I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 248: Chapter 246: Death by Poisoning

Listening to Zhuang Yanzheng, Su Miaoyi started to vaguely remember something.

Back then, with that case, it seemed like every time they found a key clue, the trail would suddenly go cold.

It happened several times.

When they went to make an arrest, the person had either been silenced or had already fled.

Once or twice could be a coincidence, but when it kept happening, it was impossible not to get suspicious.

”Did something go wrong somewhere?” Su Miaoyi asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her in silence, not saying a word. He seemed unsure of how to say it, or even if he should tell her.

Su Miaoyi met his gaze. For some reason, a sharp pain pierced her heart, and an inexplicable panic set in.

Shock, resentment, and disbelief—a refusal to believe—suddenly flooded her mind.

She felt a sting in her throat, and her eyes began to burn and well up. ”Was it Lu Xian?”

She rasped out the name.

Zhuang Yanzheng watched the tears well up in her reddened eyes. His lips moved, but no words came out.

His silence was the answer.

Su Miaoyi stood frozen, suddenly speechless.

She couldn’t even remember what Lu Xian looked like, nor could she remember anything from that time.

And yet, the moment she saw Zhuang Yanzheng’s silence, that name was the first to come to her mind. A wave of emotion immediately followed, one she couldn’t control.

It hurt. It hurt so much.

Her heart felt as if something was tearing it apart, gnawing at it.

Su Miaoyi tilted her head back, forcing her emotions and tears back down.

Zhuang Yanzheng handed her a tissue. She clutched it in her hand for a long time before asking, ”Where is he?”

She had already composed herself.

”He ran,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”Was I away?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Yes,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”It happened after you left for your mission.”

Su Miaoyi nodded.

Outside, rain had begun to fall at some point, accompanied by lightning and thunder.

”Did you remember something?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Su Miaoyi shook her head, glancing at the lightning outside the window. ”No, I just suddenly feel awful. Uncontrollably awful.”

”That’s to be expected,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi looked up at him, puzzled.

”Right now, in this city bureau, we’re the two who got chewed out by him the most and spent the most time with him. The others have all been transferred to different places. Especially you—you worked under him from the day you started,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”The more he yelled at us, the more we went through together.”

”What about Brother Zheng?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Brother Zheng is older, but he didn’t get chewed out as much as we did. And he got here a few months after I did, so he wasn’t around as long.”

Su Miaoyi looked at him again.

Suddenly, she could feel the complexity of his emotions.

’He must have been devastated when he found out. He must have been heartbroken, especially since I wasn’t there.’

’He probably cried in secret when no one was looking.’

”What are you imagining?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked, looking at her.

Su Miaoyi blinked. ”Huh? Oh, nothing. It’s just... um... I was just thinking, even though I can’t remember, I heard you say the other day that he was a very upright person. How could he...?”

”In my memory, he was very upright. He was serious and relentless when working on cases, always the first to charge in when arresting a fugitive,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”He was also incredibly capable,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Even though he chewed us out like that, and we pulled some petty stunts in response—and by ’we,’ I mostly mean you.”

Su Miaoyi was speechless. ’Other people scheme behind their backs; I did it right in the open...’

Zhuang Yanzheng continued, ”But we both always admired him from the bottom of our hearts.”

He paused for a moment. ”The world is unpredictable, and the human heart is hard to fathom. The better you think someone is, the harder it is to accept the truth when it comes out.”

Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything.

The person in Zhuang Yanzheng’s memory was Captain Lu, not the Lu Xian of today.

After a moment, she asked, ”Do you think this current case is related to the old one?”

”I don’t know,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Today’s case—the sin, the redemption—it reminded me of that old case. I find myself reviewing that case file often anyway.”

”People always leave traces in this world. Even if they took the victims’ phones, some traces can’t be completely erased,” Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded. ”Go get some sleep. We have another busy day tomorrow.”

”Okay.” Su Miaoyi turned to leave. Just as she opened the door, she saw Lu Zhishen walking over with a sheet of drawing paper.

”You finished the sketch?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Yeah.”

Zhuang Yanzheng heard them and came out as well.

The three of them looked at the sketch together.

”Wow, it’s a real person,” Su Miaoyi said.

”What’s that supposed to mean?” Lu Zhishen said.

Su Miaoyi cleared her throat. ”I mean, it’s amazing that you managed to draw a person from a figure whose features were indistinct.”

”Some of the features were visible,” Lu Zhishen said.

”Alright, it seems your eyes and my eyes are different,” Su Miaoyi said, studying the sketch. ”This woman has very defined features. She looks like she could be a foreigner.”

”Let’s run a search on her first.”

The three of them ran the sketch through the database.

They started with Jinghai City, then expanded the search, but came up with no matches.

There was no record of this person.

”If she’s a foreigner, there should be an entry record,” Lu Zhishen said.

”She might not have entered through official channels,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”That’s true.”

”Make more copies of the sketch. We’ll issue a wanted notice for her,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”Right.”

...

「The next day.」

Everyone was busy with their own tasks, all hoping to find a clue.

The morning passed quickly.

Around four in the afternoon, all of Yan Cheng’s lab reports came in.

”Blood-sealing Throat?” Qi Feng said in surprise as he looked at the name on the report. ”This stuff actually exists?”

”It’s a plant, also known as the upas tree,” Yan Cheng explained. ”A highly toxic plant. The milky white sap from its bark and leaves is extremely poisonous. The toxic components are α-antiarin and β-antiarin.”

Su Miaoyi suddenly clenched her jaw. It felt like information was being drilled into her head.

”So they both died from poisoning?” The reports were in others’ hands, so Su Miaoyi, not having one, just asked directly.

”Yes. The cause of death was poisoning,” Yan Cheng said. ”The Blood-sealing Throat plant grows in tropical rainforests below 1,500 meters in altitude. If you don’t have any open wounds on your skin, its sap won’t harm you even if you touch it. But if the sap comes into contact with a wound, the toxin enters the body, causing the victim’s heart to stop, blood vessels to constrict, and blood to coagulate. Asphyxiation and death occur within twenty to thirty minutes.”

’So when the person in the nurse’s uniform entered the hospital room at 2:17, they said they needed to check the two victims’ wounds.’

’That must have been when they administered the poison.’

The time it would have taken for the poison to affect Xing Chang and Chang Yong also matched up.

”Tropical rainforests below 1,500 meters...” Su Miaoyi mused. ”Maybe we can use that to find some information.”

Zhuang Yanzheng said, ”It’s a lead.”