Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 41

“A life for a life!” someone yelled, full of righteous indignation.

“Call the authorities!” another person chimed in.

“The doctor just made a temporary oversight; saying ‘murder’ might be too serious,” the man in gray kindly tried to mediate.

“Then pay up!” another person shouted loudly.

“Exactly! Their perfectly healthy son just died like this; they must be compensated one way or another!”

“Oh, my son, my poor son!” The woman turned and hugged the body on the ground again, weeping sorrowfully.

“The dead cannot return to life, sister,” an older woman stepped forward and patted her shoulder in comfort, “at a time like this, you should be thinking about how to properly bury your child.”

“My son!” the woman sobbed, crying out, “Your father passed away early, and now you’re gone too. How can your mother go on living!”

“Your mother doesn’t even have the money to bury you properly now, so I might as well just go with you.”

The woman cried out and was about to smash her head against a pillar while holding the body. The woman next to her quickly reached out to stop her, earnestly consoling her: “You just said there’s no one left in your family. If you die, who will collect your bodies? Sister, you mustn’t do anything foolish.”

“Exactly! Make the clinic compensate you! A perfectly fine child died from the medicine like this; how can they not pay up?”

“It’s truly pitiful. Her husband died, and now even her son is gone. Of course, she can only seek death.”

“I see her clothes are patched; it looks like life is tough for her.”

“The clinic prescribed the wrong medicine and caused a death; compensation is only right and proper!”

“Pay up!”

“Pay up!”

“Pay up!”

Someone took the lead in stirring up trouble, and many onlookers, filled with righteous indignation, started shouting along!

“This, this.” The man in green was immediately flustered by the scene. He turned to the woman and said, “Qi Bei, you, go to the counter and get twenty taels for, for this older sister.”

“Doctor Zhou, I definitely fetched Huang Cen yesterday; I couldn’t have remembered incorrectly,” Qi Bei frowned and whispered to him to confirm.

“Alas.” Doctor Zhou sighed deeply. He also felt that he couldn’t have written the wrong prescription, but the evidence was in black and white—it was undoubtedly his handwriting.

He replied in a low voice, “Just go quickly.”

Qi Bei bit her lip, turned, and went back into the clinic.

“Twenty taels?”

The older woman’s reaction was even stronger than the grieving mother’s. She immediately put her hands on her hips, looking utterly incensed, “You prescribed the wrong medicine and killed her only son, giving only twenty taels is unreasonable, isn’t it?”

“Exactly! Twenty taels is nowhere near enough!” someone agreed. “It should be at least fifty taels.”

“Fifty taels!”

The man in green was greatly shocked upon hearing this. It was the first time he had encountered such a thing, and he was momentarily unsure how to handle it.

In the street agencies, a seven or eight-year-old boy would fetch at most ten taels of silver. He had asked to pay twenty taels already out of a sense of guilt.

“A life for a life! Is fifty taels too much for a life?”

“I think we should just call the authorities and let the magistrate teach him a good lesson.”

“Exactly! A quack like this should have his clinic sealed by the government.”

“Fifty taels is too little! I think they should pay a hundred taels!”

“I agree! They should just report it to the authorities!”

“Report it then! Let the magistrate investigate properly. How did the Huang Cen we prescribed leave the clinic and turn into Huang Lian?” Qi Bei pushed through the crowd and walked back, speaking with confidence and a clear conscience toward the onlookers.

Doctor Zhou was surprised when he heard her words and looked at her. Qi Bei gave him a look to indicate that he should remain calm.

She slowly walked over, picked up the packet of scattered medicine dregs on the ground, opened it, glanced at it, and revealed an expression of understanding. She spoke with even greater assurance, “Even if we did write the wrong prescription and fetched the wrong medicine, the paper clearly states three qián of Huang Lian.”

“Everyone, look at these medicine dregs. There is more than two liǎng of Huang Lian here.” Qi Bei spread the dregs out for everyone to see, then changed the subject decisively, “I’ve already sent someone to report it to the authorities. Once we get to the magistrate’s office, our clinic will surely be cleared of all suspicion.”

When the onlookers heard this, their expressions became complex as they looked at the woman on the ground. They saw the woman’s face turn pale. Before they could react, she swiftly scrambled up from the ground, pushed through the crowd, turned into a small alley, and vanished.

Seeing such a scene, even the most foolish person understood what was going on.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the yamen runners (police) rushed to the scene. After asking a few questions, they took the child’s body and left.

Back in the clinic, Doctor Zhou said gratefully to Qi Bei, “It’s a good thing you noticed the problem with the medicine dregs.”

“I only remembered to check the medicine dregs after someone reminded me,” Qi Bei said, then smiled and looked at the two people standing in the room.

Doctor Zhou was first stunned when he saw the two beautiful young women standing inside, then nodded and bowed with cupped hands: “Thank you both for your help today. Zhou is extremely grateful.”

“It was just a small favor, Doctor Zhou, there is no need to dwell on it,” Qi Zhanshu replied calmly.

“Is the young lady also a physician?”

Since she could spot the problem with the medicine dregs at a glance, Doctor Zhou thought she must understand medicine.

“I do not understand medical principles.”

“Then how did the young lady see that there was a problem with the medicine dregs?” Doctor Zhou asked in surprise.

“It wasn’t just the medicine dregs that were problematic,” Qi Zhanshu said with a frown.

The entire incident had been strange from the very beginning. If the clinic had truly dispensed the wrong medicine, a woman who had lost her son would not first sit on the street outside the clinic crying out to attract attention; she would rush into the clinic to demand an explanation. This was quite unusual.

Secondly, the overly enthusiastic older woman, the particularly ‘righteous’ man in gray, and the grieving woman appeared to be strangers to each other, but they often exchanged knowing glances while speaking. Furthermore, there was another person in the crowd who kept intentionally saying things to incite the emotions of others, and he was the first person to shout for the clinic to pay compensation.

If these people were all acquainted and merely seeking an explanation together, why would they pretend to be strangers and put on such a performance?

Qi Zhanshu did not understand medicine, but after sensing something unusual about these people, she reminded Qi Bei to examine the medicine dregs.

To deliberately cause a child’s death from diarrhea, the dosage must have been extraordinary.

Also, the prescription itself—she even suspected that someone had deliberately copied and altered it, mimicking Doctor Zhou’s handwriting.

“They were all working together?” Doctor Zhou was greatly alarmed.

He had originally only thought the woman whose child died wanted to extort a sum from the clinic. Listening to her explanation, it sounded more like a deliberate scheme?

“That is my speculation, but I have no concrete evidence,” Qi Zhanshu said faintly.

This was also why she did not tell the yamen runners (police) about her thoughts when they arrived earlier.

Even though it was only a theory, Doctor Zhou listened, breaking out in a cold sweat.

He forced himself to calm down and bowed deeply in thanks once again: “Thank you both, young ladies! May I ask for your names?”

“There’s no need to be so polite, we just happened to stumble upon it,” Lu Sheng said, waving her hand at Doctor Zhou with a smile. Her eyebrows arched, and her expression was full of pride, “My name is Lu Sheng, and she is my wife, Qi Zhanshu.”

Her Qi Zhanshu was truly amazing. Just by standing and observing for a moment, she could find so many clues. She truly had sharp eyes and great insight.

Lu Sheng winked at Qi Zhanshu, her eyes filled with praise.

A trace of a smile flickered in Qi Zhanshu’s eyes, and the corners of her lips curved. Then, she looked seriously at Qi Bei and said, “We are here today to look for Miss Qi.”

“Looking for me?” Qi Bei asked, confused.

“Yes, do you have a sister named Qi Nan?” Lu Sheng asked.

“Xiao Nan?” When Qi Bei heard this, her eyes instantly widened. She took two steps forward in disbelief, her expression both shocked and delighted, “You, you know Xiao Nan?”

“Yes.”

Lu Sheng told her about Qi Nan. Upon hearing the news, Qi Bei’s eyes turned red, and she stammered, sobbing, “Fortunately, fortunately. I thought, I thought Xiao Nan…”

After asking about Qi Bei’s situation, they learned that after her husband, the butcher Zhu, died, she came to work as an assistant at the clinic because her daughter had been frail and sickly since childhood. This allowed her to earn some income for the family and also learn some medical principles to better care for her daughter.

After giving her the address of the brewery, Lu Sheng and Qi Zhanshu left the clinic.

When they returned to the inn, they happened to run into Yan Hua and Miao Fang, who were returning from getting a dressing change.

“I keep thinking there’s something strange about that child’s death,” Miao Fang said, frowning. “The child had diarrhea all night. Why didn’t she bring the child back to the clinic then? Instead, she waited until the child was dead to bring the body over and cause a scene.”

“This looks exactly like they were deliberately trying to extort the clinic. It’s a pity the clinic even paid her compensation.”

“You two were at the Hui Chun Tang (Rejuvenation Hall) today too?” Lu Sheng asked, surprised by their conversation.

“What Hui Chun Tang?” Miao Fang asked, confused.

“Didn’t the incident you just mentioned happen outside Hui Chun Tang this afternoon?” Lu Sheng suddenly felt a bit strange.

Hui Chun Tang was half an hour away from here. They shouldn’t have gone to a clinic that far to get their wounds changed, and she hadn’t seen the two of them earlier.

“No, we ran into it just now when we were getting our dressings changed at Shan Ren Tang (Benevolence Hall).”

Lu Sheng’s heart tensed up. She immediately turned and looked at Qi Zhanshu.

Qi Zhanshu looked serious and asked Miao Fang in a grave tone about what happened at Shan Ren Tang.

The development of the incident was largely the same as what happened outside Hui Chun Tang, except the dead child was a girl, and the woman holding the body was dressed differently from the one at Hui Chun Tang. Additionally, there was also a woman helping to mediate in the crowd and a man inciting people to demand compensation.

Unlike Hui Chun Tang, Shan Ren Tang could not withstand the public discussion and paid the woman fifty taels of silver in compensation.

Hearing this, Lu Sheng was reminded of human traffickers she had seen in the news before.

These traffickers specialized in kidnapping critically ill children with congenital defects, impersonating the children’s parents, sending them to the emergency room for treatment, and then, after the children died, the traffickers would sue the hospital to get a high amount of compensation.

She shared her speculation with them.

Miao Fang cursed, extremely angry, and said, “Then let’s go report it to the authorities right now!”

Yan Hua stopped him, shook his head, and said, “We haven’t caught the people, nor do we have any evidence in hand. Going there would be useless.”

“Then what should we do?” Miao Fang scratched his head, then slapped his hand suddenly, excitedly saying, “How about we find other clinics to keep an eye on, and when they show up again, we’ll just detain them directly!”

“The method is feasible, but there are over a dozen clinics in Quanzhou City. How can we guard all of them?” Yan Hua sighed helplessly, rubbing his forehead.

“This won’t work, and that won’t work! Then what do we do!” Miao Fang put his hands on his hips and paced back and forth anxiously.

Yan Hua glanced sideways at him, then pondered for a moment before saying, “We should go find Sister Yan. She knows a constable at the Quanzhou Prefecture yamen.”

“Right, right, right! Sister Yan knows Constable Huang! If she tells him, Constable Huang will definitely send people to investigate.”

Miao Fang found Qin Feiyan and told her about the situation. Qin Feiyan was startled, grabbed her curved saber, and rushed out to the yamen.

In less than half an hour, Qin Feiyan returned to the inn with a woman dressed in a warrior’s outfit. This woman was the head of the constabulary in Quanzhou Prefecture, Huang Yunran.

She had been a constable for eight years, was rich in investigative experience, and was particularly sensitive to unusual events.

After meticulously asking the four of them (Lu Sheng, Qi Zhanshu, Yan Hua, and Miao Fang) for the detailed accounts of everything that happened outside the two clinics, she immediately connected the dots of the cause and effect. She immediately dispatched two teams of constables, disguised, to secretly visit all the clinics within Quanzhou City.

To save time, the members of the escort agency also joined the effort.

After two hours of investigation, the members of the escort agency returned one after another.

As Qin Feiyan and Huang Yunran led the two teams of constables through the door, they happened to meet the Princess Changning coming out of the inn.

“Your Highness.”

Qin Feiyan and Huang Yunran bowed and curtsied to her.

“The two of you don’t need to be so formal.” Princess Changning wore a veil, still dressed in a moon-white embroidered long dress. Her gaze swept over the group of people, and she asked, “Constable Huang, why have you brought so many yamen runners (police) here?”

The Prefect of Quanzhou had come yesterday, and he was with Constable Huang. He had also specially arranged a team of yamen runners at the inn to serve as a guard for Princess Changning, which was why Princess Changning recognized the chief female constable of Quanzhou.

When a superior asks a question, a subordinate naturally must answer. Constable Huang recounted the clinic incident to her. Princess Changning’s expression hardened, and she said she wanted to join them and hear the details of the matter herself.

Everyone in the room rose to their feet and bowed upon seeing Princess Changning, becoming slightly more reserved in their speech.

“No need for formalities.” Princess Changning waved her hand, signaling for them to stand up. Her tone was authoritative yet gentle, “As the Transport Commissioner, investigating criminals is one of my official duties. I just briefly heard about the clinic incident and also felt it was a bit strange, so I came to see for myself.”

After she was seated at the head of the table, everyone reported the information they had gathered.

They discovered that similar cases to today’s had occurred yesterday at two other clinics. These two clinics also only thought they had made a mistake in the prescription, so they settled the matter to avert trouble and did not report it to the authorities.

Based on the descriptions from the clinic doctors, they could basically confirm that this group consisted of about eight or nine people. They usually divided into two groups: some played the mother of the dead child, some played the mediating older woman, and two or three others would incite the public in the crowd to ultimately achieve the goal of extorting compensation.

“Wang Xiaoliu, go make arrangements. Two people per group, keep an eye on the remaining clinics. If this gang appears again, arrest them immediately and bring them to justice.”

“Wait a moment.”

“Hold on.”

Two different female voices rang out simultaneously in the room.

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