Chen Shi arrived at the office and found Meng Ergou's case file in the archives. Meng Ergou was indeed hacked to death. The police identified it as a death caused by gang fighting. The suspect was a person who had beef with Meng Ergou. After the incident, the suspect disappeared and he was still a wanted man to this day.

Li Mu had always been cautious when handling cases and would not have been unjust. Chen Shi looked carefully at the evidence collection process and found nothing wrong with it.

He suspected that perhaps the case was not related to Yuhua Company at all, because Wang Daji couldn't produce any clear evidence. Everything was just his speculation.

Chen Shi went directly to investigating Yuhua Company and contacted the law firm that sued Yuhua Company that year. The receptionist said that the lawyer surnamed Liu who was in charge of the case, was not in Long’an in the morning, and was due to return in the evening.

Chen Shi couldn’t do anything about that, so he went to the information division to check on a few employees from the Yuhua Company.

The first person he checked was Ma Wanli, the CEO of Yuhua Company. He had five properties in Long’an.

The chief secretary Hou Yue left his job three years ago, but there was a discrepancy with what Wang Daji said. He had left before Meng Ergou died and currently had no fixed job.

The product manager, Zhu Jun, accidentally fell to his death three years ago.

Another person was someone Wang Daji had mentioned yesterday: an actuary named Yang Fen. Police information also showed that he fell down from a building accidentally three years ago.

After seeing this strange information, Chen Shi immediately rushed to the police station in charge of the case. The Criminal Police Consultant Card indeed came in useful there, and Chen Shi successfully obtained the case file he was after.

There were only a few pages in the entire file. When Zhu Jun fell, the door was locked. The only key was on Zhu Jun. Using the term from murder mysteries, it was a “locked room case”.

A half-bottle of wine and some side dishes were found in his room. According to the clues on the scene, he had tried to open the window after drinking, stumbled and fell.

Chen Shi picked up the photos and found that the deceased had fallen onto the ground with his back facing down and that there was a large amount of dust on his back. He noted down the location of the accident and rushed there to take a look.

The house had already been vacated and a real estate agency was overseeing the sale of the house. Chen Shi didn't bother with the intermediary. He pried open the lock and went in. This was a three-bedroom house with two living rooms, and the whole place was empty.

He stood in the center of the room, recalling the scene in the photos, and recreated every piece of furniture in his mind.

At the time, there was a table near the window, and the window was the kind that could be opened on both the left and right. If he stood on the table and opened the window, there was indeed a risk of falling, but he was not convinced that this was just a simple accident.

How could two people fall down one after another around the same time? Something so coincidental often has hidden truths.

However, the two cases were not investigated together at the time. In addition, it had been two years since the Yuhua Company scandal, and it had failed to attract the investigator’s attention.

Chen Shi went to another local police station and looked at the case file of the actuary, Yang Fen. Similarly, he couldn’t find out much from the case file. Because the family members didn’t agree with having an autopsy, the case was ruled an accident and closed.

The location of Yang Fen's accident was demolished last year.

After running around these three places, it was already past noon. Chen Shi ate a simple meal and then he received a phone call on his mobile phone. It was Lawyer Liu. He said, “Were you looking for me?”

“I'm from the police. I want to find out about Yuhua from you.”

“It has been five years since that case was resolved, and the family members have also received compensation for it.”

“I’m really sorry. I just want to understand some things.”

“Okay, you can come to my office then!”

When he got to the law firm, Lawyer Liu and Chen Shi briefly exchanged a few niceties before broaching the main topic. He handed a stack of documents to Chen Shi, saying, “This is the evidence of the lawsuit against Yuhua that year. Nine patients died after taking their medicine. Although the public criticized the company, it took me a lot of effort to obtain evidence and nearly a year to get compensation for the families.”

“Is there anything wrong with their medicine?”

“As mentioned in this article, the company's Armillarisin A injection contains diethylene glycol, which can cause kidney failure. A similar incident occurred in the United States as early as 1937, which killed 107 people. The chief pharmacist committed suicide because of the overwhelming public criticism. Why did they mix in diethylene glycol? It took me a lot of work to find out. There was supposed to be an auxiliary ingredient of propylene glycol in the injection, but the purchaser bought toxic diethylene glycol which functions similarly for a cheaper price.”

“How did Yuhua defend themselves back then?”

“Of course, they said that it was an accident. They dumped the whole problem onto the person who sourced the ingredients and then apologized publicly afterwards. They fired the person, but...”

“But what?”

“I suspect they are still using the same formula. Because I represented the clients in this case, I developed a bit of a reputation for my expertise in medical lawsuits. Since then, I’ve received calls from patients one after another in the past two years. They said that adverse reactions occurred after using Yuhua's medicine. “

“Did anyone die?”

“Yes! I'm afraid you would be shocked if I told you, but in the past five years, 17 patients have died. Yuhua Company chose to settle out of court and compensated all of them. The money was paid out quite happily.”

“You just mentioned a similar case in the United States in 1937. Did that pharmacist really commit suicide? Or was he killed?”

Lawyer Liu laughed, “Officer Chen seems to like conspiracy theories. I don't know about such a case from such a long time ago, and there is no evidence to back it up either.”

“I'm asking for your opinion.”

“I think that something is strange! Of course, this is just my personal speculation during a private chat.”

“Are the ingredient purchaser and chief pharmacist of Yuhua Company still alive?”

“They are!”

“Can you prove it?”

“Won’t you know if you just checked it?” Lawyer Liu picked up the phone. It seemed that lawyers also had their own personal networks. He then hung up and made small talk with Chen Shi for a while.

Half an hour later, the phone rang. After Lawyer Liu answered, his expression changed greatly, and he said to Chen Shi, “The chief pharmacist died five years ago.”

“How did he die?”

“Accidental fall from a building!”

Chen Shi sneered; it reeked of conspiracy. He was afraid the case was not so simple. The three people who accidentally fell would have known about the company's most important secrets, so they had to “fall down accidentally”.

As for the secret? The so-called secret would be the simplest thing.

A single person's secret, if leaked, would only affect their own dignity[1], but the secret of a company would be of vital importance to their profits.

Chen Shi said, “Lawyer Liu, is my conspiracy theory accurate?”

Lawyer Liu stood up and said, “Officer Chen, if you want to investigate Yuhua Company, I will do my best to support you. Of course, you’ll need to hire me when you need to sue them.”

“If it becomes a criminal case, they will be publicly charged by the prosecutor’s office, and we probably won’t be hiring a lawyer.”

“Oh, yes!” Lawyer Liu sat down in disappointment. “But if you have any leads, please tell me. After all, I’ve been following Yuhua Company for so many years. It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration if I were to say that they’re my mortal enemy.”

“Of course!”

1. The author had written “... would only amount to the things in their pants”, but it just didn’t seem to sound right in English.