Why am I, a cook, always involved in cases?

Lin Zhiruo admired the cook's skills, but she couldn't help but notice her clumsiness and inexperience in weaving lies.

Lin Zhiruo's thoughts drifted back to the woman's indifferent profile when she talked about growing poisonous mushrooms, and the image lingered in her mind.

"Then let's verify whether this poison really contains poisonous mushrooms."

Lin Zhiruo slowly stood up from the chair, holding the hoe tightly in her hand, and walked step by step towards the coffin with black and white seals, like a detective about to uncover a mystery.

"What are you doing?" A cry of surprise broke the silence of the morgue.

"Don't make a fuss, you'll know when you see it."

Lin Zhiruo's tone was calm and firm. She skillfully inserted the hoe into the gap of the coffin and pressed down hard. The nails on the coffin lid protruded one by one, as if foreshadowing the truth that was about to come.

Everyone was stunned when they saw this scene, but Lin Zhiruo just smiled calmly and continued her actions.

When all the nails were protruding, Lin Zhiruo gently opened the coffin lid, and a woman's body came into view.

However, her face was completely different from that of a food and medicine official. She looked like a poor woman who had unfortunately fallen off a bridge.

"She...isn't the food and medicine officer?" The cook's voice trembled with disbelief. She suddenly knelt on the ground, her eyes fixed on the woman in the coffin, her hands shaking unconsciously with shock.

Lin Zhiruo thought to herself:

(If this is her acting, then this person is really cunning.)

Judging from the cook's reaction, she was obviously convinced that the food and medicine officer had passed away.

At this moment, the sudden disappearance of the body undoubtedly set off a huge wave in her heart.

"Has the female official named Dietary and Medical Officer really passed away?" There was a hint of doubt in Lin Zhiruo's voice.

"Yes, even if I'm stupid, I can see that she has lost her life. The body is intact, but there is no pulse or heartbeat."

The cook's face turned ashen, as if every word she said carried a heavy burden.

The cook was undoubtedly extremely cautious when handling the body of the dietary medicine official.

The dietary medicine official had already anticipated this.

She knew very well that the cook would never dissect her body to find out the composition of the poison.

"In other words, Your Excellency, you have been cleverly used by her."

Lin Zhiruo's words were like a sharp blade, piercing the cook's heart.

The cook's face instantly turned from ashen to red. She impulsively wanted to grab Lin Zhiruo, but was stopped in time by Gao Zhongcheng from behind.

"The food and medicine officer added poisonous mushrooms to the poison. As for the other ingredients, if she wants them, she can probably get them easily from the Shangshi Bureau. If you check the food cabinets there, you will find that the stock of ingredients has been reduced."

Lin Zhiruo's words were full of admiration for the wisdom of the dietary and medical officials.

If we want to blame the cook, perhaps we can only blame her for poor supervision.

But in this carefully planned scam, she was undoubtedly just a pawn in the hands of the dietary medicine official.

"What on earth is going on? Why was the body suddenly replaced?" Quan Wushuang's voice was filled with confusion and anger.

"Because it's going to be cremated, there has to be something in the coffin, otherwise it will definitely arouse suspicion."

Lin Zhiruo explained.

There are many coffins in the morgue. In addition to the dietitian and pharmacist, there must be other bodies waiting to be cremated.

During the cremation, a new coffin will be brought in.

So the dietary medicine official took advantage of this opportunity and replaced his own body with another one.

"Then, what should we do with the body of the dietary medicine officer? It will definitely attract attention if we move it back, right?" Quan Wushuang asked.

"No need to move back, she must have left on her own."

There was a hint of playfulness in Lin Zhiruo's words.

When these words were spoken, everyone was stunned.

"Could you please ask the guards to check the coffin there?"

Lin Zhiruo originally wanted to check it herself, but the pain in her legs forced her to give up the idea and turn to Gao Zhongcheng for help.

Gao Zhongcheng agreed without hesitation and carefully examined the stacked coffins.

Finally, he found a coffin that looked different from the others.

There seemed to be some nail marks on the coffin.

Lin Zhiruo dragged her injured leg to Gao Zhongcheng's side and looked at the coffin with a glint of wisdom in her eyes:

"The Dietary and Pharmacy Officer was supposed to be lying in this coffin, right? She died, waiting here for help."

When the rescuers finally opened the coffin, the dietitian miraculously woke up.

She quickly changed the coffin, put on the same clothes as the person carrying the coffin, and calmly left the morgue.

In the eyes of everyone, the tall girl did not seem out of place among a group of men.

"Do you know of an ingredient that can make a person look like they're dead?"

Lin Zhiruo turned to the cook and asked this thought-provoking question.

The cook shook her head blankly and replied:

“…I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know how to mix it.”

Lin Zhiruo thought to herself that the Thirteen Spices might just be people's fantasy, but it might not be completely unfounded.

Some ingredients do produce similar yet different effects.

"It's a shame, I don't know much about it. But I've heard that the ingredients might contain poisonous mushrooms and pufferfish."

There was a hint of mystery and temptation in Lin Zhiruo's words.

Dad once told Lin Zhiruo that in a distant foreign country, there was a kind of food that could make a person temporarily lose his life and then miraculously revive.

The ingredient is a mixture of poisonous mushrooms, pufferfish poison, and several other poisons.

These poisons are extremely toxic, but after being mixed in a specific way, they can offset each other's toxicity, allowing the deceased to revive after a period of time.

Of course, Dad had never tried to make this kind of food, let alone teach Lin Zhiruo how to mix it.

The reason why Lin Zhiruo knew these materials was because she had once secretly read her father's collection of books.

My father thought that those books were written in the language of a distant foreign country and Lin Zhiruo would not be able to understand them.

However, he obviously underestimated Lin Zhiruo's obsession and persistence with poisons.

Lin Zhiruo begged the occasional foreign guests to teach her how to read, and she interpreted the contents of the book bit by bit.

However, this behavior was eventually discovered by my father, who burned the books.

"You mean the dietary medicine officer used this unproven method?" There was a hint of disbelief in the cook's voice.

"If you get caught, it's a capital crime. If it were me, I would be willing to take the risk."

There was a hint of determination and helplessness in Lin Zhiruo's words.

"Well, your reasons seem to be different from hers, right?" Quan Wushuang's voice contained a hint of ridicule and confusion.

Lin Zhiruo didn't want to digress, so she chose to remain silent.

She looked at the empty coffin and an inexplicable smile welled up in her heart.

The smile rose from his heart until it was beyond words.

"If she were still alive, I'd really like to meet her."

Lin Zhiruo's words came out as if she was talking to herself.

She did not want to capture the Food and Medicine Officer, but wanted to see her for a completely different reason - that was an admiration and yearning for her wisdom and courage.

The dietician not only has the knowledge and courage to stage a crime as an accident, but also dares to gamble his own life to deceive everyone.

Isn’t it worth Lin Zhiruo to meet such a person?

Lin Zhiruo's heart was filled with admiration and curiosity for the dietary medicine official.

She even wanted to learn how to make the ingredient that could bring people back to life—even though that might just be the imaginary Thirteen Spices.

This strong emotion drove Lin Zhiruo to laugh out loud unconsciously.

The three people around her looked at her with indescribable eyes.

Lin Zhiruo coughed and brought her thoughts back to reality.

She looked at the cook and pleaded:

"Excuse me, could you please sew up the wound on my leg? It seems to have opened up again."

Only then did Lin Zhiruo notice her limp foot and the blood-stained bandage.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier!"

Quan Wushuang's roar echoed in the morgue, bringing this bizarre incident to an imperfect end.