The Brain Science Case 23

Chapter 23: The Schizophrenic Executioner – 12

“D-Dead?” Jinglin was stunned, struggling to process the shocking news. “How… what on earth happened?”

“Sob… Grandma Gao…” Ge Ruxuan said through her tears, “Her face was all red, and she was clutching her neck… and then she fell on the bed and died.”

She immediately carried Ge Ruxuan to the common room. At dinner time, there were only a few people here, so it was a relatively private place to talk.

“Ruxuan,” she said, firmly holding Ge Ruxuan’s hand, “tell Big Sister, did you see what happened when Grandma Gao died?”

Ge Ruxuan was trembling, but she still bravely nodded.

She took out her phone. “Okay. Then tell Big Sister everything, what Grandma Gao looked like, what she was doing, and if she said anything to you, repeat her words. Take your time.”

Ge Ruxuan’s eyes were filled with tears. She put her hands around her own neck. “Grandma Gao was like this… her whole face and neck were all red…”

After Ge Ruxuan had finished, Jinglin turned off the recorder and found a number in her contacts.

Her mind flashed back to their falling out over the past few days, and her harsh words from last night.

Closing her eyes, knowing the importance of Ge Ruxuan’s testimony, she pressed the call button. After more than ten rings, the other person finally answered.

‘Hello?’

“Teacher, it’s me.” She took a deep breath. “Gao Shengmei just passed away. Based on Ruxuan’s testimony, I strongly suspect she was poisoned…” She roughly repeated Ge Ruxuan’s account.

“That’s right. This will be the decisive evidence.”

**

At eleven at night, Shi Yuxin, busy entering patient data, let out a big yawn.

She was the only one left at the nurses’ station. The other two colleagues were helping the doctors with the evening’s emergency, and then they had gone on rounds, so all the routine work of organizing data and taking blood pressure had fallen on her and Dai Yicheng.

The news had just been confirmed. Gao Shengmei had died despite resuscitation efforts, the cause of death being a sudden heart attack. She had a history of heart disease, and even though she was hospitalized for pancreatitis this time, there was no guarantee that her old illness wouldn’t suddenly recur…

Even so, she couldn’t stop trembling.

She thought of Tang Yingli’s questions from before. In recent days, patients on their floor had been dying one after another, and almost every one of them had had close contact with a certain person before their death.

Dai Yicheng.

But how could that be? Her senior, who paid special attention to the elderly and was so dedicated to her patients, why would she target elderly patients?

Looking at the empty seat on the other side, Dai Yicheng was not there, only a container left to dry. It was the one she had used for her dinner salad.

“Maybe… I’m just overthinking it.” She got up and walked to the trash can, throwing away the empty energy drink can.

The can hit a plastic bag in the bin, making a crisp sound. “Huh? This bag…” It looked like the one Dai Yicheng had been carrying earlier.

A sudden curiosity arose in Shi Yuxin. She reached out and touched it. The thing inside the bag was hard, and it felt like… a transparent salad bowl.

She made up her mind and opened it. It was indeed that bowl.

“Could it be… it really was her?”

**

Pushing the medicine cart, Dai Yicheng skillfully changed a patient’s IV drip and adjusted the flow rate.

A heart attack.

The doctor’s diagnosis was exactly as she had expected, and she had already flushed the remaining salad down the toilet, leaving no trace. But in this series of seemingly flawless actions, there was a small but potentially fatal flaw.

Why was that little girl from Ward 9 there?

She had been a great help when she was transferred from the ICU, but now she had ruined everything at this critical moment.

How much had she seen?

If it was just a simple witnessing, it wouldn’t be a cause for concern. After all, adults usually don’t pay much attention to a child’s testimony.

But that female detective was no ordinary person.

Fortunately, she hadn’t come today. Neither had Tang Yingli.

And as luck would have it, that little girl was spending the night alone. Her parents had specifically notified the nurses’ station around eight.

Harming a child was against her principles. After all, they still had their whole lives ahead of them.

But just in case, Dai Yicheng could only apologize to Ge Ruxuan. The freedom she had worked so hard to gain could be lost in an instant, and she couldn’t take that risk.

Pushing open the door to Ward 9, the small light at the head of Bed C was still on. The lights for the other two beds were off, and the curtains were drawn. Dai Yicheng quietly drew back the curtain for Bed A and confirmed that Ge Ruxuan was fast asleep.

Her gloved right hand reached into her pocket and took out the prepared syringe.

There won’t be any pain, she thought, removing the needle cap. Just as she was about to inject, she was suddenly hit hard from behind.

The syringe flew out of her hand. She cried out as her head hit a cabinet and then the floor. The smell of blood instantly filled her nostrils.

“Don’t move! Put your hands behind your back!”

The pressure on her spine told her that the person who had come was serious. Dai Yicheng put her hands behind her back, and cold metal quickly encircled her wrists.

The patients and family members in Ward 9, including Ge Ruxuan, were all awakened by the commotion. The main light was turned on, and she was pulled to her feet by Zhou Jinglin.

“What were you trying to do to Ruxuan?” Jinglin grabbed her by the collar. “Were you worried that your poisoning would be discovered, so you were planning to silence her?”

“No! I wasn’t… th-that was a nutrient shot!” she stammered.

“Oh, was it?”

A questioning, lighthearted voice cut in. A woman in a long black dress and high heels stepped into the room and picked up the syringe, its needle now bent. “If it’s a nutrient shot, then even if I inject it directly into you, you’ll be perfectly fine, right?”

Her rose-colored lips curved upward as Tang Yingli brought the needle close to Dai Yicheng’s neck. Her body visibly flinched.

“You must be thinking that as long as you get rid of Ge Ruxuan, the only witness, you can get away with it, right? Thanks to Ruxuan’s testimony, the cause of death of the third victim can finally be determined…” Tang Yingli pulled back the syringe. “It was belladonna, wasn’t it?”

Dai Yicheng’s pupils suddenly dilated, and she looked away.

“You used belladonna berries to make a poisonous salad, and then used her medical history to make people think she died of a heart attack. How clever! If it weren’t for the eyewitness testimony, you almost would have succeeded.”

Dai Yicheng was trembling all over, shaking her head frantically. “I didn’t… I didn’t kill her!”

“You won’t admit it? It doesn’t matter. The drug analysis will tell us the results, and the truth about the deaths of the two innocent old people will also be revealed.” She pushed up her glasses and said in a cold, irrefutable tone, “Wake up. Your actions have nothing to do with ‘compassion’ or ‘kindness’… You, who are afraid of the truth being exposed, are just a cruel murderer.”

As if her mental defenses had been shattered by those words, Dai Yicheng collapsed to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.

“The brain doesn’t lie.”

Pushing up her glasses, Tang Yingli dropped the words like a final verdict, placed the syringe in a ziplock bag, and handed it to the detective who had come with her.