Chapter 19: A Change of Heart

"Are you a relative of the patient?"

Inside the emergency room, after doctors had swiftly performed induced vomiting, gastric lavage, and purgation on the woman, one of the female doctors asked Fu Yuan with a stern expression.

Fu Yuan shook her head and replied softly, "I don't know her."

The doctor looked slightly skeptical, though the wariness in her eyes diminished a little. She proceeded to brief her on the patient's general condition: "Based on your description, our preliminary assessment is that this is a case of poisoning."

Fu Yuan was surprised. "Poisoning?"

In her twenty-some years of life, she had never encountered poisoning; the word felt strangely distant to her. Initially, she had assumed it was an allergy—some people suffer from vomiting, diarrhea, or develop bruises and red rashes after consuming seafood.

"Yes," the doctor nodded. "Judging by the symptoms, we tentatively suspect the patient may have ingested a large amount of ricin."

"Ricin?" Fu Yuan was taken aback. She had heard of it. "But isn't medication containing that substance strictly regulated? How could she have obtained it, let alone ingested it herself?"

The doctor gave her an odd look, and the wariness that had just faded flared up again. "You seem to know quite a lot."

"I used to read a lot of novels," Fu Yuan explained. "It appeared in some of them."

"Castor seeds can be pressed for oil and have industrial uses," the doctor said, scribbling something on a form with a flourish. "They aren't picky about soil and have high economic value; they can be grown as long as they are approved."

Fu Yuan fell silent, watching the doctor hook the woman up to saline and glucose drips.

The doctor noticed her expression and her tense face suddenly relaxed. She gave a small laugh. "Actually, it's not certain that it's ricin; that's just a rough guess. We've already drawn blood for testing, and we'll need to perform an ECG and an abdominal CT scan later."

Fu Yuan nodded. The doctor handed her the form. "See if you can contact the patient's family, or help by going to the payment office on the first floor of the outpatient department. You have to pay before we can proceed with the CT scan and the rest."

Fu Yuan: "?"

She took the form and repeated helplessly, "I'm not close to her. I just ran into her on the road."

"It's fine. Just wait until she wakes up, give her the form, and let her contact her family," the doctor said, peeling off her plastic gloves and tossing them into the trash. "Oh, and remember to pay the registration fee."

With that, she pulled back the curtain and moved to another room, where a sign read: Medical Staff Only, Authorized Personnel Only.

***

The room was sparse. Fu Yuan looked at the woman on the hospital bed; her face remained pale, her eyes closed, though her eyeballs moved slightly beneath the lids.

The bed had four wheels and could be pushed around. Two other people were nearby, each with their own attendants—one was suffering from a persistent low-grade fever, the other from a sudden cerebral infarction.

"I know you're awake," Fu Yuan said softly. She had pulled a stool from the nurse's station and sat down beside the woman, watching her slightly trembling eyelids.

The woman's eyelids fluttered a few times, but she refused to open her eyes.

Fu Yuan watched her, saying nothing for a long time.

After a while, Fu Yuan spoke. "I can't wake someone who is pretending to be asleep. This is the form the doctor gave me; I don't understand it anyway. The fact that the doctors aren't rushing to treat you means it isn't life-threatening yet. You heard what the doctor said—you can go pay the fees yourself when you're ready, or if you come to your senses, you can contact your relatives."

She stood up, took the woman's hand, and stuffed the doctor's form into her palm.

As she pulled away, the woman grabbed her hand tightly.

"Finally awake?" Fu Yuan pulled her hand back, her attitude less than warm, her tone tinged with sarcasm.

"Don't..." the woman whispered, lying on the bed, her face ghostly pale. She pleaded in a low voice, her eyes shimmering with tears, looking utterly pitiful.

If it had been a man in Fu Yuan's place, he might have been overwhelmed and immediately promised to stay and look after her.

But to Fu Yuan, this was merely a chance encounter. She felt there was something suspicious about the situation, which was why she had followed along to understand what was going on. Bringing her to the hospital was already doing her a great service; expecting her to pay the bills was out of the question—she barely had enough for her own meals.

Still, Fu Yuan's heart softened. She sat back down. "If you're in trouble, you can be direct with me."

The woman didn't dare to look at her and remained silent.

Fu Yuan grew annoyed. Her tone turned sharp. "If you won't speak, I'm leaving. I'm just a broke graduate. My family bought an unfinished apartment in a small county and I'm drowning in bank debt. If you're trying to scam me, I don't have any money for you!"

"No, it's not like that..." The woman looked panicked. She lowered her head and murmured, "I suspect someone is... trying to murder me."

Fu Yuan: "?"

Fu Yuan laughed in disbelief. "Couldn't you come up with a better excuse? It's 2030, almost 2031. We live in a society governed by law; why do you sound like you're living in the last century?"

***

"No, it's the truth," the woman said, her eyes widening, a veil of mist forming within them.

Fu Yuan couldn't stand seeing others cry, so her tone softened. "Why would you think that? Is it because the doctor said you might have been poisoned?"

The woman nodded, then shook her head. "Like I told you, I had a physical exam a while ago... I'm getting married."

Fu Yuan nodded, signaling for her to continue.

The woman looked at her pleadingly. "You're the only one I can trust now. He died this morning. I've always suspected it was murder, and now, it's my turn."

Fu Yuan felt a headache coming on. "Didn't you start running a fever last night? And your husband—the medical examiner ruled it a suicide. If I heard correctly, there was surveillance footage, too."

"Don't you find it suspicious? If it were a suicide, he could have just died quietly. Why go through such unnecessary trouble?" The woman gave a wry, helpless smile. When discussing the death of her newlywed husband, she showed no trace of attachment, as if he were a complete stranger.

Fu Yuan was tired and didn't want to get involved. "So what? Leave these things to the professionals. The police, for example—you could tell them all of this."

The woman shook her head. "I already have. They agreed on the surface, but I can tell they aren't taking it seriously."

Fu Yuan didn't know what to say. "You're overthinking it. They base their work on evidence."

The woman was silent for a moment, then added, "I wouldn't swallow poison myself. I'm not that fragile. There are so many rich men in the world."

Fu Yuan agreed with that point. "That's true. But what's the point of telling me all this?"

"You're the only one I can trust now," the woman repeated.

Then, she dropped another bombshell. "There's one more thing I haven't told the police. When my husband passed away, the look in his eyes... it was very strange."

Fu Yuan looked at her, puzzled.

The woman paused, then said, "It was as if his entire being had been replaced by something else."