Youzhou, Maguan County.
Fu Kang was already an old customer of Fu Ze Restaurant. Ever since Fu Ze Restaurant first opened in Youzhou, Fu Kang had acquired their General Token (which is a membership card, as mentioned before), and he highly praised the hotpot at Fu Ze Restaurant.
Besides the usual banquets, Fu Kang frequently visited Fu Ze Restaurant every other day for a meal.
Today, he invited two or three friends to have hotpot at Fu Ze Restaurant.
The must-order items for hotpot, lamb rolls and beef rolls, Fu Kang ordered ten portions each.
When the waiter brought the food, one of Fu Kang’s friends was immediately astonished and asked, "Why is this meat raw? How do you eat it raw?"
This friend had never had hotpot before.
The waiter was about to explain, but Fu Kang waved his hand, signaling the waiter to step aside, and chuckled to his friend, "Brother Hua, you don’t understand, do you? This is the essence of hotpot. This cuisine is different from others; we need to put these meats into the pot."
Fu Kang patiently explained to this friend one by one.
The feeling of being the only one who understood among friends and explaining it eloquently made him feel very proud, as if he were at the forefront of food enthusiasts.
"Brother Hua, do you know why this lamb is cut so thin?" Fu Kang asked, pretending to be profound.
"Why?" asked his friend surnamed Hua, eager to learn.
The other two friends, although they had eaten hotpot once or twice, were not regulars at Fu Ze Restaurant. Since Fu Kang was the host, they didn’t say anything and let Fu Kang show off.
"Watch closely."
Fu Kang picked up a piece of the lamb roll and repeatedly swirled it in the boiling spicy broth while saying, "There’s a term for this way of eating; it’s called seven up, eight down. The reason the beef and lamb are sliced so thin is that you only need to swirl it seven or eight times, and then it’s ready to eat."
After saying this, the lamb was ready. He mixed it in the sauce, then passed it to his friend surnamed Hua with a smile, "Brother Hua, have a taste."
"Can I really eat it now?"
His friend surnamed Hua found it fascinating and tried a bite, his eyes lighting up, "Not bad, not bad."
"Of course, otherwise how do you think Fu Ze Restaurant managed to expand all over my Great Wei? It’s all thanks to this hotpot and the Three Kingdoms storytelling downstairs." Fu Kang laughed, looking at the other two friends, "Come, come, everyone eat, there’s plenty of meat."
"Brother Fu, please go ahead first," the friends said in unison.
"All together, all together."
Saying that, Fu Kang cheerfully started to eat, dipping the lamb into the broth.
However, after just a few bites and a few chews, Fu Kang frowned and let out a "huh."
"Brother Fu, what’s wrong?" asked his friend surnamed Hua.
"This lamb has a strange taste."
Though he said it was odd, he still swallowed it down. In this field, he was considered an expert and felt something was off about the taste of this lamb.
"Strange?"
One of his other two friends, a friend surnamed Liu, while chewing the lamb, with a burning mouth, said, "What’s strange about it? It’s very fresh, and you can even taste the lamb’s flavor."
"Yes, Brother Fu, the lamb is so tender," said the other friend.
"Really?"
Fu Kang picked up another piece of lamb, swirled it, and tasted it.
No mistake, there was a strange taste, different from what he had before. He couldn’t be wrong.
He immediately called the waiter over to inquire about the beef and lamb’s origin.
The waiter laughed, "Sir, these beef and lamb were all transported from Sheng’an County a few days ago. The ones you’re eating were just slaughtered fresh today by the chefs in the kitchen."
"Impossible," Fu Kang said, "If it’s freshly slaughtered, how can it have a strange taste?"
"Strange taste?"
The waiter leaned over the plate to smell the beef and lamb and then said, "There’s nothing wrong?"
"If you taste it, you’ll know." Fu Kang swirled another piece, offering it to the waiter to taste.
Yet the waiter still didn’t taste anything strange.
However, being a staff member at Fu Ze Restaurant in Maguan County, he had seen all kinds of customers and said immediately, "Sir, if you’re not satisfied, we can replace it all for you."
Fu Kang ordered the waiter to replace it immediately.
After replacing it, Fu Kang still finished eating, but then he frowned, causing a commotion.
The three friends quickly stopped him. Anyway, they didn’t taste anything strange, only thinking Fu Kang was too picky, said, "Brother Fu, let it go."
One friend even analyzed on behalf of Fu Kang, suggesting that the lamb might be too old, hence the strange taste.
Only then did Fu Kang let it go, but afterward, he didn’t eat any more beef or lamb and turned to other dishes.
The four of them enjoyed the hotpot for more than half an hour.
After settling the bill, as they were about to leave Fu Ze Restaurant, the friend surnamed Hua suddenly bent over and began vomiting violently in the lobby on the first floor of Fu Ze Restaurant.
Initially, Fu Kang didn’t pay it any mind, even intentionally distancing himself from his friend surnamed Hua, feeling embarrassed by his behavior.
But as his friend surnamed Hua collapsed to the ground after vomiting, and the other two friends also began to vomit, Fu Kang realized something was wrong.
The shopkeeper and the waiter quickly came over to check, but by the time they arrived, aside from Fu Kang, all three of his friends had collapsed on the floor.
The shopkeeper was frightened, fearing a lawsuit, and promptly called a doctor to examine them.
After diagnosis, the doctor only said they had eaten something bad, prescribed some medicine on the spot, and said they would wake up soon after taking it.
Upon hearing this, Fu Kang remembered the oddly tasting lamb and immediately started arguing with the shopkeeper about it.