Zhang Hui was in the restaurant’s kitchen and saw the fresh wild pufferfish Liang Yuancheng had mentioned.

They had indeed all been skinned and had their innards removed.

"Officer, if you don’t believe me, I can eat it in front of you right now. This stuff absolutely has no toxin residue."

Inside the restaurant, there were a few live pufferfish in the display window near the entrance. According to Liang Yuancheng, those are farmed pufferfish, which is what most customers eat when they visit.

Only some old customers come specifically to order the fresh wild pufferfish.

However, even those old customers never see the original form of these fresh pufferfish; they are directly prepared in the kitchen and served.

Zhang Hui also checked the restaurant’s purchase and sales records.

How many were bought, how many were sold, and how many were left; all recent sales and purchase records matched perfectly.

Leaving the Good to Come Again Huaiyang Cuisine Restaurant, Zhang Hui knew this lead had basically gone cold.

According to Liang Yuancheng, in all of Haizhou City, only his place sold fresh wild pufferfish.

Nowhere else, not even live ones, only fresh ones.

The reason Liang Yuancheng could obtain such pufferfish was that a cousin of his at the origin site was a chef specializing in the slaughter of pufferfish.

Thus, he would have some quota allotted to him.

After all, this stuff isn’t always catchable, and the quantity isn’t much either.

Furthermore, the method for catching wild pufferfish is quite unique; it’s impossible using ordinary fishing methods, and touching them directly leads to certain death.

As Zhang Hui found nothing, Sun Jun, on the other hand, had significant progress in solving the case.

A month ago, Old Zhang, who jumped to his death at a construction site, was named Zhang Guicheng, and he had a son with blood cancer named Zhang Guojun.

A major turning point came when Sun Jun discovered that Zhang Guojun had started working as a rebar worker at this site half a month ago.

Zhang Guojun had blood cancer, and by rights, he didn’t have much time left, so how could he be working at a construction site?

Moreover, thinking about how his father had jumped to his death at a construction site a month prior...

Zhang Guojun’s potential for revenge via poisoning... was substantial!

At the northwest corner of the site, Sun Jun saw Zhang Guojun bending rebar.

Zhang Guojun was not tall, probably only about 1.7 meters, very thin and weak, with a pale face that clearly showed he wasn’t in good health.

"Zhang Guojun?"

Zhang Guojun didn’t turn around, continuing to work with the rebar.

Sun Jun thought he didn’t hear him, so he took a step forward and raised his voice a bit.

"Zhang Guojun?"

"Hmm, I heard you."

Zhang Guojun’s voice was weak and raspy; he stopped working and took off his gloves, "You’re a police officer, right?"

"You know me?"

Zhang Guojun shook his head, "I don’t know you. I heard from coworkers that the police are investigating the food poisoning case."

"Do you need something from me?"

Sun Jun nodded, "My name is Sun Jun, I’m a detective from the Criminal Investigation Team. I’m here to ask for your cooperation in investigating the food poisoning at the construction site cafeteria."

Zhang Guojun seemed tired from bending rebar; he sat down on the pile of rebar, took a cigarette from his top pocket, and lit up.

Cough, cough.

Perhaps he smoked too hard, causing Zhang Guojun to cough violently, his face turning even paler.

"I don’t have much to say about it; I also ate there this morning, but fortunately, I didn’t drink the soup, so I was fine."

Sun Jun’s expression changed sharply.

If he had approached Zhang Guojun suspecting revenge poisoning over his father’s death, now that suspicion was confirmed.

Because no one ever said only the soup was poisoned and the steamed buns weren’t.

This was only discovered by Lu Chuan during the Criminal Investigation Team’s analysis that afternoon.

Yet how did Zhang Guojun know that by avoiding the soup, he avoided poisoning? How did he know the soup was poisoned and not the buns?

"Zhang Guojun, how did you know only the soup was poisoned?"

Zhang Guojun was taken aback, and his expression changed before pretending to be indifferent, "Oh, I guessed."

Guessed?

"Zhang Guojun, you’re the one who poisoned the cafeteria, aren’t you?"

"Me?"

Zhang Guojun pinched out the cigarette butt, "Officer, you need evidence to claim I poisoned."

"Evidence?"

"Zhang Guojun, you may have tried to feign ignorance, but when you mentioned the poisoned soup, it proved you are undoubtedly the culprit."

"I just guessed. A random guess... can’t be considered a crime."

"Alright, officer, if you have evidence, take me in. If you don’t, I have work to do."

After saying this, Zhang Guojun got up and resumed his rebar work, ignoring Sun Jun’s questioning.

"Keep an eye on him."

Sun Jun instructed the two detectives behind him before turning away.

Now it was almost certain that Zhang Guojun was the real perpetrator of the poisoning.

First, regarding his motive, his father died on the site a month ago. Zhang Guojun poisoning out of revenge made sense.

Second, Zhang Guojun himself had blood cancer, and it was in its late stages, with not much time left. For him, even if he were sentenced to death for murder, it probably didn’t matter.

Third, he had inadvertently revealed that the soup was poisoned.

The entire construction site didn’t know what caused the poisoning in the cafeteria food.

They didn’t even know what kind of poison it was.

So why did Zhang Guojun know the soup was poisoned?

That’s not something a casual guess could cover.

But even if Zhang Guojun was the suspect, he was right about one thing: evidence.

The cafeteria where the crime happened had no surveillance, and no one saw Zhang Guojun poison the food. No surveillance, video, or eyewitnesses.

Where’s the evidence to arrest Zhang Guojun?

In the Criminal Investigation Team’s meeting room.

Sun Jun was reporting the investigation’s status.

"Based on the current clues, Zhang Guojun is a prime suspect, but no witnesses or evidence prove he poisoned the food during the incident, so there’s insufficient evidence for arrest."

"I’ve had two team members keep an eye on him; he can’t run."

"The key now is finding proof of his poisoning."

Zhang Hui added to Sun Jun’s words, "I’ve checked, and in all of Haizhou City, only one Huaiyang Cuisine Restaurant sells wild pufferfish. Moreover, the wild pufferfish they sell has been treated at the source, so it arrives fresh without toxins."

"Additionally, Lu Chuan found traces of pufferfish skin and innards in the soup, indicating that the perpetrator probably tossed a portion of the wild pufferfish into the soup during the poisoning, resulting in the food poisoning."

"Logically, we just need to find evidence of how Zhang Guojun obtained the wild pufferfish to convict him."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

No one saw Zhang Guojun poisoning the food, nor could evidence be found on that aspect. However, if it’s proven that Zhang Guojun had access to pufferfish toxins, it would suffice to establish his guilt.

Finding evidence of Zhang Guojun possessing pufferfish toxins is relatively straightforward.

Zhang Guojun’s father died a month ago, linking the poisoning to his father’s death.

So, if we can trace Zhang Guojun’s activities in the month following his father’s death, we might find evidence of how he obtained the wild pufferfish.