"The bones of a normal person should be white." Li Shizhen looked very knowledgeable and seemed to have dealt with corpses many times.

"It is said that poisoning will turn the body black, but it cannot be determined whether it is mercury poisoning."

He stretched out his hand and skillfully removed a thoracic vertebra, carefully examining the shiny black spots on it, then took the knife handed over by Zhao Hao. He gently scraped off the spots with the sharp blade and placed them in a small porcelain plate.

Li Shizhen wasted another golden needle and determined that it was indeed mercury.

"Actually, silver needles can also be used." Zhao Hao reminded quietly. Except for iron, almost all metals can form amalgams. There is no need to use gold.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier..." Li Shizhen sighed and said, "This set of golden needles was just bought with research funds."

"No wonder I feel so sorry for her." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes.

The two were bickering when they heard a plop and Chen Huaixiu fainted on the ground...

"lady!"

"lady!"

~~

That night, the waves were raging against the shore and the wind was blowing hard, so that the lanterns in the Shen's ancestral hall were swaying from side to side.

In the backyard of the ancestral hall, there is a room used for Chen Huaixiu to keep vigil.

At this time, she was leaning against the head of the bed, whispering with her pale lips, telling Zhao Hao about the tragedy that happened a year ago.

"My late husband suffered from vitiligo. Although it was not visible on his face, there were large patches of white spots on his body. Therefore, no matter how hot the weather was, he always wore long shirts and long pants."

The miserable little widow said sadly:

"He was the gang leader and needed to look respectable, so he secretly tried every possible way to find a doctor and medicine to cure this disease. At the end of last summer, my late husband heard that there was a doctor in Hangzhou who was very good at treating skin diseases. He took the opportunity of escorting the boat to ask for a few boxes of pills."

Zhao Hao thought to himself, 'pill', this is really unlucky.

"After taking the first box as prescribed by the doctor, the itching really stopped and the white spots on my body seemed to have shrunk. My late husband was so happy that he felt that his disease could finally be cured and he could live like a normal person..."

"Who would have thought that after he ate the second box, his health suddenly deteriorated. In the middle of the night, he suddenly started to vomit and have diarrhea. He had a high fever and his whole body was convulsing. His lips turned purple, and later he had blood in his stool..."

Chen Huaixiu covered his face with his hands and sobbed in grief, "It was useless to invite doctors and sorcerers. There was no Jiangnan Hospital at that time. In the end, he died three days later."

"Madam, please accept my condolences." Zhao Hao sighed. Some people are defeated by hardships, while others become stronger with each setback. Madam Shen is obviously the latter.

After a while, Chen Huaixiu wiped away his tears and calmed down.

"Later we went to Hangzhou to look for the doctor, but he had already disappeared. We asked the neighbors and they said he was a traveling doctor, not a famous doctor in Hangzhou at all."

"Then who told Boss Shen to find him?" Zhao Hao asked softly.

"I don't know." Chen Huaixiu shook his head and said, "Until today, we all thought he died because he trusted a quack doctor and took fake medicine. In addition, he has always been very secretive about his illness and never talked about it in front of the gang members. So no one knows who told him about the famous doctor in Hangzhou."

"Then how could Madam associate this with Xiao Teng's case?" Young Master Zhao asked, "Didn't you say that their symptoms were very different?"

"I'm not suspicious because of the symptoms, but simply suspecting someone." Chen Huaixiu's beautiful eyes revealed uncontrollable hatred.

"Since he is the most likely suspect of harming Xiao Teng, and he was the only one who had the conditions to kill me last time, I can't help but wonder if he wants our entire family to die. After all, he was the one who benefited the most from my late husband's death."

The strong wind outside the house blew against the window frames, making the Korean paper pasted on the windows rustle. Amid the shrill whistling sound, the shadows of the trees bared their fangs and claws on the window paper like demons.

"Madam, are you talking about Boss Guo?" Zhao Hao asked softly.

"Yes, I suspect he was behind all this." Chen Huaixiu nodded and said hatefully, "In the past two years, he has been flirting with the Xu family of Huating, always wanting to sell the Sand Boat Gang to the Xu family. My late husband would naturally not agree to hand over the foundation founded by our ancestors, and the two of them had many quarrels in private."

"My late husband once said bitterly that he would kick him out of the Sand Boat Gang and tell him to go back to Songjiang to find his Lord Xu. But after that, Guo Donglin became a different person. He never mentioned the Xu family again, admitted his mistakes to my late husband, and never contradicted him again."

"At that time, my late husband thought that his warnings worked. In Guo's heart, the Sand Ship Gang was more important than the Xu family, so he completely let go of his grudge and continued to entrust him with important tasks. But within a few months, he was poisoned and died."

"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded and said, "Guo does have the possibility of retreating to advance and paralyzing Gang Leader Shen."

"But I still don't have any evidence." Chen Huaixiu covered his face dejectedly and said in a hoarse voice: "He is now the legitimate leader of the Sand Boat Gang. I can't rashly accuse him without solid evidence."

"Haha, so Madam is worried about this." Zhao Hao chuckled and said, "Indeed, whether it's Xiao Teng's matter, your husband's matter, or Madam's assassination, there is no direct evidence that can point to Boss Guo."

He stood up and said slowly, "But how difficult is that? If there is no evidence, we can just create one."

"What you said makes sense, but it is difficult to come up with perfect evidence." Chen Huaixiu frowned and said, "If I fabricate it out of thin air, I'm afraid I won't be able to bring him down, and I'll be blamed for it."

"Madam, don't worry." Zhao Hao said confidently, "The day before yesterday, my people found the nest of the Japanese pirates who attacked Madam."

"What?" Chen Huaixiu couldn't hide his surprise. "Where is it?"

"It's in Bailusha, seventy miles northeast of Sansha." Zhao Hao did not hide anything.

"It's there..." Chen Huaixiu knew Chongming Sandbank very well, but he pondered for a long time before remembering that Bailusha was located in the northern part of the Yangtze River estuary, close to the sea and far from the mainland.

Moreover, there are shallows all around, so a slightly larger ship may hit the bottom. Passing ships avoid it, so it is indeed a good hiding place.

I never thought that the Japanese pirates could be found even though they were hiding in such a secluded place by Zhao Hao's outsiders.

Chen Huaixiu's pretty face was full of admiration as she said, "Young Master's ability is truly unmatched by ordinary people."

"My people also saw Guo Qilin going to the island to inform the Japanese pirates." Zhao Hao quietly revealed an even more explosive news.

"Really?" Chen Huaixiu sat up excitedly.

"Is this true?" Zhao Hao nodded and smiled, "This is our company's most powerful general. General Wang Rulong has personally investigated and found this out. He is very credible."

"It's General Wang." Chen Huaixiu was completely convinced. When Magistrate Jin took office, she and the main leaders of the Sand Boat Gang went to Xisha to welcome him. They were deeply impressed by the famous red-bearded anti-Japanese general.

"It's really fate!" Chen Huaixiu couldn't hold back his excitement. He put on his blue cloth shoes, stood up, and bowed to the window:

"The heaven has eyes, the heaven has eyes!"

Zhao Hao thought to himself, this young master is as fierce as a tiger, don't just thank God.

ps. The first of three consecutive updates, please give me your monthly votes!