Card Room (Rebirth)

Chapter 321: Suspect

Xiao Lou strode over and reached out like lightning to grab the nurse’s wrist, making her stop. She was holding a 20ml syringe that had just been opened and there was no medicine in the syringe!

Inpatients didn’t need this type of injection needle for transfusion. It was usually used for intramuscular injections. For an intravenous infusion, one just needed to puncture the blood vessel on the back of the hand with a needle, open the vein channel and connect the drip.

Now she was holding an empty syringe in her hand and grabbing the back of Shao Qingge’s hand. Wasn’t this giving Shao Qingge an injection of air?!

Once 20ml of air was continuously injected into the blood vessel and followed the bloodstream to the heart, the large number of air bubbles couldn’t be discharged. This would cause a gas embolism, resulting in multiple organ failure or even cerebral infarction, with the patient dying quickly.

The more Xiao Lou thought about it, the more afraid he became. If he was one step late then perhaps Shao Qingge would’ve changed into a cold corpse! Killing with air was really convenient and secretive!

Looking at the sleeping Shao Qingge, Xiao Lou suppressed his anger. His always gentle gaze became extremely cold as he gripped the other person’s wrist and asked sharply, “What were you going to do?”

The nurse was stunned. She lowered her head and whispered, “D-Dr Xiao, I’m here to take blood for an examination?”

Xiao Lou’s voice was cold. “Using this syringe to draw blood?”

In clinical practice, it was rare to use this type of injection needle to draw blood. In order to check for various blood indicators, different colored negative pressure needles were used to draw blood. Xiao Lou had never seen the operation of directly drawing blood with a needle tube and then distributing them into various test tubes.

The nurse was obviously lying.

Xiao Lou frowned and looked at her. The name ‘Xu Fangfang’ was written on the nurse’s chest badge. The girl was petite. She wore the white nurse’s uniform, a mask and a hat with one bar that was the sign of the most junior nurse. Xu Fangfang had beautiful eyes and curved eyebrows. It was obvious that she was a pretty girl just by looking at the upper half of her face and that she was around 25 years old.

Xu Fangfang shrank back as Xiao Lou stared at her and she spoke timidly. “Dr Xiao, I’m really here to draw blood.”

“Is that so?” Xiao Lou calmly pulled her to the nurse’s station. The head nurse was there and Xiao Lou asked directly, “Head Nurse, did Dr Zhao give an order to draw blood from the patient in bed 3 of the ICU?”

The head nurse looked through the doctor’s orders on the computer and replied, “Yes, he wanted to draw blood to check the myocardial enzymes after the surgery.”

Xiao Lou picked up the empty syringe in Xu Fangfang’s hand and coldly asked, “Is this type of needle used to draw blood in this ward?”

The head nurse was taken aback and stared at the young nurse incredulously. “Xiao Xu? Why did you bring this injection needle to draw blood from a patient?”

Xu Fangfang was exposed and she was visibly flustered. “I-I accidentally took it by mistake…”

The head nurse gave her a reproachful look. “A mistake?! Blood drawing is done every day and different inspection items use different negative pressure tubes. This is the basics. How can you make a mistake?! I remember that you are usually very careful. What is this situation?”

Xu Fangfang’s eyes suddenly turned red. She lowered her head and her voice was choked up. “I-I just received a call. My grandfather passed away at noon today. I was very confused and happened to take the wrong syringe to draw blood from the patient. Then Dr Xiao came in. It is just a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?” Xiao Lou frowned slightly, not believing this explanation.

“Ah, a family member has passed away. You should’ve told me immediately instead of making mistakes at work…” The head nurse helped her. “Since your grandfather has passed away, take time off and go home for two days. I will ask Xiao Wu to help with your night shifts.”

Xu Fangfang thanked the head nurse and then bowed to Xiao Lou. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“……” Facing this red-eyed girl who was about to cry, Xiao Lou didn’t know what to say. He had to let the other person go and Xu Fangfang immediately turned to change clothes.

Xiao Lou wasn’t a police officer and had no right to arrest the nurse. Beside, he only saw Xu Fangfang grab Shao Qingge’s hand and appear to be about to give him an injection. There was no clear evidence that ‘Xu Fangfang wants to murder Shao Qingge’. Xu Fangfang insisted she was flustered and took the wrong syringe. There was no way. He couldn’t convict someone for taking the wrong syringe, right?

However, Xiao Lou always felt that this girl’s actions weren’t as simple as ‘taking the wrong syringe’. The moment he walked into the ICU, he clearly saw this nurse with a strange smile. She stared at Shao Qingge with even a hint of hatred in her eyes. This scene gave Xiao Lou the creeps.

It was impossible to see incorrectly. A normal nurse wouldn’t have this look when drawing blood from a patient. It was better to be cautious than to let a suspect get away.

Xiao Lou thought for a moment and immediately sent a text message to Liu Qiao. “Xiao Liu, there is a nurse called Xu Fangfang from the cardiac surgery department. I suspect she is related to the case we’re investigating and she is very hostile to Chief Shao. I have to stay to look after Chief Shao. Can you find a way to follow her?”

Liu Qiao replied. “No problem. I will use the Thumbelina card to make myself smaller and go into her pocket or backpack. She won’t find me. Professor Xiao, send me her photo. I will come to the cardiac surgery department in advance to wait for her.”

Xiao Lou secretly took a photo of Xu Fangfang from the nurse’s station when no one was paying attention and sent it to Liu Qiao. Then he looked at the head nurse and politely suggested, “Since Xu Fangfang has asked for leave, can you change the nurse who draws Shao Qingge’s blood?”

The head nurse smiled at him. “Don’t worry, this time I’ll draw the blood from him myself.”

Xiao Lou followed the head nurse. She entered the ICU ward and quickly and skillfully drew the blood. Xiao Lou sighed with relief when he saw that Shao Qingge’s vital signs were stable.

He walked out of the ward and went around chatting with a few patients. On the surface, he was the chief resident of the surgery inpatients and wanted to understand the patients’ conditions. In fact, Xiao Lou was investigating.

Zhao Sen was still in the operating room. Xiao Lou asked several patients about their impressions of Zhao Sen and Director Lin. One of the old ladies said, “Director Lin is a great person! He was the one who did the operation for my granddaughter’s congenital heart disease. She has recovered well from the operation and will be discharged from hospital tomorrow. I want to make a banner for Director Lin.”

A 70 year old man spoke cheerfully. “These heart surgery doctors and nurses are very good. They treat us like family members. My heart stent was done by Dr Zhao. At first, I wasn’t at ease because he looked so young. Then I asked the other patients and found that Dr Zhao is young and promising. The operation was done very well…”

The patients were full of praise for Dr Zhao and Director Lin. Xiao Lou’s suspicions about Incheon Hospital weren’t fully removed but emotionally, he didn’t want these doctors to be involved in organ trafficking.

After chatting with the sick, Xiao Lou went to find some young doctors to find out the situation.

According to them, the cardiac surgery department of Incheon Hospital had two groups. The group led by Director Lin mainly performed thoracotomy while the group led by Zhao Sen mainly performed interventional surgery. If there was major surgery like a heart transplant then the two of them worked together. Zhao Sen could be half-considered as Director Lin’s apprentice and the relationship between the master and apprentice was very good. The doctors and nurses in the department got along well and there were never any quarrels.

As Xiao Lou investigated, he felt more and more like this department wasn’t a team involved in organ trafficking. The medical staff were very sunny and when mentioning a heart transplant, they had a relaxed tone and upright expression. It was impossible for all of them to be so good at acting, right?

He did one round of the cardiac surgery department before Shao Qingge finally woke up.

Xiao Lou heard the news and immediately entered the ICU ward. He saw Shao Qingge’s eyes were open and finally sighed with relief as he walked to the bedside. “I was scared to death just now. It’s great that you are fine.”

Shao Qingge smiled. “What can happen? You were watching from the side so Zhao Sen didn’t dare to do anything during the surgery.”

“I’m not talking about the surgery.” Xiao Lou pressed a hand against his throbbing head. “The surgery went well. Unexpectedly, the danger was after the surgery. Just now, there was a nurse who seemed to want to kill you. Fortunately, I found out in time. Xiao Liu is currently tracking her.”

“A nurse?” Shao Qingge heard this and his expression changed. “No, who the hell did I offend?”

The moment he entered the secret room, he was in a coma for several days. He had to do an operation he was afraid about and once it was done, he was almost murdered… Could it be that he had been lying down too many times so the role the keepers gave him this time was so exciting?

Shao Qingge looked helplessly at Xiao Lou. “Should I go home as soon as possible? If I live in the hospital, every day is a test of life or death!”

“After the heart stent, you have to be observed for a few days before you can be discharged. It is necessary to go through the formalities but I can think of a way to transfer you to the ward I am in charge of. This way, it is safer.” Xiao Lou made a more feasible suggestion. “Have your father help in this matter. It will be easier this way.”

“Yes, isn’t Group Leader Yu discharged? I can live in his VIP room.” Shao Qingge called his father and said he didn’t like the cardiac surgery ward. He wanted to go to where his old friend Xiao Lou was. Xiao Lou’s general surgery department had a VIP ward and the conditions were better. Shao Zhengyang really loved his only son and immediately came forward to negotiate…

Things went well. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon, Xiao Lou personally took Shao Qingge to VIP-1 of the general surgery department.

Yu Hanjiang was just sent away yesterday and now Shao Qingge was living here. Xiao Lou thought helplessly that he was about to become a ‘teammate guardian’. He had to worry about everyone’s safety issues!

Shao Qingge felt very safe living in Xiao Lou’s department. He leaned against the bed and wondered, “Say, why did the nurse want to kill me? I don’t seem to have offended a nurse?”

“According to my analysis with Group Leader Yu, people who receive an organ are likely to encounter retaliation from the family members of the organ donors.” Xiao Lou explained. “Cheng Shaoyu who is being investigated by Group Leader Yu had a heart transplant and he was dismembered.”

“Revenge? Isn’t my kidney from the dead Liu Renyuan?” Shao Qingge raised an eyebrow. “Does a family member think I killed him? However, the surgery wasn’t done by me. We just spent money buying the kidney. This logic isn’t quite right?”

“I’m also surprised by this point. Both of Liu Renyuan’s parents have died and he has no relatives.” Xiao Lou had a headache. “However, it is still unclear if the specific source of your kidney is Liu Renyuan. I need to take a sample of your kidney tissue and compare it with Liu Renyuan’s kidney. I wanted to do it after you got better but now it seems…”

“It doesn’t matter. Do it as soon as possible. I can handle it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, weren’t my blood vessels dredged after the heart stent was implanted? I feel that my body is full of strength now, unlike the previous few days. It isn’t difficult. Just take a small tissue biopsy. It is no problem.”

“Okay, I’ll make arrangements.” In order to avoid leaving a record and arousing Zhao Sen’s suspicion, Xiao Lou simply got the treatment cart himself. He took the tools, secretly took a sample of Shao Qingge’s kidney tissue and found an excuse to send it to the laboratory to compare with Liu Renyuan’s left kidney tissue.

However, the result of the comparison surprised him. It wasn’t a match?! Shao Qingge’s right kidney wasn’t from Liu Renyuan!

Xiao Lou took a deep breath and immediately told Yu Hanjiang the news. “Our speculation is wrong. Liu Renyuan and Shao Qingge might’ve performed the operation in November last year but Shao Qingge’s kidney isn’t from Liu Renyuan.”

Yu Hanjiang had also thought of this possibility and spoke in a low voice after hearing the results. “Liu Renyuan’s kidney was transplanted to another person while Shao Qingge’s kidney came from another donor. It seems this organization has done more organ sales than we thought!”

“On your side, has the DNA result of the newly discovered corpses come out?”

“From the body parts, a total of five people’s DNA was detected. We searched the database and the DNA of these five people didn’t match any of the registered missing people. In other words, these five people died unexpectedly but no one reported them gone.”

“……” Xiao Lou felt a cold wind pouring into his heart. “Then it is like we previously guessed. The organization specifically looked for those whose relatives wouldn’t care and their deaths wouldn’t attract great attention?”

“Yes.” Yu Hanjiang’s voice was deep. “Most of the fingers are burned and we can’t compare with fingerprints. However, the fingerprints of one hand were intact. I compared it with the fingerprint database and confirmed that the deceased is called Wang Wei. He was a takeaway employee.”

Did the takeout boxes that appeared in the trash bin have anything to do with this deliveryman?

Xiao Lou carefully organized the current clues and found that if Chief Shao’s kidney didn’t come from Liu Renyuan, the little nurse must know a clue. Perhaps this nurse Xu Fangfang was a relative of Shao Qingge’s kidney donor. Her relative must’ve died abnormally, causing her to feel a lot of hate.

Chief Shao was safe now and Xiao Lou started worrying about Liu Qiao.

It was risky to send Xiao Liu to follow her alone but at that time, the only thing he could think of was Liu Qiao’s Thumbelina card. This allowed her to become smaller for a long time and could stay in a person’s pocket. In addition, Xu Fangfang was less than 1.6 meters tall. Liu Qiao had many cards and could handle her.

Xiao Lou was worried until 5 o’clock in the evening when Liu Qiao sent a text message with an unfamiliar number. “Professor Xiao, Xu Fangfang’s grandfather passed away today. The moment she got home, she knelt down and cried in the mourning hall. She cried for more than an hour before fainting. She was taken back to her bedroom to sleep by her grandmother. She has a close relationship with her grandparents. Her parents weren’t there and there are no other relatives.”

Unexpectedly, Xu Fangfang’s grandfather really did pass away. Then was she telling the truth when she said she mistakenly grabbed the wrong syringe? However, he clearly saw Xu Fangfang facing Shao Qingge with a weird smile and her eyes weren’t right.

Xiao Lou was in a confused state until Yu Hanjiang’s voice was heard in his head. “Have Xiao Liu continue to follow Xu Fangfang. I believe that she must know something.”

Yu Hanjiang’s words gave Xiao Lou great confidence. He sent a message to Liu Qiao. “Xiao Liu, pay attention to safety. If you encounter something that can’t be resolved, immediately hide yourself with the invisibility cloak to protect yourself.”

Liu Qiao replied, “Don’t worry.”

At this time, Liu Qiao was still the size of a thumb and Xu Fangfang’s mobile phone was like a bed to her.

Xu Fangfang was sleeping very deeply. Liu Qiao raised Xu Fangfang’s hand and unlocked her mobile phone with her fingerprint. She first sent a text message to Xiao Lou to report. Then she deleted the records and opened Xu Fangfang’s WeChat. She was too small and needed to jump around on the phone to change the interface.

There were many contacts in Xu Fangfang’s mobile phone. Looking at the names, most of them were colleagues from Incheon Hospital. Her grandparents probably didn’t use WeChat and there were no records of them chatting with her on WeChat. However, there was a chat record pinned at the top that caught Liu Qiao’s attention.

The other person’s nickname was ‘Husband’. This seemed to be Xu Fangfang’s boyfriend.

Liu Qiao jumped over and opened it with her foot. The last message was on November 17th last year. The other person simply said ‘let’s break up’ followed by a 60 minutes voice call. It was unknown what the two people talked about.

Finally, Xu Fangfang replied: You scumbag, I misread you!

Then she blacklisted the other person’s WeChat account.

This made Liu Qiao feel puzzled. If they broke up and she blacklisted him, why did she keep her boyfriend’s WeChat chat record at the top? If she opened WeChat every day, she would see the other person’s profile picture at first glance. Wasn’t this self-abuse?

A girl’s attitude toward her ex-boyfriend was normally ‘I am happy to see him have a bad life’. As far as Liu Qiao knew, no girl would pin her ex-boyfriend’s WeChat record at the top.

This wasn’t quite right.

Liu Qiao wanted to continue scrolling up when Xu Fangfang suddenly turned over and opened her eyes. Liu Qiao quickly got under the pillow.

Xu Fangfang was stunned. Just now, she seemed to see a little girl the size of a thumb jumping around on her phone? Was she dizzy from crying and had an illusion? She raised her pillow suspiciously and found there was nothing underneath.

Xu Fangfang turned over, closed her eyes and continued sleeping.

Liu Qiao sneaked out of a gap at the head of the bed. There were many secrets behind this nurse. She would stay at the girl’s house and check them out.

Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten & Fictional Reality