There is a god in the sky

Chapter 34 Poisoning Case in a Dilapidated Temple in the Wilderness (Part 2)

The dilapidated temple was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Shen Lan pried open the mouth of a bodyguard, wiped away some saliva with a cotton cloth, and then put it into a special solution.

Outsiders could only see that the solution had changed color, but they didn't know the underlying principle.

Sui Feng dipped a silver needle in saliva, and the needle turned black, a clear sign of poisoning.

"He died from poisoning, but whether it was from mushroom poisoning remains to be verified."

Xiao Ji asked the woman, "Do you still have any of the mushrooms you picked?"

The lady hurriedly shook her head and explained urgently, "No, no, I didn't know the mushrooms were poisonous. You all saw it; they forced me to buy their chicken soup."

She patted her chest, still feeling lingering fear.

If it weren't for that bodyguard forcing them to buy and sell, it would be the mother and daughter who are dead now.

It all looks like an accident.

Jianzhou Prefecture is mountainous and has a wide variety of mushrooms. Summer is the mushroom harvesting season, and every year many people get sick from eating poisonous mushrooms.

Shen Lan really wanted to perform an autopsy to examine the contents of their stomachs, so she could determine whether they had died from eating poisonous mushrooms.

But today's case seems unnecessary.

Even if they accidentally ate other foods and got poisoned, it's just a food poisoning case and has nothing to do with anyone else.

In the latter half of the night, everyone was exhausted, but with the corpse lying there, no one could sleep peacefully.

Together, Sui Feng and Sui Ying moved the body out of the dilapidated temple and planned to register it in Jianzhou Prefecture at dawn.

The case happened right under Xiao Ji's nose. The government only needed to go through a formality to let the family come and take the body back for burial.

Shen Lan sat on a pile of hay, surrounded by vomit that emitted a sour smell.

Guanshu pinched her nose and came over: "Miss Shen, my young master asked me to give you this sachet."

Shen Lan took the sachet, held it to her nose, and smelled it. Sure enough, it dissipated much of the stench.

She hung the sachet around her neck, and by the firelight, picked up a handful of dry grass stained with vomit, carefully examining the food on it.

Food can remain in the stomach for approximately two to six hours after being eaten.

The group of bodyguards didn't eat anything after dinner, so the vomit was probably from what they ate during dinner.

Shen Lan carefully picked out the food scraps with a small stick, removing all the shaped food.

"Mother, what is that young lady doing?" Luo Yuemei asked, nestled in her mother's arms.

Zhang hugged her daughter tightly, her heart filled with anxiety, watching Shen Lan's every move intently.

She answered softly, "Mother doesn't know either. Maybe she's looking for poisonous mushrooms."

Sui Feng nudged Sui Ying and pointed towards Shen Lan, "Doesn't she look familiar?"

Sui Ying's gaze fell on Xiao Ji, who was staring intently at Shen Lan.

It's just like him, exactly like how his parents think about cases – focused and single-minded.

Shen Lan was sorting through the leftovers while lost in thought.

Most poisonous mushrooms are not fatal, but they can cause vomiting, dizziness, or hallucinations, unless consumed in excess.

There are also poisonous mushrooms that can be fatal, but discussing toxicity without considering dosage is meaningless.

The pot wasn't big; five adult men shared one pot of soup, each getting about a bowl's worth.

Most of the vomit on the ground consisted of chicken residue, indicating that not much mushroom was added to the soup.

According to the woman, there are several kinds of mushrooms. The black ones are probably charcoal mushrooms, which are non-toxic. The white ones are of various types, some poisonous and some not.

Even the most toxic poison, the death cap, takes more than eight hours to develop symptoms after ingestion, and there is a long process from the onset of poisoning to death.

It's illogical that these bodyguards died within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn after being poisoned.

Perhaps she was thinking too deeply, because Shen Lan started humming the lyrics: "Red umbrella, white pole, after eating, let's lie down together on the board..."

It is well known that the more brightly colored a mushroom is, the more likely it is to be poisonous. However, a type of red mushroom grows in the mountains of Jianzhou. When used to make soup, it is sweet and delicious and is very expensive.

So, was this pot of poisonous chicken soup really contaminated by poisonous mushrooms?

Xiao Ji heard someone humming a song over there. If it weren't for the five corpses lying outside the dilapidated temple, he would have almost thought it was a happy picnic.

He couldn't resist going over and squatting down next to Shen Lan, where he saw her collecting chicken bones.

"What did you find?" he asked curiously.

After the bodyguards finished eating the chicken, they spat out the bones everywhere. Except for the very small pieces, Shen Lan collected almost all the bones from the chicken.

She pieced the chicken bones together to resemble a chicken, and then said with great seriousness, "This chicken is very small; it must be only a month old."

Xiao Ji: "..."

"So, the younger the chicken, the more fragrant it is?" The aroma of that pot of chicken soup lingered for a long time.

"No, it means that free-range chickens smell better." At least the chickens raised by Shen Lan don't have that kind of aroma.

The two of them kept getting off-topic, leaving everyone confused.

Xiao Ji only knows how to eat, but he doesn't know how to raise chickens, let alone what kind of chicken tastes better.

Furthermore, what does the size of the chicken have to do with the deaths of this group of people?

Shen Lan pointed to a pile of food scraps on the ground and said, "Based on the proportions, there are no more than ten mushrooms in this pot of chicken soup. Assuming that all ten mushrooms are poisonous, what are the chances that they could kill five adult men?"

Xiao Ji didn't have much experience in this area.

No matter where you are, cases of death from accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms are never considered major cases, because he had never studied the toxicity of mushrooms.

"You don't think they died from accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms?"

"It's hard to say. Maybe there's a poisonous mushroom that I don't recognize, with a toxicity comparable to arsenic."

But how poisonous must this pot of soup be to kill five people who couldn't even survive the night?

It's a pity there's no testing equipment here; otherwise, taking this vomit for testing would easily reveal what kind of poison it contains.

Xiao Ji also fell into deep thought.

He mentally recreated every action of everyone after entering the dilapidated temple.

This is his talent; he not only has a photographic memory but can also observe very subtle things.

For example, two men in that group of bodyguards acted in an ambiguous manner, secretly touching each other's bodies when no one was paying attention.

For example, the mother and daughter in the corner woke up several times during the night, and he assumed it was because they were scared.

By the way, one more thing.

Before nightfall, the woman took the copper coins to the group of bodyguards, hoping to exchange them for some dry food, but she was harassed by the bodyguards.

The dry rations were not exchanged, but the woman's behavior was indeed rather strange.

Why would they go to the bodyguards to buy rations when their own group seemed more friendly and had plenty of food?

But they clearly did not know each other and had no motive to kill each other.

Xiao Ji handed Shen Lan a handkerchief, "Don't think about it for now, go and rest for a while."

Shen Lan took the handkerchief to wipe her hands, then got up and walked to the group, leaning against the foot of the Buddha shrine and closing her eyes for a short rest.

The people around her gradually began to breathe steadily, but she couldn't fall asleep.

Once she starts thinking about things, she can't sleep all night, but she can only endure it like that.

I don't know how much time passed, but I heard faint footsteps, and there was only one person.

The footsteps first went to the place where the group of bodyguards had just been, paused for a moment, and then walked towards the door.

Shen Lan opened her eyes, but her view was blocked by the wall, so she couldn't see what the person outside was doing.

But she seemed to have realized something.

She counted the time, and about three minutes later, the man came in.

Shen Lan closed her eyes again and heard her return to the corner, after which it was completely quiet.