Chapter 337 - This Is Murder (1/2)

Chapter 337 This Is MurderQin Haodong frowned. As Hou Weiguo had said, if they couldn’t find out the patient’s problem or the problems in the prescription, then they could only place the blame on traditional Chinese medicine.

However, he believed that traditional Chinese medicine, which had been passed down for thousands of years, had completely formed its own system. It was impossible to have such a serious weak point.

Moreover, Zhang Tianhe had never killed any patients in his life. How could those three patients have suddenly died? There had to some kind of problem.

He read Zhang Tianhe’s three prescriptions seriously several times but still didn’t find any loopholes.

“What about it, Doctor Qin?”

Pan Liguo asked eagerly. As the director of Jiangnan Sanitary Bureau, he had been facing great pressure in the past two days, so he was hoping to solve the current dilemma with Qin Haodong’s help.

Qin Haodong said, “At present, these three prescriptions are used for the treatment of stomach and liver diseases. There is nothing wrong with them.”

Hou Weiguo said with a wry smile, “Then we can only put the blame on the Hall of Medical Fame, so we can appease public anger and give an explanation to the families of the dead. However, that will have a great negative impact on the traditional Chinese medicine industry, as it will mean that there is a problem with the prescription of traditional Chinese medicine.”

Qin Haodong stared at the prescriptions and tried to find the loopholes he hadn’t found yet. Then, he said, “There are many things to pay attention to when taking traditional Chinese medicine, such as the degree of the heating processes, the time, and any other foods the patient has eaten.”

Pan Gaofeng said, “I’ve asked people to investigate, and there’s no problem.”

This matter was considered very important by the administrative organization of Jiangnan City. After that incident, the Department of Sanity had immediately organized an investigation team to collect evidence on the spot and investigate the dependents of the deceased. Even the residue of the medicine that had not been eaten had been checked. No problem had been detected.

“It’s strange that there is something wrong but we can’t find out what!”

He took three prescriptions in his hand, checked them one by one, then put them on the table one by one, and finally arranged them in a row.

Hou Weiguo sighed and said, “If we can’t find the problem, we can only stop the investigation. This is urgent. We must give the public an explanation as soon as possible. We can’t delay it any more. It seems that we can only punish the Hall of Medical Fame.”

Qin Haodong suddenly cried, “Wait a minute! It seems like I have found the problem!”

“What’s wrong?”

Hou Weiguo and Pan Gaofeng asked with one voice.

Qin Haodong pointed to the prescriptions and said, “You see, there is a medicinal material in these three prescriptions called Paris polyphylla.”

“What’s the problem with that?” Hou Weiguo asked.

Pan Gaofeng, who also had a rough knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, said, “Isn’t it a medicinal material? As far as I know, it’s effective in treating stomach and liver diseases. What’s wrong with it?”

Qin Haodong said, “On the surface, it seems that way. However, we have neglected a problem. Paris polyphylla used to be one of the ingredients on the Doctor Blacklist. If it is used properly, it can cure the disease and save people. If it is not used properly, it can harm people.”

“Doctor Blacklist? What is that?” Hou Weiguo didn’t know much about this.

Qin Haodong said, “In the Ming Dynasty, in order to ensure the drug safety of the royal family, many imperial doctors identified more than 5,000 kinds of medicinal materials and put them into six categories after 65 years of conducting drug trials on prisoners.

Out of these ingredients, 132 are acute toxic medicinal materials, 911 are relatively chronic toxic medicinal materials, and other medicinal materials are also classified. This is the famous imperial Doctor Blacklist that went down in history.”

Hou Weiguo asked, “How is it related to this case?”

Qin Haodong said, “Paris polyphylla is one of the 900 chronic toxic medicinal materials and it has an extremely special feature. If it is properly matched with other herbs, the toxicity can be effectively controlled and it can cure the disease and save people. If it is matched with inappropriate ingredients, it will become extremely toxic and cause death.

Zhang Tianhe’s prescriptions all included conventional medicine for treating stomach disease and liver disease, so we just didn’t find the problem.

However, the existence of Paris polyphylla changes everything. In every prescription is a medicine that can’t match it. That means that it’s already poisoned when it’s boiled, so it wouldn’t be surprising if people died after taking it.”

He snapped at the table and said, “So it was not a medical accident at all. This was murder!”

“How is this possible?”

Hou Weiguo and Pan Gaofeng were obviously shocked by Qin Haodong’s words.

Qin Haodong said, “Zhang Tianhe, who was an old Chinese medicine practitioner, naturally knew how to use Paris polyphylla. If he used it wrong once, it might be a coincidence. If he used it wrong twice, it could be understandable. However, he gave three prescriptions in one day, which was obviously intentional.

He was aware of the toxicity of Paris polyphylla and he used it skillfully. In each prescription, one or two mismatched drugs were included, which could accelerate the death of the patient.”

Pan Gaofeng calmed down and said, “But I still don’t understand what Zhang Tianhe was trying to do. He and these patients didn’t know each other. Why did he kill these people?”