The news about the young children who had died after visiting the Children’s Hospital had already stirred up massive public outrage in Lang City and across social media. Now, with another headline about a doctor from the same hospital jumping to his death, public opinion exploded again. All kinds of speculation and conspiracy theories began spreading online.
[That poor child, that poor family… Did this doctor commit suicide out of guilt?]
[Stop spreading rumors with one mouth. The doctor who jumped wasn’t even the one who treated that girl, okay?]
[First several patients die one after another, now a doctor commits suicide. This hospital definitely has something shady going on.]
[Pediatricians are under huge pressure. Kids nowadays are treated like treasures. Once parents panic, emotions flare up easily. I have a friend who’s a pediatric nurse, and she gets complaints from parents all the time.]
[I’m also a pediatric nurse. Most parents are actually very polite, unlike what you said about them all being emotional. Don’t generalize.]
[Every doctor, every profession has pressure. People these days really have it hard.]
[I have relatives working at the Children’s Hospital. It’s not because of pressure at all. Internal rumors say he was being suppressed by leadership.]
…
As soon as the incident broke out, higher-ups immediately called Han Huaixiao and ordered him to uncover the truth as quickly as possible. Before long, the Major Crimes Unit had already gathered basic information on the doctor who jumped.
“The doctor’s name was Fang Lu,” Kong Qinmao said. “Twenty-eight years old. He was one of Yang Yongfeng’s PhD students. I heard Yang Yongfeng valued him a lot and praised him publicly multiple times. Fang Lu’s parents said that starting last year, he became incredibly busy, and later, his mental state kept deteriorating. They felt like he was under tremendous pressure.”
“Did his parents say what he was busy with?” Han Huaixiao asked.
“They asked him,” Kong Qinmao continued, “but he refused to say. He only said he was working on assignments given by his advisor.”
“Any unusual behavior before he jumped?”
“A resident doctor from the same hospital said that before the incident, he saw Fang Lu take a taxi back to the hospital from outside. When he got out of the car, he looked completely dazed. The resident asked what was wrong, but Fang Lu ignored him. Feeling something was off, he followed him and saw him head to the Dean’s office. But just as Fang Lu knocked on the door, the resident got a call from his department head and had to return. Not long after, he heard Fang Lu had jumped from the window of Yang Yongfeng’s office.”
“Did he have a key to Yang Yongfeng’s office?” Han Huaixiao continued.
Kong Qinmao: “Yes.”
“Out of the entire hospital, he specifically chose Yang Yongfeng’s office to jump from,” Xia Ling also interjected. “Looks like the two of them were definitely connected.”
Han Huaixiao: “Have we found anything from Fang Lu’s personal belongings?”
Kong Qinmao: “Nothing yet.”
“Wen Yu, check his computer,” Han Huaixiao ordered. “See what tasks Yang Yongfeng assigned him over the past year.”
Wen Yu: “Got it.”
Just then, Xia Ling received a call from Meng Qingjun’s mother.
“Officer Xia, I found a bottle of the ‘brain-development medicine’ Qingjun used to take years ago at her grandmother’s house.”
“That’s great,” Xia Ling said. “I’ll come pick it up immediately.”
Not long after, He Zhengye detected the same body-altering substance from Meng Qingjun’s old medication.
“So if Tang Yueqian and the others took this drug long-term, they would eventually become like Meng Qingjun?” Xia Ling asked. “Their bodies would become abnormally sensitive?”
“Most likely,” He Zhengye agreed.
“Which means these people have been using drugs to alter the bodies of their chosen targets for years already?!”
“Obviously,” He Zhengye nodded. “Yes.”
“Where did these drugs come from?!”
“Brother Hua, didn’t Yu Jing mention that Dong Zijun and Yang Yongfeng once talked on the phone about some kind of ‘experiment’?” Han Huaixiao asked.
Zhang Tianhua: “Yeah, but she didn’t know what kind.”
“Captain Han, you suspect the experiment is related to this drug?” Xia Ling added.
“Mm. Yang Yongfeng is a doctor, and Dong Zijun owns a pharmaceutical company. They have the perfect conditions for something like this.”
“Yesterday, Yang Yongfeng completely denied knowing Meng Qingjun, then suddenly confessed everything later. You said it felt like he didn’t want us digging deeper,” Zhang Tianhua continued. “Could this be what he was afraid we’d uncover?”
With that, Han Huaixiao ordered, “Brother Hua, investigate the pharmaceutical labs at Dong Zijun’s company. Xia Ling, Fang Lu had a girlfriend, go speak with her and see if she knows why he committed suicide. Xia Hang, you and Ling Yue keep tracing the delivery chain for the medicine that Tang Yueqian’s and the other victim’s families purchased. Find whoever swapped the packages.”
After assigning tasks, Han Huaixiao called Guo Anping.
“Captain Guo, any progress on Lin Fei’s case?”
“Funny timing,” Guo Anping answered. “I was just about to call you. The man who killed Lin Fei likely came from Myanmar. His nickname is Ah Tai. Two years ago, Ah Tai murdered a male escort at a nightclub in Dian City after the boy offended a client, then fled back to Myanmar. The forensic report confirmed that the knife used to kill Lin Fei was the same knife used in that earlier murder. Somehow, Ah Tai illegally crossed back into the country again.”
Han Huaixiao: “What’s Ah Tai’s background?”
Guo Anping: “You know Jin Daqi, right?”
Han Huaixiao: “Yeah.”
Guo Anping: “Ah Tai works for him. Jin Daqi’s daughter’s husband, Wang Cang, used to be one of his trusted men, mainly managing the entertainment business for him. Ah Tai was one of Wang Cang’s subordinates.”
Han Huaixiao: “Got it.”
After that, Han Huaixiao went to find He Zhengye. “What is going on with your Major Crimes Unit lately?!” he asked. “One case after another. Our forensic department is so busy, we don’t even have time to drink water!”
Han Huaixiao: “I’ll order Qinxiangju takeout for you guys later.”
He Zhengye: “What we need right now isn’t good food. It’s sleep.”
Han Huaixiao: “Once this period is over, I’ll personally take you deep-sea fishing on my yacht.”
He Zhengye: “Captain Han really talks like a rich man.”
Jian Liang came out holding the test results, interrupting them.
“Captain Han, here.”
Han Huaixiao looked down at the report. “Same person who stole Tang Yueqian’s body?”
He Zhengye: “Yes.”
Han Huaixiao: “The last time I asked you to check the international criminal database, what did you find?”
“This person is very likely from Myanmar and connected to a murder case at a nightclub in Dian City two years ago,” He Zhengye also confirmed.
“Two years ago. A nightclub in Dian City. The weapon was a dagger, and the victim was a young man?” Han Huaixiao asked.
He Zhengye: “Correct.”
Han Huaixiao returned to his office and sat in silence, deep in thought. After a while, he stood up and walked to the whiteboard, picking up a marker.
He wrote:
Lin Fei
Children’s corpses
Drug-induced body modification
Meng Qingjun
Manager Liu
Dong Zijun
Yang Yongfeng
Fang Lu
Ah Tai
After staring at the names for a while, Han Huaixiao circled “Lin Fei” and “children’s corpses,” drawing an arrow pointing toward “Ah Tai.”
Then he circled “drug-induced body modification,” “Meng Qingjun,” and “Fang Lu,” drawing arrows toward “Dong Zijun” and “Yang Yongfeng.”
After thinking a bit longer, he drew another arrow beneath “Ah Tai” and wrote: Wang Cang.
Now, only Manager Liu remained unmarked.
Knock knock knock.
Kong Qinmao entered.
“Captain Han, our informant reported something new. Do you remember that pimp, the one who borrowed a lighter at the junkyard beside the abandoned elementary school in Nanshan County, and later sneaked into Second Affiliated Hospital to drug and kill Jiang Tao?”
Han Huaixiao: “You have news on him?”
Kong Qinmao: “The informant said someone saw him together with Manager Liu from Shuntai a few days ago.”
Han Huaixiao: “Where is he now?”
Kong Qinmao: “The informant said the guy has extensive connections and is extremely slippery. His whereabouts are hard to pin down.”
Han Huaixiao: “Tell the informant to keep watching. The moment there’s news on him, report it immediately.”
After Kong Qinmao left, Han Huaixiao stared at the words “Manager Liu” for a long moment. Besides, he wrote:
Chen Zhengde
Qu Mingzhe
The Pimp, Li Cheng.
Then, he circled them and drew another arrow downward toward Wang Cang.
……………….
After rounds and rounds of screening, Xia Hang and Ling Yue finally found the courier who had swapped Tang Yueqian’s medication package.
The courier’s name was Zhuang Liang, a deliveryman responsible for Tang Yueqian’s residential district. He was from out of town and had come to Lang City for work. Instead of living in the company dormitory, he rented a tiny attic room in an urban village.
When Xia Hang and Ling Yue arrived at his place, Zhuang Liang had hired a prostitute and was in the middle of enjoying himself. Seeing them, he assumed they were there for a prostitution raid.
Even after being brought to the interrogation room at the Municipal Bureau, he still asked curiously, “Officers, shouldn’t soliciting prostitutes be handled at the local station? Why’d you bring me to the Municipal Bureau?”
“You really don’t know what you did?” Ling Yue asked.
Zhuang Liang: “I do. Soliciting.”
Ling Yue stared at him. “What other illegal things have you done?”
Zhuang Liang suddenly lost his composure. “N-No… I haven’t done anything else illegal.”
Ling Yue: “Who told you to swap the package for apartment xx in Building 1 of Huixian Community?”
Zhuang Liang: “I-I didn’t swap anything.”
Ling Yue slammed the table. “You still won’t admit it?”
Zhuang Liang: “I really… really didn’t swap it.”
Xia Hang: “Your parents only have you. You were their late-born child. They’re both already over seventy, and your father was diagnosed with cancer last month. Do you want to be sitting in prison while he dies?”
Something in those words hit him, and Zhuang Liang suddenly burst into tears, wiping his eyes.
“It was a man in his fifties. He was the one who told me to swap it.”
Xia Hang: “Besides being in his fifties, what other characteristics did he have?”
Zhuang Liang: “Square face. Local accent.”
Xia Hang: “How did he give you the replacement items?”
Zhuang Liang: “He’d leave them ahead of time in a small box outside my rental room.”
After checking the surveillance footage from the entrance below Zhuang Liang’s apartment building, they identified the man.
His name was Zhang Yan.
The couriers responsible for swapping the remaining children’s packages were quickly found as well. According to all of their testimonies, the person who instructed them had also been Zhang Yan.
Not long after, Wen Yu finished investigating Zhang Yan’s background.
“This Zhang Yan has an older brother named Zhang Shi…”
“…who happens to be Dong Zijun’s driver.”
T.N: As of this chapter, I became confused with the characters. There are too many criminals/suspects, and I’m aware that all the cases are connected, but I find it hard to keep up with who is who and what role they play in the case. So I made a little suspect sheet/ character list that will be updated every time a new criminal gets added to the roster :)) The list is available here, and in the future, it will appear as a button at the start of each chapter, next to the TOC button. Thank you for your time!
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