Chapter 69: Outsmarting Oneself

Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Outsmarting Oneself

Teacher Qi, with his extensive connections, had procured a targeted antidote from a special department. Its effects were indeed potent.

An hour later, Yu Zhiming examined Yao Chengyun, who had been moved to a special care unit.

He was pleasantly surprised to find that the worsening of her organ damage had stopped, and her vital signs were stabilizing.

"Doctor, my baby?"

Yu Zhiming looked at the pale Yao Chengyun, who was lightly clutching her lower abdomen, and told her frankly.

"To control the poison’s damage to your body, we had to use several potent drugs with significant side effects. Harm to the fetus was unavoidable."

"The ricin would have also caused damage to the fetus."

"I recommend that once you’ve recovered a bit, you terminate the pregnancy."

When Yu Zhiming left the room, he saw a burly police officer in his thirties waiting for him.

"Dr. Yu, hello."

As soon as the man spoke, Yu Zhiming recognized his voice.

It was the same officer who had called him last time about the voyeurism and blackmail case.

Sure enough, the man introduced himself, "I’m Jin Feng, Deputy Director of the Xinyuan Street Police Station."

"I’d like to ask you some questions regarding Yao Chengyun’s poisoning."

Yu Zhiming, pretending it was the first time they’d met, led him to the main office.

Then, Yu Zhiming gave a detailed account of how he had discovered Yao Chengyun’s condition and the treatment she had received.

"Officer, would you be able to share any of your findings?"

"Was it... an accident? Or intentional?"

Jin Feng smiled. "We’re still in the initial stages of the investigation, so it’s too early to determine if it was accidental or intentional."

"What I can tell you is that our colleagues have already gone to Yao Chengyun’s home to conduct a detailed investigation and collect evidence."

"Also, we immediately notified her husband, Zhang Jiahao, who’s on a business trip in Jinling, to get to a major hospital nearby for a ricin test as soon as possible."

Hearing this, Yu Zhiming couldn’t help but slap his forehead.

’Dammit, I messed up again.’

’After confirming Yao Chengyun was poisoned with ricin, I should have thought to ask her for a list of people who might have been poisoned along with her and told them to seek medical attention immediately.’

His oversight had cost about an hour of precious life-saving time.

’Sigh. I’m still too rash and not thorough enough. I have a long, long way to go before I can call myself a great doctor.’

Noticing Jin Feng looking at him with confusion, the self-reproaching Yu Zhiming quickly explained.

"Notifying her husband to get checked should have been my job. It was an oversight on my part."

Jin Feng said, "Oh," and was about to speak when the office door was suddenly thrown open.

He then saw his colleague, Xiaochen, who had come to investigate with him, burst in frantically.

"Director, we’ve made a huge discovery—"

Seeing Xiaochen catch himself, Jin Feng chuckled. "Dr. Yu is not an outsider. If it’s just a factual discovery, you can speak freely."

With permission granted, Xiaochen said excitedly, "We just uncovered a fact: Yao Chengyun’s life insurance death benefit is as high as 12.7 million yuan."

"Also, we just got word from Jinling. They’ve also found traces of castor bean shells in the husband’s system."

"Most importantly..."

Xiaochen licked his lips. "When the husband learned there were traces of castor bean in his system, he was completely shocked."

"He kept saying it was impossible, absolutely impossible, and that the hospital must have made a mistake."

Jin Feng gave a cold chuckle. "The fact that he’s saying that makes this very interesting."

"We need to question Yao Chengyun again..."

His curiosity piqued, Yu Zhiming eagerly tagged along with Jin Feng and Xiaochen back to Yao Chengyun’s special care room.

"Ms. Yao, regarding your and your husband’s diet, is there anything that you eat but he doesn’t, or that he eats but you don’t?"

Yao Chengyun shook her head. "No."

"Whenever we eat together, we always share the same food. We don’t have separate dishes."

"However..."

"However what?" Officer Xiaochen pressed.

Yao Chengyun said slowly, "Lately, I’ve been eating very little to lose weight. But for my health, I’ve been drinking vegetable juice to supplement my nutrition."

"But Jiahao thinks vegetable juice tastes awful, so he never drinks it."

"That vegetable juice really is terrible."

"I can only manage a few sips myself before I pour the rest into a nutritional porridge and cook them together."

"Jiahao never knew about this."

Hearing this, Yu Zhiming and Jin Feng exchanged a look. They both realized the husband must have gotten the ricin in his system by eating the nutritional porridge.

’So this is a case of being too clever by half and getting hoist by his own petard, eh?’

Jin Feng asked another question, "Ms. Yao, we found that you’ve purchased a large number of insurance policies for yourself—life insurance, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, and so on. The cumulative payout is enormous..."

A bitter look appeared on Yao Chengyun’s face. "One of my best friends is an insurance agent, and she often asks me to help her meet her sales quota."

"I’m the kind of person who has a hard time saying no..."

As Yu Zhiming saw the two officers, Jin Feng and Xiaochen, out of the Qi Yue Medical Research Center, he noticed Qi Yue about ten meters away, also downstairs saying goodbye to Zhou Hao and her daughter Zhou Mo.

He noted that Teacher Qi and Zhou Hao seemed to be quite familiar with each other.

The distance between them was about half a meter.

This was well within the range of intimate distance. Zhou Mo, on the other hand, was standing two or three meters away from them.

Yu Zhiming strained his ears and faintly heard the words, "...you should take it easy. Don’t let yourself get squeezed dry."

Then, he saw a very awkward smile appear on Teacher Qi’s face.

Yu Zhiming didn’t dare eavesdrop any longer and quickly waved goodbye to the two officers.

He then turned to Zhou Mo, who was looking his way, and gave her what he considered a handsome smile in return.

Suddenly, another voice drifted over on the wind.

"Old Qi, don’t forget what you promised me. Especially about that Yu Zhiming. He’s such a pretty boy, you can tell at a glance he’s a total scoundrel and no good."

Yu Zhiming was furious.

’Just because I accidentally discovered you’re an old virgin, you have to slander me behind my back?’

’Hmph. There’s a reason she’s still a virgin at her age. She looks all elegant on the outside, but she’s a real piece of work underneath.’

Silently fuming, Yu Zhiming noticed Zhou Hao looking over at him and immediately offered a faint smile in return—one so deep it reached the dermis.

A few minutes later, the Zhou mother and daughter left.

Qi Yue frowned at the approaching Yu Zhiming and asked with a serious expression, "Did you do something to offend Zhou Mo’s mother?"

"Of course not!"

Yu Zhiming looked utterly wronged. "I just did a full-body examination for her mother at Zhou Mo’s request."

He then added as if a lightbulb went off, "Which, of course, included a gynecological exam."

"Teacher, she doesn’t think..."

Yu Zhiming looked horrified and indignant.

"Teacher, I’m not that kind of person! She’s old enough to be my mother!"

Qi Yue cut him off with a stern look. "Alright, alright, that’s enough. I believe you."

He added, "Zhou Mo’s mother has some... quirks. She doesn’t really like close contact with others."

"She must have gotten the wrong impression of you. As long as I’m here, you don’t have to worry about any trouble."

"However..."

Qi Yue warned, "This should also be a lesson for you."

"Zhiming, in the future, when you perform physical examinations, try to do them in a formal and public setting whenever possible."

"If someone with ulterior motives really decides to use something like this against you, it can be quite troublesome to deal with."

Humbled, Yu Zhiming said, "I understand, Teacher."

"I’ll be more careful in the future..."

Around 6 p.m., Yu Zhiming rode a shared bike back to his apartment in the Zijin Garden District to find his eldest sister and Fourth Sister busy making dumplings.

"Fifth Brother, this is scallion and beef, this one is chive and egg, this one is green bean and pork, and this is baby napa cabbage and pork."

"We’ve already made over a hundred and put them in the freezer."

Yu Xiangwan showed off a bit, then added, "We wanted to make a lamb filling too, but Eldest Sister thought the lamb at the market wasn’t good enough, so we didn’t buy any."

Like a little kid, Yu Zhiming bent over, hugged his eldest sister’s shoulders, and said sweetly, "These are all my favorites."

"I knew Eldest Sister treats me the best."

Yu Zhaoxia smiled warmly. "You’re a grown man now. Aren’t you afraid someone will see you and laugh?"

She then continued, "Lao Si already bought my train ticket on her phone. It’s for a little after nine tomorrow morning."

"Aren’t you visiting that... An Hospital tomorrow? You don’t have to see me off."

Yu Zhiming insisted, "I have to see you off."

"The tour of Ning’an Hospital will just be a quick look around. It won’t take much time."

Yu Zhaoxia dusted the flour off her hands and stood up. "I’ll go make dinner now. We’ll boil the dumplings."

"Fifth Brother, which filling do you want?"