He couldn't recall it, so Liu Chen felt he must have heard it in his previous life.
After a moment of hesitation, Liu Chen used the Memory Talisman (enhances memory by two, lasts for twenty-four hours) from the system on himself.
Watching the Memory Talisman touch him and then dissolve into shimmering specks that entered his body, Liu Chen began to recall Tianwang Tower.
With the boost in memory capacity, Liu Chen finally managed to find a memory fragment of hearing about Tianwang Tower from his thirty years of memories.
It was in 2014. Liu Chen had just entered the frozen food industry and was with his cousin Jiang Di, listening to "big shots" chat at a distributor's shop:
"Did you guys see that news recently? Beijing's Tianwang Tower added poppy to its broth, and a diner exposed it!"
"Exposed? How did the diner taste it? Logically, such an expensive ingredient, they wouldn't dare add too much even if they used it, right?"
"That's precisely why the diner was so angry. She was a loyal patron of this private kitchen and wasn't short on money. During her pregnancy, for the sake of natural ingredients, she ate there almost every day. As a result, she miscarried. When the pregnant woman miscarried, she went to the hospital to find out the cause. The final diagnosis was that consuming poppy led to the miscarriage."
Liu Chen felt at the time that this incident was too tragic for the pregnant woman. He later searched on his phone and found out that Tianwang Tower had subsequently been exposed for causing miscarriages in several other women due to long-term consumption, who were unaware of the cause. They had now jointly sued Tianwang Tower.
After recalling the memories of Tianwang Tower, the chicken soup casserole, the signature dish of Tianwang Tower, was served. A small charcoal stove was placed underneath, and the lidded chicken soup casserole was placed on top.
"This is our signature dish, Chicken Soup and Mushroom Pot. Please enjoy."
With that, the beautiful waitress opened the lid, and a tempting aroma of chicken soup wafted out.
Honestly, if Liu Chen hadn't remembered the news from his previous life, he would have found it hard to resist the fragrant chicken soup.
The waitress served each of them a bowl of steaming hot chicken soup and then brought the remaining three dishes before withdrawing.
As soon as the waitress left, Liu Chen saw Yu Li lifting her bowl of chicken soup to drink and quickly reached out to stop her.
"Sister Yu Li, don't drink it!"
Yu Li, with the soup halfway to her mouth, quickly moved her bowl away and looked at Liu Chen with confusion.
"What is it?"
Liu Chen hesitated. Seeing how familiar Sister Yu Li was with the restaurant's history and signature dishes, he thought about the infertility treatment sticker he had just used. He had given up a fifty percent increase in sales to choose a sticker for treating infertility. If Sister Yu Li continued to like this private kitchen, she might still not be able to conceive, or worse, miscarry after conceiving. Wouldn't that be even more tragic?
Thinking of this, Liu Chen had to lower his voice and say, "I found the name of this restaurant familiar. When she brought out the chicken soup, I remembered. The last time I took a taxi, the driver told me that the chicken soup here contains poppy!"
The moment Liu Chen spoke, not only did Yu Li's hand tremble, but Zeng Bai, in the pavilion next to theirs, also fell silent.
In the middle of winter, on a weekday, few people would come to this private kitchen, let alone those who, like them, were willing to sit in the outdoor pavilions. Moreover, when Liu Chen had entered earlier, he had passed by the adjacent pavilion and heard no noise, so he had subconsciously assumed no one was there.
The two diners in the neighboring pavilion exchanged glances.
"Boss, this is pure slander! How could our restaurant possibly have that stuff? I think she just doesn't want to drink the chicken soup and doesn't want others to drink it either!"
The speaker was Guang Hui, the head chef of Tianwang Tower. The signature dish of Tianwang Tower, the Chicken Soup and Mushroom Pot, was precisely why Guang Hui had become a head chef.
Zeng Bai glanced at the hastily defending Guang Hui, but his heart became even more convinced of what the diner in the adjacent pavilion had said.
Guang Hui continued to speak. Zeng Bai raised his hands and clapped three times. Guang Hui's expression changed drastically, and he stood up, about to rush out of the pavilion. However, as soon as he stepped out, two burly men in black clothes immediately pushed him to the ground.
Guang Hui immediately cried out for mercy:
"Help! Woo~~"
As soon as the word "help" was uttered, one of the burly men in black stuffed a piece of white cloth into his mouth. Guang Hui's loud pleas for help turned into muffled cries, but the sound had already alerted Liu Chen and the other two.
The three of them sat in the pavilion, tense for a moment. Who would have thought that while having a meal, they would witness a boss dealing with his subordinates?
Liu Chen, however, as he peered out through the bamboo curtain, harbored a growing suspicion.
"Why is the person next door silent now? Did they hear what I just said? Although the two pavilions aren't close, the courtyard is quiet, so it's not strange to hear me. But if they heard it, shouldn't they just leave without eating? Why are bodyguards apprehending someone?"
As Liu Chen speculated, one of the black-clad bodyguards bent down to listen for a few moments outside the bamboo curtain of their pavilion, nodded, and then walked towards the pavilion where Liu Chen and the other two were. Yu Li and Guo Da exchanged glances and tacitly moved aside, positioning themselves to shield Liu Chen from the innermost side.
At this moment, the man in black had reached the outside of the pavilion:
"Dear guests, our boss would like to invite you to sit inside the pavilion. Please do not be alarmed. The boss merely wishes to inquire about the additive issue. If you do not wish to come, you are not obliged to. We will present you with a 40% discount card for the restaurant."
After hearing this, Liu Chen finally understood. No wonder there was a commotion in the next pavilion after he spoke; it turned out to be the boss!
"There's no need to be so polite. We've finished eating and won't disturb your boss."
Yu Li spoke first with a smile, politely declining the invitation to the adjacent pavilion. Then, while the man in black went to report, she asked Guo Da to quickly go and settle the bill at the counter. Having spent a year together, Guo Da had become accustomed to following Yu Li's lead. Hearing the request to pay the bill, he quickly stood up and headed to the lobby to settle it. Yu Li, on the other hand, linked arms with Liu Chen and quickly walked out of the pavilion towards the main entrance.
As they walked across the small bridge over the pond, the winding bridge, which had seemed quite picturesque moments ago, now felt unnecessarily convoluted. As they passed by the pavilion where the men in black were stationed, a voice suddenly called out from within:
"Liu Chen?"
Liu Chen, his name being called, stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look behind the bamboo curtain.