Chapter 345: Causing Trouble? Warding Off Disaster?

Actually, Zheng Tan smelled that uncomfortable odor as soon as he entered; it was a bit stronger than the smell in Cai Lao Ban's rest room, and the source was that nervous cleaner. Looking at the cleaner's fingernails, Zheng Tan didn't know whether this auntie realized she was in a dangerous situation.

Besides cleaning tools, the shop issued uniforms and shoes uniformly; on‑duty cleaners stored their personal clothes in the locker, so Zheng Tan could smell a stronger odor from there—of course only relatively, as human olfaction might not discern it.

Zheng Tan couldn't explain these details to Cai Lao Ban, and Cai Lao Ban had already realized the cleaning agent might be problematic, so he quickly took action.

In the afternoon, the Shi Wei shop closed, doors shut tight; passersby could hear knocking and drilling inside, saw the renovation sign outside, and thought nothing of it—many shops renovate on weekdays to boost weekend profits.

Inside Shi Wei, renovations were indeed underway; Cai Lao Ban had noticed some spots needing minor repairs and wanted to adjust the layout, since habits differ by place, so they took the opportunity to tidy up. His rest room was the main focus, requiring thorough cleaning and redecoration.

Zheng Tan didn't go back that afternoon; he stayed here watching Cai Lao Ban look for help.

Holding the test results, Cai Lao Ban's hands trembled; seeing the several highly toxic heavy metals made him anxious. The test showed that part of the cleaning agent contained pesticide.

Nowadays few people use heavy‑metal‑containing pesticides for vegetables; many countries have reduced or banned them, though some places still do. How this pesticide ended up in the cleaner's own bottle is unknown even to her.

"If someone really wanted to harm you, they wouldn't spray this cleaner—the toxicity would be much lower and it works slowly here; to achieve the goal, spraying pesticide directly would be better," said the friend helping Cai Lao Ban with the test.

According to the cleaner, she thought Cai Lao Ban was a decent person, but felt guilty for taking small advantages privately; while cleaning she even vigorously wiped Cai Lao Ban's dusty keyboard and computer. This is also why Zheng Tan avoided Cai Lao Ban's hand—because his hand also carried a bit of that odor.

Imagine if that bottle of cleaner were replaced with an odorless pesticide—Cai Lao Ban's daily contact with computers, keyboards, desks, sofas, windows, etc., would be coated in "poison," and living long‑term in such a room would make anyone shudder.

"Don't worry. It might be an accident. Still, you should look into it carefully. Having a sense of it, of course—if it really is an accident, all I can say is you're terribly unlucky this year, Old Cai; is this your benming year?"

The person just spoke offhandedly, never expecting Cai Lao Ban to actually nod seriously.

The other party opened his mouth but could only remain silent; although he often joked about benming years being especially unlucky, he didn't really believe it, since his own benming year had seen no major ups and downs—but Cai Lao Ban's situation was different; such things can happen, and fortunately it was caught early before blowing up.

Before the rest room was cleaned and renovated, Cai Lao Ban temporarily partitioned a room on the second floor of Shi Wei, waiting until the rest room's renovation and ventilation were done before removing the partition.

As for the investigation, Cai Lao Ban has few connections in Chu Hua Shi and no local base; if he really wanted to dig deep, turning to locals would naturally be best.

So Cai Lao Ban went to find Ye Hao.

Shu Dong had specially asked for this before, so Ye Hao naturally wanted to give him face; besides, it was just a small favor, not a big deal.

After a week, Zheng Tan learned the result, which matched what Cai Lao Ban's friend had said: the incident was indeed just an accident.

The cleaner's hometown is in the suburbs; someone in her family works at a factory that makes cleaning agents, and during the New Year they receive large bottles of cleaner, which they decant into spray bottles to dilute and save. Next door someone rents a plot for a flower garden, and the pesticide belongs to that person—but after a heavy snowstorm caused losses, they gave up flower growing, moved some stuff, and shut down.

During those New Year days the cleaner's house was lively; adults overlooked many spots, and a kid found several bottles in the flower plot. Coincidentally, there was a small plastic factory making such spray bottles nearby; everyone's bottles looked similar, but the kids didn't know, thought the color looked fine and assumed it was the same as their home cleaner, took them home and sprayed them around—since there wasn't a strong smell, nobody paid attention.

Later the kids left the bottles on the table when done playing; then someone mistakenly thought they were home cleaner, wanted to free up a few bottles for other uses, so they poured everything into a big bottle, using it whenever needed. The adults were too busy; they made the kids do this, and the kids didn't notice the difference in viscosity between the pesticide and their home cleaner, directly dumped it into the undiluted big container and ran off to play.

Thus, from then on the cleaner's household used only cleaner mixed with pesticide; although the mixture's toxicity dropped a lot, in the house—especially the cleaner's room—the child who had taken pesticide from the flower plot had sprayed it everywhere, so the residue there remained more toxic.

This is a chronic poisoning process; ordinary breathing, skin contact, etc., would poison them, but during this process the cleaner didn't notice, perhaps some symptoms appeared but she ignored them.

After some time post‑New Year, the cleaner came to the city, bringing two small bottles of cleaner, and worked at Shi Wei for a while because a family member was ill. Short on cash, she eyed the shop's bottles of cleaner worth a few dozen each. The cleaner had been changed only a few days when Zheng Tan ran into it.

Pesticides and rodenticides—these were topics Jiao Ba had covered when giving Zheng Tan a "lesson"; that day Feng Bai Jin mentioning dead mice reminded Zheng Tan of a few‑year‑old memory, letting him instantly sense the threat when flipping the window, though he couldn't yet identify exactly what, since many pesticide/rodenticide types exist, some look alike and smell similar to people, but a cat's nose can still distinguish them.

After learning the truth, Ye Hao chatted with Cai Lao Ban and sighed, "Things always end up with that guy—trouble magnet."

Ye Hao's "that guy" and "trouble magnet" clearly referred to Zheng Tan; if Zheng Tan had been present Ye Hao might not have said those things, but Zheng Tan wasn't there then.

Cai Lao Ban didn't think it was Zheng Tan's fault; this incident was purely accidental. Happening to him, he could only consider himself unlucky; even if the toxin in his rest room were mild, who could guarantee long‑term safety? Besides, he runs a food shop—such places fear any link to "poison," as a minor issue can affect the whole business.

"It's not causing trouble; it's warding off disaster," Cai Lao Ban said.

Ye Hao recalled past events and indeed felt that way. Speaking of which, since Shi Wei opened, that cat hasn't come to Kai Xuan in a long while; whenever he runs into it he lets the cat walk a round, hoping to ward off potential disasters.

Zheng Tan had no idea Ye Hao had that thought; after Cai Lao Ban's side had this incident, Zheng Tan's visits dropped sharply—from every two days to once a week—not because he feared lingering toxicity there (he learned from Cai Lao Ban's tester friend that the rest room's toxin level was actually low), but because the smell had reminded him of something unpleasant, making him sense a threat; now he goes less often because Cai Lao Ban's partitioned room is tiny, stuffed with stuff, making eating there inconvenient.

Whenever Cai Lao Ban saw Zheng Tan, he was enthusiastic, having food prepared and welcoming him warmly; Cai Lao Ban felt more at ease with the cat around.

The cleaner was fired; Cai Lao Ban saw that several family members had chronic poisoning with high medical costs, so he paid her wages in full without deduction and didn't seek compensation. She knew what to say and what not to, and after leaving she wouldn't mention the Shi Wei incident. Had it been Ye Hao, he would never have let it go so lightly, even if it were merely an accident.

That day Zheng Tan followed Jiao Ba to the cafeteria for two days, freeloaded three days at Jiao Wei's restaurant, wanted a change of flavor, then went to Shi Wei, ate and didn't linger, planning to go home and secretly browse netizens' posts cursing a certain Zhao‑surname star who had been jailed earlier—now nobody calls him "young master" anymore, the term "hypocrite" has taken over; during the New Year snowstorm nobody paid attention, but after it passed, several people bearing grudges against that "young master" started stirring up waves to show their presence, and Zheng Tan, when bored, went to watch the feud.

Unexpectedly, after Zheng Tan had walked just two steps, someone called him again—this time not Feng Bai Jin, but Er Mao, whom he hadn't seen in a while.

On New Year's Day Er Mao finally became a father as he wished, having a daughter; born on Yuan Dan, her nickname is Yuan Yuan, and people joked that this father‑daughter pair are Er Mao and Er Yuan—add the word "money" and their value would be tenfold.

This time Er Mao came over to deliver invitations—for his daughter's hundred‑day banquet; the few households here need to come themselves. Wei Leng and Jiao Ba also sent invites; he had just come from Kai Xuan delivering invitations, bought some food, knowing Shi Wei's dishes are good, though he rarely comes this way, so he bought on this rare visit; later he'll go to the lakeside villa to share with the elderly lady, so he took the food to go and will share it with her—she's old‑aged but still has a good appetite.

"Black coal, let's go, let's go see the great‑aunt together." Er Mao got into the car and waved at Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan hesitated a bit; he didn't really want to face that old lady, but he could ride in Er Mao's car and pass by to check on Hu Zi—that guy had lost another fight with Peanut Candy a few days ago, hasn't shown up these two days; Feng Bai Jin said his injuries are worse than before, so he probably needs to rest at home for a while. (To be continued…)