The Ruthless Female Forensic Doctor's Husband-Destroying Story

Chapter 1

The Ruthless Female Forensic Doctor's Husband-Destroying Story

Author: Qingge Yipian

Chapter 1

The 1930s.

It was late at night. Xu Shirong lay on her bed in her studio apartment, using the neon light reflected from the window to stare at a skull, a human skull, placed high on a cabinet on the opposite wall.

The skull appears jade-colored in natural daylight, but at this moment it changes color constantly with the neon lights outside, sometimes red, sometimes green. The only constant is the two huge eye sockets, which remain dark and bottomless, silently staring at Xu Shirong.

This is a souvenir she kept after becoming a forensic pathologist and handling her first case involving an unidentified female corpse.

Xu Shirong stopped staring at the skull, suddenly sat up in bed, quickly dressed, grabbed her toolbox, and slipped out of her apartment.

As she went downstairs, the drowsy gatekeeper in the gatehouse looked up at her lazily, then lowered his head again to doze off.

Xu Shirong had an ordinary appearance. Apart from a pair of eyes that sparkled with a bit of liveliness, she had nothing particularly eye-catching about her. So, even though she had been living here for over a year since returning from England, the doorman still couldn't remember her name or know what she did for a living.

It's probably better that he doesn't know. If he knew what she was going to do, the doorman would probably get goosebumps whenever he saw her.

She was going to the morgue at St. Mary's Hospital to perform an autopsy on a body that would be cremated the next morning.

She is a forensic pathologist, a forensic pathologist who can understand the whispers of corpses. Her hands hold not only scalpels, but also saws, chisels, and all the tools that allow her to better decipher the hidden secrets of the body.

Xu Shirong's father is a doctor who returned from studying abroad and is now the director of St. Mary's Hospital, which was funded by the British. Among her ancestors, the one she admires most is the one from the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty.

That ancestor was a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) during the Daoguang era. He was not only well-versed in literature and medicine, but also renowned for his keen political acumen and skill in resolving difficult cases. The drawing depicting the full skeletal structure of the human body, both front and back, which her family still treasures, was created by her ancestor when she brought a painter with her to meticulously copy the bones she collected during her investigations.

Born into such a prestigious family, though dynasties have changed and the family's former glory has long since faded, Xu Shirong was not only cultivated to be proficient in poetry and painting, but also developed a love for medicine from a young age. Although her father did not want his daughter to follow in this footsteps, he could not resist her pleading and sent her to study in England when she was fifteen. When she returned eight years later, he was dumbfounded to find that his daughter had secretly switched to studying forensic medicine, a branch of anthropology. He was furious, but she retorted with, "Our ancestors also did this work. If you stop me, you are disrespecting our ancestors," leaving him with no choice but to give in.

When Xu Shirong arrived at the hospital, she was a familiar face there, and no one stopped her.

Unbeknownst to her, just as she stepped out of her apartment building, a figure had already emerged from the alleyway beside her and quietly followed her.

The police station's morgue, located within the hospital, was at the end of the passageway ahead. The wall lamps at the top of the passageway emitted a dim white light, and all around was deathly silent.

She walked towards the morgue, but what came to mind was the words of her superior, the blue-eyed, high-nosed Englishman, who had rushed over earlier that day when she took over the case: "Miss Xu, this deceased woman was a famous socialite who associated with many political figures. Her accidental drowning while swimming has attracted much attention from all sectors of society. We've arranged for her to be cremated early tomorrow morning. I will be responsible for submitting a case report; you just need to sign it."

Her boss usually treated her fairly well.

She understood what he meant.

However, she couldn't control her curiosity. And also, she felt a sense of responsibility as a forensic pathologist.

She wanted to know how this famous socialite, whose photo of her smiling as she danced with the mayor had been published in the newspaper just days before, had died.

The closer you get to the morgue, the stronger the peculiar smell becomes. It comes from the preservatives, cleaning agents, and the smell of the corpse.

She took out her key, opened the door, went inside, and walked toward the mortuary bed she had seen once during the day.

Her footsteps were light, as if afraid of disturbing the sleeping souls around her.

She arrived at the mortuary, turned on the large-beam flashlight she had brought, adjusted the angle, and then lifted the white sheet covering the body.

The woman's body lay there, her hair still slightly damp, her skin milky white, appearing almost translucent under the light. Her long, slender legs were spread wide, in a seductive, waiting pose.

If the environment were different, and if she weren't a corpse, she would be the kind of woman who could easily captivate any man.

But now, she just lies there in this shameful position, like a frog waiting to be disemboweled.

Xu Shirong quickly put on thin leather gloves and touched the lower jaw of the corpse. It was still somewhat stiff, indicating that the time of death should be within thirty-six hours. After that period, the stiffness of the corpse would disappear.

She opened the woman's jaw and found her mouth to be clean, without any foreign objects. She then examined her genitals and found no semen. However, the absence of male bodily fluids does not necessarily mean the woman had not engaged in sexual activity or been violated before her death.

She opened the woman's abdomen. The abdominal cavity, pierced by a scalpel, had a certain smell, a smell that didn't change because she was a beautiful woman. Xu Shirong had long been accustomed to all sorts of smells.

She saw the woman's lungs and the trachea connected to them.

It looked perfectly fresh, with normal tissue, showing no signs of drowning.

She opened the female corpse's stomach again.

The woman was a severe stomach ulcer patient, with signs of perforation. There was no food in her stomach, only a small amount of liquid, and a faint, slightly sour smell of alcohol, which she still detected. Clearly, this woman's stomach had been severely ravaged by alcohol throughout her life. If she hadn't died now, these perforated ulcers might have taken her life in the near future.

She quickly cut off parts of the stomach and liver tissue, placed them into a collection bottle she had brought beforehand with tweezers, nimbly sutured the abdominal incision, and helped her put her clothes back on.

After finishing all this, Xu Shirong sighed, glanced at the woman with her eyes closed with some pity, left the morgue, and went to another room in the building, the police station's autopsy laboratory located in the hospital.

The laboratory was filled with rows of bottles of various sizes used to store tissues and slices of dissected corpses. In the center of the room stood a stainless steel autopsy table, next to which were dissection boards, dissection tools, and specimen bottles containing formalin. The dissection tools, compared to normal hospital tools, appeared large and somewhat gruesome, looking more like those from a slaughterhouse.

Without even glancing at it, she went to her workbench and skillfully began examining the organ slides she had brought.

Before long, she easily came to a conclusion.

In addition to male bodily fluids, the deceased's stomach also contained residues of high concentrations of opioid morphine.

Clearly, this was not the case, as her boss claimed, that the deceased had accidentally drowned while swimming.

No one can swim after taking such a high concentration of morphine with alcohol.

Xu Shirong was gradually piecing together the scene of the woman's last moments before her death in his mind.

She must have first engaged in inappropriate sexual activity with a man, then been forced or unknowingly given a fatal dose of opioid morphine. Alcohol was the catalyst that accelerated her death. Next came respiratory paralysis, respiratory arrest, and death, before she was thrown into the water.

She stood up, collected the remaining specimens, and left the morgue.

When Xu Shirong left the hospital, the eastern sky was already beginning to lighten.

The thought that her boss wanted her to sign the case closure report to corroborate that the woman had indeed drowned made her feel slightly heavy-hearted.

As she turned the corner, a black car suddenly sped towards her. The blinding headlights made it impossible for her to open her eyes, and she had no time to dodge.

Strangely, when she was thrown, she didn't feel any intense pain; it was as if she had lost consciousness in an instant.

Chapter Two

When Xu Shirong woke up, she smelled a faint fragrance.

She is a forensic pathologist, and her profession makes her extremely sensitive to all kinds of smells.

This was the scent of ambergris mixed with the cosmetics used by women. She was familiar with a similar smell. When she lived with her parents in Beiping as a child, she would smell this very scent every time she entered her mother's bedroom. For a moment, it gave her a dazed feeling, as if she had returned to her childhood.

A sudden, sharp pain shot through her head. She reached up and touched it; there was a strip of cloth wrapped around her forehead.

The pain brought her to her sudden realization.

She recalled the scene before she lost consciousness.

She emerged from the lab at dawn, was struck head-on by a speeding black car, and then, she woke up.

Xu Shirong suddenly opened her eyes. Unexpectedly, everything in front of her was blurry, and she could only vaguely see a ball of light and shadow. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again, but still could only see a ball of light and shadow.

A strange feeling flashed through her mind.

She was hit by that car. At the car's speed at the time, even with sudden braking, the inertia would have been enough to break her bones. Moreover, she was quite certain that the car showed no signs of slowing down.

Such a violent impact would severely damage even a body of steel. Yet now… she moved her hands and feet, completely unharmed, with only a strip of cloth wrapped around her head and a halo of light before her eyes.

Moreover, she was certain that this was not a hospital at all.

She was all too familiar with the smell that lingered in the hospital air; even the most luxurious ward in the hospital would never have such soft and comfortable bedding as the one she was now lying on.

She sat up and touched a pair of shoes on the floor in front of the bed. The shoes were made of soft cloth with an uneven surface, as if there were embroidered patterns on them. She put on the shoes, and they fit perfectly. Her hands slowly groped forward, and suddenly her fingertips felt something cold, as if she had touched something. Then she heard the sound of porcelain shattering on the floor.

Xu Shirong froze, standing there before she could react, when she heard hurried footsteps behind her, followed by a young girl's voice: "Madam, please calm down. Little Sparrow did not hear you calling her just now, please calm down."

You could tell from the girl's voice that there was a hint of fear and panic.

The girl, whose speech clearly carried an ancient tone, referred to herself as "Madam"?

Just as she was silent, she heard the sound of two knees falling to the ground.

The girl knelt down before him?

Xu Shirong groped and touched the girl's shoulder, feeling her trembling slightly. He then held her shoulders and asked softly, "Little Sparrow, where is this place?"

Looking at the lady in front of her, who was completely different from usual, Xiao Que thought she was using some new method to punish her, and became even more terrified. She kowtowed repeatedly and said, "Grand Commandant's Mansion, this is Grand Commandant's Mansion! Please, Madam, spare me and don't punish me."

The Grand Commandant's residence?

Xu Shirong frowned slightly.

The position of Grand Commandant originated in the Qin and Han dynasties and was abolished in the Ming dynasty. So how could there be a Grand Commandant's Office now?

She sighed, squatted down in front of Xiao Que, sensed her location, and slowly said, "Xiao Que, I was hit by a car before, and I don't remember much after that. Tell me the truth, where is this really?"

Xiao Que stared blankly at the lady who had squatted down to be level with her, her heart filled with shock. After a long while, she stammered, "Madam, you went on a spring outing yesterday, but you ran into the young master and his group of friends who had hired courtesans to accompany them, and... a fight broke out. You accidentally fell off the carriage and your head was scraped by a horse's hoof... Madam, why are you asking about this?"

Xu Shirong was no less shocked than Xiao Que. She stood there stunned for a long time, listening to Xiao Que begging for mercy again. Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as she said, "Xiao Que, I can't see."

Several days later, Xu Shirong still clearly remembered the scene after Xiao Que left that day. Not long after, she first heard the slightly deep voice of a middle-aged woman. Judging from her tone, it should be her mother-in-law? Although she was scolding her son, whom she called "Huan'er," she also said many words of concern and comfort to her. However, between the lines, she caught a trace of indifference and disgust that the other woman inadvertently revealed. Then came the voice of another young woman, a little more lively. She introduced herself as Zhenxin and said that she was sent by the old lady to visit her. She brought a lot of good tonics and told her to rest and recover. Then came a doctor from the hospital who specialized in traumatic injuries. He carefully took her pulse and said that her current blindness was caused by blood stasis in her brain. He prescribed a medicine and said that with slow recuperation, she would regain her sight once the blood stasis dissipated.

Xu Shirong herself studied medicine and knew there was some truth to what he said. Whether she was hit by a carriage or, as the little girl had said, fell from the carriage and was injured by a horse's hoof, her current visual impairment was indeed very likely caused by intracranial hemorrhage compressing her optic nerve. However, several days had passed, and the initial shock and unease in her heart lingered. She was called Jiaoniang by her mother-in-law, and from Xiao Que, she learned that it was actually the Jingyou era of the Song Dynasty. The Grand Commandant in this Grand Commandant's mansion was her father-in-law, and the young master she spoke of was her husband. There was another second wife in the mansion, living in the south courtyard, but the couple had gone to Guangzhou and were not currently in the mansion.

These people, including Little Sparrow, "Grandma," the physician who came again the next day, the young women who carefully served her every day, and the bitter medicine that went down her throat, constantly reminded her that this was not a dream, but a real situation.

A bizarre situation, a bizarre self.

Xu Shirong sighed.

She had been in this room filled with the fragrance of ambergris for four or five days. The bandage wrapped around her forehead had been removed, but her eyesight showed no signs of improvement. Feeling somewhat depressed, she got out of bed and slowly headed outside.

Xiao Que and the other maids who came and went were ordered by "Grandma" to stay by her side day and night in case of emergency. However, she disliked having people around her and dismissed them. The young women seemed to be very afraid of her and immediately withdrew.

After a few days, she gradually became familiar with the furnishings of the room. She slowly walked forward along the wall, and the sharp corners of the chests and cabinets that she touched were all wrapped with strips of cloth, probably to prevent her from bumping into them again.

Xu Shirong touched the screen with its raised relief carvings as she turned the corner, and finally her toes touched the threshold. She then pushed open the door.

The little sparrow, who was waiting outside, immediately rushed over and helped her up, asking, "Where does Madam wish to go?"

Xu Shirong was taken aback.

She just felt a little annoyed and didn't know where to go.

I could hear birds chirping outside. It must be a spring afternoon.

"Let's just sit down anywhere in the garden. It's a bit stuffy inside."

Xu Shirong smiled at her.