Card Room

Chapter 312 - The Dead

In order to avoid running into Zhao Sen on the way back, Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao quickly checked the remaining drawers in the morgue and then immediately returned via the Peach Blossom Spring.

The entrance of the Peach Blossom Spring was the VIP ward of the general surgery department. At this time, there was only Yu Hanjiang in the ward. The lights in the entire area were turned off. Yu Hanjiang closed the curtains and turned on the flashlight of his mobile phone.

Liu Qiao’s face was pale and she leaned against the wall to breathe deeply after entering the room. even if she was bold and not afraid of corpses, the scene just now had greatly stimulated her. Her mind was still repeatedly playing back the black garbage bag containing a human head.

Xiao Lou also wasn’t well. Zhao Sen’s face had been just 10 centimeters away from him and at that moment, he had felt like his heart was going to stop beating. Seeing the two pale people, Yu Hanjiang was concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Xiao Lou exhaled slightly, calmed his mind and looked at Yu Hanjiang. “Do you know what happened just now?”

“Yes, I could feel it through the mind connection.” Yu Hanjiang grabbed some bottles of mineral water from the bedside table and handed it to them to drink. Liu Qiao opened the bottle cap forcefully with trembling fingers, raised her head and drank several sips of water. Then she spoke in a hoarse voice, “Unexpectedly, Zhao Sen hid the body of his cousin at the hospital morgue.”

“I didn’t expect...” Xiao Lou rubbed his head painfully. “At that time when the story of 2 of Hearts was replayed, Zhao Sen took the body of his cousin away in a suitcase and I thought he would throw it into the wilderness or something.”

“Sit down and talk.” Yu Hanjiang motioned for the two of them to sit on the sofa. He leaned against the bed and calmly analyzed it. “For Zhao Sen, the environment of the hospital is the most familiar to him. Most people don’t go to the morgue in an idle manner. If he hides his cousin’s head in the morgue then he can check it at any time.”

“Yes, the body might be found if it is in the wilderness. At least in the hospital, it is under his control.” Xiao Lou opened the water bottle and took two sips. Yu Hanjiang was by his side so his emotions gradually calmed down. In fact, Zhao Sen’s psychological perversion could be seen when he first entered the Hearts secret room.

“Remember, after Zhao Sen killed his wife, he put his wife’s body on a bed of roses like it was a piece of art.” Xiao Lou turned to look at Yu Hanjiang. “The first time I entered the 2 of Hearts secret room, I was startled by the scene. It was the first time I had gone to the crime scene.”

“Me too. The smell of roses was mixed with the smell of the corpse and I almost vomited on the spot. It was only after seeing the countdown that I forced myself to collect clues...” Liu Qiao recalled the scene and couldn’t help frowning. “So it seems that from the beginning, Zhao Sen likes making the corpses into specimens?”

“Yes, the rose bed looks like a human specimen. The cutting surface of He Yongqiang’s head that we just found in the morgue is also very neat. For Zhao Sen, it is a work of art.” Xiao Lou said with a wry smile.

“Perhaps he left his cousin’s head in the morgue for commemoration. When he is free, he will go to the morgue to see his masterpiece.” Yu Hanjiang added calmly.

“......” Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao had nothing to say.

Normal people simply couldn’t understand Zhao Sen’s thinking. Most murderers would inevitably be scared after killing people. The further the corpse is thrown, the better. Yet Zhao Sen kept the corpse’s head as a specimen by his side. He also went to visit it from time to time. It was really abnormal!

Liu Qiao got goosebumps all over her body. She took a deep breath and quickly changed the subject. “By the way Professor Xiao, do you think the other suspicious body in the morgue has something to do with Zhao Sen?”

“Probably not.” Xiao Lou frowned and carefully analyzed it. “Zhao Sen is a doctor who specializes in heart surgery. The suspicious corpse we found had a kidney removal. The higher the level of the doctor, the more detailed the division of specialties. I personally think that kidney surgery has nothing to do with Zhao Sen.”

“You mean, a heart surgery doctor might not perform kidney surgery?” Yu Hanjiang wondered in a low voice.

“Yes. The training of surgeons is a very long process. Many surgeons graduate in their 20s but can only do operations in their 30s. Complicated surgeries like heart transplants and kidney transplants are generally performed by professors over 40 years old. Asking a heart surgery doctor to perform a kidney surgery is almost like crossing professions.” Xiao Lou told Yu Hanjiang what he knew about the hospital situation. “Zhao Sen seems to be in his 30s and he shouldn’t be proficient in two specialized operations.”

“Yes, I also think that Zhao Sen is just an interference item to create panic. There should be someone else in the hospital case.” Yu Hanjiang agreed with Xiao Lou’s inference. Xiao Lou took out his mobile phone and handed it to Yu Hanjiang. Just before Zhao Sen walked into the morgue, he had taken a few photos of the scars on the body.

Yu Hanjiang took a look. The old surgical scars on the upper right abdomen and lower right abdomen were very obvious and ugly. The scar on the back was very shallow and easy to miss if one didn’t look closely. The scar had almost faded.

“Is it due to the long time between operations?”

“The stitches are different.” Xiao Lou explained. “Ordinary surgical sutures heal quickly but they need to be removed and the scars are more obvious. There is also a thinner thread normally used in plastic surgery. After healing, the scar will be relatively shallow. The sutures for the front are different from the back. The stitching method is also obviously not from the same doctor.”

“It seems he had three surgeries?”

“Yes, it isn’t uncommon for patients to undergo three or four operations in the hospital but this person’s surgical wound isn’t normal. Based on the location of the wound and the missing rib, it can be inferred that he underwent a kidney-related surgery. As for the type of surgery, I didn’t have time to dissect the corpse and can’t judge yet.” Xiao Lou paused. “I want to check his case file. There might be clues.”

“Professor Xiao, I’ll check it with you.” Liu Qiao took the initiative to volunteer.

“It is 2 in the morning. Xiao Liu, you go back to bed first.” Xiao Lou looked gently at Liu Qiao.

An 18 year old girl followed Xiao Lou to the morgue in the middle of the night and was shocked by the sudden appearance of Zhao Sen and the severed head. She was also sick and severely anemic, so Xiao Lou couldn’t bear to let her continue to follow him.

“Go back, we are here.” Yu Hanjiang turned toward Liu Qiao. “Besides, you have been away from your ward for too long. If you are found by the doctor on duty then it is easy to arouse suspicions.”

“Okay.” Group Leader Yu and Professor Xiao urged her to go back so Liu Qiao didn’t insist. She took off the nurse’s uniform, put on the blue and white checkered gown and opened the window while using the Light as a Swallow card.

Xiao Lou returned to the duty room and carried his laptop to Yu Hanjiang’s ward to check the information together. The name of the male deceased was Liu Renyuan. After Xiao Lou opened the office software of the hospital and entered the name ‘Liu Renyuan’, he quickly found the medical record.

Xiao Lou checked it while reading the medical record to Yu Hanjiang. “Patient Liu Renyuan, male, 35 years old. He had an appendectomy for acute appendicitis three years ago. He was admitted in March last year to the department of hepatobiliary surgery for ‘gallbladder stones’ and went through a cholecystectomy. The chief complaints when being admitted this time were waist pain, loss of appetite, fatigue and headache. He was admitted to the nephrology ward...”

Xiao Lou couldn’t help wondering when he heard this. “The last time he was hospitalized was half a month ago. He lived in the nephrology department and the cause of death was acute renal failure. There are no kidney related surgeries in his records.”

Yu Hanjiang slightly raised his eyebrow. “His kidney surgery wasn’t done in this hospital?”

Xiao Lou looked at the case file again suspiciously. “Once a doctor examines the body then the surgical scar shouldn’t be missed. If he had surgery in the past then it will be written in the medical record. However, it isn’t written in his case file. Judging from the healing of the surgical scar, the operation time should be more than a year ago.”

If the kidney surgery was done before admission then the ‘past history’ column would definitely have something like ‘Patient X in the year X and month X had XX surgery at XX hospital’ written. The physical examination would also indicate ‘patient has a 10cm surgical scar at the right back 12th rib.’ This was the standard for writing medical records. Yet only the two surgical scars in the front were written and there was no explanation for the scar on the back.

Yu Hanjiang asked with a calm face, “Could it be that his surgery record was overlooked?”

Xiao Lou shook his head. “The anesthesiologist, the surgeon, the first assistant, the second assistant, the head nurse in the operating room, the instrument nurse, the hand washing nurse... each operation requires a lot of medical staff to work together. Moreover, after the patient comes back from the operation, there is still a period of perioperative care. There are at least 10 medical and nursing staff involved in a surgery. It is too much work to erase all these traces.”

Yu Hanjiang was thoughtful. “Do you think it is a case where the crime is committed jointly in the hospital?”

“I don’t know.” Xiao Lou’s expression was complicated. “If it is a joint crime case within the hospital and his operation records are cleared, it will definitely involve the hospital’s leaders and senior management. Otherwise, it would be difficult to seal up with so many people.”

Yu Hanjiang gently pressed a hand to his temple. If a team committed this crime then the investigation would be complicated. The suspects would shield each other and give each other alibis. This would cause greater difficulties to the investigation and collection of evidence. However, his speculation wasn’t necessarily correct. After all, there were too few clues from the body. This wasn’t the first time that a mistake in reasoning was made at the beginning of a Hearts secret room. It was impossible to jump to a conclusion just yet.

Liu Renyuan’s surgical scar was really strange. There were no relevant records, it was as if it had appeared out of thin air. As for whether his kidney was really gone or not, Xiao Lou couldn’t confirm because there was no autopsy.

“Let’s rest first. Tomorrow we will check with the doctor who received him.” Yu Hanjiang spoke softly.

“How is the situation with Chief Shao?” Xiao Lou walked to the bed and asked in a worried manner. “Is there anything unusual reported from the bug?”

“Just now, I heard Zhao Sen enter the ICU and tell the nurse to change the medicine at Chief Shao’s bedside. Then he went out and didn’t come in again.” Yu Hanjiang gently touched the back of Xiao Lou’s hand. “Don’t worry, I will keep paying attention to Chief Shao. You go to sleep first and we will continue this tomorrow morning.”

“You’ve just had surgery and your wound isn’t well.” Xiao Lou pointed to Yu Hanjiang’s lower right abdomen and spoke seriously. “You are the patient. Don’t always push the doctor to rest. You should sleep.”

“......” Yu Hanjiang had forgotten that he was a patient. The patient asked the doctor to rest, it really seemed like their identities were reversed. Yu Hanjiang saw Xiao Lou’s serious expression and couldn’t help smiling slightly as he spoke softly, “Okay, Dr Xiao. We should both rest.”

“Yes, a little sleep can raise your spirits.” XIao Lou turned to sleep on the sofa, always feeling uneasy.

What if Yu Hanjiang’s speculation was true?

The staff of the hospital jointly committed the crime with many doctors and nurses involved in organ trafficking. Once the patients staying in the hospital got off the operating table, they unknowingly lost a kidney and their operating record was deliberately erased...

Or perhaps the patient knew and secretly signed an agreement to sell their organ to a person in need. The hospital just acted as an intermediary agency to privately sell organs. In either case, it was a death hospital.

Xiao Lou didn’t sleep well all night. In his dreams, he saw Zhao Sen staring at him coldly and He Yongqiang’s cut-off head rolling around the drawer of the morgue. He dreamed that someone was holding a bloody scalpel and secretly cutting out his organs.

Xiao Lou was covered with sweat when he woke up in the morning.

8 a.m. was the time for the morning rounds. Xiao Lou followed the professors to check the general surgery ward and paid special attention to Officer Yu Hanjiang who was hospitalized for work-related injuries. After checking the rooms, it was already 9:30. Xiao Lou was about to go to the other wards to see his teammates when his phone rang.

The caller ID was an unfamiliar number. Xiao Lou was the chief resident of the general surgery department. The entire hospital had his on-duty number. It was probably a department calling for a consultation. Xiao Lou walked to a quiet corner and answered the phone. “Hello.”

To his surprise, Long Sen’s eager voice entered his ears. “Professor Xiao, a person died early in the morning in my orthopedic surgery ward. In the room right next to mine! The victim is a 35 year old man. His lumbar spine replacement surgery was just finished yesterday and he needed to be rescued this morning. The doctors tried their best but the rescue was ineffective. They declared him clinically dead.”

Xiao Lou quickly wrote down the name of the patient that Long Sen mentioned and planned to go to the hospital system to check the medical history of the deceased. He just hung up the phone when there was another call.

Ye Qi’s clear child’s voice was heard. “Professor Xiao, a patient in the pediatrics department has died. It is the little girl Chen Yuqing who you saw yesterday. I heard it was a sudden heart attack.”

Xiao Lou was stunned. He lowered his phone and found two more messages had popped up on the screen.

“Professor Xiao, your line was busy and I couldn’t get through. I want to report to you. I am Qu Wanyue. A 28 year old young woman from the rheumatology and immunology department died suddenly this morning. I’m trying to investigate.”

“I am Old Mo. An elderly patient in the endocrinology department died suddenly and the family members are making trouble in the corridor.”

Xiao Lou, “......”

Today’s Xiao Lou was still very busy.

Proofreader: Fictional Reality