Suddenly, his eyes widened. The customer had just reminded him to use bottled water. Could there really be something wrong with the water tank?
"All right, I'll go check right away."
Without hesitation, the owner ran up to the rooftop.
"I'll come take a look too!"
Xiao Tuantuan was curious. She knew that if Master Lin had spoken up, there had to be something wrong with the water tank.
Up on the rooftop.
The owner opened the water tank. The next instant, a foul stench hit him.
A rotting kitten's corpse floated on the surface!
"H-how could there be a dead kitten in here?" the owner asked in bewilderment.
The water tank was covered with a sheet-metal lid year-round. There was no way a kitten could have jumped inside.
The only possibility was that someone had deliberately thrown a kitten into the tank!
[Boss Xiu: Master Lin is seriously amazing. He'd barely been in the restaurant before he figured out something was wrong with the water tank!]
[Ragdoll Cat: Who could be so cruel as to kill a kitten and throw its body in here!]
[Ninety Below Zero: It must be a competitor. Competition on the food street has always been fierce, and the Moonrise Restaurant gets the most business. The other owners are probably jealous.]
"Ugh!"
Nearby, Xiao Tuantuan saw the scene and threw up all the delicious food she had just eaten!
"Let's hurry downstairs. If you want to know why this happened, you can ask Master Lin."
"Master Lin? You mean the young man downstairs is Master Lin from Taihe Street?"
"That's right!"
The owner's pupils contracted. As someone who lived near Taihe Street, he naturally knew of Lin Fan's reputation.
He simply hadn't expected Lin Fan to come to his restaurant for a meal.
They went downstairs.
The owner walked over to Lin Fan and hurriedly said, "I failed to recognize someone so distinguished. So you're Master Lin."
"Master, sorry for the trouble, but could you divine who threw the kitten into the water tank?"
At those words.
Lin Fan didn't answer immediately. Instead, he said, "I remember that your father used to own the Moonrise Restaurant. He passed away half a month ago. He placed a statue of the Martial God of Wealth directly opposite the entrance, and a statue of the Scholarly God of Wealth beside the entrance."
"But after taking over the restaurant, you thought the two Gods of Wealth took up too much room, so you moved them into a corner. Am I right?"
The owner froze. He hadn't expected Lin Fan to reveal everything he had done the moment he spoke.
He had indeed taken over the Moonrise Restaurant half a month ago.
Its previous owner had been his father, who had passed away half a month earlier.
"Master, everything you said is right, but does that have anything to do with someone throwing a dead kitten into the water tank?" the owner couldn't help asking.
To him, those were two completely unrelated matters.
"Move the Gods of Wealth, and financial loss will naturally follow."
Lin Fan stood and pointed to the wall directly opposite the entrance. "This is the main wealth position. Without anything anchoring it, the Feng Shui of the entire restaurant will develop problems."
"In scientific terms, the restaurant's magnetic field changed."
"Someone tampered with your water tank, which could put your restaurant out of business. Isn't that a form of financial loss?"
The owner looked utterly bewildered. He had never really believed in such things.
Besides, he couldn't understand why simply moving the Gods of Wealth would cause someone to come and harm him.
He asked anxiously, "Master, please just tell me who threw the dead kitten into the water tank!"
[Boss Xiu: Better to believe than dismiss it outright. The owner of the Moonrise Restaurant is too young.]
[Coiled Dragon: When the wealth position is disrupted, trouble follows for the restaurant. With the Gods of Wealth protecting you, others might have wanted to act but lacked the nerve. Now that you've moved them, those people's thoughts are affected, and they'll naturally follow through.]
[Ninety Below Zero: So that's how it works. Is the person above a master too?]
[Coiled Dragon: You flatter me. I just have a little insight into Feng Shui theory.]
"It was your son."
Lin Fan said bluntly, "No, your former son, I should say, since you've already cut ties with him."
[Boss Xiu: Former son? What does that even mean?]
[Jiangzhou Little White Dragon: I remember now. This owner never had children, so he adopted a son. But I heard he put a notice in the newspaper a few days ago announcing that he'd severed ties with his son.]
[Jiangzhou Big Mouth: What a loving father and devoted son!]
"Impossible!"
The owner's eyes widened in disbelief. "How could he do something like this? I already gave him two million. Why would he want to hurt me?"
At that.
Lin Fan smiled faintly. "He's an ungrateful wretch, no matter how much you give him."
"He's always loved gambling, and he often got into trouble and ended up in a reeducation center. A week ago, he pawned everything valuable in your home. Even the family heirloom your father left behind was gone."
"So you cut ties with him. He resented you for it, and naturally wanted to hurt you."
The owner staggered back two steps and slumped to the floor.
He had raised his adopted son for nineteen years.
Although he had severed ties with him, he had never expected him to be so ruthless as to do something this vicious.
"Master, did you divine all of this?" the owner murmured.
Lin Fan nodded. "It's nothing major. For a little matter like this, a quick calculation on my fingers tells me everything."
[Boss Xiu: Master, you're awesome!]
[Ninety Below Zero: Just a quick calculation, nothing worth mentioning. Why do the master's words sound so ridiculously badass to me!]
[Want to Have Master Lin's Babies: Can someone ask him whether he'd date a woman with a big butt?]
[Monster, Where Are You Going?: Show some restraint, you up there. I just want the master to divine whether he and I are destined to be together!]
Every viewer was utterly stunned.
With a casual calculation, he could learn all about someone else's affairs.
Not only that, he had practically uncovered eighteen generations of the owner's ancestors.
"That ungrateful son! I'm calling the police!"
The owner was furious. He said fiercely, "I've spoiled him far too much all these years. This time, I'll let Uncle Cop teach him a lesson. Only then will he change!"
[Jiangzhou Uncle Cop: Colleagues are already on their way.]
Jiangzhou Uncle Cop was always the first to act.
"Master, once I've cleaned the water tank and pipes and put the two Gods of Wealth back where they belong, I hope you'll do me the honor of coming to my restaurant for another meal."
The owner composed himself, stood, and bowed solemnly to Lin Fan.
If not for Lin Fan, he might not even have known why his restaurant had gone under.
"Don't rush to thank me. Did you think your troubles were over?"
Lin Fan waved a hand and smiled faintly. "Haven't you noticed something wrong with your sense of taste?"
"And your wife has probably been suffering one minor illness after another lately, hasn't she?"
Chapter 59: So What If He's Your Grandfather? Dig Him Up Anyway!
It wasn't over yet!
The owner was dumbfounded. He had thought that once the water tank issue was resolved, everything would be smooth sailing.
He hadn't imagined that his troubles weren't over.
The owner said blankly, "Surely not. My taste buds are perfectly normal. I can tell how salty or bland something is."
[Boss Xiu: If the owner lost his sense of taste, how could he cook a table full of good dishes!]
[Ragdoll Cat: Could the master have misspoken? Maybe it's not his sense of taste that's wrong, but his brain!]
[Old Zhou, God of Food: Actually, having a problem with your sense of taste doesn't necessarily mean you can't cook good food.]
"You can taste saltiness and blandness, but you can't detect off flavors."
Lin Fan remained calm as he said bluntly, "Ragdoll Cat is absolutely right. Fundamentally, the problem isn't your sense of taste. It's your brain."
Under normal circumstances.
A taste disorder would make it difficult to distinguish salty from bland.
But the owner was different. He simply couldn't detect off flavors.
"If there were no problem, why didn't you notice beforehand that something was wrong with the dishes earlier?" Lin Fan asked.
As everyone knew.
Whenever chefs finished cooking a dish, they would taste it.
If there was something wrong with the water, the flavor of every dish would change.
Yet the owner hadn't tasted anything wrong. In fact, he had frequently failed to notice any problem whenever he sent out a dish.
"There's something wrong with my brain?"
The owner couldn't help saying, "Master, I know you're very capable, but I've always been healthy. I've never had any major health problems."
He thought that if something were wrong with his body, he would surely have noticed.
But apart from being unable to detect off flavors, he hadn't experienced any other discomfort.
Before you continue