Listening to the boss’s shameless boasting, Wendy Lynch rolled her eyes so hard they almost reached the heavens. This was probably what they meant by the legendary saying—a person with no shame is truly invincible. However, she also knew that now was not the time to argue with him. She suppressed the mockery in her heart, twitching the corners of her mouth without saying a word.
Seeing her lack of response, the boss wasn’t embarrassed. He nimbly packed the portions of raw marinated seafood one by one while recklessly promoting his products.
"Look at this swimming crab. It was just unloaded from the fishing boat early this morning. I picked the plumpest ones, guaranteed to be full of meat and roe.
"And these kuruma prawns, I grabbed them directly from the boat. Other places can’t get them this fresh at all."
Wendy’s gaze fell on the swimming crab in the boss’s hand. To be honest, the seafood used for the raw marinade here was indeed very deceptive. The crabs he used were undeniably large. But at the thought of the mushy texture and faint fishy smell she had tasted last night, coupled with the salmonella and Vibrio parahaemolyticus mentioned in the email, her stomach churned. She forced down her discomfort and watched the boss sort and pack the raw marinated seafood into transparent containers.
After paying, Wendy grabbed the two heavy bags of food and turned to leave.
The morning breeze blew against her face, carrying the aroma of steamed buns and deep-fried dough sticks from the roadside breakfast stalls. But at this moment, she had no appetite whatsoever. Her mind was entirely focused on getting the testing done as quickly as possible. After walking briskly for a dozen meters, Wendy immediately spotted the McDonald’s with its bright yellow sign. The glass doors were wide open, and there were already quite a few customers inside. Some were burying their heads in their breakfast, while others ate while scrolling on their phones. Wendy took a deep breath and quickly walked in with her bags.
The reason she chose this place was very simple. As a large chain restaurant, McDonald’s would not lack security cameras. As long as she sat in a spot where a camera could capture her clearly, the entire testing process would be fully recorded. Even if the seafood shop owner tried to deny it later, this surveillance footage would serve as powerful evidence.
Wendy circled the dining area and finally settled on a window seat. Looking up at the camera positioned diagonally above, she saw that the angle was perfect for capturing the tabletop. She didn’t rush to test the food. Instead, she ordered a meal set on her phone. After all, she was taking up space in their restaurant, and she didn’t have the habit of freeloading.
After ordering, she finally placed the two large bags of raw marinated seafood on the table and unpacked them one by one. The moment the containers were opened, a strong aroma of garlic and seafood wafted through the air. In the past, Wendy’s appetite would have been instantly whetted by such a rich scent. But right now, the intense garlic smell only made her stomach churn violently.
She first took out the salmonella test kit. Following the instructions, she used the sampling spoon from the kit to take a small sample from each box of raw marinated seafood, carefully placing them into the matching buffer solution test tubes. She closed the lids and gently shook them. The transparent buffer solution quickly turned pale pink. Wendy held her breath, used a dropper to extract a small amount of liquid, and squeezed it into the sample well on the test strip.
Once that was done, she picked up the Vibrio parahaemolyticus test kit and repeated the process. She was extremely cautious with every step, afraid that a mistake on her part would affect the test results.
Although Wendy had been testing the food quietly, laying out a whole table of raw marinated seafood in a McDonald’s still attracted the attention of quite a few people. Wendy, however, was completely oblivious to the crowd’s stares, her eyes fixed intently on the test strips on the table.
Time passed minute by minute. The wall clock went TICK TOCK, every second feeling like torture. Watching the reaction lines slowly appear on the test kits, Wendy’s heart leaped into her throat. She carefully picked up the first test kit.
One line... no problem.
The next one was also a single line...
As she picked up more and more test kits, her expression became increasingly strange. She had originally thought that at least one or two boxes would show a positive reaction. However, when she finished checking all the test kits, a look of bewilderment appeared on her face.
All of them had only one line!
This meant that all the test results were negative.
"How could this be?" Wendy muttered to herself, her voice so soft it was barely audible.
She stared at the test strips over and over again, wondering if she had misread them, and leaned in closer to check. But no matter how she looked at it, the clear control lines told her the same thing. There was no salmonella or Vibrio parahaemolyticus in these batches of raw marinated seafood.
Seeing the results, the first thought that popped into her head was that she must have made a mistake somewhere. The first thing that came to mind was the testing procedure. If she had messed up the process, a false negative was entirely possible. She picked up the instruction manual and carefully read it twice more.
Her testing procedure was correct!
Refusing to give up, Wendy ran the tests one more time. Five minutes later, the results were out again. They were still all negative. Wendy’s heart sank, and her immediate reaction was that the test strips were fake. She hurriedly took out her phone and searched for the pharmacy where she had placed the order last night. It was a state-owned pharmacy, and the bottom of the webpage displayed a qualification certificate issued by the Market Supervision Administration. The two test kits she bought were also among the best available on the market right now.
"It’s highly unlikely to be a problem with the test strips..." Wendy muttered, frowning as her fingers unconsciously tapped against the table.
Since there was no issue with the testing procedure and the test strips were fine, where exactly did the problem lie?
Could the information in the email be wrong?
No, it was impossible. The email couldn’t be wrong!
Then the mistake had to be the timeline! The mass food poisoning might not happen today, but tomorrow.
Immediately after, another possibility sprang to mind. Besides the timing, it could also be related to the production batch.
That seafood stall was a miniature shop located at the entrance of a shopping mall. There were no seats inside, only display counters and freezers. The space inside was extremely cramped, ten square meters at most. After fitting in the freezers and display counters, the remaining space was just an aisle less than half a meter wide. Wendy hadn’t even seen any space in the back for preparing raw marinade. This meant that the raw marinated seafood wasn’t prepared fresh in the store, but rather made somewhere else and transported over!
Just because this batch of raw marinated seafood was fine didn’t mean the next batch would be.
Wendy rubbed her temples as a sense of powerlessness welled up inside her. If the problem wasn’t with this batch, then the tests she just did were completely meaningless, and she would have no way to prevent the tragedy in advance. She had thought that as long as the test came back positive, she could immediately report it to the Food and Drug Administration. But now, it seemed that things were far more complicated than she had imagined.
Although this round of testing hadn’t given Wendy the results she wanted, she was not discouraged. There wasn’t much time left—just two days in total from start to finish!