"Your Jianning City Bureau has a mole."
Hospital, late at night.
The emergency room was brightly lit. Jiang Ting's body was sweaty, and his pale face was of the same color as that of the hospital bed. He was sitting in a chair with his head tilted, and the nurse was removing the broken glass from his forehead with tweezers.
There were hurried footsteps in the corridor, and Ma Xiang rushed into the brightly lit emergency room with two trainee policemen: "Consultant Lu!"
The nurse shook her hand and was about to reprimand him, but Jiang Ting raised his hand and politely stopped her. Immediately, he turned to Ma Xiang: "How is Yan Xie?"
"Severe arrhythmia, low blood pressure, and hyperactive vagus nerve. The doctor said that he was brought here just in time and is out of danger now!"
Ma Xiang's expression was filled with uncontrollable excitement. He thought that Jiang Ting would also show the same excitement, but who knew that Consultant Lu's face, which was born expressionless, would still be indifferent, and he only asked: "Is it poison?"
"Yes, it is some kind of alkaloid, but the test results will come out later! D@mn, I've already reported to the bureau, and the blood samples and stomach contents are all collected for testing. This time it must be…"
Jiang Ting nodded, leaned back lightly into the chair, and signaled the nurse to continue.
Under the incandescent light, Jiang Ting's black eyelashes were slightly closed, covering both sides of his nose with light shadow. Three buttons of his white shirt were unbuttoned, and his collarbone, back, shoulders, elbow, and even his legs were injured to varying degrees. Both his hands were cut badly, and his palms were spread on the armrest of the chair.
The nurse carefully pulled out the shards of glass from his forehead, probably feeling sympathetic, and couldn't help but say, "You can make a sound if it hurts, or should I give you anesthesia?"
"No need." Jiang Ting said, " Just hurry up."
His tone was normal, he really didn't seem to think it was a big deal. Looking at that face that had been motionless all year round, Ma Xiang suspected that even if the nurse wanted to put a needle into his flesh to sew stitches, he would not feel the pain.
I can't understand how Consultant Lu can still endure it… Ma Xiang murmured to himself and waved to the intern: "You two go out first and stay at the door of the emergency room. If anything happens, call me immediately."
The two policemen went out.
Ma Xiang picked up a chair at random. He didn't play with his mobile phone, and just sat upright and waited there. The nurse finished cleaning Jiang Ting's wound, bandaged it with medicine, and wiped away the dried blood on his cheek with a disinfectant towel before taking a half step back and instructing, "Be careful not to get wet these days, and take anti-inflammatory medicine on time. I'll bring you the CT results later!"
Jiang Ting closed his eyes slightly and nodded silently.
The nurse looked at his face, her ears a little red, and she turned and went out.
Ma Xiang was reluctant to talk too much in front of outsiders, so he stared at the nurse until she closed the door and left. When only the two of them were left in the emergency room, he asked with concern, "Are you really all right, Consultant Lu?"
Jiang Ting waved his hand wearily, signaling him not to talk about this: "What's going on with Yan Xie?"
"D@mn it! It's poisoning, but the specific method and timing of the poisoning can only be confirmed after the test results come out." Ma Xiang breathed out a hot breath from his nose, and said, "Atropine and vasopressors have already been given, but he's still under close observation in the emergency room. The doctor said that as long as there is no more respiratory depression or heart failure within a few hours, he'll be fine and will only get another shot of atropine tonight at the most."
He remembered something again, moved the chair under his butt closer, and rubbed his hands together sincerely: "Consultant Lu, it's all thanks to you this time. If the police car had rushed out of the guardrail and rolled over; on this rainy day, no one would have found out about it. Even if we drive the police car, we may not be able to find it. Just now, a nurse outside said that if he was sent half an hour later, even if god descends to earth, he would've been difficult to save…"
"No," Jiang Ting interrupted Ma Xiang's gnashing of teeth, "I looked at the heartbeat monitor when I got into the ambulance, it was better than when the car crashed.
Ma Xiang nodded and added, "In short, you are amazing!"
Jiang Ting was silent, and a wry smile appeared in his eyes.
"Brother Yan told us before that money is just a thing, so don't look at it often as it harms people, but it can also save lives when something happens. Take today as an example, if you hadn't driven Brother Yan's modified G65, the collision will definitely kill both of you on the spot. More than four million for two lives is still worth it…"
The door of the emergency room was knocked, and the trainee policeman who had just been sent to guard the operating room came in: "Brother Ma!"
Ma Xiang instantly activated the spring under his butt: "What's the matter?!"
"No, no, it's fine. I'm just here to tell you that Brother Gao called and said that the people from the city bureau are already on the way. They'll be here soon!"
Ma Xiang, whose nerves were too tense, exhaled and sent the intern away.
Being interrupted by the police intern, Ma Xiang didn't have the heart to talk anymore. He held his chin, thinking: "Hey, who hates our Brother Yan to this extent?"
Jiang Ting's eyes darkened and he didn't say anything.
"If it was through food poisoning, I was with Brother Yan all day today. We ate in the police cafeteria at noon, which was enough to rule out the possibility of poisoning. But if it was in the evening, I remember he took two pieces of bread from the city bureau before leaving. Not sure if he stopped to buy something to eat…"
"No."
"Huh?"
"I've been following him, no."
Ma Xiang frowned: "So, is it the bread?"
"Alkaloids are nitrogen-containing alkaline organic compounds, most of which are found in plants, that is, native medicines or Chinese herbal medicines; like morphine, caffeine, solanine, or hyoscine in Feng Yuguang's poisoning case some time ago. They are relatively common toxic alkaloids, and are also easy to come into contact with in daily life."
Jiang Ting probably had a little cold, and he spoke with a hoarse nasal voice, but it didn't hinder his calm and steady tone. Ma Xiang unknowingly became serious and asked, "But Brother Yan doesn't usually touch these things? If we talk about morphine poisoning, the only place where the city bureau can get morphine is the forensic medicine room, and it can't be said that it's Brother Gou, who…"
"Yan Xie called me once before coming out of the city bureau, then got on and off the highway, and then passed the winding mountain road until the car crashed. It took about three hours. Morphine poisoning won't happen so slowly, it should be something else."
Ma Xiang couldn't help nodding again and again, rubbing his chin and thinking about it, and suddenly he heard Jiang Ting ask: "By the way, why did you rush to Jiangyang County overnight?"
"Hey? You don't know?"
Jiang Ting obviously didn't want to explain too much, "Your Brother Yan and I had some disagreements, and we were arguing on the phone when the car crashed…"
"Oh—" Ma Xiang was smart, witty, and understanding, so he immediately felt that he got it: "Did you think that Brother Yan wanted to go out to find a small internet celebrity to open a room? Hey, no, no, this is really not true. You went back to your place… the last three days of you running away from home have been bad for Brother Yan. He said that as long as you come back, he'll let you buy any bags and jewelry you want…"
"Cough!"
Ma Xiang's habit of riding a horse without holding the reins[1] must have been learned from Yan Xie, but Jiang Ting's coughing immediately pulled him back at the speed of light: "Hey, look at where I went. Actually, when we interrogated Li Yuxin and were attacked on the road in Jiangyang County, Fan Wu's group shot at the river with guns. Afterward, we extracted a 9mm Luger bullet fired from a Type-92 pistol from the scene."
Jiang Ting suddenly looked up.
"It's temporarily impossible to determine the source of the gun involved at the moment. We only found out that it was the police gun from other provinces at the moment, and that the shooter and Fan Wu were not in the same group. We went to Jiangyang overnight this time to investigate this matter, but I can't tell you the details. I've revealed too much to you, why don't you wait until Brother Yan wakes up and ask him?"
Maybe due to the reflections on the walls of the ward, Jiang Ting's face was extremely pale, even seeming a little transparent, and even the last trace of blood on his lips disappeared:
"There was another gunman at the scene that day?"
Ma Xiang nodded.
"…Did that bullet hit Yan Xie?"
"You know all this?!" Ma Xiang was truly shocked.
Jiang Ting's chest heaved slightly, his cheeks were as white as ice, and the fingertips holding the armrest were trembling inconspicuously.
It turned out to be like this…
The new clues about the so-called serial kidnapping cases in the mouth of Chief Lu, Yan Xie's uncharacteristic paranoia after returning from the city bureau, wrapped in anger and rude marriage proposals, and earlier, the strange late return on the night of the birthday party——
All kinds of unreasonable explanations had been logically explained, it was because Yan Xie has long since become a target.
Jiang Ting's most terrifying guess was finally confirmed at this moment!
"Consultant Lu," Ma Xiang finally noticed something was wrong, and immediately got up and stepped forward: "Are you alright, Consultant Lu?"
"I'm…" Jiang Ting couldn't catch his breath and his words were stuck in his throat, his chest suddenly tightened, and he covered his mouth and coughed on the spot!
His health was already bad, and tonight, with both the car crash and poisoning, these series of accidents caused anger and depression to build up in his heart. As soon as he started coughing, he couldn't stop. In the end, he choked on blood in his throat, and his mouth was full of the fishy and sweet smells of iron.
Ma Xiang's face changed with fright, thinking that he had been hurt somewhere and didn't find out until now, so he rushed out to call the doctor. The doctor hurried over to take a look, and immediately gave him a sedative injection. After a while, Jiang Ting slowly calmed down. He leaned back in the chair, and even the black eyelashes were filled with water vapor condensed from cold sweat.
From the CT results, except for some soft tissue contusions, there were no signs of hemopneumothorax or organ damage. But the doctor knew that Jiang Ting belonged to a high-risk group, and did not dare to let the public security personnel have an accident in the hospital. He immediately called the nurse to vacate a ward and prepared to keep him in the hospital for observation.
"Consultant Lu, let me help you to go to rest." Ma Xiang hunched his waist carefully as if he was serving an expensive flower of the high mountains, and even his breath might blow him apart: "Wait until Brother Yan wakes up tomorrow morning, then you can go to see him… No, I think that the situation between the two of you is that he recovers first, and then comes to visit you immediately, isn't it?"
Jiang Ting's head was aching. He pressed his eyebrows and waved his hand. Without letting Ma Xiang help him, he got up and walked out of the emergency room.
It was already late at night. Jiang Ting, with a dry white bath towel casually wrapped outside his shirt, looked up at the door of the emergency room as he passed through the corridor. The red light on the door representing the rescue had been extinguished, which meant that Yan Xie was out of danger and was in the observation period.
Ma Xiang said casually: "Don't worry, Consultant Lu; Brother Yan will be fine. I think he has been very lucky since he met you. He found himself a wife, got away with several big accidents in a row, and was lucky enough to escape even in such a dangerous situation today—"
"Ma Xiang."
"Huh?"
Jiang Ting seemed to hesitate for a few seconds before slowly saying: "After the people from the Jianning Municipal Bureau arrive, there is something I need your help with. In fact, you may have already guessed, but I don't know if Yan Xie has told you the specific situation…"
"It's not convenient for me to talk directly to the people of your city bureau, and it's best not to let people discover my existence. I've already informed Yang Mei when I was on the winding mountain road just now. She is on her way now. If anyone asks, you will say that she was the one who drove the G65." Jiang Ting stood still in the bright hospital corridor, his pupils were as heavy as a pool of deep water, and his calm tone made a chill run up his spine:
"Your Jianning City Bureau has a mole."
Ma Xiang's pupils shrank instantly!
"Hey, comrade police officer?"
Ma Xiang shuddered violently, and before he had time to say anything, he turned around, only to see a doctor in a white coat striding from the other side of the office with a document under his arm: "Oh, police officer, I was just looking for you, but the nurse said that you went to the inpatient department — the poison test report is out. Here it is."
Ma Xiang's thoughts were confused, his eyes were still a little dazed. He picked up the report and turned two pages, only to see hard-to-pronounce professional terms: "So, our Captain Yan is…"
"The vagus nerve was strongly excited, and the postganglionic fibers released a large amount of acetylcholine, which enhanced the excitability of the ectopic rhythm points in the myocardium, which leads to severe arrhythmia. Fortunately, the intake was very small, so it became possible to quickly get him out of danger." The doctor paused, and explained: "Specifically, it was the intake of highly toxic Aconitine[2]."
The air was quiet for a moment.
Immediately afterward, the voices of Ma Xiang and Jiang Ting rang out at the same time:
"Aconitine? From where can—"
"…It's medicinal wine."
Ma Xiang: "Huh?"
Ma Xiang was jolted by the cold force on his arm. Subconsciously, he froze, only to see Jiang Ting holding his arm tightly with his fingers. He didn't expect that the seemingly weak Consultant Lu was so strong, his every syllable carrying the coldness of the north wind:
"Raw aconite[3] wine can only be applied externally, otherwise it's more poisonous than potassium cyanide. Did Yan Xie drink the medicinal wine from the Municipal Bureau before leaving? Was it raw or processed?!"
"..."
Ma Xiang shivered and took out his phone, making a phone call:
"Hello, Brother Gao. Immediately have someone lock up the half bottle of medicinal wine in the cabinet of our division, and let the technical investigator go to the fingerprint test now, hurry!"
...…
Jianning Municipal Bureau.
Huang Xing, who was temporarily called to the bureau in the middle of the night, did not show the slightest bit of fatigue. He hurried out of the elevator with a few technical investigators with undisguised tension and chill in his steps. The policeman on the night shift didn't know what was going on and watched in amazement as the group quickly walked through the corridor and went straight to the gate of the Criminal Investigation Division.
The criminal policeman on duty got up in a hurry: "Brother Gao? Director Huang?"
Gao Panqing's face was ashen, he didn't even have time to say a word. He walked to the cabinet in the large office and opened it, put on his evidence gloves, and took out the medicine box, opening it in front of all the technical investigators.
The atmosphere froze in the next second.
"Where's the medicinal wine?" Gao Panqing's voice changed its tone, almost roaring.
The criminal policeman on duty: "Brother Gao…"
"Where is this bottle of medicinal wine in our division?! Hurry up! Check the surveillance! Dare to steal physical evidence under the criminal investigation division's nose. Get me the information from the security department now! Inform Chief Lu and Chief Wei—"
"Med–medi–medicinal wine?" The criminal policeman on duty was so frightened that he stuttered: "Just now, brother Qin came to borrow it from the next door. Don't be angry, Grother Gao. What happened? I'll go to get it back for you?"
If the air just solidified just now, the expressions of Gao Panqing, Huang Xing, and the others now were as if there were sizzling lead in the air, and it was about to explode.
"…Who borrowed it?"
Gao Panqing's voice was unusually calm and soft, but the policeman was frightened enough to almost urinate. He didn't understand why they didn't understand the words "Brother Qin next door", but at this moment no one care about what he was thinking:
"Brother Qin, Brother Qin from the anti-drug division next door — Qin Chuan. What happened?"
Gao Panqing and Huang Xing looked at each other, and they both turned around and rushed out!
Translator's Note:
(1) Talking Nonsense
(2) Aconitine is an alkaloid toxin produced by various plant species belonging to the genus Aconitum.
(3) Aconitum carmichaelii is a species of flowering plant. It is native to East Asia and eastern Russia. It is commonly known as Chinese aconite, Carmichael's monkshood, or Chinese wolfsbane. In Mandarin Chinese, it is known as fùzǐ (附子; meaning daughter root, or lateral root) and as wūtóu.