Solving the Case, A Profitable Profession

While waiting to see if the two dogs would show signs of poisoning, Serena Feng kept herself busy, meticulously inspecting every part of the corpses, leaving no suspicious detail unchecked.

After a quarter of an hour, both dogs were still lively, barking nonstop, showing absolutely no signs of poisoning.

“So, does this mean there’s nothing wrong with the Young clan’s medicine?” Harold Young’s face finally brightened. Although he had always been confident that the Young family’s medicine was safe, getting concrete proof at this moment still made him very happy.

No matter what, he now had a way to prove the Young family’s medicine was safe. If another death occurred, he could use this method to clear the Young clan’s name—and, with the help of the authorities, track down their hidden enemy.

“You could say that.” Merchants and doctors really do see things differently.

Harold Young only cared whether the Young clan’s medicine was safe; as for the actual cause of death, it didn’t concern him. Serena Feng understood this perfectly and wasn’t disappointed.

“So what did the victims actually die from?” Sun Zhengdao fixed his intense gaze on Serena Feng, as if she alone could answer this question.

“Imperial Physician Sun is right—Serena Feng, can you determine their cause of death?” Dominic Zhai, as an official, bore responsibility for the safety of the entire capital. With so many deaths, if it wasn’t the medicine, then what was it?

Harold Young flushed, realizing he’d been too caught up in his relief. He quickly added, “Yes, Miss Feng, please continue the autopsy. Let’s work together to find the killer and give the victims justice.”

Saying the right things in front of a crowd costs nothing. Magistrate Leonard Wei quickly chimed in, each person sounding righteous—but among them, how many truly cared about justice for the dead?

Serena Feng glanced around and saw nothing.

Sun Zhengdao was focused on her autopsy technique, Dominic Zhai was concerned for the royal family’s safety, and as for Harold Young and Magistrate Wei, their motives went without saying.

But regardless, she still had to do what needed to be done.

“Since only the face shows signs of poisoning, I’ll start examining that area.” In fact, Serena Feng had wanted to start with the head from the beginning, but after inspecting the exterior and finding nothing suspicious, she now had no choice but to open the skull and check the brain for problems.

Serena Feng picked up a surgical scalpel and shaved off all the victim’s hair.

“Serena Feng, what are you doing?” Dominic Zhai, the highest-ranking official present, asked. It was a reasonable question.

“Opening the brain.”

“Opening the brain? You can open a brain? If you do, can he still…” Live?

Fortunately, Dominic Zhai caught himself in time and stopped mid-sentence.

He really was being foolish—asking if a dead person could still live.

Serena Feng shot him a glare. “Young Lord, after all the suffering he’s endured, I doubt he’d mind a little more if it means catching the person who killed him.”

If she hadn’t failed to find the cause of death in the internal organs, she wouldn’t have wanted to perform a craniotomy either. The more she revealed, the more trouble she invited.

“Miss Feng, could this craniotomy be done on a living person?” As expected, Harold Young’s eyes lit up—whether he saw a business opportunity or something else.

“Right, right! Qingchen, what would happen if you opened a living person’s brain?” Whenever medicine was involved, Sun Zhengdao got excited.

Serena Feng didn’t answer, but instead asked back, “What do you think?”

“Hmm, I suppose they’d die!” Sun Zhengdao replied, not entirely sure.

Serena Feng didn’t respond. Her face expressionless, she took the scalpel and began slicing into the victim’s skull.

In her previous life, she specialized in cardiac and neurosurgery. Craniotomies were nothing new to her, but in this world, such operations were nearly impossible—even with the Smart Med-Pack, she wasn’t confident.

The operating room didn’t meet her standards at all, and post-op recovery would be nowhere near what she required.

Neurosurgery is so risky that a single mistake could kill the patient on the table. Serena would never attempt such a dangerous operation lightly.

Harold Young felt a wave of disappointment. He thought to himself that his poor nephew, Eric Young, probably couldn’t escape his fate. Was it truly the heavens envying talent? The Young family’s third son was handsome and brilliant, but his brain was ill.

The Master of the Mystic Healer Valley had once said that if anyone could perform a craniotomy on Eric Young, he could live like a normal person. But sadly, no one in this world could do it.

Sun Zhengdao was even more disappointed. If Serena Feng couldn’t do it, there was hardly anyone on the Nine Provinces continent who could. He’d hoped to see a live craniotomy performed someday.

Maybe the old man from Mystic Healer Valley could do it, but he was eccentric and hard to find. After coming to see Serena Feng treat William Wang Jinling’s eyes, he hadn’t appeared since. Finding him would be harder than reaching the sky.

Serena Feng didn’t care what the others thought. With a single cut, she lifted off the skull, letting brain matter spill onto the autopsy table. Holding half the skull in her hand, she exposed a tangle of blood vessels and tissue for all to see.

Everyone’s scalp tingled.

“Ugh…”

Except for Leon Su and Dominic Zhai, everyone was retching. Dominic’s face was pale, but he forced himself to endure—he wouldn’t let his military pride slip.

Serena Feng, what kind of monster are you—not even flinching? Didn’t she find the worm-like things on the brain disgusting? And that brain matter was everywhere.

Heavens! Earth!

Was she even a girl? With courage like that, no one in Eastlyn could compare.

Ethan Hsieh and Vincent Su had once felt a trace of admiration for Serena Feng, but when she calmly lifted the skull from the corpse, that admiration vanished—replaced entirely by respect and awe.

Such a formidable woman—they couldn’t dare to love her!

Here were grown men, and even they didn’t have Serena Feng’s nerve. How shameful was that?

Faced with a situation like this, not only could they not protect Serena, they might even need her to protect them.

Utterly shameful!

No matter how much they admired her, they couldn’t lose their dignity as men. A woman like Serena Feng should be paired with a man even braver than herself.

“Finally found the cause.” Serena Feng looked at the blackened brain and breathed a sigh of relief.

At last, she’d done right by the deceased—she’d spoken up for their injustice.

Serena Feng put down the scalpel and picked up a tiny pair of tweezers. From the tangled mass of tissue in the brain, she extracted a fine needle, which glinted blue-green in the sunlight.

“Is this the cause of death?” Dominic Zhai’s voice was hoarse, nearly a whisper.

He didn’t dare open his mouth wide, afraid he’d throw up if he did.

“Yes. The victim was poisoned—the murder weapon was this needle in the crown of the head. If I’m not mistaken, the other corpses are the same.”

Serena Feng placed the needle in a clean bowl, then returned to the morgue. For each of the four other bodies, she shaved their heads, found the black spot at the crown, cut it open, and extracted the needle.

A total of five poisoned needles lay before the crowd. “This is the cause of death.”

“This was murder?” Harold Young’s eyes flashed with killing intent. He didn’t even need to ask—this was clearly a targeted attack on the Young family, with these victims just innocent collateral.

By now, everyone had come to their senses, though no one dared look at the bodies on the autopsy table—their eyes darted everywhere but there.

“Yes.” Serena Feng nodded, threading the needle and stitching the skull back in place.

These victims still had to be buried. If she worked a little harder to leave them with intact bodies, it was a sign of respect.

“Who’s the murderer?” Dominic Zhai had forced himself not to look away, so he saw Serena Feng stitch the skull as if she were mending clothes.

Serena’s hand trembled. She laughed. “Your question is a bit odd, Your Lordship. I’m a doctor, not a constable. All I can do is determine the cause of death—finding the killer is far beyond me. If I could identify murderers just from corpses, what would the magistrate and constables be for?”

Every profession has its specialty. She could play forensic expert once in a while, but to act as a detective? That was too much—she really wasn’t cut out for it. Even in modern times, forensic doctors only determine cause of death, not catch killers.

Dominic Zhai was left embarrassed and angry, ready to scold Serena Feng and remind her to show respect when speaking to a noble.

But seeing Serena Feng reverently return each organ to the body, he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. Instead, he turned to Magistrate Leonard Wei: “Lord Wei, I give you fifteen days to solve this case. If you can’t find the murderer, you’ll be out of a job.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll send people to investigate right away.” Magistrate Leonard Wei was still feeling sick, but at Dominic Zhai’s order, he straightened up and promised repeatedly.

Dominic Zhai nodded. “Manager Young, I’ll need your pharmacy’s full cooperation. Whether this is internal competition or sabotage from another merchant, if a murder happens in my jurisdiction, I have to handle it by the book.”

“Rest assured, Your Lordship, Young Family Pharmacies will fully cooperate with Lord Wei in apprehending the murderer.” Harold Young wanted to make a public case—both to clear the pharmacy’s name and to flush out the real culprit.

Whether the killer was one of their own or an outsider, he and Dominic Zhai were of one mind: they would not let the culprit get away.

“You and Lord Wei can go handle your affairs. There’s nothing more for you to do here.”

“Yes!”

“Miss Feng, on behalf of Young Family Pharmacies, I thank you. We’ve prepared a small token of appreciation, which will be delivered to Feng Manor later. Please accept it.” Before leaving, Harold Young made sure to thank Serena Feng.

Unfortunately, Serena Feng didn’t hear him at all. She was busy returning each organ to the body, preparing to stitch it up. No matter what was inside, she was determined to give the family a complete corpse.

Harold Young misunderstood, thinking Serena Feng was unimpressed by the ‘small token’ and wanted something more substantial.

Remembering Serena Feng’s medical skills, Harold Young went back and increased the ‘small token’ by thirty percent. When Serena returned to Feng Manor and saw the gifts filling the storeroom, she nodded calmly.

“My teacher was wrong—being a doctor isn’t a lucrative profession, but being a forensic expert certainly is. All I did was dissect a corpse, and I received such generous thanks. No wonder my senior spends all day with bodies in formaldehyde and won’t switch careers—being a forensic expert pays better than being a doctor.”

(Forensic expert: If only a bolt of lightning would bring you back to see how tough modern forensic work really is!)