Chapter 183 An Unshakeable Nightmare
The look of regret on Zhang Shuai's face surprised both Li Jin and Jin Shu.
"Your sister wants to kill him?" Li Jin narrowed his eyes slightly, slowly waving the fan in his hand.
This reversal was so abrupt that it almost overturned all his previous assumptions.
Therefore, the true nature of the case remains somewhat elusive.
“You saw my sister, too. She was acting like that, it wasn’t normal for her.” Zhang Shuai shook his head, his face contorted in pain. “It’s all because she took Five-Stone Powder!”
He glanced at the courtyard behind him: "This mansion wasn't always this desolate. It's only after she squandered all her wealth buying Five-Stone Powder that it looks like this."
Five-stone powder.
Jin Shu had seen it in the thick stack of books on poisonous herbs and medicines that Yan Zhao brought over.
This is a special prescription, originally created by alchemists seeking immortality, and later circulated among the imperial court.
"'The Minister of the State, He Yan, was fond of music and women. After taking this medicine, he became more cheerful and stronger. The capital was abuzz with news and people began to pass it on to each other.'" Jin Shu said, "This is a record of Wushi Powder by Mr. Chao Yuanfang in his 'Treatise on the Causes and Symptoms of Various Diseases'."
It is not a good thing. After consumption, due to its hot and dry nature, it will cause people to feel hot all over, increase their physical strength, and produce a hallucination of floating on air.
It is a kind of slow poison that can bewitch people and create a strong dependence.
Hearing this, Li Jin remained silent for a long time.
He waved the fan in his hand sometimes and paused sometimes, and rubbed his temples for a long time with his fingers.
"I ask you," he said after a long pause, his eyes tightly shut, "that Doctor Hua, did you truly kill him?"
He slowly raised his eyes and stared sharply at Zhang Shuai in front of him.
At this moment, not only Li Jin, but also Jin Shu and Yun Fei had the same doubts.
There are too many awkward and strange aspects to this case.
Among the physical evidence at the scene, apart from the footprints on the floor of the side room and the bloody footprints from the shoes at the crime scene, too many other pieces of evidence overlooked Zhang Shuai.
Madam Hua's well rope, half of Madam Hua's shoe, and the murder weapon that Madam Hua hid.
The fact that the perpetrator was a man was inferred from Jin Shu's coroner's experiments.
But if...
“That night, you were the one who broke up the fight.” Li Jin glanced at his face. “You learned from your sister that she was going to see Dr. Hua that night, and you were worried that she would kill Dr. Hua.”
"So you originally planned to take Dr. Hua away beforehand to avoid your sister."
At this point, a bitter smile crept onto Zhang Shuai's face: "That afternoon, my sister came to me and asked me to teach her brother-in-law a lesson."
“She said that a young and beautiful woman stole her man, and she was resentful.” Zhang Shuai pursed his lips and smiled awkwardly. “I was afraid that she would do something serious, so I agreed to her on the surface, saying that I would tie up my brother-in-law to scare him for two days.”
“But actually I was thinking of kidnapping my brother-in-law and taking him away to avoid trouble.” He shook his head. “My sister has tried to sell this house more than once. When she has an addiction attack, she doesn’t recognize her own family and is capable of anything.”
"When she saw that I agreed, she gave me the key to the side room in the backyard of the clinic and told me to hide inside. She said she would do it with me at night."
He let out a long sigh.
That night, Zhang Shuai planned to take his brother-in-law away before his sister arrived.
Unexpectedly, Dr. Hua was out seeing patients that day and did not return by 9 PM.
He waited in the side room for more than an hour before Doctor Hua returned from his rounds, exhausted. He went straight to his inner room and fell asleep immediately.
He was getting anxious and was about to push the door open when he heard his sister's voice.
At that moment, he exclaimed inwardly: Oh no.
He didn't have time to carry out his plan.
"I looked at the rope in her hand and thought I'd just have to play it by ear. If I tied it quickly and got my brother-in-law out of there sooner, I could get away with this."
"The result..." His withered lips opened and closed, as if a fishbone was stuck in his throat, and he could not utter a single word.
He didn't expect that Madam Hua was serious this time and really wanted to kill Doctor Hua.
“She actually tied him up herself,” he said. “When she was tying him up, Dr. Hua woke up. He looked at my sister and thought she was feeling unwell and had come to her for a pulse diagnosis and medicine.”
Dr. Hua, still half asleep, got up, but Madam Hua, determined to do it, shoved the burlap into his mouth.
Sensing that something was wrong, Dr. Hua pushed her to the ground.
Logically speaking, in a fight between a man and a woman, the woman, who is inherently weaker, should not have much of an advantage.
However, due to the effects of the Five-Stone Powder, Madam Hua actually started fighting with him, and neither of them was able to gain the upper hand.
Zhang Shuai, who was standing to the side, came to his senses and quickly stepped forward to break up the fight.
The result was that the more they tried to help, the more trouble they made.
“In that situation, my brother-in-law thought we were together and both there to take his life, so he started swinging the stool around.”
"Perhaps because I'm stronger, I became his primary target." Zhang Shuai took a deep breath. "My chest and back were covered in bruises from his beatings."
At 11:45 AM, in the inner courtyard of the medical clinic, in the main hall.
In the pitch black, the three men staged a full-blown brawl typical of people in their fifties.
They knocked over the table, overturned the cabinet, and smashed the washbasin stand.
The vase and teacup shattered on the floor.
Zhang Shuai, enduring blow after blow from Dr. Hua, clutched his head and gritted his teeth, shouting at Dr. Hua, "Run! You better run now!"
That was practically his last chance to survive.
"But he acted like he didn't hear me." Zhang Shuai said with a look of regret, "I yelled so loudly, I should have just grabbed him and run! There was only one chance! If he had run, he would have survived!"
At this point, Zhang Shuai couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.
“In that instant, my sister pulled out a piece of wood from somewhere.” He paused, “I saw her suddenly raise her hand and bring it down on my brother-in-law’s neck.”
“…At that time.” He paused, took a deep breath, “At that time…I…”
He couldn't bring himself to say it; that image had become a nightmare for him.
Zhang Shuai looked at everyone in front of him, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down several times, but he couldn't utter a single word.
Li Jin didn't urge him, but waved the fan in her hand and glanced at Yun Fei.
Yunfei nodded knowingly, picked up a teacup from the side, untied the kettle from his waist, and poured half a cup of warm water for Zhang Shuai.
Zhang Shuai was stunned.
He stood there, watching his previously bound hands being untied, and seeing the cup of warm water handed to him by the head constable of the Six Doors, his eyes welled up with tears.
He cleared his throat and glanced at his reflection in the glass, saying, "She was right in front of me, holding that piece of wood, and stabbed my brother-in-law hard in the neck. Blood came out immediately."
Zhang Shuai closed his eyes, unwilling to recall the scene. The sweet, metallic smell and Dr. Hua's terrified expression intertwined, becoming a nightmare that haunted him from that moment on.
“I tried to snatch the thing from her hand. My brother-in-law, realizing what was happening, clutched his neck and tried to run away. He yelled for help, but my sister kicked him into the corner of the room.”
“When I saw her losing control, I panicked too. I grabbed her wrist, hoping to give my brother-in-law some time to escape.”
Zhang Shuai's gaze darkened: "Who knew, she picked up a large shard of porcelain from the ground and slashed it at my hands."
He shook his head: "She's really gone mad."
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