"Oh god, that sounds terrible," Ning said. "Do you have any idea why that is happening? Are you sure that your bread is the cause?"
"No, we have no idea what this could be happening," Lisa said with her eyes full of years. "All we know is that the bread is definitely the cause."
"A few of our staff members ate some of the bread and they too have come down with the same illness as those actors, brother Ning," Reever said.
The door opened once more and an old man with a mustache and a top hat walked in, supported by a black cane.
"Mr. Hendor," Lisa immediately stood up and wiped away her tears.
"Mr. Hendor, we are so sorry for the…" Reever stood up to speak, but the old man put up his hand to get them to stop speaking.
"You don't have to explain anything young lad, I know it was not you people's intention to cause problems for us. If possible, I would love to just let all of these problems be swept under the rug."
"However, the higher-ups are mad, and we can't let the incident go without some sort of compensation for the loss we suffered today," the old man said.
"Mr. Hendor, but we…" Reever spoke. "We don't have the sort of money to compensate a theatre."
"I'm sorry, son. This is not up to me. Please do something about it by tomorrow, or we will have to take you all to court."
The old man left just as soon as he came, but the damage he left behind was catastrophic to the two couples.
Lisa started sobbing even more, and Reever hugged her to console her. "It's okay. I will find a way," he said.
Ning watched the two of them cry and didn't know what to do. So, he walked up to one of the staff behind the counter and asked, "do you still have some of the bread?"
"Uh, bread? There aren't any right now, sir. We will make fresh bread in about an hour. You can come back at that time if you can," the girl said.
"Eh, did you throw away the bad ones already?" Ning asked.
"Um, no. But we are going throw them soon enough," the girl said.
"Ah, then its fine. Just give me the bad one," Ning said.
"Sir?" the girl asked in confusion.
"I'm not joking. Give me one of the bad bread please," he asked.
"Um, I'm not sure I can do that," the girl said.
"Brother Ning, what are you doing?" Reever walked up to him after hearing the staff's worried voices.
"Oh, Brother Reever. I was just asking for one of those bad bread that got everyone sick," Ning said. "I would like to see what the problem truly is."
"How will you find out?" Reever asked.
"I will eat it of course. That's the easiest way," Ning said.
"I can't let you do that, brother Ning. As we said, the bread is definitely the problem. You won't have to test for that," Reever said.
"And do you know why they are the problem?" Ning asked.
"Uh… no," Reever said.
<script>ChapterMid();</script>
"And I heard that they are making the bread again. What if the problem was in the flour and not the cooking process. You will just cause more problems," Ning said.
"I… we didn't think about that," Reever said.
"You need to think these things through, brother Reever. Let me have that bread. As I said, I'm a medical professional, so I can treat myself if I do in fact get ill," Ning said.
Reever thought for a bit, and said, "if you say so." Reever asked the staff to bring out one of the bad bread and handed it to Ning.
"Please be absolutely sure before you do this, brother Ning," Reever said.
Ning nodded, but there was no need for him to worry at all. With his enhanced body, there was a very low chance of him ever getting ill. Even normal venoms and poisons didn't hard him as much since he could simply regenerate.
Ning sat down on a desk and bit onto the bread without any hesitation. In just a couple of bites, he completely devoured the bread thanks to his hunger.
Now, he just had to wait for a few minutes.
Soon, he could hear his stomach growl a little, but that was the extent of that. He didn't even have to do anything, and it was okay on its own.
'Hm, so the bread really was the bad part, huh?' Ning thought. 'System, what is wrong with the bread exactly?'
<The bread is made using flour that includes wheat and a poisonous weed called Darnel Ryegrass.>
"Darnel Ryegrass? Give me some information on those," he asked.
Soon, information entered his mind and he knew things he didn't know previously. From what he understood, Darnel Ryegrass was a wheat-like plant, that was easy to mix up with Wheat.
They were poisonous weeds that if eaten caused a lot of different illnesses including painful limbs, stomach ache, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
'Hm? But these people should know by now what's bad and what's not, right?' Ning thought.
"Brother Reever, can you come here for a moment," he asked.
Reever came up to him and looked at his hands. "You really ate the bread?" he asked.
"Hm? Oh yeah. And it really was the problem too. Thankfully, I'm hard to make ill, so I'm fine," Ning said. "Anyway, tell the staff to not make any more bread for now. If I'm not wrong, the problem is with the flour you guys have."
"Brother Ning, you know about bread and flour?" Reever asked.
"A little. If I'm not wrong, the flour your wife used has poisonous flour mixed into it. While it's not lethal, it can cause a lot of problems to the person who eats it," Ning said.
"Um, if that is true, then I will have them stop right now," Reever said and stood up to go to the back room.
Lisa didn't know what was happening, but she soon learned about it when Reever told her the problem after coming out from the kitchen.
"What? The problem is with the flour? But we've never had any sort of problems," Lisa said.
"Um, miss Lisa, do you know anything about Darnel Ryegrass?" Ning asked.
Lisa's eyes went wide. "Poison Ryegrass? Is that it? Is that what's causing the illness?" she asked.
"Oh, you know about it. That makes it easier. Yes, if I'm not wrong, it's the ryegrass that's the problem," Ning said.
"But that should be impossible. Our suppliers would never make such a simple mistake," she said.
"Are you sure? Who are your suppliers?" Ning asked.
"Uh, they're the Miller and Miller grain house, from the riverbank area. If what you said is true, then I should go talk to them," Lisa said.
Lisa took off the apron she was wearing and got herself a parasol. Reever also goes his coat and hat.
"Can I come with you guys?" Ning asked.
"Sure, brother Ning. You've been quite helpful," Reever said.
The three walked out of the store and made their way east towards the river. The river was what separated the main city from the suburban area with a lot of farmland.
On the other side of the river was where the mill that produced their flour was located at. They crossed the bridge and walked to the mill.
Ning could see a huge water wheel to the side of the mill that was likely running the grinder that ground-up grains into flour.
Lisa didn't stop for anything and directly went to the owner of the mill to explain everything to him.
The owner was an old guy that profusely apologized after realizing what had happened. "I am so sorry, young miss. I didn't know something like that had happened to you. If I had known the poison grain was mixed in, we would have never sold it to you."
"I don't know if apologies are going to cut—"
"It's alright, Mr. Miller," Lisa said, cutting off Reever mid-speech. "I just hope you don't make the same mistake again."
She turned around to walk away.
"Sigh, Lisa. You can't let everyone off the hook all the time," Reever said. "He's just as responsible for all of it as we are. And if the theatre really does take us to court over this, then we will have to do the same to them."
"It's a mistake. If every mistake came with such a harsh punishment, then the world wouldn't be a fun place to live in. Let them be, we can handle the punishment for now," Lisa said and walked away.
"Come on, Lisa. We have to—" suddenly Reever stopped speaking. "Lisa!" he called her.
Lisa stopped, clearly annoyed, "What? We don't need to talk about this anymore."
"No, not that," Reever said. He then whispered something into her ear that made the color in her face drain away.
She immediately opened her parasol and used it to shade away the sun.
"I'm sorry, Brother Ning. Something urgent has come up. I will see you later," Reever said.
He then turned around and walked in fast paces, leaving the area before Ning could even realize it.
"What's up with them?" he thought. He then turned around to look at the mill once more.
"The entire city knew about the problem with Golden Flour to the point that no customers are coming in anymore, and they don't? Also, how exactly did the news about the cause of the illness being the bakery spread so soon?" Ning wondered.
There was something wrong with the events that had taken place today, and Ning was going to find out what was wrong.
