Siheyuan: Xu Damao's New Life

The Inspection Department finally lived up to everyone's expectations, but Zheng Gang's journey was not so smooth.

When Zheng Gang brought Xu Dabao and others to Red Star Hospital, Sha Zhu had not woken up yet. Everyone could only wait for Sha Zhu to wake up while going to the medicine selling place in the hospital to inquire about Croton. After all, this is a regular hospital, and basically these large hospitals need a doctor's note to sell medicine, so Zheng Gang's hope of getting clues from here is very slim.

After asking around to no avail, Zheng Gang returned to Sha Zhu's ward. At this time, Sha Zhu had just woken up and Ma Hua was feeding him water. It seemed that Ma Hua's decision to take Sha Zhu as his apprentice was not in vain.

"Comrade He Yuzhu, can you tell us what happened last night?" Zheng Gang asked.

Sha Zhu opened his dry mouth and said, "I was knocked unconscious last night. I don't know anything."

"When and by whom were you knocked unconscious? Tell me in detail." Zheng Gang continued to ask.

"When I went out to get something, I was knocked unconscious as soon as I entered the back kitchen door. The man was hiding by the back kitchen door, and I didn't see who it was."

"Then do you know that you are like this because you ate croton?"

"I don't know. I only woke up once after I fainted, when you guys flushed the toilet. Then I fainted again and only woke up now." Sha Zhu was shocked. Something was wrong. He clearly put the croton seeds into the wine bottle and watched Xu Damao drink it with his own eyes. How come he was the one having diarrhea?

Sha Zhu answered Zheng Gang's questions perfunctorily while carefully recalling everything that happened last night. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. Could it be that Xu Damao knew about his plan and wanted to take revenge on him? That was impossible. According to Xu Damao's usual drinking capacity and drinking habits, he must have been drunk last night and would have blacked out. That definitely couldn't be Xu Damao taking revenge on him.

Could it be that there was someone else in the cafeteria last night, and this person knew Xu Damao and me, and heard my mumbling and what we said in the cafeteria private room. He sent Xu Damao back to the office and came back to feed himself wine mixed with croton. Then this person must be close to Xu Damao but not on good terms with me, so who is this person?

Zheng Gang saw Sha Zhu frowning and thinking, so he didn't bother him. Sha Zhu leaned on the bed, thinking hard, and his eyes inadvertently swept over Xu Dabao, the canteen director who came in with Zheng Gang but didn't say a word.

Sha Zhu was shocked. Xu Dabao and he had always been at odds. He had invited him back before but was rejected. He also knew that I said I would send Xu Damao back to the office, and he and Xu Damao were both from the same department as Deputy Director Li. Could it be that he did not go home last night, but accidentally found out that I bought croton to harm Xu Damao, and then took advantage of the situation to trick him.

The more Sha Zhu thought about it, the more he felt that this was the case. Xu Dabao's time, place, and motive all matched, so there was only one truth: Xu Dabao did it! At this moment, Sha Zhu felt that he had occupied the high ground of IQ. His failure to go to college was a huge loss to the country. Please call him Yu Zhu Holmes.

Now that he had figured things out, Sha Zhu looked at Xu Dabao with a gradually unfriendly look, and finally a fierce look in his eyes. He... How dare you plot against your grandfather? If I don't punish you when I get better, I won't be called Sha Zhu! I'm going to sue you today.

"Chief Zheng, I remembered something, but I can only tell you." Sha Zhu said hesitantly.

Zheng Gang thought that Sha Zhu might have some privacy that he didn't want too many people to hear, so he waved his hand and asked everyone else to leave. Only the two of them were left in the ward. "Okay, now that they're all out, you can talk now, right?"

"I think Xu Dabao might have done it. We have never gotten along. Yesterday he asked me to come back to cook but I turned him down, so he planned to harm me. He knew I was going to make sobering soup for Xu Damao and then send him back to the office. He said he was going home but actually he was hiding and took the opportunity to knock me out, and finally secretly fed me croton seeds before going home..." Sha Zhu spoke more and more fluently, as if that was exactly what he said.

After listening to Sha Zhu's analysis, Zheng Gang also felt that his analysis made some sense. Everyone said that Sha Zhu was not very smart and was a scoundrel, but this analysis didn't seem to make sense.

Zheng Gang touched his chin and fell into deep thought. Just when he was wondering whether to ask Xu Dabao, Xu Damao and his men walked into the ward where Sha Zhu was.

As soon as Xu Damao entered the room, he said, "Chief Zheng, we found a clue."

"Oh, what's the clue?" Zheng Gang became interested instantly. He had a feeling that this was the key to breaking the deadlock.

Xu Damao took out the paper signed by the old Chinese doctor and said, "We found a retired Chinese doctor near the Pigeon Market in Nanluoguxiang. According to him, someone went to him to buy a lot of croton seeds yesterday. He also heard others call him Sha Zhu, and Sha Zhu's appearance matches the description of the old Chinese doctor. This is the signed certificate of the old Chinese doctor." Xu Damao glanced at Sha Zhu who was lying on the hospital bed.

Zheng Gang took the paper and started reading it. What was written on the paper was indeed consistent with what Xu Damao said. There was also a name on it, which should be the signature of the retired old Chinese doctor.

Zheng Gang angrily shook off the piece of paper and yelled at Sha Zhu, "Sha Zhu, you actually bought the croton, and you actually wanted to lie to me, what else do you have to say!"

"I...I...I," Sha Zhu was also a little dumbfounded, "I just wanted to give Xu Damao some croton seeds to make him look bad. We have been at odds since we were young. But I clearly handed the bottle of wine with croton seeds to Xu Damao, and Xu Damao drank it, so why is it that Xu Damao is fine and I got fooled instead? I still think my previous analysis is correct, I was tricked by Xu Dabao!"

Xu Damao was laughing in his heart when he heard Sha Zhu say that, but his face was full of curiosity. Zheng Gang told Sha Zhu what he had said before and asked him to help analyze it.

Xu Damao was so amused that he almost died. This silly Zhu was really smart. You didn't know that I had a system even if you racked your brains. In order not to expose himself, it was a good choice to let Xu Dabao take the blame. Otherwise, Xu Damao had many people who could prove his alcohol tolerance and that he had drunk a lot of alcohol that night and was already drunk. Then this matter would become a headless case.

But the leaders handed this matter over to the Security Department and the Inspection Department for joint investigation. If they really can't find out the truth, wouldn't it make the Inspection Department seem useless? So let Cui Dabao take the blame!

Xu Damao pulled Zheng Gang to the stairs, smoking and saying, "After investigating to this point, it can be said that the matter has been basically sorted out. Sha Zhu wanted to harm me so he bought croton seeds, and then took advantage of the cooking opportunity to make me drink wine mixed with croton seeds to make a fool of myself. Sha Zhu took me to the back kitchen to find a rope, and when I came back, I was knocked unconscious and fed croton seeds. It was all my own fault."

"From the time, place and motive, Xu Dabao is indeed very suspicious, but these are all assumptions and analytical reasoning, which cannot be directly used as evidence. And there are several doubts in this matter: there was indeed croton in the wine, and I drank it but nothing happened. Did Sha Zhu mix up the bottles? Did he drink the bottle with croton when he was toasting? It is also possible that someone knocked Sha Zhu unconscious and simply wanted to get him drunk, and made it look like Sha Zhu was drunk himself."

Xu Damao took a deep puff of his cigarette. "Since the direct explanation doesn't work, let's infer from the reverse side. According to what Sha Zhu said, he was knocked unconscious and never woke up. There were no signs of struggle or movement on the ground, so this should be true. Since this person sent me back to the office, he must have known that Sha Zhu said he would send me back to the office. At that time, everyone else in the private room had left, leaving only Sha Zhu, Xu Dabao and me. I was drunk and Sha Zhu was knocked unconscious, so everything is clear."

"Da Mao, what's wrong with you? I must report today's incident and apply for a reward for you. OK, let's go back to the factory and report to the leaders. It's up to the factory leaders to decide how to deal with it. But we still have to keep it confidential and don't leak it out yet."

"Okay, Chief Zheng." Xu Damao responded.

Afterwards, Zheng Gang led everyone back to the steel mill on the pretext that it was almost time to get off work, and then he secretly went to report to Director Yang. Xu Damao said that the renovation was completed and the final payment was settled early, and he also rode his bicycle home. However, on the way home, he went to the post office and secretly called Li Huaide...