Chapter 176 - 164: Shuanshuang Spicy Is This Terrifying

Chapter 176: Chapter 164: Shuanshuang Spicy Is This Terrifying

Early the next morning, Xu An set out for the wholesale market to find China’s spiciest pepper—the Shuanshuang Spicy. He had thought that even if he didn’t have to search every single wholesale market in Hai City, he would still need to visit three to five of them. To his surprise, he walked into the very first market and spotted the Shuanshuang Spicy in a shop specializing in all kinds of chili peppers.

The fruit of this pepper was cone-shaped, its skin as wrinkled as a balled-up piece of clothing, and its surface was covered in bumpy protrusions. When ripe, the Shuanshuang Spicy came in two colors, bright red and orange, with the former being more common. The ones Xu An was looking at were bright red. What amazed him the most was that this chili specialty shop actually had fresh Shuanshuang Spicy peppers!

Just as Xu An reached out to pick one up and examine what made China’s spiciest pepper so unusual, the shop owner shouted with a terrified look on his face, "Hey, you! You don’t want that hand anymore?! Pull it back!"

His fingers froze in midair, a mere 0.3 centimeters from a Shuanshuang Spicy pepper. Xu An felt that if he so much as breathed too heavily, his fingers would make intimate contact with it.

Just then, the owner rushed over. Seeing there was still some distance between Xu An’s fingers and the pepper, he breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly slapped Xu An’s hand away and rambled, "This is the spiciest pepper in the country! If an elephant’s trunk even touches it, the heat will make it stampede uncontrollably, flinging its trunk everywhere. A few days ago, some unlucky bastard touched one. He pressed ice water and popsicles on it for half an hour but was still howling like a banshee."

After speaking, the owner suddenly grabbed a nearby mesh food cover and placed it over the peppers, muttering to himself, "No, this won’t do. I need to get a custom acrylic box with a lock made. That way, no one can touch them without my permission!"

After his long-winded tirade, the owner belatedly realized Xu An was still standing there. He turned and asked, "Are you here to buy peppers? What kind are you looking for? Dried, fresh, or powder?"

"I want this pepper. A little of each: dried, fresh, and powder." Xu An brought his hand, which had just been slapped away, back and pointed twice in midair toward the Shuanshuang Spicy peppers.

The owner’s gaze followed Xu An’s finger, but his eyes landed on the Thai chilies displayed next to the Shuanshuang Spicy. He nodded, pulled off a red plastic bag and twisted it open, then held a scoop over the Thai chilies. "How much dried? How much fresh? And how much powder?" he asked.

"Not the Thai chilies." Xu An moved his finger closer, landing it directly on the mesh cover over the Shuanshuang Spicy peppers. "I want these. The Shuanshuang Spicy, the spiciest peppers in the country."

"What do you do for a living? Why are you buying these?" The owner stared warily at Xu An, looking as if he would tackle him to the ground at the slightest suspicious move.

"My family is in the restaurant business. I’m buying these peppers to make a braised dish," Xu An replied helplessly. ’Why am I being treated like a criminal just for buying some peppers?’

The owner scanned Xu An from head to toe, his face full of suspicion. He then reluctantly walked back into his shop, retrieved a notebook, and handed it to Xu An. "Write down your name, shop name, phone number, and the quantity you’re buying. That way, if anything goes wrong, it’ll be easier for the police to find you."

Hmm...

Xu An didn’t know what had happened in the past, but he understood that behind every seemingly absurd rule, someone had surely done something even more absurd to warrant it.

He took the notebook and opened the cover, surprised to find the first page completely filled. All the entries were under the same name, a person who apparently came to buy peppers every two or three days, purchasing just ten at a time. He flipped through five more pages before finally finding a blank space on page six. He quickly and neatly wrote down his name, shop name, phone number, and the quantity he needed before handing the notebook back to the owner.

The first thing the owner did after taking the notebook was look at the quantity column. One pound fresh, one pound dried, and ten pounds of powder? That quantity! The owner’s expression immediately turned strange again. ’This sale might not be worth the trouble. Maybe I should just call it off.’

Xu An saw the change in the owner’s expression. It wasn’t hard to tell from the man’s behavior that he harbored deep misunderstandings and suspicion toward him. Xu An sighed and finally decided to explain.

"My braised shop hasn’t opened yet. We’re planning to use these—the spiciest peppers in the country—to create the spiciest braised dish possible. We’ve already contacted an ad agency to shoot a commercial. As early as tomorrow, you’ll be able to see our shop’s ad on the local Hai City station during primetime..."

Xu An explained at length. Seeing that he seemed to be telling the truth, the owner finally let his guard down. He went back to the counter, took out five pairs of airtight rubber gloves, and meticulously put all of them on. He then donned a gas mask and, in a muffled voice, instructed Xu An to stand further away. Finally, he bellowed to the surrounding area, "I’m bagging the Devil’s Peppers! Everyone, get ready!"

As soon as the words were out, the other shop owners who had been standing at their storefronts soliciting business all retreated inside. When they reemerged, they were all wearing face masks. They even held a few new masks, which they handed out to their customers. The pepper shop owner gave one to Xu An, who put it on under the man’s stern gaze...

Only after everyone was prepared did the owner cautiously open the glass jar of Shuanshuang Spicy powder. As if treading on thin ice, he took out a scoop and quickly bagged it. He followed with a second scoop, a third, a fourth...

The moment the lid was opened, colorless capsaicin mixed with the air. Carried by the slight breeze, it rapidly spread in all directions. Xu An was the first to notice a pungent smell. Before he could react, he let out two violent sneezes. Those two sneezes seemed to be a signal, as the sound of sneezing echoed one after another all along the street, rising and falling in pitch as if performing a symphony of sneezes.

As expected of the country’s spiciest pepper. Its power was truly terrifying!

After the transaction was complete, Xu An headed back to the shop, carrying the large, tightly sealed bag of peppers. On the way, he pulled out his phone and started searching: "What is the maximum amount of Shuanshuang Spicy a person can ingest?", "Can eating too much Shuanshuang Spicy be fatal?", "If someone dies from consuming an overdose of Shuanshuang Spicy, will the shop owner go to jail..."

After doing some research, Xu An decided to add some restrictions. For example, people with heart disease, high blood pressure, or other underlying health conditions could not participate. Pregnant women, children, and the elderly were also excluded. Furthermore, no one under eighteen or over forty would be allowed to join in...

These restrictions weren’t just for the participants’ well-being; they were for his own protection, too. Xu An had no desire to spend the latter half of his life in prison because of this event.

Even with all these restrictions, Xu An still felt uneasy. After mulling it over, he made a decision. On the day of the event, he would hire a medical team and have an ambulance on standby. If any participant showed the slightest sign of distress, they would be rushed to the hospital immediately!

’With an ambulance on-site, it’s got to be foolproof now, right?’

Not long after Xu An left, a skinny, devil-may-care middle-aged man arrived at the pepper shop. He greeted the owner with practiced ease, "Boss, ten Shuanshuang Spicy, please. The fresh ones."

"Out of the fresh ones. Someone came and bought them all today. You want dried instead?" The owner looked up, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw it was a regular customer.

"All gone?" The man asked in disbelief. He picked up the purchase log from the counter and flipped to the sixth page to check the buyer’s information. Xu An, Xu’s Braised Shop. Purpose: To make Hellish Braised Flavor using Shuanshuang Spicy.

’Whoa! A fellow traveler on the spicy path! I wonder where this braised shop is. I’ve got to try a braised dish made with Shuanshuang Spicy peppers.’

"Boss, you know where this braised shop is located?" the man asked, putting down the notebook and leaning against the counter in his usual nonchalant way.

"Oh, right! I forgot to have him write down the address. It’ll be hard to find him if something goes wrong." The owner slapped the back of his head in annoyance, but then he recalled something. "The guy who was just here said his ad will air on the local Hai City station during primetime tomorrow night. You’ll find out if you watch for it then."

The man nodded. "Alright, Boss, give me five of the dried ones then. The texture isn’t as good as the fresh ones, though! Will you be able to restock tomorrow? If you can, I’ll swing by again."

"I just restocked the day before yesterday. You’ll have to wait another two days," the owner said, getting into his full protective gear again to bag the peppers for the man.

「Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.」

The original plan was for Zhang Dezhen to start developing the recipe as soon as Xu An returned with the peppers. However, considering the peppers’ intense heat, doing the research during business hours would probably smoke even the cockroaches out of the restaurant. Thus, the research was rescheduled as overtime work for after 2:30 p.m. Thinking about how agonizing the process was going to be, Xu An offered Zhang Dezhen triple pay for the shift!

Unaware of the details, Zhang Dezhen was overjoyed to hear he would be getting triple pay for overtime. He was all smiles and even a little eager, completely oblivious to the horrific ordeal that awaited him.

After giving instructions for the research on the Hellish Braised Flavor, it was already eight o’clock—time to print out the day’s orders and confirm the total number of takeout requests. Xu An skillfully opened the website’s backend to check the order count and get them ready for printing. But after a quick glance, he froze. As he scrolled down with his mouse wheel, he saw an endless stream of "666" in the remarks column.

Because he had added address restrictions, all of these were valid orders. Judging by the order numbers, there were a total of five hundred seventy-nine orders with "666" in the remarks! Xu An couldn’t resist checking the next day’s orders and found that there were already over thirty more "666" orders on the list for tomorrow.

’Not bad,’ he thought. ’The promotion from Hai City Food Studio is working well. I’ve already broken even on today’s orders alone; any more are pure profit. If Xu’s Braised Shop really takes off, I’ll wait until the orders from the other two construction sites reach three hundred, then I’ll open a combination braised shop and distribution station at those two locations.’

Just as he printed out the orders and handed them to Liang Dani and the others to cut and sort, Xu An’s phone rang. It was a call from Uncle Han.

"Boss Xu, we’ve already loaded the equipment onto the truck and are on our way. We estimate we’ll arrive in about two hours. Please make sure you have the installation area ready on your end."

Xu An had already designated the installation spot yesterday before closing. It was on the left side of Shop No. 2, near the stairs. There was just enough room for three machines, with a path down the middle for employees to walk and operate them. The basic infrastructure, like water pipes and faucets, was also in place. All preparations were complete; they were just waiting for the machines to arrive.

After Liu Daxi had come back, he hadn’t told the others that Xu An had purchased automated kitchen equipment. So, when Xu An had them clear out the space yesterday, everyone was privately speculating about his plans.

Some guessed that the boss was installing more vegetable-washing sinks in preparation for hiring new staff. Others speculated that since there were so many customers, he was clearing the area to use as a reception space. There were even those who thought he was going to put two desks there for Xu Kang and Xu Le to do their homework...

However, the mystery was finally solved with the arrival of Uncle Han and the installation crew. A series of miscellaneous parts were unloaded from the truck. After a flurry of activity from the three installers, the jumbled piles of parts gradually took on a shape familiar to Xu An. Three gleaming, waist-high machines appeared before everyone’s eyes.

Once the technicians connected the water pipes and plugged in the power, Xu An brought a basket of potatoes out from the kitchen—unwashed, caked with mud, and set aside just for this. Under the technicians’ guidance, Xu An personally poured the potatoes into one of the machines, closed the lid, and pressed the start button. The roar of the motor was accompanied by the sound of gushing water.

Everyone present fixed their gaze on the roaring machine.