Chapter 60 - 59: Three Suspects (Part 1)

Chapter 60: Chapter 59: Three Suspects (Part 1)

The woman in front of him was still watching him, seemingly waiting for him to speak. Xiao Yi temporarily suppressed the complex and unclear emotions in his heart and said calmly, "Yes, last time you said to focus on investigating the physicians close to the victims, and indeed, a few suspects were found.

Miss Xu’s free clinic and new medicine over the past few days have caused a sensation throughout the city, and now there are probably even fewer people paying attention to that case.

If the murderer is like Miss Xu said, hating those who stole his spotlight, he might strike against Miss Xu again. Miss Xu knows who the suspects are and can be more vigilant."

When it came to the matter at hand, Xu Jing’s embarrassment evaporated, and her expression became serious. She straightened her posture and said, "Please go ahead, Vice Minister Xiao."

"It’s not difficult to narrow down the suspects, starting with the Fang Family. As one of the leading families in Anping County, the Fang Family has always had assigned physicians.

However, the situation within the Fang Family is somewhat complicated. The deceased Old Master Fang had four sons, three of whom were born to his legitimate wife, and one was born to a concubine. All four sons are grown, married, and have children. Except for the second son, who passed the imperial exam a few years ago and took his family to an official post elsewhere, the other three sons still live in the Fang Family residence.

The relationships between the different branches of the Fang Family cannot be said to be very close, so they do not all use the same physicians for their daily medical needs.

The primary branch of the Fang Family prefers to use doctors from Guangming Hall, often specifically requesting Doctor Lin Chengzhao, who manages Guangming Hall, to see them. Doctor Lin is very accommodating to the Fang Family and will visit personally whenever his schedule allows.

The third branch of the Fang Family likes to have Doctor Zhou Qi, who manages Tianyi Hall, see them.

As for the fourth branch, being of concubine descent, they cannot invite the managing doctors from major medical halls and usually only have a doctor named Xue Heng from Huashou Hall see them."

The corners of Xu Jing’s mouth stiffened slightly.

This entire family is so calculated; even the choice of doctors exudes a sense of competition.

However, this situation is problematic. If those doctors frequently visit the Fang Family, it means they had opportunities to learn about the relationship between Fang Dalang and Old Master Fang, and thus would know that Fang Dalang would visit Old Master Fang that day, leading Old Master Fang to possibly be so angered that he stormed out.

She suddenly thought of something and asked, "Since Old Master Fang is not in good health, he surely needs a doctor to take care of his body regularly, right?"

Xiao Yi glanced at her and nodded, "Indeed, the doctor responsible for Old Master Fang’s health is Doctor Zheng from Huashou Hall."

Xu Jing: "..."

Here we go, another suspect.

And these suspects are indeed significant, gathering the heads of all the major medical halls in Anping County.

The connections she has with these heads are indeed tangled and complicated.

Seeing Xu Jing’s speechless expression, Xiao Yi seemed somewhat amused, with a faint smile in his dark eyes, "According to our previous deduction, all four of these doctors could potentially be the murderer.

Among the deceased in Anping County, only Old Master Fang was from a prominent family, with the others being from ordinary backgrounds who visited various medical halls for treatment, offering little reference value.

However, those doctors come into contact with many patients, and Anping County is small. Many among the populace know each other well, so if they were inclined, finding out information about those deceased individuals wouldn’t be hard for them."

Xu Jing couldn’t help but ponder aloud, "So, now the suspects are those four doctors?"

"Not quite," Xiao Yi suddenly said, "That doctor named Xue Heng can be ruled out as a suspect.

I mentioned to you before that a case occurred in the Western Capital over a month ago. I had someone investigate the whereabouts of those four doctors at the time and discovered that during the incident in the Western Capital, only the three heads of the medical halls were actually in the Western Capital."

Xu Jing was slightly stunned, her brows slightly furrowed, "The three heads all happened to be in the Western Capital?"

Could things be such a coincidence?

Xiao Yi nodded and said, "Guangming Hall already has a branch in the Western Capital, and many prominent patients of Guangming Hall in the Western Capital are high-ranking officials and nobles. Master Lin places great importance on this and visits the Western Capital almost every month, bringing a few of his sons along each time.

Doctor Zheng was originally an Imperial Physician of the Royal City. Many nobles in the capital prefer to consult him. A few years back, due to health issues, he retired to his hometown, but many nobles in the capital were reluctant to see him go. He promised that as long as his health allowed, he would immediately return at the summons of the nobles, and only then did the Holy Emperor allow him to leave.

Thus, he frequently travels to the Western Capital as well.

As for Tianyi Hall, although it currently doesn’t have a branch in the Western Capital, it did three years ago. However, after the previous head of Tianyi Hall unexpectedly passed away, the Zhou Family went through significant turmoil and nearly lost their family business. Fortunately, the current Mr. Zhou is capable, immediately and decisively closing many branches, including the one in the Western Capital, to shrink the scale of Tianyi Hall and survived that crisis.

In the past three years, Tianyi Hall’s situation has improved significantly, and it seems that Mr. Zhou has been planning to reopen the branch in the Western Capital, having visited the Western Capital three times this year to assess the situation."

Given this, their reasons for being in the Western Capital are also quite valid.

From these circumstances, it’s hard to see which person is more suspicious.

Xu Jing contemplated for a moment and said calmly, "To find the murderer, we’ll need more clues. Perhaps after conducting an autopsy, the deceased can reveal more to us.

How is the set of tools being crafted?"

The day she returned home from the county government, she immediately drew the basic design for the autopsy tools and had Chen Hu send it to Xiao Yi.

Today marks the fourth day since then.

At the mention of "conducting an autopsy," Xianyun’s face turned pale, his mouth agape in a dreamlike state.

Aut... Autopsy?! Is it the meaning he understood?!

He even doubted whether he was too agitated today, hence mishearing it for a moment.

Beside him, Dongli’s expression was even more dejected, casting a very resentful glance at Xianyun.

Now he truly understood the torment he underwent!

What tormented him further was the Lord actually... actually believing what that woman said!

Subsequently, Xiao Yi’s attitude made Xianyun doubt reality even more.

He saw his Lord nod slightly, casually saying, "I just had someone inquire; the tools you requested will be ready by tomorrow morning.

Leaving a body for too long isn’t good. Although I’ve already placed ice around the corpses of Zhu Dalang and Old Master Fang, as you previously suggested, to slow their decomposition, conducting the autopsy sooner would be better."

As for Mr. Lv’s body, given that it had been kept for too long, the internal organs might have already become mixed, rendering any dissection less valuable. Xu Jing had already suggested to Xiao Yi, during her visit to the county government for the autopsy, to return Mr. Lv’s body to his family as soon as possible.

Xu Jing was naturally more aware of the situation than Xiao Yi. If she had the tools, she would have dissected Zhu Dalang on the first day after his death.

Although Zhu Dalang’s skin was burnt off, the internal organs seemed unharmed due to the timely rescue.

Among these bodies, his is the freshest, thus has the highest value for an autopsy.

She immediately said, "I can perform the autopsy tomorrow, but tomorrow is the last day of the free clinic at Xinglin Hall, and I cannot step away."

Xiao Yi immediately understood, "You can conduct the autopsy after finishing your work at Xinglin Hall. I’ll send someone to pick you up then."

Although the case matters, Xu Jing is not an official and has no obligation to investigate it.

Of course, he cannot demand that she put aside her own matters to assist them. He can afford to wait this little while.