100: I've got the bezoar!
Chen Kai was stunned for a moment. Not selling the beef offal? Is the owner crazy?
Normally, beef offal accounts for a quarter of a cow's body weight. The meat yield isn't high, so the profit relies entirely on the beef offal to make up for it.
Some internal organs are even more expensive than the meat itself, so how could the owner not sell the beef offal?
Could it be... did he discover the bezoar inside the beef gallbladder? That shouldn't be it, right?
Chen Kai felt a tightening in his chest and quickly looked toward the owner, who was busy cutting the hind leg of the cow, preparing to hear his explanation.
"Why aren't you selling the beef offal? I've been waiting to buy some Tripe!"
"Exactly, I was planning to buy some beef Tripe for hot pot! Why aren't you selling it?"
"I also wanted to buy some beef tendon and beef heart to braise for a meal, why aren't you selling it? Are you keeping it for yourself? Owner, that's not fair. It's better to share the joy than to enjoy it alone."
Many of the old men and Old Woman standing in line ahead of Chen Kai laughed and teased him. Some, upon hearing that the beef offal wasn't for sale, simply left the line and turned to buy from other beef stalls.
The owner smiled helplessly and pointed his butcher knife toward a blood-stained stainless steel basin on the side.
"Today's beef offal is all in that basin over there. If you want it, I'll give it to you for free."
The old men and Old Woman in line were stunned. Most of them looked confused, though two of them had already taken out the plastic bags they carried with them, ready to pack it up.
"Owner, what is this...? Not selling it for money? Are you selling at a loss? Why so generous? It's so generous that I can't quite accept it."
"Exactly, you're giving away beef Tripe that costs forty or fifty a jin? If you're really giving it away, I'm taking it!"
"Where is the morality? Where is the bottom line? And where is the basin? Why can't I see it!"
Chen Kai was also stunned. He didn't find the bezoar?
Then why give away the beef offal for free? In the hands of these Old Woman, let alone free beef offal.
Even if you gave away cow bile, not a single bit would be left, even if they just dumped it out when they got home.
He immediately grew tense, his body taut, preparing to squeeze past a few Old Woman.
The owner slowly bent down, took out another knife with a green-stained blade from under the beef stall, showed it to everyone, and gave a helpless, bitter smile.
"This cow's beef gallbladder was a bit large, and I accidentally cut the beef gallbladder. The beef offal is all bitter. If I sold it to you, wouldn't you come back to beat me up?"
"I don't know why. I've been cutting meat for ten years and always used this technique. I've never cut the beef gallbladder before. Once the beef gallbladder breaks, the internal organs are inedible."
Upon hearing this, the old men and Old Woman immediately looked disappointed, crumpled their plastic bags in their hands, and stuffed them back into their pockets.
"What a waste of my emotions. The beef gallbladder is broken, what's left to eat?"
"Exactly, you kept us in suspense for nothing. It's a waste of anticipation. How can you eat it if the beef gallbladder is broken? It's incredibly bitter."
"Forget it, forget it, just throw it away. Even a dog wouldn't eat this."
Chen Kai's expression brightened. He slowly stepped out of the line, deliberately putting on an indifferent expression while rubbing the tip of his nose.
"Owner, you really don't want this beef offal?"
"Then I'll pack it up and take it home to feed my cat. I'll make freeze-dried treats for the cat."
The owner waved his hand generously, "I don't want it, you can take it all."
Just as Chen Kai tore off a plastic bag at the stall, preparing for his zero-dollar purchase, an Old Woman immediately stepped out.
"Young Man, you really can't eat it if the beef gallbladder is broken. Even a dog wouldn't eat it!"
"When I was young and my family was poor, I once picked up some internal organs with a broken beef gallbladder. After one bite, my whole family couldn't eat for three days. You can imagine how bitter it was; the bitterness just couldn't be washed off."
Chen Kai paused, turned back, and smiled, "It's fine. Otherwise, I'd have to pay to buy some anyway. I'll just try it out first. If it doesn't work, I'll come out and buy some more."
"You... sigh... if you don't listen to the elders, you'll suffer the consequences."
The Old Woman shook her head helplessly and went back to chatting with a few other old sisters.
Chen Kai rubbed the tip of his nose, took the plastic bag, and crouched down in front of the stainless steel basin, discovering that the entire basin of beef offal had been stained yellow-green.
It was also emitting waves of a foul, fishy stench.
Chen Kai frowned, but for fifty thousand, he endured it.
Holding his breath, he turned the plastic bag inside out and put it on his hand, then reached into the pile of beef offal in the basin.
"This is beef intestine... this is beef heart... Tripe... found it!"
After fumbling for a while, Chen Kai quickly found the beef gallbladder, which had been cut open and was leaking yellow-green bile, from the basin of beef offal.
He squeezed it hard, and sure enough, there was something hard inside the beef gallbladder, about the size of an egg yolk.
He silently packed the beef gallbladder and the beef Tripe into the bag, waved happily at the owner, "Thanks, owner. I'll come to your place to buy meat from now on."
"You're welcome, brother. It's just a basin of beef offal, don't mention it!"
The butcher waved the butcher knife in his hand and flashed a hearty smile.
Chen Kai smiled and walked out of the vegetable market without looking back. His pace quickened, and carrying the bag of beef offal, he sat on his Electric Scooter. After thinking about it, he decided to hang it on the handlebars.
Soon, he rode the scooter back to his Rental House in less than half an hour. He quickly placed the bag of beef offal in the kitchen, and just as he was about to rinse it with water, he suddenly felt something was wrong.
"How do you clean this thing? You can't possibly sell it with the bitter beef gallbladder, right?"
He quickly went to the bathroom to wash his hands, took out his phone, and started searching for how to preserve a bezoar.
After reading the tutorial, Chen Kai felt a wave of relief. It was a good thing he hadn't washed it with water. Washing it with water would cause some of the substance to be lost, and bezoar dealers would deliberately lower the price when buying it.
The correct method is to use a tissue and tweezers to wipe dry the bile adsorbed on the surface, use tweezers to remove any gallbladder tissue stuck to the bezoar, and after absorbing the moisture, place it in a ventilated area for three days before it can be sold.
"It's a good thing I didn't wash it with water. Washing it with water would mean a fifty percent discount!"
Chen Kai grumbled a few words and rummaged through his home looking for tweezers. It took him a long time to find a pair of medical tweezers, which he had gotten before when he fell while delivering food and a small stone had lodged into the flesh of his knee.
To save money, he had bought a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a pair of medical tweezers to extract it himself.
Thinking back to that pain... it was quite an experience.
He quickly took the tissues and tweezers and went to the kitchen. He first put on disposable gloves and sorted through the beef offal to pick out the beef gallbladder.
He gripped the beef gallbladder with one hand, and with a little force from his other hand, a hard yellow stone the size of an egg yolk fell from the beef gallbladder into the sink.
Chen Kai quickly picked the bezoar out of the sink, endured the foul stench, and wrapped it in toilet paper to absorb the yellow-green bile attached to the bezoar.
It took a full half pack of paper to reveal the true appearance of the bezoar, which still had quite a bit of white gallbladder tissue stuck to it.
He disgustedly took off the foul-smelling gloves stained with bile and gastric juice and put on a new pair.
Only then did he pick the bezoar back up from the toilet paper and patiently tear off the gallbladder tissue stuck to it, piece by piece.