Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 445 The common people need safe and reliable meat
Lin Ge's ears twitched, and he jumped off Bei Bei and slowly walked towards the two old people.

Seeing this, Sun Chang quickly took Bei Bei's hand and followed, and together they came to the two old people.

Seeing the police arrive, a flicker of fear crossed the elderly woman surnamed Li's eyes. She quickly hid the snakeskin bag behind her back and stared at Sun Chang, saying, "What's wrong? I didn't steal anything!"

"Mimi?"

Sun Chang looked at Lin Ge.

"Ow!"

Lin Ge stared at the snakeskin bag in the old woman's hand and exclaimed.

Sun Chang understood.

Seeing that the matter was none of her concern, the elderly woman nearby quickly made an excuse to leave. Lin Ge and Sun Chang ignored her and focused on getting information from the elderly woman surnamed Li.

She quickly revealed that these rotten vegetable leaves were sold to a workshop behind the nearby brewery. The old woman didn't know what they were used for. They charged two cents a pound, taking everything regardless of price—cabbage, spinach, lettuce, or romaine lettuce. Then, the old woman volunteered to report that she had seen people there sorting and processing the vegetable leaves, chopping some and peeling others, likely to make feed for chickens and ducks…

Sun Chang found these words hard to accept.

There were vegetable scraps picked up from the muddy ground in the garbage dump. Can these really be used to make animal food? Does that mean the brand-name cat and dog food she buys online is also made from this kind of garbage?
Sun Chang glanced at Lin Ge and Bei Bei at his feet and couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

"Fool! Whether it's the animals or the people who eat it, and who cares about whom, is still uncertain!"

Lin Ge sighed inwardly, knowing that he had probably found his target this time.

No wonder Zhu Jun and the others worked hard for several days without any results. Who would have thought that this guy was really hiding in plain sight, actually setting up his illegal workshop right next to the city's farmers' market?

The farmers' market already has a lot of garbage and sewage, so it's true that he didn't notice anything amiss when he discharged it along with the garbage. He committed this crime right under the noses of the police; he's incredibly audacious and has absolutely no respect for them.

Sun Chang got the location of the illegal workshop from the old lady and originally planned to go and take a look himself, but the old lady became interested and insisted on joining in the fun. She clearly didn't lack money; whether it was picking up rotten leaves or joining in various activities, it was purely out of boredom, just a way to pass the time in her retirement.

Led by her, Sun Chang led Bei Bei and Lin Ge to the entrance of a brewery deep inside the market. Between the brewery and the adjacent storefront, there was a small, easily overlooked path. The gravel path was stained with greasy residue, and inside stood an old, two-story red brick building. All the windows of the building were sealed with cement, and the roller shutter on the front door was tightly shut.

"It's right here! Don't be fooled by its seemingly abandoned appearance and the fact that the roller shutter door can't be opened. But go through the small hut that was built later on the side, and there's an entrance inside. However, the people inside usually don't allow us to wander around. They just spread the vegetable leaves out in the yard, sort them, weigh them, and then we can take the money and leave."

As the old woman spoke, she furtively peeked inside. She knew that leading the way could lead to retaliation, so she was terrified of being seen.

"Grandma, thank you for your hard work. Leave the rest to me, you don't need to go any further, go back and rest. And don't pick up those vegetable leaves anymore, they're so dirty and unhygienic!"

As Sun Chang spoke, he called Zhang Yong again.

In a short while, she realized that this place was definitely not just a feed workshop. Judging from its furtive, thieving manner, there might be something seriously wrong here. It was even quite possible that this was the very place they had been searching for.

"There's no need to guess anymore, this is the target! They're using the farmers' market as a cover to secretly produce illegal products! I wonder how devastated those people who eat pre-prepared food will be when they find out that what they're eating might have been picked from a garbage dump."

Lin Ge thought gleefully, and then walked forward confidently.

Beibei, curious, tried to follow, but Lin Ge stopped her with a look. It's one thing for a cat to wander around, but a cat with a dog is quite conspicuous.

Upon arriving at the entrance of the two-story building, he found that all the windows on the front were indeed sealed shut. However, with his keen ears, he could still hear the roar of machinery inside through the roller shutter door. He could also hear people walking and chatting, as well as the hissing sound of something like a pressure cooker releasing pressure.

Furthermore, through the roller shutter door, Lingo could already smell a strong, smoky odor from pre-cooked food. He didn't know how to describe it, but it was definitely very unpleasant. It also had a rotten and sour smell mixed in; it was hard to imagine that the food inside was made for human consumption.

Instead of going to the small door the old lady had pointed out, Lin Ge looked around and jumped onto the neighbor's courtyard wall. He easily leaped over the two-meter-high wall using a few quick steps to gain leverage from the gaps between the bricks, and then walked along the wall inside.

Walking around the wall of the house, Lin Ge's vision suddenly opened up. Ahead was a sloping vegetable garden, stretching all the way to the riverbank below. There were also many weeds and trees on both sides, and on the opposite bank was the back entrance of a logistics company. Judging from the current situation, this place was unlikely to be frequented by anyone other than the people growing vegetables here. Therefore, all the doors and windows of this workshop were open. Several thick pipes extended from the first-floor windows, connecting to a huge cement pool, and another thick pipe extended from the other side, directly connecting to the riverbank, discharging wastewater directly into the stream.

Counting from this side of the river, you can still see several more pipes half-buried in the soil. In other words, almost all the workshops nearby are directly discharging wastewater into the river. It's only because this area is relatively remote and management is lax that no one cares.

Lin Ge even saw elderly people scooping water directly from a broken pipe to irrigate their fields. They didn't even consider whether the water was poisonous, or whether they intended to eat the vegetables themselves...

"Human nature!"

With a sigh, Lin Ge put the matter aside for the time being. He carefully walked to the open window beside him, jumped onto the windowsill, and stared inside with an air of nonchalance.

The room was filled with smoke, and steam condensed into a persistent gray cloud on the roof, casting the roof lights in a strange hue. Inside, two heating vessels, each over two meters in diameter, were operating. The vessels were uncovered, and various random substances could be seen being stirred inside. Meat chunks were squeezed out of the viscous liquid, sank to the bottom, and emitted a bizarre, foul odor.

"It looks like this is a semi-finished cooked food workshop, which is specifically responsible for heating and braising meat."

Lin Ge glanced again at the thick layer of grime and grease on the pot walls and the floor, shook his head, and carefully went to the window of another room. He found it was a preparation workshop. Two workers were placing bulging burlap sacks against the edge of a large pot, scooping out large quantities of raw meat of various shapes by hand. Another worker nearby was pouring a bag with Korean writing onto the pot, creating a thick layer that almost completely covered half the pot of meat.

Then the worker dumping the meat picked up a dirty water pipe from the ground next to him, turned on the tap, and poured water into the pot. Soon the water level was about to reach the rim of the pot, and several pieces of meat with tendons attached were blown away, only to be picked up from the ground by another person and thrown directly back into the pot.

After adding water, one person climbed onto the pot's rim and stirred it with a large iron shovel, while another person bent down and turned on the specially made stove to slowly heat it. The third person quickly gathered up the things on the ground, turned the bag inside out, placed it over the pot's rim, rinsed it with water, and washed the sticky bits of meat inside into the pot.

Judging from the efficiency of the three people working together, Lin Ge was certain that this was definitely not their first time doing this job. Looking at such a large pot, cooking dozens or even hundreds of kilograms in an hour was no problem at all.

Looking down at the camera on his collar to make sure the entire room could be captured, Lingo continued walking forward.

The third room wasn't a factory at all, but rather a device that appeared to be producing nitrogen or compressed air. After all, they made such a huge batch each time, and transporting it manually would be laborious and wasteful. Introducing large pipes connecting each process and then using pressure to send it away would be much more convenient.

However, in Lin Ge's view, this pressurization equipment also posed numerous hidden dangers. It was plugged directly into a wall-mounted power strip using a household plug, the floor was filthy, and the burlap sacks that had just been used were piled up next to it amidst the roar of the motor. If a fire were to break out here, with the thick layer of grease everywhere in the room and these carelessly piled-up sacks, it could easily become a raging inferno if not handled carefully.

That's all you can see through the windows. Even though two of the windows are broken, Lin Ge has no interest in going inside and stepping on that filthy floor.

In any case, it was basically confirmed that this was the target the police station was looking for. So Lin Ge chose to return the way he came and came back to the closed roller shutter door.

At the alley entrance, Sun Chang and Bei Bei were no longer where they had been. Lin Ge sniffed around and found they had gone to the other side of the hut, so he quickly followed. When he arrived at the outer wall of the hut, Sun Chang was secretly filming with his phone. Lin Ge walked over, patted Bei Bei's leg, then squeezed between its legs and peeked inside.

Inside was a processing area for vegetables, or rather, rotten vegetable leaves. Several middle-aged women, wearing masks, were sorting and separating various vegetable leaves, rinsing them under a tap, and then laying them out to dry in winnowing baskets. Half of the roof of the small shack was glass, allowing sunlight to stream in. Along the wall, rows of shelves were filled with winnowing baskets overflowing with dried leaves. However, none of the leaves looked good; they all looked like they had been gnawed by dogs.

Just then, footsteps and voices suddenly came from the other side of the wall.

"Old Liu, the offal you delivered this time is no good! It's not meat, it's not bone, and it has more lymph nodes than usual. I'll have someone process it a second time, and selling it at this price is a bit too expensive, isn't it?"

The footsteps paused, and the man chuckled before continuing, "Cheap it may be, but that doesn't mean I absolutely have to have it, right? You're just scraps that would normally be thrown away, and I'm paying to buy them from you—what are you complaining about? This money's practically free; what's there to be ungrateful for? Oh, by the way, are you out of dead pigs lately? I'm almost out of ribs and tenderloin; hurry up and get some more. Hmm! Diseased pigs are fine too, but you have to slaughter them for me. Same old rules—nothing can be thrown away. I'll send a truck to pick them up…"

As the voices faded into the distance, Sun Chang's face grew paler and paler, and the anger in his eyes intensified.

"Sick pork and dead pork, are these for human consumption? It's finally been a relief that some butcher shops in the market no longer dare to sell sick or dead pigs, and they've stopped making spicy hot pot and sausages. But instead of being destroyed directly, they've been transferred to pre-made food workshops?"

The thought of ordinary people occasionally eating takeout, or dual-income families unable to take care of their children and having to let them order takeout on weekends, only to end up with something like this, made Sun Chang want to burn the house to ashes!
The meat came from dead or diseased pigs, and the vegetables were scavenged from garbage dumps. How can anyone eat such food? It's utterly inhumane!

"It doesn't even have any sterilization equipment, and the food is prepared using a low-temperature slow-drying method. Under these circumstances, it's probably impossible for viruses and bacteria to be completely killed, right?"

Lin Ge crawled out from under Bei Bei and let out a long sigh.

I've always felt that cats have it tough, that life in the city is hard enough. But now it seems that as long as there are such heartless people in this world, human life is just as difficult! Thankfully, humans have decent digestive systems and adequate medical care. Otherwise, with such a food source, surviving would be a miracle...

Suddenly feeling his phone vibrate, Sun Chang quickly withdrew his hand, gestured for Beibei to be quiet, and then led it back the way it came.

Back inside the farmers' market, Sun Chang and Lin Ge discovered that the unpleasant smells here were actually quite refreshing.

Even if it smells terrible, it's still the natural smell of a living organism! Compared to the things we smelled inside earlier, it's so healthy and clean it makes us want to cry.

"Sun Chang!"

Zhang Ke's voice came from a short distance to the side, accompanied by Zhang Yong and a middle-aged man in uniform. Behind them, three cars followed slowly. Lin Ge could tell from a casual sniff that there were more than a dozen people inside.

"This is Captain Yang from the Food and Drug Administration. Sun Chang, tell him what you saw. We need to work together with them on this. We'll be responsible for arresting the people involved in the illegal workshops, and they'll be responsible for convicting them. Both sides will mobilize their resources to ensure that no one escapes and that all suspects are apprehended. Once the case is settled, the Food and Drug Administration will launch a joint operation with the Zhangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Industry and Commerce Bureau, the Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau, the court, the procuratorate, and other relevant departments to crack down on illegal workshops and substandard pre-prepared food products."

Zhang Yong introduced the visitors to Sun Chang.

"We must make them pay the price!"

Sun Chang gritted his teeth and told Zhang Yong and Captain Yang what he had seen.

When Zhang Yong learned that this was indeed the target location, his eyes lit up. However, upon learning that this illegal workshop was using offal, meat from dead or diseased pigs, and rotten vegetable leaves to make pre-made meals, Zhang Yong was furious.

why?
Because when he and Yang Xiaotong occasionally needed to work overtime, Zhang Yining could only eat takeout Chinese food or KFC at home. Now that takeout Chinese food has become risky, who the hell can guarantee that KFC hamburger patties are safe? Thinking that Zhang Yining had been eating like this for several years, Zhang Yong felt like killing someone.

"Phew... It's still within acceptable limits, thankfully... at least it's not synthetic or industrial meat, those are much more dangerous things. But... it definitely needs to be dealt with eventually, a crime is a crime. We can't let people's food safety be jeopardized by these kinds of people! Dead pigs, diseased pigs, rotten leaves, how can we eat that?"

Captain Yang breathed a sigh of relief and then summarized the case.

After watching the video that Sun Chang handed him, he nodded calmly.

He took out a walkie-talkie and said a few words, and seven or eight field staff members from the two cars following behind him emerged, ready to go.

These people included both men and women, but they didn't seem particularly capable fighters. Captain Yang then turned to Zhang Yong, who chuckled and raised his hand with a light wave.

The other two cars opened their doors, and Qian Wei, Zhao Zhigang, Zhu Jun, Hu Lijun, and several auxiliary police officers, including Feng Yi, all emerged. Some carried riot shields, others batons, and still others stun guns, rubber batons, and other equipment. Their fully armed appearance was completely different from the Food and Drug Administration personnel standing nearby. Not only was the equipment different, but even their aura was vastly different. Especially when Qian Wei grinned, it seemed as if the temperature around all the thieves in Zhangzhou City magically dropped.

"The police officers from Zhanghe Police Station are quite imposing!"

Captain Yang nodded with a sigh, his confidence in the operation growing. In the past, when handling similar cases, they had often encountered suspects fleeing or even resisting. Their men had been pushed around and even had their heads broken more than a few times.

Previously, they would seek help from urban management officers or municipal police, but the reinforcements that arrived were often not very capable. This time, however, the Zhanghe Police Station took the initiative to join forces, and their actions were full of power and decisiveness.
"Everyone, surround this building first. Captain Yang, send a few men to the neighboring houses to help block them off, so the suspect can't escape from there."

Zhang Yong issued the order without hesitation; field operations were his forte. After speaking, he selected Qian Wei, Zhang Ke, and Zhao Zhigang, instructing them to take their equipment and follow him in a frontal attack.

It would be best if the suspect surrendered immediately; if not, the first priority should be to capture the ringleader!
"Li Yiduo, sound the siren!"

At Zhang Yong's command, the sirens of the police cars behind them blared. Then all the police officers set off at once, rushing towards the target, the second floor.

"police!"

"Don't move! Hands behind your head, squat down! Squat down!"

"Police! Don't move! If you try to run again, I'll hit you!"

"Qian Wei, block the door!"

"Zhao Zhigang, block off the second floor and cooperate with Zhang Ke to push upwards!"

"Torture him!"

The scene erupted in a great deal of noise and shouting.

Let's work hard together in 2025!

I also wish everyone good health and prosperity. Most importantly, I hope everyone stays safe and successful, and that all your wishes come true. Life doesn't need to be bumpy; simplicity is the most beautiful. Let's keep all illegal and criminal activities further away from us.

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(End of this chapter)