Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 167 Scared
There were two small huts, the other one was empty. Jia Chuan couldn't understand it. After vomiting, he went back to continue piecing together the corpses. When he couldn't hold it in anymore, he came out to vomit again, unlike Old Zheng who vomited endlessly.

When Chen Mo ordered someone to bring over the sacks containing the herbs, Jia Chuan faintly smelled the fragrance of the herbs, and his mind immediately cleared.

These body parts clearly indicate that the person had not been dead for several days, meaning someone did this intentionally.

Why would you do this on purpose?
There must be something down there!
Jia Chuan had originally planned to separate the body parts, internal organs, and head into different bags and take them away for later re-examination. However, he felt that the more important thing was under the wooden board, and the things on top... Now was not the time to piece the body together. He should first determine what was underneath and then piece it together later.

……

Sure enough, after Jia Chuan cleaned out the small house and found nothing but bloodstains, Chen Mo led the Imperial Guards in and lifted the door panel, revealing a hidden door underneath.

At this point, Jia Chuan had no strength left. He and Old Zheng helped each other walk a distance, and then the two of them collapsed to the ground. Gao Yuntian and Shunzi quickly ran over.

The two of them didn't go inside. At least Gao Yuntian had someone to keep him company, which made him feel that he could save face.

Chen Mo came out with Jia Chuan and Old Zheng. Jia Chuan saw the hidden door but said nothing. Chen Mo didn't dare to open it immediately either. He still had to listen to Jia Chuan's orders. Who would have thought that there was a hidden door under a pile of dismembered corpses?
But Jia Chuan had already thought of this, which made Chen Mo's already confused mind even more confused. Apart from waiting for Jia Chuan's order, he dared not do anything now. Who knew what he would see when he opened it?

Jia Chuan felt weak and simply lay down on the ground. The chill on his back calmed him down somewhat, and then he said, "After opening the hidden door, no one should go down. Let it air out first. I don't know what it will be like inside. It's always good to let it air out. I'll see if I can go down when I have some strength."

Jia Chuan was also trembling; he needed to calm down.

Mu Lian squatted down not far from Jia Chuan, tilted her head and said, "I really didn't expect it to be like this."

"What?" Jia Chuan sat up and asked irritably.

"No one usually comes here, but there are several courtyards nearby where medicine workers and laborers live. You know what it's like when someone is poisoned. Some can scream, some can't. Let's not talk about that. But the struggle is very painful. Vomiting and diarrhea are normal. Even if they have a dark room under the hut, without doors or windows, how will they deal with the filth after the person dies? Even if they clean it up quickly, the smell won't dissipate. It will stink to death. Besides, if so many people are put together, are they just watching others test the medicine? What if they don't die immediately? Or is it to... test the antidote? Oh, it's all the same."

Jia Chuan's eyes lit up, and he stood up and started to stroll around.

He had been trying to convince himself that the poison test was not about whether it was poisonous or not, but about the dosage. The poison used by men, women, and children might be different. But he also knew that in his previous life, the dosage of medicines was based on weight, without considering side effects. But those medicines were for treating diseases, while theirs were for taking lives!
All you need to do is give a lot more, but the prerequisite is that you have the tools to purify it and make it into pills. Otherwise, you have to prepare the medicine in advance before killing someone and then find a way to make someone drink it. There is no need to test the medicine. The ancients have already clearly written it in the medicine book. Moreover, unless you force the poisoning or there are uncontrollable factors that force you to drink it yourself, it is probably impossible to do it without anyone knowing.

But how many people could be killed using this method? Is it worth the huge research and development costs?

In his previous life, Jia Chuan knew of many poisoning cases, most of which were accidental ingestion or suicide, deliberate poisoning cases. The murderers' purpose was naturally to escape the law, which is fundamentally different from this case.

Mu Lian killing the fake Shunzi was an impromptu act, but did the fake Shunzi poison Zhou Cheng to give himself a chance to survive? If Zhou Cheng died in some other way, what excuse could he, as his follower, use to absolve himself of responsibility? But what they did couldn't have been done without money. Since they had the money, wouldn't hiring someone to kill him be a safer option?
That means it's too late?

If the method of poisoning Zhou Cheng was out of desperation, then what was the motive? It must be related to their arrival in Kaifeng, and also to the directness of his words when he met Zhou Cheng, which aroused Zhou Cheng's suspicion. Consequently, that very night, he hurriedly took the person who was testing the drug to the garden and buried him. Could it be that this incident angered his accomplices? So much so that they couldn't wait to kill Zhou Cheng?
Makes no sense.

Jia Chuan turned back and continued his stroll.

The change in Zhou Cheng's attitude when he met him that day was because he learned that the two men behind him were Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards). In other words, Zhou Cheng had only heard of Jia Chuan, and in Zhou Cheng's eyes, Jia Chuan was far less important than the Jinyiwei.

The attitude of Prince Zhu Youdun of Zhou shows that he knew very well who was in charge this time.

Who would know clearly who Jia Chuan was? Who would know Zhu Zhanji's attitude towards Jia Chuan?

It's not enough to just be official; you need to be closer to the top. Some things aren't ready to be fully disclosed yet. In other words, Zhou Cheng's partners aren't high-level people. From the time they decided to come to Kaifeng to the time they actually arrived, there were several days, enough time for the partners to pass on information.

Furthermore, after the fake Shunzi recognized Mu Lian, he said: "Mu Wangfu (Mu's Royal Residence)."

Based on this, it seems that Zhou Cheng saw the Embroidered Uniform Guards following the Imperial Medical Academy to the herb collection bureau. The young man was very imposing and said some ambiguous and chilling things, which can be considered as alerting the enemy. It is reasonable for Zhou Cheng to transfer the criminal evidence overnight. Why did his accomplice poison him in such a hurry?

Jia Chuan began searching deep into his memories for his understanding of the poisoning case from his previous life. He remembered that poisoning was inextricably linked to dosage. The same group of people ate the same rotten food that was being processed and cooked again in the canteen, causing vomiting and diarrhea, with varying degrees of severity. The same was true for poisoning. This was why he initially deduced that the drug test was testing the dosage of the poison. So here's the question: Mu Lian almost used Han Guang to test the drug before, just to prove whether the vomit was enough to kill a person. At that time, Mu Lian's judgment was that Zhou Cheng did not die quickly after the first poison was used, so Jia Shunzi used the second poison.

This is even more inexplicable. They've been testing drugs for some time now, so how could they not have anything of substance to show for it? And if they only needed to test the toxicity, there was no need to use people.

As the old saying goes, without buying, there would be no killing.

Is this poison intended for mass production? Who will it be sold to? It was obtained at the cost of so many lives, how much will it fetch? He had just read Zhu Su's "Emergency Relief Materia Medica," which clearly states that some herbs can be eaten after removing their toxicity and bitterness.

In other words, there are plenty of poisons in nature. The pits of many fruits can be fatal if you eat just a few. Who would eat them for no reason? Drinking seventy or eighty cups of coffee a day can lead to caffeine poisoning and death. Who would drink that much for no reason? Alcohol poisoning goes without saying, and rotten food is even more frightening. If nothing happens, all that's fine... Jia Chuan just thought about it briefly, not even counting daily chemical products. All those things that have warnings saying to keep out of reach of children... Who would be so bored as to put large quantities of them in their mouth?
That was in the previous life. In this life, there are just as many natural poisons, and people avoid them like the plague. Who would buy and collect large quantities of poisons? Even if one has a grand goal of defying fate, poisons can only be an auxiliary product. If Zhu Gaochi wanted to poison the fat man, he would need a fake imperial edict as the main character, let alone anyone else.

Testing the antidote is different; it could be a highly profitable business, or it could be used to blackmail someone to get what you want, but only if they already have the poison in their possession.

Jia Chuan stopped, looked at Mu Lian, and asked, "How much poison can you cure?"

Mu Lian paused for a moment, then thought for a moment before saying, "That's hard to say. When my mother taught me to identify herbs, she said that you shouldn't just look at what kind of poison it is, but also whether the person has had other illnesses recently, whether they have taken other medications, and whether they have..."

Jia Chuan waved his hand, stepped closer, and asked, "Red Beauty Dies, Heat Poison, these must be the names of poisonous creatures..."

"Oh, I understand what you mean. Not all poisons have names. Those that do have names do so because they have obvious characteristics after poisoning. For example, 'Red Beauty's Death' is because the poisoned person's lips will turn a deep red. There's also a poison called 'Vermilion Tears,' which causes the poisoned person to shed tears of blood. When we treat poisons, we first look at what the main poison is..."

"So you're saying that even if everyone takes the Beauty's Demise, your methods of detoxification might not be the same?"

"Yes! These things don't taste good, and if someone were to deliberately poison them... Hey, how do you know that colorless and odorless poison is hard to make?"

Jia Chuan wanted to say that he only knew that purification was difficult, but he knew that it was inappropriate to say it that way. He was thinking about how to phrase it when Mu Lian said again, "If we really wanted to poison someone, we could still do it if we arrived in time, but if we had to wait longer, it would be too late. The antidote is not what you think. There are pills prepared in advance. If someone is poisoned, we know what kind of poison it is and just give them an antidote. Dream on!"

"But that fake Shunzi had the antidote ready in his sleeve."

Mu Lian stood up, stretched her legs, and said with her head down, "I should have let him take the antidote and try it. If it could really cure the 'Red Beauty's Death,' it would be a good deed."

"He didn't take the antidote, so where did it go?"

"If I exert too much force, it will turn to powder. If he and I fight over it, it will crumble into dust, and the wind will blow it away, leaving no trace," Mu Lian said in frustration.

Jia Chuan muttered, "If they were testing an antidote, how could so many people have died?"

Mu Lian let out a long breath and said:

"As I just said, the process of detoxification after poisoning takes time, sometimes several years to fully recover. Their idea of ​​making one pill and achieving this is just wishful thinking! Even if someone takes the antidote and doesn't die immediately, they will still need to take the medicine continuously, and the prescription will need to be changed according to their physical condition. But then again, if they really made an antidote that can cure all poisons, it would be a great deed. However, using this method... I'm afraid they will also be unable to escape hell."

Jia Chuan nodded and said, "That's why you said that such a small hut, with a dark underground room that's not well-ventilated, is probably not an ideal place for testing poisons or antidotes. So why did they have to choose the herb-gathering bureau? Wouldn't it be safer to just find a more secluded house? Sending medicine out of the herb-gathering bureau is obviously more difficult than bringing people into it, and it's easier to be exposed over time."

As Jia Chuan spoke, he turned to look at the two small houses on the ruins, then towards the courtyard where Zhou Cheng lived, and then towards the north gate. He then shouted loudly, "Chen Mo, order someone to push down the two small houses. Gao Yuntian, take a few Imperial Guards and call the yamen runners to take everyone from the courtyards west of the herb-gathering bureau to the front yard to guard them and clear the courtyards out."

……

"West" is a very general term. Even with Gao Yuntian's intelligence, he wouldn't be able to figure out the distance in a short time. Jia Chuan felt that he hadn't expressed it clearly. He called Chen Mo, Gao Yuntian, and Shunzi over and briefly explained his deduction, which meant: there is a hidden world under the small house!

The reason Zhou Cheng and his accomplices chose to locate their criminal den in the herb-collecting bureau, rather than in other remote locations, was because the dead are more difficult to enter and exit than the living.

There is a herb garden next to the herb collection bureau, and no one else ever passes through the alley between the north gate and the back gate of the herb garden at night. Neither the night watchmen nor the patrolmen come here. It can be said to be the best and safest route to dispose of a body. The herb garden also provides a natural burial ground.

That's one point. Secondly, the underground of the herb-gathering bureau probably already had hidden secrets. Since there was a secret passage leading to Zhou Cheng's residence, there must have been other secret passages as well. Perhaps the old prince only wanted to have a comprehensive understanding of his herb-gathering bureau and set up some secret passages for his supervision when it was first built. Zhou Cheng was unaware of this at first, and how he found out later is unknown, but he must have known about it while the old prince was alive. If this was used, then the space under that small house would not just be a secret room.

Mu Lian is right. Dark rooms are unsuitable for testing medicines, regardless of the purpose. The location of the hut was originally a resting place for construction workers and herbalists when the herb garden was built. It was not under the old prince's watchful eye, so there shouldn't be any underground passages from the same period as the one in Zhou Cheng's courtyard.

Gao Yuntian was completely bewildered, but fortunately Shunzi was there. Shunzi would translate Jia Chuan's words into something Gao Yuntian could understand and repeat it, so Chen Mo was able to understand as well.

Chen Mo asked, "You mean, in a little while, Gao Yuntian will lead his men to clear out all the courtyards near the main courtyard, and I'll take some men down there to see if it leads to those courtyards?"

“Once you’re down there, you’ll have a hard time distinguishing east from west and north from south, and you’ll have even less of a chance to know where you are. I’m only making a preliminary deduction based on what I see here. Clearing those courtyards is also to prevent anyone from going down there and causing you trouble. Walk around on the ground for a while and calculate the distance. See how far Gao Yuntian can clear. Once you’re down there, only go as far as that distance. Even if there’s still a path, don’t go any further. Even if there’s no exit, don’t go any further. If you go the wrong way, you absolutely cannot go any further.”

"Why?"

(End of this chapter)