A madman in France? How come he's always at crime scenes!

The search team assembled within half an hour.

The Feishui Municipal Public Security Bureau dispatched two squadrons and also drew thirty people from the nearby Shuangtang and Xinji police stations. The beams of flashlights swept crisscrossing through the bushes at the foot of the mountain.

Meng Jiang stood at the gap in the bushes on the east side of the surgical building, looking down at the dark red liquid that had solidified on the bedding on the ground.

"They ran east."

Zhang Ze squatted on the ground, shining a flashlight in the direction of the bloodstains. There was a small, dark drag mark on the side road, which ended at the curb.

"The shantytown is just beyond this road." Zhang Ze stood up. "Behind the shantytown is Qingping Mountain. There's no one in the woods on the eastern slope for three kilometers, and further east are deep mountains."

"He was shot, jumped from the third floor, and ran at least two kilometers. With this kind of injury, he can't cross the mountains."

Meng Jiang snorted coldly, threw the cigarette butt in his hand on the ground, and stomped on it.

"What if he has someone to meet him?"

Zhang Ze did not answer.

The voice of the officer leading the search team came through the walkie-talkie, mingled with the howling mountain wind: "Team Leader Meng, we found a bloodstained shoe. The sole is worn through, size 42. There's a torn bandage on a nearby rock. The bloodstains lead deeper into the mountains."

"Keep chasing. Be careful. Once you spot the target, surround them first and then make your move; don't force your way in."

……

The beams of the flashlights used for the search were gradually swallowed up by the dense forest on the eastern slope of Qingping Mountain, and Wu Liang did not follow.

He stood in the third-floor corridor of the surgical building, staring at the floor plan on the wall. People came and went in the corridor; technicians were collecting fingerprints from the ventilation vents, and a forensic assistant was squatting where Li Mu had fallen, using a cotton swab to collect blood samples. No one paid him any attention.

Wu Liang walked back along the corridor and stopped when he passed the medicine cold storage.

The removed shutters were still lying on the ground.

"Hey, comrade," Wu Liang called over a passing scout, "Do you have a flashlight?"

The investigator was short and broad-shouldered. His name tag read "Qiao Wei, Criminal Investigation Detachment, Feishui City Public Security Bureau." He was carrying a bag of evidence and walking towards the east end of the corridor when Wu Liang called him back, causing him to pause for a moment.

"A flashlight?"

"Yes. I need to go inside the pipes and take a look."

Qiao Wei turned around, his face expressionless.

"The technical staff has already walked through the pipeline and taken photos. Just look at the photos for what you need."

"The photos don't capture what I want to see."

Qiao Wei took a high-powered flashlight off his belt and handed it over, gripping the handle tightly with his fingers.

"Attorney Wu, the manhole is narrow, and some parts are rusted. You don't have the necessary equipment. If something happens inside, I won't be able to explain it to Captain Meng."

"Then come in with me."

Someone was calling Qiao Wei's name from the other end of the corridor. Qiao Wei turned his head and answered, then turned back. The flashlight was finally released.

"I'll go tell Captain Meng," he said.

Wu Liang watched him walk towards the east end of the corridor, his eyes slightly narrowed.

There was little light inside the ventilation duct. Wu Liang put the flashlight in his mouth, grabbed the edge of the duct with both hands, and used his waist and abdomen to push himself inside.

The pipe was about half a person's height and extended horizontally. Wu Liang held a flashlight in his mouth, and with each step he took forward, the pipe made a muffled sound.

The technical staff did indeed come over; their hands left marks on the dust on the pipe wall.

Wu Liang took off his flashlight and carefully inspected every corner.

After spending about ten minutes inside the pipe, Wu Liang's eyes were almost sore from looking, but he finally spotted a slightly different piece of sheet metal.

The edge of the road was slightly raised.

He turned to the side, his shoulder brushing against the pipe wall, and shone the flashlight beam under the raised sheet metal.

There was a clump of ash in the weld of the sheet metal, and in the middle there was a cylindrical outline.

A syringe.

The tube wall was slippery, and the syringe was stuck in the gap between the weld and the sheet metal. You couldn't see it from the front; you could only reach it by reaching behind and using your hand.

"Well hidden."

Wu Liang used his sleeve to pry out the syringe. The needle was still there, but the cap had come loose, revealing half of the needle tip.

He bit the syringe next to the flashlight and slowly withdrew it from the tube.

Qiao Wei was standing at the entrance of the cold storage room for medicines, talking to Zhang Ze. When Wu Liang came out, Qiao Wei first took the syringe from him and glanced at the markings on the syringe.

"Why hasn't anyone picked this up?"

"The technical department didn't see it." Wu Liang dusted off his collar. "Call Captain Meng over."

Qiao Wei glanced at him for two seconds, handed the syringe to Zhang Ze, and then turned and left.

The sound of Meng Jiang's leather shoes echoed down the corridor, a note heavier than usual. "Where did you find it?"

"The first bend in the pipeline. It's hidden behind the weld; you have to reach it with your hand behind your back," Wu Liang said.

Meng Jiang took the syringe, circled it in front of the corridor ceiling light, and saw that it contained a lot of liquid, indicating that it hadn't been used yet.

He turned around and called out to Xiao Chen from the technical department.

"Send it to the municipal lab urgently! Give me the results before dawn."

Xiao Chen answered and ran off. Meng Jiang turned around, his gaze falling on Wu Liang's dusty clothes. "How did you come up with that?"

"The killer led all your targets to the seventh-floor ICU. If his original plan was to strike elsewhere, he certainly wouldn't have used guns or knives to lure you back in to avoid chaos."

……

When the municipal laboratory called at 3 a.m., Meng Jiang was taking a nap with his eyes closed, leaning against a chair at the nurses' station on the third floor. He woke up as soon as the phone rang.

His expression changed.

Say it again.

Xiao Chen's voice on the other end of the phone was very hurried: "Succinylcholine. The residual concentration is not low; the dose in the syringe is enough to kill an adult. Respiratory muscle paralysis occurs two to five minutes after injection, clinically manifesting as suffocation. Routine toxicology screening cannot detect it at all. If it is a postoperative patient, it is very easy to be diagnosed as a complication."

"Damn it, that bastard!"

Wu Liang was standing next to the nurses' station, drinking water from a paper cup, when he heard this, and his mind instantly connected everything.

"His target wasn't Shen Xuejun, but Ma Desheng."

Meng Jiang turned his head around, and Wu Liang had already started walking towards Ma Desheng's ward.

He had been pondering this all along; after the gunshots rang out at night, everyone was in a frenzy. Gunshots, lockdown, evacuation—everyone who could move in the building peeked out to see what was happening.

However, the television behind the door of ward 318 was never turned off from beginning to end.

The group quickly arrived at Ma Desheng's ward.

The door was pushed open, and Meng Jiang led the way into the ward. It was already three in the morning, but the old man on the hospital bed sat on the bed, his cloudy eyes staring straight at the crowd at the door. He was not surprised at all that so many people had come in the middle of the night, but rather seemed to have expected it.

His gaze swept from Meng Jiang to Zhang Ze, then to the plainclothes officers behind them, and finally settled on Wu Liang.

"I knew it, tonight wouldn't be peaceful."

"Master Ma," Meng Jiang stopped, "Still not asleep?"

"I can't sleep," Ma Desheng said. "I had an injection this afternoon, and my whole body feels hot and I'm in a lot of pain."

"What kind of needle?"

"Pre-operative injection. The nurse didn't explain in detail, and I didn't ask." His eyes darted around. "What, all of you are here to give me an injection?"