Xu Lun stood by the roadside, watching his enemy drink the poisoned [b]milk tea[/b], collapse to the ground, twitch, and foam at the mouth. A surge of intense excitement almost made him dance for joy.
The pleasure of revenge didn't last long. Soon, he fell into anxiety and worry.
At night, he repeatedly went over every detail to make sure there were no loopholes in the plan.
He carried out this murder plan with the rigor of a biologist. Before starting the plan, he observed and collected data on the [b]milk tea[/b] shop that Mao Renjie often visited for a month.
The person operating that shop was just a young guy, and it wasn't his own storefront. He shared it with someone else.
The shop was open from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. every day, and during the day, it served as a snack bar selling roasted and fried duck necks.
Because that kind of [b]milk tea[/b] was too strange, fewer than five cups were sold every day, and Mao Renjie was one of the customers. This old pedant who had studied in Europe really liked the taste of the cheese in it.
The effectiveness of the sodium cyclohexanol sulfate antagonist lasted for one week. That meant customers only needed to be injected once within a week to prevent being poisoned by the sodium cyclohexanol sulfate in the [b]milk tea[/b]. According to his calculation, he only needed to inject 2.5 people on average every day.
With such a low frequency, and considering the dense crowd on the [b]pedestrian street[/b], and with his disguise, he wouldn't be discovered.
Even if there were unexpected deaths, he could stop immediately, and the [b]policemen[/b] would only think it was an ordinary food - poisoning incident.
After going over it many times, Xu Lun still felt uneasy. He turned to look at his sleeping wife beside him, gently stroking her hair. Although they were both fifty years old, she still hummed like a young girl and wriggled in his arms.
Maybe this was the last night he could sleep soundly. Thinking of this, Xu Lun couldn't help but shed tears.
"Hello, we're from the Jiangxia Police. We'd like you to cooperate with our investigation!"
Suddenly, the scene changed. Two [b]policemen[/b] came to visit. Xu Lun could calmly answer every question they asked, but the suspicion in their eyes never faded.
A few days later, more [b]policemen[/b] came. Xu Lun was taken into a police car. His wife cried and beat on the car door. "It wasn't him! It wasn't him! You must be wrong!"
"Ma'am, please don't interfere with our official duties!" The wife was dragged away by the [b]policemen[/b]. She cried and rolled on the ground. Xu Lun saw it through the car window and his heart broke.
"Confess honestly!"
The [b]policeman[/b] slapped the table hard, and his cold gaze fixed on Xu Lun's face.
Xu Lun shivered and confessed everything. While the [b]policemen[/b] were shocked, they also said some contemptuous words. "At your age, doing such a thing. Don't you think about your family?"
On the first night in the detention center, his cellmates came to "greet" him, pulling his hair and touching his glasses.
"Yo, an intellectual killing someone. Awesome! Tell us, how did you kill the person?" A big - built guy gave him a shove, and the others laughed and started ribbing him.
"Just leave me alone for a bit!" Xu Lun pleaded.
"Fuck you!"
The burly man slapped his glasses off askew. "Don't know what's good for you, huh? Brothers, teach him a lesson!"
The scene flashed. Xu Lun, with a bruised face, was sitting in the visiting room. His wife looked much older. She kept coughing and asked, "What happened to your face?"
"I... I fell."
"If any inmates bully you, tell the policemen, okay? I can't sleep at night worrying about you!"
"Juan, I'm sorry for you. Let's get a divorce. Find an old man to spend the rest of your life with and forget about me, a criminal!"
"No, I don't want to!"
Their meeting ended in sobs and sighs.
Every day in the detention center was like a year. Xu Lun got used to waiting on those inmates and always gave in to them. When getting food, he gave the meat to them. But he still couldn't avoid being beaten. Who asked him to be old and weak here?
Whenever he had a chance, he humbly begged the guards to find out when his trial would be.
As long as he could leave here, even going to prison would be okay!
Xu Lun looked at the square sky framed by the window. It was gray and evening was approaching. This gloomy sky was just like his life, getting darker and darker without a glimmer of hope.
An incidental news report stated that Mao Renjie was killed by a former researcher who was jealous of him. The academy expressed great regret over his death. Many front - line scientists, politicians, and entrepreneurs attended his funeral.
Mao Renjie lay in the flowers, looking peaceful. The mourners in black were deeply grieved.
The scene changed. A group of reporters acting like vultures surrounded his wife. They almost stuck the microphones into her mouth and aggressively questioned, "Why did your husband kill a national - level scientist!", "Did your husband reveal his thoughts?", "Are you going to apologize to the deceased?"
Xu Lun was sitting in the detention center's canteen watching TV. Tears streamed down his face and his nails dug deeply into his flesh. What on earth had he done? What on earth had he done...
Suddenly, Uncle Xu, who was lying on the table, burst into sorrowful cries. Di Zhen thought it was about time and softly said, "Wake up, Uncle Xu!"
Uncle Xu opened his eyes. It turned out that it was all just a pipe dream. He looked at Di Zhen in shock. The dream was so real that for a moment he thought the present reality was a dream he had in the detention center.
Di Zhen only gave a little verbal cue, and the rest of the plot was all conjured up by Uncle Xu himself. In the dream, he seemed to have experienced several months of life in one breath.
"I..." Uncle Xu grabbed Di Zhen's arm and tears gushed out. "I... I'm sorry for her... I shouldn't have been so stupid!"
"Don't be too sad!" Di Zhen comforted him. "It was just an illusion I made you see through hypnosis."
"It was so real!" Uncle Xu nodded. "Young man, thank you for waking me up, a stupid old man, and making me turn back from the brink!"
Di Zhen let out a sigh of relief and asked, "I've disposed of the maggots used for poisoning. You'd better get rid of the other tools quickly. Let's just pretend this never happened."
"Thank you, thank you for everything you've done for me!"
"
"I just don't want Auntie Liu to fall into pain. I'll take my leave."
"Wait a minute..." Uncle Xu wiped away his tears. "I want to invite you to dinner."
"I'm afraid I can't make it today..." Di Zhen forced a smile. He still had to turn himself in.
"For my new lease on life, you gotta come to my place. Let me and my wife thank you face - to - face!"
Uncle Xu immediately asked for leave. He first took Di Zhen to the basement of Shuangrong Community and destroyed all the materials for poison with strong acid. Di Zhen asked curiously, "What are these?"
"They are the toxins I extracted from fish gallbladders. I rummaged the fish gallbladders from the trash can of a grilled fish restaurant so that the policemen can't trace the source. The antagonist was also synthesized by me using daily materials."
"Are fish gallbladders poisonous?"
"Yes, the gallbladders of grass carp, black carp, bighead carp, mandarin fish, silver carp, and common carp are all poisonous. But in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), black carp gallbladder is also considered a medicine for clearing internal heat and improving eyesight. There are quite a few people poisoned every year by drinking raw black carp gallbladder with wine, and many of them even die. Actually, the principle of how this thing can cure diseases..."
"It activates the human immune system?" Di Zhen interrupted.
"You're quite knowledgeable, young man!" Uncle Xu nodded and praised. "That's right, exactly!"
"I've learned a lot! You're truly a first - class biologist in the country!"
Hearing the praise, Uncle Xu was very happy. "Alas, I'm just an old master taking care of fish now. But if you need anything in the future, you can come to me at any time!"
"I probably won't need poison." Di Zhen smiled. "By the way, how did you get the poisoned maggots into the milk tea shop?"
"I just told that young man that I had clean maggots for the golden arowana in the shop, and he bought the goods from me." Uncle Xu slapped his forehead. "Alas, this is a loophole. The policemen will still trace me."
Di Zhen was smiling when suddenly a wave of sadness hit him. If only there had been someone like Uncle Xu around his father back then.