The Demon Concubine of God

Chapter 133 Poisoned

Doctor Sun didn't care about what the yamen runner said. He picked up the knife again and said to the yamen runner, "Don't make such a noise again. If you keep shouting like that, the knife in my hand will lose its accuracy. Do you understand?"

The yamen runner had no choice but to promise not to shout again.

So Doctor Sun inserted the knife into the wound again and wanted to cut open the corpse's stomach.

However, just as he inserted the knife, he suddenly heard another howl. This time the scream was so loud that it almost blew the roof of the cell off, and Doctor Sun's hand holding the knife shook three times.

Doctor Sun became instantly annoyed. He turned around and stared at the runner viciously.

The yamen runner had a sullen face and said in sorrow, "It wasn't me. It really wasn't me who called out."

Just as I finished explaining, another high-pitched scream was heard.

It turned out that they were interrogating the prisoners.

The yamen runner explained, "As you know, we just captured a group of prisoners from the Shen residence. Our superiors told us to interrogate them overnight. We were just interrogating the second housekeeper Shen."

Shen Wen curled his lips and said, "He is a grown man, but he screamed like this just after being tortured. It's really a disgrace to our Shen family."

The yamen runner smiled innocently.

Doctor Sun looked at Shen Wen with dissatisfaction and said, "It would be great if we could find a quiet place. Why did we have to pick such an annoying place?"

Shen Wen didn't argue with him, nor did he care.

An old man trembled and ran over from outside the prison door. He was the coroner in the yamen. He looked through the door at the tragic scene of Doctor Sun dissecting the body. He hurried in to stop him and said, "No! The dead are the greatest. Although they are just corpses, their souls are still alive. How dare you damage their corpses? This makes them lose their dignity. It is a great shame and even more despicable than the flower-stealing thief who violated the young girl."

Upon hearing this, Doctor Sun snorted and said with his neck stiff, "They are just like this? You mean we should take care of them? They don't deserve it! How many people who die suddenly are innocent? Take this woman for example. If she hadn't been a wicked slave who bullied her master and did too many evil things, how could she have been poisoned to death? I opened her body to find evidence for her and help her find the real culprit. She should be grateful to me."

The coroner was an old enemy. He nodded his head to show his agreement, then said, "But your skills are really not up to par. I don't know which second-rate coroner taught you how to do this. You open a corpse like a butcher slaughtering a pig or a sheep at the market. It's really vicious. Also, if the deceased has a deep grievance and blood feud to be avenged, which owner would be willing to let you destroy the body? I'm afraid you didn't get the consent of her family?"

When Doctor Sun heard him questioning and belittling his skills, he really treated him as a coroner and was so angry that he almost fumed. He threw the knife in his hand at the corpse and was about to go over to quarrel with Lao Qiu.

Ji Zichu and Shen Wen quickly stopped Doctor Sun. Ji Zichu tried to comfort him with kind words, always flattering him, and turned to tell Lao Qiu: "I told you that you are old and your eyesight is not good, so don't meddle in other people's business. What second-rate or third-rate coroner? This is the famous Doctor Sun from Xishan Caolu! Don't talk nonsense if you don't know him." His eyes warned him.

Shen Wen couldn't help laughing in her heart, but she pretended to be calm on the surface. She coughed and said to Lao Qiu: "The deceased is a servant of my family, so I am considered her family member. Now I tell you clearly that this servant was said to have performed a laparotomy to investigate the case, and I agree."

Lao Qiu looked at Shen Wen and said, "What evidence do you want to find, young master?"

Shen Wen said: "This woman died of poisoning. Of course, we need to find out how and when she was poisoned, and then find out the suspects who had contact with her during that period, so as to find the real culprit."

Lao Qiu shook his head and said, "This is difficult. A laparotomy can only mean that the patient ate or drank the poison. No other cause can be found. As for the time, it can be tested, but I don't know if it can be accurate." Then he pointed at Doctor Sun and said, "This doctor is not good enough. You are a doctor who treats illnesses and gives acupuncture. You are not proficient in our profession. Although our profession is not as noble as that of doctors, it is not that easy to learn."

Doctor Sun was so angry that his moustache stood up.

Ji Zichu hurriedly explained and comforted.

Shen Wen said to Lao Qiu, "What you said is true. You don't know that autopsies can reveal a lot of things. Scholars who dare to open up new space for medicine and want to explore more medical achievements need to learn some of what we coroners do. You may find it hard to imagine that one day, those patients in this world who are slowly dying due to organ damage and organ failure will regain new life under the switch treatment of a doctor one day."

Lao Qiu murmured, "Switch... Treat... How to switch? How to treat?"

Shen Wen said: "For example, some people are born blind, that's because they need a cornea in their eyes. We can cut it from a dead person and replace it in his eyes. Or, some people suffer from heart disease and their hearts are not fully grown..."

Shen Wen stopped talking at this point. She was afraid that people of this era would not be able to accept it, so she did not dare to continue.

Unexpectedly, Dr. Sun urged him with a pair of expectant eyes: "How about it? Can the heart disease be replaced? Do we also need to take a heart from a dead person and put it in the patient's body?"

Shen Wen glanced at Doctor Sun, then looked at Lao Qiu.

Lao Qiu looked at her and Doctor Sun as if they were fools and lunatics.

Doctor Sun just stared at Shen Wen and asked, "Has anyone really done such a thing? Did the patient survive? How did he do it? Can you tell me about it?"

Shen Wen took her time to find a thin knife more than a foot long from the tray held by the runner. The blade was an inch long and was polished to a shine. She cut from the throat first, then extended to the abdomen. Her movements were graceful and smooth, as easy as unzipping a piece of clothing.

Shen Wen asked everyone to come over and take a look. First, she turned over the esophagus to show everyone the color. There was no sign of poisoning. Then she opened the stomach and searched it, taking out the food inside and placing it on a white cloth beside. She told everyone: "There is obvious bleeding in the stomach, and the blood is black. It is definitely food poisoning. Looking at the food she ate, most of it has been digested. This shows that this person did not die of poisoning after eating food."

Shen Wen took up the knife and tweezers, picked up the undigested food residue on the white cloth and looked at it. She said, "Her food residue contains barley rice, vegetables and mutton." Then she put it under her nose and sniffed it and said, "It doesn't smell like alcohol, but it smells like Chinese medicinal materials." Then she carefully searched through the residue... After a while, she found a pill. She smelled it, and handed it to Doctor Sun and asked him to smell it too. Doctor Sun dodged in a hurry, took two steps back in resistance and said, "It's so disgusting! Take it away..."

Shen Wen said, "This is not a source of infection. Look how scared you are. Isn't it taken out from the stomach? It's not taken out from the anus. Why are you reacting so strongly? Come... stop wasting time. Come and see what medicine this is? Smell it carefully. What is this pill used to treat?"

How could Dr. Sun be willing to be looked down upon by her? He went closer and sniffed it. He felt it was very familiar, so he sniffed it again and said, "This is Lengxiang Pills, a kind of pill for women. This thing is very precious. You can't afford to make this kind of pills without a rich family. This medicine is used to regulate the skin. It is much better than the beauty and skin care Yuzhu Paste. Some quack doctors highly praise this medicine and add more effects to it. Do you know how much it is misunderstood now? It is said that it can make women return to their youth."

Shen Wen looked at the pill, trying to figure out who in the compound regularly used it.

Doctor Sun added, "Your Shen family is quite capable. This medicine has a good recipe, but it is very difficult to develop. It takes more than ten years to gather all the herbs needed. I smelled the scent of this medicine and found that it contains something else, which is the ice-type black lotus that is unique to the Snow Mountain King Hu Family Fort. Did a girl from the Hu family marry into your family? This black lotus is only owned by the Hu family. Even the nobles in the palace cannot get it!"

Shen Wen narrowed his eyes slightly.

She remembered that among the four great families in Beijing, there was a Huang family. Their family had a daughter with extraordinary talent who was engaged to the Shen family. The girl's name was Huang Yulian. Her maternal grandfather was the second in command of the Xueshan Hu family, Hu Chong, who was known as the Blue-eyed Hu Master because of his foreign descent and blue eyes. Who did this Huang Yulian marry? He couldn't remember.

At this time, screams were heard from the torture chamber not far away, mixed with intermittent words: "Master... help... Second... Master, help... Marquis... come and save me... Ah... Seventeen... Seventeenth Master! I want to see Seventeenth Master! Help! Seventeenth Master, please spare me!"

Doctor Sun picked his ears and said to Shen Wen, "Your dog slave is shouting for help, but it's clearly Young Master Seventeen who's calling from behind. Why don't you go and take a look?"

Shen Wen was busy sewing up the corpse's belly. His movements were neat and quick. Lao Qiu, who was watching from the side, watched with interest.

Shen Wen only said, "I have to meet him, but I am not done with my work yet, and he is not eager to see me."

Doctor Sun leaned over the corpse and touched the stitched scar. He said, "It seems that you have done a lot of autopsy work! When you cut open the stomach, the internal organs were not damaged, and the blood vessels were not broken. Look! When the stomach was opened, the liver and spleen were the same, without any blood. You can see it clearly! Can you replace a heart or liver for a person? Can you replace that person's head?"

Shen Wen glanced at him and said, "Want to know? Do you want to learn a thing or two?"

Doctor Sun put his hands into his sleeves and said, "Why are you so proud? I can do this too! Do I need to learn from a little coroner like you? It's a joke..."

After Shen Wen finished sewing the last stitch, she put the tools back on the tray. She washed her hands in the copper basin beside her and said to Ji Zichu, "Wasn't Mrs. Shi poisoned during lunch? It should have been later in the evening. Someone deliberately brought some mutton mixed with the poison of Broken Heart Powder for her to eat. Judging from the time, it was around the time when you arrested her. Do you remember? The second housekeeper brought Mrs. Shi and her gang to my door to beg for mercy."