Soon, the door opened, and an old woman with a haggard face came out. Seeing Hua Hanyun, she seemed to see a lifeline.
"Dr. Hua, you've arrived!"
After saying that, she noticed that Su Yan and Shen Yao, who were following behind Hua Hanyun, seemed quite surprised and looked at them warily. "Who are you?"
Su Yan and Shen Yao exchanged a glance. If they revealed their identities directly, they probably wouldn't even be able to get in the door. Just as they were hesitating about how to start the conversation, Hua Hanyun seemed to notice their embarrassment and spoke up for them, "These two young men are learning medicine from me. I brought them out to see a doctor."
The woman had no doubts about Hua Hanyun's explanation and led the three of them into her home.
Zhao Liangde lived in a side room. As soon as you entered the room, you were hit by a stench of excrement and urine mixed with the smell of decay.
Su Yan is a coroner, and she has examined corpses that are a hundred times more disgusting than this. This kind of scene is a small problem for her.
However, Shen Yao was not so sure. The battlefield environment was inevitably dirty and messy, but he lacked the composure to handle such disgusting things. He frowned as soon as he entered the room, unable to maintain the natural expression that Su Yan had.
Zhao Liangde lay motionless on the bed, his eyes were dark and his body was emaciated. He looked like he had one foot in the grave. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his chest, he would have been no different from a dead man.
Hua Hanyun placed Zhao Liangde's wrist on the pulse table and carefully felt his pulse. The pulse was weak and feeble, indicating that he was already at the end of his strength.
Thinking that Su Yan would still ask questions, he used silver needles to stimulate acupoints, trying to buy as much time as possible.
After the silver needle pierced his head, Zhao Liang began to show signs of waking up, his eyes rolling helplessly as he looked at the bed curtains.
Hua Hanyun withdrew the silver needles and shook his head helplessly, "The patient's pulse is extremely weak; I fear his days are numbered..."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Liangde's mother collapsed and nearly fainted, but was fortunately supported by others.
She has already lost her husband and son; if she were to lose her youngest son as well, the whole world would collapse.
"Dr. Hua, please save my child!" Like a drowning person desperately grasping at a straw, Zhao's mother knelt down in front of Hua Hanyun with a 'thump', pleading in despair.
Hua Hanyun quickly helped the person up, thinking that he wanted to give Su Yan a chance to be questioned alone, so he deliberately found an excuse to send the family away.
"Madam, let's talk somewhere else..."
Zhao's mother's eyes instantly filled with hopeful light, "Good...good..."
As Zhao's mother walked out of the room, Hua Hanyun followed behind her. As he passed Su Yan, he whispered to her, "I've already stimulated his nerves with silver needles. Ask him whatever you need to ask as soon as possible. He won't last much longer."
After saying that, he slowly walked out of the room.
As Hua Hanyun said, Zhao Liangde's mental state on the bed was indeed much better than when he first entered the room. He was obviously startled when he saw two strangers standing in front of him.
"Who are you? Are you the Black and White Impermanence who have come to take my soul?"
Looking at Zhao Liangde's miserable state, Su Yan felt a mix of emotions. He had an elderly mother to support and a young child to feed.
This must be what they call karma!
Shen Yao, his face still grim, questioned, "Zhao Liangde, did you participate in the murder of Zhao Wushuang five years ago?"
Upon hearing the name 'Zhao Wushuang,' Zhao Liangde trembled with fear. 'No...no...I don't know what you're talking about?'
Seeing Zhao Liangde's attitude, Su Yan realized he showed no remorse whatsoever. She withdrew her earlier overflowing sympathy and sneered, "Zhao Liangde, now that things have come to this, who do you still want to hide it from? Do you think that by killing Zhao Wushuang, no one will know about your past crimes?"
Zhao Liangde seemed to be trying to sit up. "Who exactly are you? How do you know about Zhao Wushuang?"
"I am the coroner of Chang'an, and the man beside me is the General of the Imperial Guard, ordered to thoroughly investigate the Zhao Wushuang murder case."
"You...you were sent by Jiang Han?"
Su Yan and Shen Yao exchanged a glance and, in perfect unison, decided to play along with Zhao Liangde's words, saying, "That's right, we were sent by Lord Jiang. Tell us how you committed murder and disposed of the body on the ground, or your family and children will be implicated."
"I...I..." Knowing he was powerless to change anything, Zhao Liangde had no choice but to recount what happened back then.
After Jiang Han left, the villagers, seeing Zhao Wushuang alone and lonely after her father's death and her sweetheart's trip to the capital for the imperial examination, became emboldened and, not wanting to be recognized, raped her under the cover of night while wearing a hood.
From then on, the men developed a tacit understanding: whenever they felt like it, they would put on hoods and break into Zhao Wushuang's house to satisfy their lust.
Later, Zhao Wushuang became pregnant as a result. Fearing gossip, the men in the village imprisoned Zhao Wushuang and used her as a place for them to vent their lust in private.
When news of Jiang Han's success in the imperial examination reached Pear Blossom Village, the Zhao family members conspired to kill Zhao Wushuang to silence her.
So, under the cover of night, he took Zhao Wushuang to the back mountain, and after indulging in a carnival of lust, he buried the unfortunate woman alive.
"Was Zhao Wushuang ever pregnant?"
Zhao Liangde nodded. "She gave birth to a daughter, and we buried her alive with her. Later, we found pregnancy troublesome, so we gave Zhao Wushuang a drug to prevent her from having children. I never intended to kill her. It was the village chief... the village chief forced me to. Sir, I'm truly innocent. Please spare my family..."
Su Yan originally thought she already knew about Miss Zhao's tragic story from Sister-in-law Yang, but she didn't expect that the story told by that scoundrel was even more tragic than she had imagined.
"You bunch of scum, we have no right to forgive you beasts on behalf of Miss Zhao. Where did you bury Miss Zhao's body?"
"Under the locust tree on the back hill..."
After learning where Zhao Wushuang was buried, Su Yan felt extremely disgusted to be in the same room as such a scumbag. "Pah... Goodness, goodness, you heartless and immoral beast, you have truly ruined the word 'goodness'."
Ignoring his physical pain, Zhao Liangde gasped for breath, pleading weakly, "Please... spare my... family..."
Su Yan coldly watched Zhao Liangde struggling on the bed, without going forward to check on him. She already knew what she wanted to ask, and looked at Shen Yao, saying, "Lord Shen... let's go!"
Shen Yao nodded and left the house with Su Yan, leaving Zhao Liangde to struggle until he gradually lost consciousness.
Not long after, a deafening wail echoed from the Zhao family courtyard.
Zhao Liangde is dead...
After the three left the Zhao family, Su Yan was still indignant about Zhao Wushuang's situation.
Hua Hanyun noticed that Su Yan's mood was off and asked, "Brother Su, what's wrong?"
Su Yan pouted and angrily said, "The Zhao family is truly despicable. They did such a thing to Miss Wushuang, and they are not forgivable at all."
Hua Hanyun froze upon hearing "Wushuang" and quickly asked, "Who did you say?"
"Zhao Wushuang, the daughter of Scholar Zhao from Pear Blossom Village, was said to be a great beauty, but I never expected her to encounter such a tragic fate..."
Su Yan also noticed that Hua Hanyun's mood was off. "Dr. Hua, do you know Miss Wushuang?"
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