Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 576: The Gourmet that Lost His Sense of Taste

Compared towomen, it wasn’t that complicated when men needed to put on makeup. Lin Qiusheng finished his makeup after around ten minutes. Meanwhile, Xiao Zhao and the other assistants had already prepared the ingredients on the stage.

Lin Qiusheng walkedonthe stage and talked to his beautiful co-host. Facing the camera, he smiled tenderly.

I found a place nearest to Lin Qiusheng as I was afraid that something would happen during the broadcast.The cameradidn’tcapture me in this corner.

As the cooking show started, Lin Qiusheng began to introduce each of the ingredients, including their nutritious values and how to cook them. From time to time, he joked with his co-hostand gavemore interesting touches to the show.

After the introduction of the ingredients came the part I was worried about the most – the review of dishes! There were three dishes that the program crew had prepared. To increase theeffectivenessof the show, they had sent three staff who didn’t have outstanding appearances to bring out the dishes. Theyplaced them in front of Lin Qiushengand saidthat they were cooked by the audience.

Lin Qiusheng took a bite of every dish and gave some comments. This section was finally over.

After that, Lin Qiusheng wanted to cook a dish rightonthe stage. Since he had to process his ingredients, the crew members moved the previous three dishes away and made more room for him. Seeing the staff carrying thefoodout of the screen, I thought I could heave a sigh of relief.

Butwhen the staff was taking his last step out of the screen, Lin Qiusheng, who looked normal in the previous second, suddenly dashed forward and snatched a dish out of the staff’s hand. He grabbed the food and shoved that handful ofitinto his mouth.I immediatelywentto pull him. My left hand wasn’t within the camera frame, so I held the red chopsticks and grabbed his middle finger.

Unexpectedly, this trick didn’t work. Lin Qiusheng struggled harder and harder. He had almost swallowed all the food in his hand. I immediately threw the chopsticks aside,took out a painting of Taotie,and stuckit on him!

Taotie was the name of ancient mythological creatures famous for their greedy and gluttonous character. They were big foodiesas they were theancestorsofallfoodies. Legend said that only Taotie’s head remainedbecause it had eaten its own body!Thatwas enough to see how gluttonous it was.

I had borrowed this painting of Taotie from Chuyi a long time ago. I thought that ifthe spiritwas something that liked to eat a lot, it would be afraid of Taotie orshow respect to Taotie at the veryleast!

Indeed, it worked. As soon as I had stuck the Taotie painting on him, Lin Qiusheng shook as if he was a sieve. After a few seconds, he returned to his senses. He immediately knew what had just happened. His facegrimaced.

I wanted to comfort him, but I caught a glanceatXiao Zhao’s signal. I followed her instruction and pulled Lin Qiusheng away from the camera’sframe.

As soon as we got off the stage, theMC of the show immediately took the stage and madeajoke about Lin Qiusheng’s awkward situation, driving the audience tothinkthat it was the bridge section the show had planned. One of the dishes he had tasted was deliberately prepared with spices they shouldn’t have used for the dish. The show producer wanted to see if Lin Qiusheng could recognize it.

Previously, they said that the food was cooked by the audience and now they said that it was planned by the program crew. Although the loophole was obvious here, they could cover Lin Qiusheng’s awkward situation. It wasn’t too difficult for him to get back to the stage later.

For the latter part of the show, Lin Qiusheng introduced nutritious foods that could be great supplements during thewintertime. The showwas able tofinallyendsmoothly.Since he hadthe painting of Taotie with him, he could continue and finish his show without any new problems. After the show was done, I wanted to go to Lin Qiusheng’s house to see if there were any clues.

“I’m tired. Can you visit me another day?” suggested Lin Qiusheng.

I remembered the conversation between him and Lin Xia in the hospital. I knew he was afraid that I could find something in his house. I wanted to go and see, but if he said so, Ihad to give up on that thought. “All right, if you encounter something, call me immediately.”

After Lin Qiusheng left, I remembered that my car was still at the hospital. When I was about to leave with Li Mazi, Xiao Zhao honkedat usto go with her.

After getting into the car, Li Mazi teased her. “Whydidn't youleave with your boss? You don’t want toseeyour salary reduced, do you?”

Xiao Zhao had a faint smile. “How could it be? My boss asked me to see you off.”

I chuckled. Liu Qiusheng was interesting, quite the attentive type.However,he stilldidn’t want to tell me the truth.

I asked Xiao Zhao to take us to the hospital.AfterXiao Zhao left, we immediately drove after her. Li Mazi satin the passenger seat and asked, “Why do we have to follow Xiao Zhao?”

“Do you still need to ask? Of course, we want to know what Lin Qiusheng has messed with!” I rolled my eyes at him.

I then told him what I had eavesdropped on this afternoon in Lin Qiusheng’s patient room. Li Mazi’s eyes opened wide. “It’s no wonder Ifeltthat Lin Xia lookedstrange. He knew everything right from the start! He knew his fatherhad aproblem!”

After around half an hour, Xiao Zhao drove into a high-end residential area. Intheseluxurious neighborhoods, non-registered cars weren’t allowed to enter. I stopped at the entrance and got out with a pack of good cigarettes. Iwantedto makefriendswith the security guard.

The security guard was a middle-aged man around forty years old. He looked nice, but he was toughto entice. I had offered him several packs of cigarettes, but I got nothing from him. Feelinghelpless, I had to drive away.

Li Mazi was somewhat mad. His foul mouthmovedfast. “I wasan idiot to get involved inthis case. There’s nothing good aboutthis, onlya lot of troubles!”

I thought it wasn’t that bad. Although Lin Qiusheng hadn’t told me the truth,he waswilling to let me help him. I kept thinking about it for quite a long time, but I hadn’t figured out how to make him tell me everything.

Since I had a lot of thingson my mind, when I turned my car into the alley of my antique shop, I had almost run someone over. I craned my neck to checkand sawthat it was Lin Xia. The young manlookedpale as he hadbeenout in the cold. It seemed he had been here right after the cuisine show ended. When he saw me, he looked both touched and excited. “Master Zhang…”

I waved my hand and motioned that he shouldgoinsidethe shop to talk. It was freezing outside. I didn’t want to becomeahuman ice cube by standing herewithhim.

Li Mazi was mad at Lin Xia, so he went directly into the shop after getting out of the car. He poured himself a cup of hot teaand quickly gulped it down. After IbroughtLin Xia to the shop, Li Mazi slammed the cup on the table and dashed upstairs, leaving Lin Xiao with an embarrassed face.

I poured Lin Xia a cup of hottea andcomforted him. “Li Mazi is a straightforward man. You don’t need tooverthink it.”

“No,don’t worry.” Lin Xia shook his head. He held the cup of teaand lookedreluctant. After a long moment, he made up his mindand started to talk. “Master Zhang, I guessed you heard our quarrel this afternoon.”

I almost spat out the sip of tea I had just drunk. It turned out they had seen right throughmy performance this afternoon. Even Lin Xia, an immature young man, got it.It would bestrangeifLin Qiusheng didn’t get it.

Feeling embarrassed, I nodded. “Yeah, I overheard you guys. If you knowanything, you better tell me. That’s how I can help your father.”

Lin Xia sighed. Slowly, he started to talk.“I don’t know how it started. All I know is that one week ago, my father mysteriously told me that he bought something very nice. After that, he has turned into this…”

When he said that, I gotan ideain my head, more or less. The“nice thing”he mentioned could be an otherworldly item. It seemed Lin Qiusheng also knew that it wasn’t somethingnormal. But still, he wanted to use that item to achieve his purpose!

As I had kept silent for quite a long time, Lin Xiagotanxious. “Willsomething bad happen to my father?”

I nodded. “If he continues this way, bad thingswillhappen soon. Let aloneother complications, your father’s bodywon’t be able toendure his wolfing habit of eating.”

“Do you know how to help my father?” Lin Xia’s eyes reddened.

I patted his shoulder to comfort him. “Don’t worry. If you are too worried, you willmakemistakes. Anyway, I need to know whatthis thingis and gather more details about itto know how to deal with it.”

Lin Xia implored me. “You must help my father!”

Then, he placed the cup down onto the table and rushed outside. I was left with a puzzled face.

Li Mazicame down. He sat opposite me then said despicably, “That young man must have gone to see his lover. He ran even faster than a rabbit.”

I rolled my eyes and scoffed.“Don’t think that everybody is like you. I think Lin Xia’s a good man.”

Li Mazi laughed and asked, “Now, what is your plan?”

I pretended to be surprised. “Oh, I thought you wanted to ditch this case.”

Li Mazi madeafake cough and cleared his throat. “How could I do that?I wasjust angry when Ifacedsome injustice…”

Lin Xia’s appearance tonight made me somewhat worried. I always felt that something would happen. Afterchatting withLi Mazi, I went upstairs to prepare some magic tools I would possibly use.After preparing everything well, I eased my mind and went to bed.

I thought that Iwould be able tohave a nice sleep that night. However, at the break of dawn, I was awoken by Li Mazi’s screaming downstairs. I thought something big had happened. Afterputting on more warm clothes, I hurried to go downstairs, but then, I saw that Ru Xue was chasing after Li Mazi around my house.

I leaned against the handrail of the staircase and watched the fun for a while. Eventually, I knew what had happened. Rue Xue had come home last night from her mother’s house. Sheknew LiMazi wasatmy place since he wasn’t home. Early this morning, she came to my shop to find himandfound him drooling atabeauty wearing a bikini in the magazine.

Li Mazi threw me a send-help-look. I waved at himand signaledthat he should pray for his welfare. Then, I went out to have breakfast. I rarely went out to have breakfastbut today, judging from the fact that it would take a lot of timeforRu Xueto calmdown, I quicklymade up my mind to go out to have some peace and fresh air.

I slowly moved along the antique street to find a restaurant and order something. When I had finished half of my meal, I saw someone anxiously rushing past the restaurant. That personlooked like Lin Xia. It was weird that he had come here so early in the morning.Feeling worried, I placedthe money for the breakfast on the table and left the restaurant. I dashedafter him.

However, when I raninhis direction, I didn’t see him. This street was straightandtherewasone turn two hundred meters ahead of me. It was just a short moment, so he couldn’t have justdisappearedthat fast!

Did he visita nearbyshop?With that thought, I walked along the street and checked each shop. Still, when I reached the turn, I hadn’t found him yet. I knew it was strange, so I decided to call Lin Xia. The phone rang twicebeforethe linewentthrough.

“Good morning Master, have you figured outasolution?” greeted Lin Xia.

I found an excuse and hung up the call. I guessed my eyes were just blurred for a moment. After this interruption, Iwas inno mood to eat my breakfast outside. I bought some fried dumplings and returned to my antique shop.

Li Mazi and Ru Xue were sitting on the sofa, showing their affection to each other. I gave Li Maziapack of dried dumplings. Then, I started to search for Lin Qiusheng’s informationonmy phone in hopes that I could find the reason why Lin Qiusheng had to depend onanotherworldly item.

After two hoursofstaring atmy phonescreen,I finally found a clue amongstabunch of fake and real information about him.

Three months ago, there was a blog post about Lin Qiusheng on Weibo, which gradually became a hot topic. The blogwaswritten nicelyand hadpictures. It was abouta cooking show that had invited Lin Qiusheng as a special guest. To enliven the show, the program crew had prepared a bowl of braised pork rib with three spoons of sugar addedas aprank to Lin Qiusheng.

Unexpectedly, Lin Qiusheng didn’t change his face when he ate twobitesof the braised pork. Moreover, hegave anexcellent assessmentofthe dish.People assumed that Lin Qiusheng’s sense of taste hadaproblem.

Anyway, this blog postdid not affectLin Qiusheng’s career that much because Lin Qiusheng’s company timely posted an explanation that it was justpart ofthe show.

However,Lin Qiusheng had another strange performance in a few shows afterward. The news that he had lost his sense of taste spread out fast. The other cuisine shows he hadattendedwere willing to pay thecompensation and break the contract withhim. Lin Qiusheng’s career had plunged to the bottom…

Until one week ago, he had signed a new TV program with a small company. After the first episode, his reputation was slightly recovered.

Lin Xia had said that Lin Qiusheng had gotten the otherworldly item one week ago. The times matched. It seemed his report was true. Now, I knew why Lin Qiusheng didn’t want to tell me his real situation. A gourmet withoutasense of tastewaslike a deaf musician. Not many people could accept this shocking news.

I decided to call Lin Qiusheng. I thought it was the right time to talk to him. Before I could make a call, my phone rang.It was a call from Lin Qiusheng.

Oh well, as soon as I mention Cao Cao, Cao Cao comes!

I picked up the call. Before I could speak.Lin Qiusheng’s panicked voice came from the other end of the line. “Master, my son is missing!”