Chapter 289: Mercurous Chloride

2022-05-20

The bodyguards must have already scoped out the area because the car barely made any detours before pulling up right at a small clinic. The doctor’s desk faced the window, and when he spotted a few burly men carrying two unconscious people out of the car, his face went pale.

From the look on his face, that doctor was ready to slam his door shut as soon as he could. But before he could act, the bodyguards had already carried Yang Licheng and Wang Xin inside. They laid the two flat on the floor, and by this time, both had finally stopped vomiting.

The doctor and the clinic’s young nurse rushed over, and even patients in the middle of IV drips crowded over, eager to see what was happening. The doctor frowned, clearly annoyed. “What’s going on here? Get them out! You can’t just carry people in like this. What do you think you’re doing?”

One bodyguard stood up, towering over the doctor by a head, and said, confused, “Isn’t this a clinic? These people are in danger. Where else are we supposed to go if not here?”

The doctor’s scowl only deepened. “Who knows what happened to your people? Why bring them to me? If they die here, what am I supposed to do? I’ve seen plenty just like you—wait until people are at death’s door, then dump them on me. Doesn’t matter what I try, if they live, great, but if they die, you’ll pin a huge bill on me, isn’t that right?”

He edged even farther away and raised his voice. “Everyone here, be witnesses! I haven’t touched these two. If they die here, it isn’t my fault. Look at them—they’re already like this and you still drag them in here. I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker, I can’t bring people back from the dead! Take them away, send them to a hospital or bury them, none of it’s my business. Out, now!”

His speech sent a chill through the patients. Wasn’t a doctor supposed to save people? How could he act like this?

“Hey, you’re still a doctor, aren’t you? At least see what’s wrong with them,” one patient protested.

“Look? What do you want me to look at?” snapped the doctor. “These two are about to die. You want trouble for me? If they die during the exam, whose fault is it? Yours? If you say you’ll take responsibility, I’ll check them out!”

That shut everyone up. No one made a sound.

Zhao Mingkun let out a cold snort. “I’ll take responsibility if they die. Hey, Bodyguard, show that thing to the doctor, let’s see what this stuff really is.”

The bodyguard who’d been carrying the bundle of white crystals quickly fished it out of his pocket and unwrapped it for everyone to see.

The doctor eyed it from a distance but didn’t take a closer look. “There’s all kinds of white granules. How do I know what this is? Table salt looks like this too! I’m a doctor, not a chemist. Don’t think you can trick me—I’ve seen enough in my years. Get out of here.”

Judging by his attitude, this doctor was convinced we were all here to scam him. He clearly had no intention of helping Yang Licheng and Wang Xin. I glanced down at the two lying there, unmoving and looking for all the world like they were just sleeping. If it weren’t for the faint rise and fall at their throats, people might have thought they were dead already.

But in a few more minutes, they might actually die.

If Guan Zengbin had been here, we wouldn’t be so clueless about what to do. He’d probably know exactly what that stuff was in our hands.

“Keep an eye out for the ambulance. Make sure they don’t go to the wrong place,” I said.

“Got it,” two bodyguards nodded.

I took out my expired ID and said, “Stop worrying. Just check them over, and if anything goes wrong, we’ll record everything. Is that good enough for you?”

The doctor took my ID, inspected it from every angle, and with a grumpy look, snapped, “Should’ve shown this earlier. You were worried about taking responsibility too, huh? Fine, as long as you said it, if they die, it’s not on me. Everyone here saw it.”

Finally, the doctor came over to look at the white crystalline stuff in the bodyguard’s hand.

After a moment he asked, “What symptoms did they have before they got here?”

I tried to recall the signs of poisoning as I replied. “At first, they felt dizzy and weak all over. Then they started vomiting.”

I pointed at Wang Xin. “His condition is even more serious.”

The doctor nodded, pulled on a surgical mask and gloves, and slowly walked over to Wang Xin. He lifted Wang Xin’s eyelid, and I watched from the side. Wang Xin’s eyes were bloodshot at the corners, but his pupils still reacted to light—he was still alive.

The doctor frowned, then pried open Wang Xin’s mouth. What we saw made my blood run cold—sores everywhere, his teeth looked ready to fall out with a touch. It was like someone had smashed his mouth in.

Then, the doctor felt along both sides of Wang Xin’s neck before asking, “Let me see that stuff again.”

The bodyguard quickly handed it over.

The doctor frowned. “I suspect this is acute kidney failure caused by mercuric chloride poisoning. Honestly, even just now, a small clinic like this wouldn’t be able to help much. All I can do is try to keep them alive for now. Put them on the beds, I’ll get some things ready.”

Two bodyguards picked them up and laid them on hospital beds.

The doctor shot me a helpless look. “Look, don’t blame me for what I said earlier. Saving lives is our job, but sometimes… we have no choice. To be honest, these two… I doubt they’ll make it.”

I frowned, worried as I glanced at the unmoving forms on the beds.

“What exactly happened to them?” I asked.

“From what I can tell, they were poisoned by mercuric chloride,” the doctor replied.

I shrugged. “Mercuric chloride? What’s that?”

“Mercuric chloride is also known as corrosive sublimate. It’s a white granule, used as a disinfectant in medicine. Dissolve one gram in a kilogram of water and you’ve got disinfectant. That’s why I recognized it when I saw it. But you brought them in too late. If you’d come earlier, we could’ve pumped their stomachs, made them vomit. Now it’s too late…”

As he spoke, he started IV drips for the two.

“They didn’t swallow it, though. How do I put it… they inhaled gas,” I said.

“Inhaled gas? What do you mean?” asked the doctor.

“It seems the substance decomposed. They set up an incense burner, burned this stuff in it, and breathed in the fumes,” I explained.

The doctor scratched his head. “Usually, this stuff doesn’t burn.”

“Then what happened?” I asked, baffled.

While hooking up the IVs, the doctor asked, “Did this all happen today?”

“Today,” I replied.

The doctor shook his head. “It probably wasn’t burning. It was decomposition under sunlight. If I’m right, the stove originally held calomel, not mercuric chloride. Calomel is a white, odorless solid and it’s toxic. You know the difference between toxic and highly toxic, right?”

“So you’re saying calomel isn’t that toxic, but once it decomposes into mercuric chloride it’s deadly?” I asked.

“Exactly,” the doctor replied. “Calomel is mercurous chloride. Under sunlight, it slowly breaks down into mercuric chloride and mercury. You know what mercury is, right?”

I nodded. “Quicksilver.”

The doctor nodded back. “If I’m right, they must have taken the incense burner out from a dark place. Without sunlight, calomel can be preserved for ages. Once exposed to sunlight, it starts to break down. They may have added something to the burner to help the process. This compound has no melting point, you know what that means?”

I nodded. “I did go to chemistry class.”

“Good. Around 400 to 500 degrees, this stuff sublimates straight into vapor. So these two must have breathed in a lot of mercuric chloride vapor—that’s what poisoned them. It’s odorless, so they likely inhaled a massive dose, and that’s how a mild exposure turned into a full-on tragedy.”

I frowned and muttered, “Doctors need to know a lot of chemistry too, huh.”

“It’s required. Any biology-related field needs plenty of chemistry, just like physics and engineering need math. It’s foundational,” the doctor said.

“Is this stuff easy to get?” I asked.

The doctor nodded. “Mercurous chloride isn’t hard to find. School labs have it, and it’s easy to synthesize. Normally, if someone swallows or touches mercuric chloride, they’d react fast—you’d spot something’s wrong long before it got this serious. If you get treated right away, there’s a good chance of survival. But these two…”

The two of them had been handling and sniffing that incense burner, directly inhaling vaporized mercuric chloride. At this point, it looked hopeless.

Suddenly, we heard the wail of an ambulance outside. The doctor hurriedly said, “Get them onto the stretcher! We don’t have the resources here. They need a big hospital if there’s any hope. Hurry—they’re still barely hanging on.”

As medical staff and four burly men rushed in, they scrambled to lift the two onto stretchers.

“You guys get in the ambulance and follow along. We’ll be right behind you,” I instructed.