vncnus Chapter 50 Was this an accident?
Chapter 50 Was this an accident?
Chen Mingfu nodded steadily: "We will introduce a series of support policies: significantly increase the interest rate on residents' deposits, release liquidity to small and medium-sized banks in a targeted manner, accelerate the write-off of non-performing assets, and launch a tripartite docking mechanism between banks, government and enterprises to ensure that funds are precisely channeled to the real economy."
"Understood, thank you Mayor Chen!" Lu Wangshu sat down and lightly tapped the paper twice with the tip of her pen.
As soon as he finished speaking, several hands were raised in unison.
Chen Mingfu responded calmly, speaking at a measured pace, his logic progressing step by step.
After answering five or six questions in a row, his throat was slightly dry. He picked up a celadon teacup, took a sip of warm tea, and glanced at the clock on the wall: "Colleagues, there are only five minutes left to ask questions, please hurry."
Xiao Tu suddenly raised his hand and tapped his fingertips lightly on the cuff of his suit sleeve.
"Please speak, sir in the dark gray suit!"
"Mayor Chen, this is Xiao Tu, Vice President of Asia-Pacific News Agency." He stood ramrod straight, his tone calm yet weighty. "The financial industry is a key lever for Shanghai's economic recovery. Has the selection of the Chief Financial Advisor for the Economic Department of the Ministry of Finance been finalized?"
Chen Mingfu paused slightly, a slight smile playing on his lips: "The candidate has been chosen. A seasoned expert with extensive experience in international financial governance will soon arrive in Shanghai to assume his new post. His professional background and practical experience are more than sufficient to shoulder this heavy responsibility."
"Thank you for your detailed reply, Mayor Chen." Xiao Tu nodded and returned to his seat.
Immediately afterwards, two more reporters quickly asked questions.
After the last question was asked, Chen Mingfu stood up, straightened his suit jacket, and announced loudly, "This concludes today's press conference. Thank you all for waiting. See you next time!"
Before he finished speaking, he had already turned and walked towards the side door, his steps steady as ever.
The reporters looked at each other, their microphones still warm from being held, but they had no chance to hand them over.
Xiao Tu and Lu Wangshu exchanged a very brief glance, then Xiao Tu packed up his recorder and notebook and silently left.
The crowd dispersed like the receding tide, and the sound of leather shoes tapping on the marble floor gradually faded until it disappeared completely—the huge venue returned to silence.
This routine press conference, on the surface, seemed to have ended perfectly.
There were no gunshots.
There were no intruders.
There was no unusual activity whatsoever.
From the opening to the closing, Chen Mingfu remained calm and composed, speaking with ease, and was not disturbed in the slightest throughout.
Feng Manna stared at the empty podium, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper; Watanabe Ichiro repeatedly stroked the cover of his pocket watch, his knuckles turning white.
It's too quiet.
It was unusually quiet.
It was so quiet it sent chills down your spine.
The script shouldn't have gone this way—
Where are the Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) agents?
Why did the ambush point remain completely still?
Was there really a problem with the intelligence?
Feng Manna lowered her voice and turned to Zhou Xiao: "Third Brother, this water... seems too clear. I feel like something's not right."
She had already tucked the dagger into her cuff and concealed a silenced pistol in her boot, waiting for a loud bang to shatter the illusion of calm.
Zhou Xiao simply said, "The most important thing is that people are safe and sound."
Watanabe Ichiro strode over, his gaze sweeping over the two men: "Section Chief Feng, Director Zhou, is there anything unusual at the scene?"
Both of them shook their heads.
No one recognized Xiao Tu and Lu Wangshu—in the eyes of others, they were just two media professionals with sharp and incisive questions.
"Either the intelligence is inaccurate," Watanabe Ichiro said, rubbing his thumb against his brow bone, "or... the other side feels the network is too dense and is temporarily shutting down."
Everyone in the room was kept in the dark.
No one expected that the deadly operation had already been quietly carried out long before the spotlight came on.
The military police, the Special Higher Police, 76, the Special Operations Headquarters… all forces were on high alert, waiting for a slippery fish to fall into their trap. But what they received was a stagnant silence.
Feng Manna stared at Watanabe Ichiro, her voice tense: "Watanabe-kun, can this intelligence really be trusted?"
Watanabe Ichiro's Adam's apple bobbed: "Absolutely true. But... I can't figure out why they're holding back."
Zhou Xiao stepped forward slowly, his tone calm: "Watanabe-kun, Section Chief Feng, the process can be reviewed, but the most important thing right now is the result—Mayor Chen walked out of the meeting unharmed. Isn't that the best explanation?"
"That's right." Watanabe Ichiro breathed a sigh of relief and raised his hand to signal the end of the mission.
Meanwhile, Chen Mingfu returned to his office, casually loosened his tie, and said to his secretary, Xiao Zhang, "Xiao Zhang, pour me a glass of wine."
"Alright, Mayor Chen!" Xiao Zhang turned around briskly, took out amber-colored medicinal wine from a hidden compartment in the display shelf, poured a full glass, and presented it with both hands, his mouth already chattering away: "You really commanded the scene today! Those tricky questions from the reporters, you answered them one by one, clearly and with perfect tact..."
Rainbow words flowed out like water from a burst dam.
Chen Mingfu was used to this. He tilted his head back and took a sip, feeling a slight warmth in his throat. He raised his hand to interrupt, "Stop flattering me, just give me..."
The words came to an abrupt halt.
His neck stiffened, his pupils suddenly went unfocused, and he fell straight to the ground, his limbs convulsing like a fish out of water. A large amount of white foam quickly gushed from the corners of his mouth, and his breathing stopped completely within ten seconds.
died.
Xiao Zhang froze for half a second, then knelt down and slapped Chen Mingfu's shoulder hard: "Mayor Chen! Mayor Chen?!" His fingers reached for the side of Chen's neck—it was ice cold and there was no pulse.
His face turned deathly pale. He staggered to his feet and rushed out of the office like a madman, his scream tearing through the corridor: "Mayor Chen is dying! Call a doctor—he's gone!!"
The entire municipal building erupted in chaos.
Just then, Zhou Xiao and his group stepped out of the elevator and suddenly heard a mournful wail. Everyone took off running, their leather shoes clattering on the stairs.
Push open the door—
Chen Mingfu lay curled up on the carpet, his body still warm, his eyes wide open, frozen in a moment of stunned disbelief.
The air suddenly froze.
Everyone froze in place, as if nailed to a time rift.
Chen Mingfu's body lay across the office chair, his face ashen, a trace of dark purple blood clot at the corner of his mouth. Feng Manna, Watanabe Ichiro, and the others froze in place, like puppets nailed to a doorframe—despite their utmost vigilance and precautions, he had still fallen silently.
Watanabe Ichiro lunged at the corpse, his voice cracking: "Someone tell me! What on earth happened?! Mayor Chen... how could he..." Before he could finish speaking, his throat tightened, and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Zhou Xiao stood with his hands at his sides, not uttering a word; Feng Manna bit her lower lip, her nails digging deeply into her palm.
The on-duty doctor at the municipal building practically burst through the office door. His hand trembled as soon as he placed the stethoscope against the carotid artery. He rolled up Chen Mingfu's eyelids, then pried open Chen's mouth to examine his tongue. After only three minutes, he announced in a deep voice, "No vital signs. Preliminary diagnosis: acute poisoning-induced sudden cardiac death."
"Poisoning?" Watanabe Ichiro gripped the doctor's white coat sleeve tightly, his knuckles turning white. "What kind of poison?"
None of them expected that the Military Intelligence Bureau would target the medicinal wine.
The doctor wiped the cold sweat from his brow: "The autopsy hasn't been done yet, and the type of poison we need to wait for the lab results—no one dares to make a decision based on the naked eye alone!"
"Autopsy immediately!" Watanabe Ichiro's voice boomed as he turned, grabbed the phone, and dialed the Special Higher Police. "Chief! Something terrible has happened! Mayor Chen... is gone!"
On the other end of the phone, Takeshige Aoki sprang up from his chair, the chair legs scraping against the floor with a loud creak: "Seal off the area! No one is allowed to touch it! I'll be there in ten minutes!"
"Yes!" Watanabe Ichiro roared, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, and veins throbbing on his forehead.
This time, security was jointly deployed by four major forces: the military police monitored the perimeter, the Special Higher Police handled intelligence, the 76th Division guarded the passageways, and the Special Operations Headquarters controlled the high ground. If even this impenetrable defense could be breached and poisoned, it wouldn't just be dereliction of duty, it would be a public slap in the face.
The forensic team arrived quickly and, while removing the body, also sealed and took away the celadon wine cup on Chen Mingfu's desk and the jar of dark brown medicinal wine in the cabinet.
Half an hour later, Aoki Takeshige strode into the office with a dark expression. The air seemed to freeze, and even breathing became subdued.
Right now, the only person who witnessed the whole process is Secretary Xiao Zhang.
Xiao Zhang's voice trembled: "As soon as the press conference ended, Mayor Chen returned to his office as usual, sat down, poured himself a small cup of medicinal wine—and, as always, drank it all in one gulp. But as soon as the wine slid down his throat, he suddenly clutched his chest, slid down, and never got up again..."
Ichiro Watanabe quickly chimed in, "The resident doctor has made a preliminary diagnosis of poisoning, but the specific composition will have to wait for an autopsy."
Aoki Takeshige remained silent, only cracking his knuckles.
Feng Manna sneered and slammed her fingertips heavily on the table: "We have to sift through three layers of defenses even for a fly to get in, but the poison still ended up in his mouth—they didn't just find a loophole, they treated our defenses like paper!"
Zhou Xiao suddenly looked up, his gaze sharpening: "Throughout the entire press conference, Mayor Chen only drank two things: the glass of water on stage, and this cup of medicinal wine after returning to his office. If someone tampered with it, the poison must be in one of these two places. Manna, quickly check if that glass of water is still there!"
"Understood!" Feng Manna rushed out the door like a whirlwind.
From the meeting room to his office, the entire journey took no more than twenty minutes. He only drank water once and had a small cup of wine—if the poison wasn't hidden in them, there would be nowhere else to hide.
A moment later, Feng Manna returned, her face grim: "The cups had already been taken away and washed by the cleaning staff. They were mixed in with a pile of teaware, and it was impossible to tell which one was which."
Zhou Xiao frowned, his eyes suddenly turning cold.
Aoki Takeshige remained silent, like a taut stone statue.
About twenty minutes later, the forensic doctor rushed in carrying a briefcase and handed a thin report to Aoki Takeshige: "Section Chief, the autopsy results are in."
Aoki Takeshige took it, glanced at a few lines, and then handed it to Zhou Xiao: "Director Zhou, please take a look."
Zhou Xiao quickly glanced at the document and handed it to Feng Manna.
Feng Manna only read two lines before her pupils contracted sharply: "An accident? You mean... this was an accident?"
The forensic doctor nodded, his tone flat: "Aconitine was detected in the stomach contents, which is a perfect match for the characteristics of death by myocardial infarction. At the same time, the same toxin was detected on the inner wall of Mayor Chen's usual wine glass and in the residue of that jar of medicinal wine."
"Aconitine, naturally found in Aconitum carmichaelii, Aconitum kusnezoffii, and Aconitum carmichaelii, is a highly toxic alkaloid. It first paralyzes nerve endings, then bombards the vagus nerve, causing the sinoatrial node to stop beating and ectopic pacemakers to beat erratically—ultimately resulting in large-scale myocardial necrosis."
"An oral dose of 0.2 mg will cause numbness in the mouth and limbs, and a feeling of being wrapped in iron armor all over the body; 3 mg is enough to kill. Its toxicity is even greater than that of arsenic."
"We checked the recipe for that medicinal wine, and it was indeed made primarily with aconite and Sichuan aconite, and had been soaking for a long time. Based on the dosage, long-term consumption would have put one on the verge of poisoning."
"Comprehensive assessment: The cause of death is a combination of chronic accumulation of aconitine and acute induced death, which is a typical case of accidental drug-induced death."
"The subsequent characterization of the case still needs to be decided by the Special Higher Police."
After the forensic doctor left, Aoki Takeshige slowly raised his head, his gaze sharp as a knife, piercing Zhou Xiao: "Director Zhou, what do you think? Was it murder, or... just a coincidence?"
Zhou Xiao stroked his chin, remained silent for a few seconds, then suddenly turned to Xiao Zhang: "How long has Mayor Chen been drinking this medicinal wine?"
"It's been going on ever since he was transferred to Shanghai," Xiao Zhang answered readily. "He said it's a recipe passed down from his ancestors, snake gall with aconite, to invigorate blood and dispel cold—that jar of wine has been soaking for almost three years."