their bodies began to swell with blood, and their veins became exposed... They fell to the ground with a dull thud, as if they had suddenly fallen ill.
Then, like an ugly and disgusting maggot, it kept twisting its body.
With a puff!
Their skin cracked and countless flesh and blood tentacles emerged from their bodies. The two men turned into monsters while wailing in pain. They crawled up uncontrollably and pounced on Alex, the only living person in the room.
Alex saw the whole process of the sudden change, but because his hands and feet were tied, he couldn't escape at all. He could only keep shrinking back, and finally stuck tightly to the corner.
"Two damn bastards... But even if you turn into monsters, don't even think about eating me!"
Alex roared.
The two workers turned into flesh-and-tentacled monsters, with distorted faces and creepy screams, and were about to grab and devour Alex in the next second.
The latter widened his eyes.
Next second.
A slender pale figure flashed by, and then there was an explosion with a bang, bursting out with a red wave of air.
The two flesh-tentacle monsters were blown away in an instant, and their limbs and fragments sprayed on the wall. After just a few breaths, they were corroded into a pool of black granular residue.
Alex looked up and saw a gentleman in black standing in front of him.
"Jack?!"
He looked very surprised, and then burst into laughter.
"You are indeed my loyal fan. You even came all the way to save me..."
Alex showed a regretful expression in an instant.
"Unfortunately, I don't need your help. They are just two man-eating monsters. In my eyes, they are just a farce..."
"Oh, in that case, sorry to bother you."
Chen Lun gave a polite smile, adjusted his hat, and turned away.
After walking a few steps, he seemed to remember something, stopped and turned around to remind:
"You look quite suspicious right now, and there are two strange corpses around you. I'm afraid you will spend the rest of your life in an asylum..."
Alex suddenly coughed loudly twice.
"Wait... wait! Can you help me loosen the rope first? My butt is a little itchy..."
He watched Chen Lun's back getting farther and farther away, and shouted anxiously:
"Jack! Help me! I can't get caught!"