Chapter 2: The Stethoscope's Verdict

The night hung heavy as ink, the air inside the clinic thick and still. The moment Lin Qiaowei’s fingertips brushed the stethoscope, a strange jolt of static shot straight up her arms and into her brain. In the doorway, Shen Junhe stood there, the hem of his trench coat still damp, carrying the chill of a rainy night with him. He gripped a yellowed lab report in his hand, slamming it onto the clinic desk with a sharp, grating rasp.

Liu Guifen scratched the back of her head, looking a bit sheepish. “It was really quiet, like metal scraping against the ground. I thought the wind had knocked over some iron frame or something, so I didn’t pay much attention. But this morning when I got up, I noticed a layer of grayish-black foam near the drain in the backyard. I was scratching my head, wondering where that filth was coming from.”

“Qiaowei, sweetie, have a sip of this soup first. Look at you, you’re pale as a ghost.” Liu Guifen set the bowl on the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the lab results in Shen Junhe’s hand, then looked back at Lin Qiaowei’s steady gaze. A strange feeling stirred in her chest. She wrung her hands together, hesitated for a second, and then spoke. “Oh right, last night… I thought I heard some movement in the backyard.”

*Interesting,* Lin Qiaowei thought to herself. The toxin particles hadn’t been swallowed; they’d adhered to the inner walls of the mouth, seeping directly into the bloodstream through the damaged gum tissue. This meant the victim hadn’t died from “eating” the poison, but from “drinking” water while the oral cavity was in a specific state, causing the absorption rate of the toxin to spike.

Lin Qiaowei walked over to Bai Lu and gently stroked the dog’s head. Bai Lu’s heart rate was gradually slowing down. The dog stuck out its tongue to lick Lin Qiaowei’s fingertips, letting out a low, affectionate whine. Seeing this, Liu Guifen, who was lingering just outside the door, felt tears well up in her eyes. She finally understood that her daughter’s choice wasn’t some trivial hobby, but a heavy responsibility born of deep love.

Lin Qiaowei shot him a cold glance, crossing her arms in a composed stance. “Captain Shen, if you’re going to look only at the blood test results, the person you should be interrogating is the pet shop’s manager, not me. But you’ve forgotten one thing. Before Bai Lu got sick, it hadn’t eaten a single snack. It had only lingered near the clinic entrance, and it drank a little water.”

“Captain Shen,” Lin Qiaowei stood up, her gaze passing through the half-open door into the pitch-black night outside. The corner of her mouth curled into a cold, sharp smile. “You just told me not to make up stories. Well, the truth is in my hands right now. As for whose blood this is—whether it belongs to the Zhao family or someone else…”

Shen Junhe lowered his head to look at the lab report he’d pushed aside, his brow furrowed tightly. The results showed that the toxin composition in Bai Lu’s blood matched the high concentration of nitrite residue found in a specific brand of pet snacks. The pet shop had claimed it was a minor contamination due to operational negligence, not malicious poisoning.

“This is ironclad evidence.” Shen Junhe tapped his fingers on the desk. “Dr. Lin, you’re being too emotional. Data doesn’t lie. Unless you have harder evidence to prove this wasn’t accidental ingestion, but rather a deliberate act, you need to stick to science and logic. Stop trying to mystify me with some fancy stethoscope nonsense.”

She continued to replay the memory fragments in her mind. The images shifted, and flashes of Bai Lu’s time outside the clinic surfaced. The dog hadn’t eaten anything; it had just paced anxiously in a circle near the wall, then lowered its head to lick a puddle of standing water on the ground. That water wasn’t rain; it had seeped out from a hidden drain located behind them.

“Final offer, Captain Shen.” Lin Qiaowei’s voice was calm but carried an unyielding strength. “Give me twenty minutes. If I can’t convince you by then, you can take Bai Lu away, or call an ambulance. But I’m willing to take a bet. I’m betting that my ears know the truth better than your lab report.”

Far away, under the neon lights of the city, the engine of a black sedan sputtered and died. Inside, a man stared at a surveillance screen showing the clinic, a cold, sinister smile playing on his lips. He fidgeted with a silver lighter in his hand, the flickering flame illuminating the madness and danger lurking in the depths of his eyes.

The night wind swept through the clinic, stirring the hot mung bean soup in Liu Guifen’s hand. Steam curled upward, contrasting sharply with the chill emanating from the pipe shaft. This seemingly simple case of pet poisoning was pulling out a web of tangled interests and human darkness that had only just been scratched at the surface.

“Mom, don’t stop us.” Lin Qiaowei smiled, a resolute glint in her eyes. “Bai Lu is waiting for the truth, and I’m waiting for my ‘Trust Value’ to break through. Let’s go, Captain Shen. Let’s see what secret is hiding in that pipe.”

“Secure the scene.” Shen Junhe’s voice was grave as he pressed the button on his walkie-talkie. “Dispatch, get the forensic team here now. Also, pull up all surveillance footage from the back of the clinic from six o’clock tonight to now. Pay special attention to the ‘missing’ time segments.”

Shen Junhe’s lip twitched in a barely perceptible arc. He sidestepped to block Lin Qiaowei’s path, standing like a silent wall. His gaze fell on the golden retriever, Bai Lu, in the corner. The dog was trembling, its eyes filled with deep fear and dependency.

Lin Qiaowei turned around. Bai Lu lay quietly at the doorway, looking up at its owners. The panic was gone from its eyes, replaced by a wisdom and loyalty that transcended species. It let out a soft whine, as if to say: *Thank you. I believe you.*

She weighed the glove in her hand, her eyes sharp as a blade. “Then it’s up to your police skills. But I can reveal one thing early: the size of this glove is very similar to a pair I’ve seen on a certain someone before.”

“Take me to see it.” Shen Junhe tossed the lab report aside and grabbed a flashlight. “If this is a fake, I’m dragging you straight to the psychiatric ward. But if it’s real… the Zhao family, and whatever black hands are pulling the strings behind them—I won’t spare a single one.”

“Don’t get your hopes up yet, Dr. Lin.” His voice drifted from the shadows, cold and hard, but with a hint of warmth he couldn’t quite hide. “If you flinch even once after tonight, I’ll smash that crappy stethoscope of yours with my own hands.”

Shen Junhe’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Water? Water source contamination? Are you crazy? Municipal water goes through multiple filtration stages; it can’t be poisoned instantly. Unless someone tampered with the source, but that’s way too far-fetched. There’s no precedent for that.”

In an instant, the world went still. Lin Qiaowei’s pupils dilated rapidly, her vision turning black, and then a brilliant blue-green light exploded in her mind. This was the precursor to [Pathology Vision] activating; the 3D imaging was generating.

Her consciousness sank down, as if passing through Bai Lu’s skin, muscles, and blood vessels, reaching the cellular level. Countless tiny points of light twinkled like stars, but a few red ones shone with abnormal brightness. Those were the core deposits of the toxin.

Lin Qiaowei didn’t even glance at it, casually shoving the lab report aside. Her tone was icy. “I don’t care about the Zhao family’s money, and I certainly don’t need them to buy out my professional dignity. Take your dog away. Don’t dirty the floor of this place.”

Lin Qiaowei crouched down, her fingertips lightly touching an old, rusted iron pipe. It was ice-cold to the touch, with a strange, unsettling stickiness. She frowned and leaned in to smell it. A faint sweetness mixed with the scent of rust assaulted her nose.

Shen Junhe froze, whipping his head around to look at Lin Qiaowei. Storms were raging in his eyes. He didn’t ask *who* had done it, because he knew this wasn’t the time for “who,” but for “how.”

“No precedent doesn’t mean it’s impossible.” Lin Qiaowei turned and walked toward the corner of the exam room, where a white coat, sealed in dust, hung on a hook. She picked up the stethoscope; the cold metal diaphragm glowed with a faint blue sheen under the light.

Lin Qiaowei let out a soft laugh. The sound echoed in the damp pipe shaft, driving away some of the chill. She knew that from this moment on, they were no longer two wary strangers, but comrades-in-arms.

Shen Junhe drew in a sharp breath, a chill racing down his spine. He had thought this was just an ordinary pet poisoning case, but it was looking more and more like a meticulously planned failed murder, or a far more sinister conspiracy.

Shen Junhe clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. He looked at Lin Qiaowei, and the doubt in his eyes had shifted into a wary respect. This woman was not only calm; she possessed an insight that was terrifying.

Lin Qiaowei snapped her eyes open, beads of sweat forming at her temples. In her mind, the image of the pipe joint was clear: a deep scratch, coated in a layer of grayish-black sediment.

Lin Qiaowei stood up, gripping the stethoscope. The metal’s coldness seeped into her fingertips. She met his gaze with unwavering certainty. “Captain Shen, don’t worry. My stethoscope hears more than just heartbeats. It hears the truth.”

Shen Junhe was silent for a moment, a flicker of doubt passing through his eyes. “You’re making up a story. Water source contamination? Where is the source? The back of this clinic is just public green space. No one would poison it.”

The pipe shaft behind them was dim and damp, the air thick with the stale smell of mold. The flashlight beam wavered against the wet stone walls, illuminating a tangled web of metal pipes.

Shen Junhe’s expression was serious, his eyes burning like torches. “Lin Qiaowei, I want the specific source of the poison within twenty-four hours. Otherwise, I won’t trust your next diagnosis.”

“You’re saying someone knew Bai Lu would come here? Or that I’d be treating it here? So they set a trap in advance?” Shen Junhe’s voice was low, heavy with pressure.

“Don’t touch it; it’s physical evidence.” Shen Junhe barked the order, but then realized Lin Qiaowei was only extracting it with a tool and hadn’t touched the contaminated area with her bare hands, so his demeanor eased slightly.

Lin Qiaowei walked back to Bai Lu and crouched down, gently pressing against the dog’s neck. Bai Lu whined, its tense muscles gradually relaxing until it lay docilely in her lap.

Lin Qiaowei stroked its head. The old fire of passion that had gone dormant after the broken engagement was reigniting now, fueled by the fog of the toxin and the hard evidence of the bloodstains.

Liu Guifen gasped and grabbed their sleeves with both hands. “Hey! Where are you two going? It’s the middle of the night, and that pipe shaft is pitch dark. Don’t go barging in and getting hurt!”

Just then, Liu Guifen walked in carrying a bowl of mung bean soup. She was drenched in sweat, the strands of hair at her forehead wet and sticking to her face, looking a bit disheveled but brimming with concern.

The glove was large, clearly sized for an adult male. It was stained with dark red blood, which looked shocking under the beam of the flashlight.

One man, one dog, one mother, plus the detective—they moved toward the back of the clinic in a grand procession. Although Liu Guifen kept nagging, her feet were quick, terrified something would happen to her daughter.

“Here.” She pointed to a joint at the end of the pipe. There were clear signs of pried damage; the weld was broken, and black liquid was seeping out of the gap.

Shen Junhe switched on his flashlight, the harsh beam cutting into the depths of the pipe. At the end of the beam, sitting quietly in a puddle of stagnant water, was a black rubber glove.

Shen Junhe took a deep breath, suppressing his anger. “Fine. Twenty minutes. If you mess this up, don’t blame me for not pulling any punches.”

“Bai Lu, relax. Tell me what you know.” Lin Qiaowei murmured, pressing the stethoscope diaphragm firmly against the heart and lung area.

Shen Junhe didn’t turn around. He just raised his fist and made a symbolic air-bump against hers.

“Found it.” Lin Qiaowei stood up, her voice slightly hoarse. “Captain Shen, look here.”

“Glad to work with you, Captain Shen.” Lin Qiaowei said quietly, her voice carrying the composure of a winner.

Lin Qiaowei put on her gloves and carefully extracted the black rubber glove, her movements professional and swift.

“Here’s something to hold. You don’t have to play with that mystical stuff anymore.” Shen Junhe’s voice was cold and hard.

Lin Qiaowei’s pupils constricted instantly, a bolt of lightning flashing through her mind.

Shen Junhe frowned. “Chronic irritation? The pet shop didn’t mention any such medical history.”

Shen Junhe and Lin Qiaowei both looked at her.

The game had only just begun.