Chapter 130

Ying Shuigen, sitting opposite, couldn't speak because he was mute, so he could only gesture with difficulty. He seemed to be saying that Huang Daqiu didn't know this company. He shrugged and spread his hands, showing his confusion as to why Huang Daqiu would care about this contract.

Qi Fei looked at him, so eager to clear his name yet unable to speak, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "I want to know why he cared so much, too. Anyway, the result was that he died when he went to find you."

Leaving Ying Shuigen's ward, Qi Fei didn't rush off. He hadn't forgotten the other task Liu Tong had given him.

The internal medicine corridor on the third floor of Nancheng Hospital was filled with the pungent smell of disinfectant. Through the gap in the blinds, he saw Li Jian explaining the patient's condition to an old lady by drawing an anatomical diagram in a medical record book with a fountain pen. A faded Blue Star Badge was pinned to the left chest pocket of his white coat—the mark of an outstanding graduate from the medical school. He didn't look like a doctor who would be careless enough to mix up a report.

When the electronic calling screen jumped to "Lunch Break," the sun had already slanted onto the glass curtain wall of the inpatient department. Li Jian rubbed his reddened eye sockets and stood up. He froze when he caught sight of the figure in the shadows at the door: "Where are you feeling unwell? The appointments for this morning are already..." His fingers tapped on the keyboard, leaving afterimages, and the blue light from the LCD screen reflected the fine sweat on the bridge of his nose.

Qi Fei was in plain clothes; it seemed Li Jian thought he was a patient.

"Municipal Bureau Criminal Investigation Detachment." When Qi Fei showed his ID, he noticed the green dill in the corner of the clinic. The leaves were covered in a thin layer of dust, yet the vines stubbornly climbed onto a 1998 Advanced Department banner. Li Jian's action of taking off his glasses to wipe them paused for a beat: "If the family hadn't reported it to the police, I would have wanted to report it myself."

"Did Zhang Juying come to give you trouble?"

"No, no, it's that this whole thing is very suspicious. Zhang Juying keeps insisting that I was the one who treated him, but I was clearly attending an academic conference in the province that day. She insists that I prescribed him anti-inflammatory medicine to brush him off."

"Zhang Juying doesn't believe you?"

Li Jian gave a bitter smile: "Now, let alone Zhang Juying, I don't even believe myself."

"Oh? How so?"

"The hospital's system is all electronic now. After Zhang Juying complained, the hospital checked the system, and it showed that someone had indeed used my account to treat Tian Xiao, diagnosed him with an infection, and prescribed medicine. I really can't clear my name even if I jumped into the Yellow River."

"That strange?"

"There's something even stranger. I checked Tian Xiaodong's blood test report in the system. It was indeed just an abnormally high white blood cell count. Let alone someone else using my account to treat Tian Xiaodong, even if I had treated him that day, I would have just prescribed some anti-inflammatory medicine."

"Is it possible it was just a common infection at the time, and the acute leukemia was something that happened later?"

Li Jian honestly denied it: "If the family's description of the condition is correct, he had already been running a low fever for a long time. It's unlikely to have been just a common infection. Looking at the time of death, it does fit the progression of acute leukemia. So, I suggested the hospital investigate the blood test records from that time. But this is very delicate; to outsiders, it looks like I'm passing the buck to another department."

Qi Fei listened and said: "I believe you. If you had misdiagnosed it yourself, you wouldn't have said it was acute leukemia. However, has your hospital only received this one complaint recently?"

Li Jian pushed up his glasses: "As far as I know, this is the only complaint of its kind."

Qi Fei was thoughtful. Wu Shanqiu walked over from not far away, slamming a file bag onto the table, making the stethoscope's snake-like tube tremble. She said: "I just came from the hospital office. They investigated the laboratory's samples and said the reports for two blood samples were mixed up at the time. In other words, XX's blood sample belonged to someone else."

The truth came very suddenly. A look of relief appeared on Li Jian's face: "It's good that the cause was found." Then, thinking of something, he said puzzledly, "That's not right, logically there should be another patient who mistakenly thought they had leukemia, but..."

"But just like I asked you earlier, your hospital has only had this one misdiagnosis case from Zhang Juying recently." Qi Fei continued Li Jian's thought.

"Can I see who the other patient who was mixed up is?" Li Jian asked Wu Shanqiu.

Wu Shanqiu handed it to him: "A person named Chen Shan. The lab test order was also written by you. Do you have any impression of this person?"

Li Jian shook his head firmly: "I wasn't at work that day. The hospital knows this; it's impossible for me to have treated anyone."

Wu Shanqiu said to Qi Fei: "Because Zhang Juying only discovered the misdiagnosis and complained two months later. Nancheng Hospital's surveillance is only kept for one month, which means we can't check the surveillance to know who exactly impersonated Dr. Li to treat these two people."

Li Jian said helplessly: "Who on earth would do such a thing?"

"And this Chen Shan, since he was diagnosed with leukemia, he didn't come back for a follow-up visit later, which is also a bit strange." Wu Shanqiu muttered.

The police car drove into Nancheng Xiangxie, a high-end residential area in the city.

As the police car passed the gilded gate of the Xiangxie residential area, Wu Shanqiu dug her nails into the leather seat: "The granite fountain costs enough to build three Hope Primary Schools." She looked up at the cold light reflected by the glass curtain wall, and Wu Shanqiu said in surprise: "I didn't expect this Chen Shan to be a rich man."

They took the deluxe elevator to the high floor. Qi Fei knocked on the door. The moment the fingerprint lock clicked open, a man in a polo shirt revealed half of his bloated face.

Qi Fei identified himself, and the man was stunned for a moment: "I'm Chen Shan. Criminal police? I haven't broken the law..."

Qi Fei held the door crack with his police ID, which shone with a cold light: "The Nancheng Hospital blood sample mix-up case requires your cooperation." His peripheral vision swept over the entryway. Under the decorative painting framed with an Hermès silk scarf, the edges of a lonely pair of men's slippers were already frayed. "It's not just people who break the law that the police visit. We are investigating a medical dispute, and it has to do with you."

"Medical dispute?" Chen Shan was even more puzzled when he heard this: "I don't have anything to complain about."

Qi Fei showed him the Nancheng lab report: "We found that Nancheng Hospital mixed up your blood sample with another patient's. Did you find out you had leukemia?"

When he heard this, the panicked and blank look on Chen Shan's face finally showed a glimmer of understanding, followed by confusion and shock: "Wait! What did you say?"

Qi Fei had to repeat what he had just said.

After hearing it, Chen Shan stood at the door, stunned for a long time.

"How about we go inside and talk?" Wu Shanqiu suggested.

The three of them had been standing at the door for a long time.

Chen Shan finally reacted, apologizing repeatedly, and invited Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu inside.

Qi Fei looked at the room. It was exquisitely decorated, and the furniture and furnishings were clearly valuable. However, whether it was the slippers or the cups, there was only one of everything commonly used.