Chapter 365 "Evil Alchemists"
Giving Madam Lui's husband a careful examination, Ling Yue can see there's indeed an animal bite on the left thigh. This wound wouldn't have been fatal according to her judgement.
"It's a pity there is only one medicinal pill and it's already consumed by Madam Lui's husband. Without the product in question, it's very hard for us to confirm if it's due to the medicine that's the cause or not." Deputy Manager Meng kept shaking her head from the side because she can already see this ending up nowhere.
"Don't be discourage, first go interrogate Madam Lui over where she got the pill. Then I want you to summon everyone in the Alchemist Hall to see if she can recognize the person among our ranks." After removing everyone from her side, Ling Yue got straight to work of checking that cold hard body.
Manager Meng was not wrong in assuming there's no hope at this point, after all, most pills would've melted away by now in the stomach. Fortunately she has her own means of doing things.
Controlling her spirit smoke, Ling Yue infiltrate her senses into the man's corpse.
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Very soon, the skin was gone from her view to be replaced by the veins and internal organs. Searching around, it didn't take long before she found what she was looking for, a half consumed pill in the stomach area.
According to Madam Lui's wording, her husband passed away not long after she fed him the medicine. That's why Ling Yue would go through this trouble, she suspects not everything had been digested yet due to the short time frame.
Using her spirit smoke as the means, she extracted the pill and had a quick look. To her surprise, the thing wasn't of her Alchemist Hall's, it lacked the spiritual imprint used by the alchemists here.
After she took on her new post as the Chief Alchemist, one of the main reforms she implemented along with Manager Meng was to make every single one of her subordinates use the same identification as the Royal Hospital - spiritual imprint. This way they will know who made it and if it was truly from the Alchemist Hall.
However, the medicinal pill lacked the word "Dan City" inside, meaning whoever made this wasn't one of her own.
"Your grace, we've asked already, Madam Lui bought the pill for fifty silver while she was working as the tea lady at a restaurant. The man likely pretended to be one of us by wearing our gowns and then tricked the woman into thinking the medicine will help. You shouldn't fret over this too much. This sort of scheme happens often here in Dan City." Deputy Manager Meng's only reaction was relief now that they know the Alchemist Hall wasn't involved.
For an old lady who's been at the Royal Hospital for over twenty years, what haven't she seen yet?
For the rich and nobility, it's common to consume a Dan pill like it's a regular day meal, however, that doesn't apply to the common folks. For the regular civilians, the price of a single Dan pill would be financially breaking. That's why Madam Lui would be so easily scammed by the person, she was desperate.
"Since it's an occurrence inside Dan City then it's our business, otherwise why would the Court send me here in the first place? Take a look at this," she casually tosses the half digested pill over to the old lady.
It only took one look to make the latter go pale.
"You noticed it too right? Aside from the imprint of the Alchemist Hall, everything about its makeup is the same. Madam Lui's husband didn't die because it's a counterfeit drug, it's because it's the wrong type of medicine for his condition. The man suffered a heavy bite wound so he needs a pill to reimburse some of his blood, not that anti blood coagulant pill. That's why her husband died, he bled to death inside the stomach." Ling Yue's face eventually forms a frown because of how wrong this whole situation was.
She never realized how terrible things were right under her watch. Because of one wrong prescription, a life was now lost for no reason. Now, Madam Lui had lost a husband, her children had lost a father, and a set of parents had now lost a son. How can Ling Yue not be saddened?
This never should've happened….
After informing Madam Lui and her family of the truth, the widowed woman naturally wouldn't be able to keep her composure and broke into a sobbing mess. Clinging onto her two children, it's painful to watch for anyone that's able to see this.
Fifty silver was nothing but the price of a meal for the rich and powerful, but to the regular folks, the effects can last for a lifetime like right here.
Eventually it was Lan Caier who had to step in to help sooth the situation. Giving the woman a hundred silver so she can bury her husband and have something leftover, the big girl wasn't all that better off in terms of emotions.
"Oh Ling Yue, you must get involved with this. This type of private sales of medicinal pills will be devastating for the innocent and aware."
"I have already discussed this with Manager Meng, it's time we attacked the underground alchemists here. Those evildoers are running too rampant lately." Like her big sister, Ling Yue was also aggravated by today's event.
It's been over a month since she's arrived here. Regarding the situation here in Dan City, she now have an approximate understanding of the powers involved.
Those evil alchemists are mostly from the Central Plains. By selling inferior medicinal pills and tainted artifacts, these evildoers have been impersonated themselves as members of the Alchemist Hall and causing all sorts of trouble across the Northwest.
All for what?
All for profit and money at the expense of the ordinary folks.
This time it was only the works of a medicinal pill, but what about all those weapons leaking into the public? Violence was bound to occur if something wasn't done. For that, Ling Yue had also specifically sought out General Su to discuss the matter.
"It's not me not wanting to help Chief Yue, but you can see it too. The situation with the wild animals are getting worse and more frequent. Not only am I unable to divide my soldiers to help, I myself am also in need of extra hands to defend the city." General Su was very quick to refuse and made it sound so righteous at that.
Since the man was saying it this clearly already then what else can Ling Yue say? Annoyed by the blatant refusal, she left and didn't look back.
If you want something then you must do it yourself, that saying can't be anymore true right now.
Upon her return to the Alchemist Hall, she immediately issued out two orders. One was to control the coal centres and their sales to the public, the second being the opening of a Medicine Hall in the city.
This definitely perplexed Manager Meng because she can still understand the Medicine Hall, but the coal centres?
"Whether it medicinal pills or artifacts, everyone needs coals to fuel the fire. Without it, those evildoers wouldn't be able to continue with their business. As for the Medicine Hall, I want to provide the civilians with a better form of care and to properly teach them the need of acquiring proper help and not randomly seeking for solutions. We will provide the medicine free of charge. Once this becomes the norm, the people will naturally exclude the idea of purchasing Dan pills from unknown sources."
With her explanation done, Manager Meng immediately ran off to carry out the order. Things were in full swing and thus kicked off the battle of the Alchemist Hall and the evil alchemists from the Central Plains.
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(20$ to make me stay up late into the night is fair right for this novel?