Chapter 397 - 395: He Is Lying (First Update)

Chapter 397: Chapter 395: He Is Lying (First Update)

After the six people were brought over, they clearly realized something, each wearing a faint look of unease on their faces.

Xu Jing stood quietly to the side, simply watching them.

Among them, the youngest was the thirteen-year-old An He, fourteen-year-old Su Youwang, seventeen-year-old Chen Ruosheng, and just twenty-year-old Zhang Ye, all trained by Cheng Xianbai during this period.

The other two were eighteen-year-old Li Shiheng and twenty-two-year-old Shi Wenfeng, both borrowed from the Zhou Family.

According to Zhou Qi, Li Shiheng was born in their Zhou Family; his father is in charge of procurement at the main store of Tianyi Hall. Shi Wenfeng, on the other hand, started working at Tianyi Hall six years ago, initially doing various odd jobs at the main store, and due to his diligence and attention to detail, was transferred when the Western Capital branch of Tianyi Hall opened.

Mr. Yao slowly surveyed the group in front of him, with his hands behind his back, and spoke in a dignified tone, "This official called you over because there are some matters to inquire about. Earlier, seeing you busy attending to the patients, I refrained from interrupting."

Although Xu Jing didn’t have them help treat the patients, due to the manpower shortage, they still had to run errands or calm other non-poisoned refugees, among other odd jobs.

"The Western Capital is under the emperor’s feet, and even the homeless refugees are citizens of our Great Chu. We have the duty to protect them. The incident that occurred today is heinous, and this official is determined to find the person who poisoned them to serve justice!

The surrounding citizens say these refugees became like this after drinking the medicinal soup provided by Xinglin Hall, indicating the problem could only lie in Xinglin Hall’s medicinal soup! However, Mr. Cheng and Nurse Wei informed this official earlier that Xinglin Hall absolutely has no intent to harm civilians. Xinglin Hall plans to establish itself in the Western Capital and has no reason for such actions. This incident is the work of a villain trying to harm them!"

With a stern face, Mr. Yao glanced at the group again, "Today, those who had the opportunity to access the pots of medicinal soup were only you, Mr. Cheng, and Nurse Wei, all eight of you. The person responsible for the poisoning is among you!"

At once, the six men’s legs went weak, and they exclaimed in a panic—

"I... I didn’t poison anyone! It wasn’t me, please, Mr. Yao, see clearly!"

"My father still works at Tianyi Hall; if I did something like this, he would definitely break my legs."

"We don’t know how those people suddenly got poisoned!"

Seeing them all speaking at once, the situation became increasingly chaotic, Mr. Yao raised his voice saying, "Quiet! Of course, this official won’t wrongly accuse an innocent person! I called you over to understand what happened in the tent today.

Miss Xu said, the refugees are poisoned with Thunder God Vine, which doesn’t show symptoms immediately but usually occurs within two to three hours after ingestion. And you came early in the morning to distribute the medicinal soup. Tell me, each in turn, what you did before any signs of poisoning appeared, and whether you noticed anything unusual.

Let’s start with... the youngest, Mr. An."

With everyone’s gaze fixed on him, An He trembled slightly, nervously moving his eyes, "I... I was always responsible for adding firewood to the medicinal soup and sorting used ceramic bowls. Working with me was Su Youwang because the number of civilians collecting medicinal soup was quite high. We were so busy every time that we barely had any time, even a moment to stop and drink water. I... I didn’t have any time to notice if anything unusual happened around."

Mr. Yao glanced at the others in the vicinity and, seeing their expressions were normal, continued to ask, "There were three pots of medicinal soup, and you had to add firewood to them. Were you ever alone near any one of the pots?"

An He widened his eyes blankly, saying, "I don’t think so..."

"Liar!"

Li Shiheng couldn’t help but exclaim loudly, "I clearly remember you being near the pots alone several times!"

Without caring about the more anxious look on An He’s face, he turned to Mr. Yao and said, "Mr. Yao, these past days my job was to boil the medicinal soup and move it to the front line for distribution, working with me was Shi Wenfeng. Since there were three pots and only two of us, we couldn’t always monitor each pot. But since I had to keep an eye on the boiling conditions, I frequently checked them. I am sure An He and Su Youwang had many opportunities to be alone near the medicinal soup!"

An He turned pale, quickly saying, "I... I’m not lying! I may not remember some details clearly because it was too busy..."

Saying so, seeing Mr. Yao’s scrutinizing gaze on him, An He became anxious and said, "In that case, you and Mr. Shi also surely had many chances to be alone near the medicinal soup! We were all busy and couldn’t always keep watch over the medicinal soup. Poisoning it wouldn’t be difficult!"

Li Shiheng paused, unable to provide a rebuttal.

He was indeed correct; throughout the process of boiling the medicinal soup, everyone had the opportunity to be alone with it.

And those responsible for distributing the medicinal soup, Chen Ruosheng and Zhang Ye, had even more time alone with it, having several opportunities to poison it at any moment.

Yet, all six claimed that before the first signs of poisoning appeared among the refugees, they noticed nothing unusual.

Mr. Yao furrowed his brow slightly, but he knew that finding the true culprit wouldn’t be easy. After questioning them, he had them move aside and ordered the government officials to search them.

However, though they needed something to hold the poison for the act, they had too many opportunities to dispose of such evidence by now.

Perhaps even before the first poisoning signs appeared, they had already disposed of any such evidence on them, as during the distribution of medicinal soup, each of them had left the tent at least once for drinking water or attending to nature’s call.

A body search probably wouldn’t yield anything.

Mr. Yao pondered for a moment, then looked toward Xu Jing and asked, "Miss Xu, what do you think?"

Although Xu Jing couldn’t interfere with this case, he could still ask for her opinion, as he had the authority to decide whether or not to accept it.

After a brief silence, Xu Jing replied, "Mr. Cheng and his people said they had boiled four rounds of medicinal soup today. Based on the timing of the first poisoning incident, the poison must have been in the first batch of soup. Earlier, I asked several of the poisoned refugees, and they all stated they received their medicinal soup from Mr. Zhang."

This indicates the problematic pot of soup was the one distributed by Zhang Ye!

However, amidst saving patients, Mr. Yao hadn’t been idle; these findings had been discovered earlier.

He noted, "However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the poisoner was Mr. Zhang. According to the statements of those individuals, the four people in the back who boiled the medicinal soup all had chances to access that pot alone.

If any were to have a lower suspicion level, it would be Chen Ruosheng, who distributed soup alongside Mr. Zhang."

Still, this leaves five suspects.