Two clues?

Just a moment ago, Qin Yong was worried that there were no clues at all, but now Lu Chuan suddenly provided two important leads.

"Lu, go ahead, what are the clues?"

Lu Chuan had no intention of keeping them in suspense at this moment; he opened his laptop, connected it to the projector, and began to play.

"Firstly, no pufferfish toxin was found on the buns, nor on the vegetables used for the vegetable soup. However, we detected pufferfish toxin in the vegetable soup."

This point...

Lu Chuan spoke quickly and succinctly, with not much content, but the information conveyed prompted deep thought among everyone.

No toxin found on the buns, none on the vegetables—what does that imply?

If the pufferfish toxin was brought into the construction site canteen externally, there were basically only two possibilities: either on the buns or on the vegetables.

That’s also why Qin Yong had the action team investigate the Aihui Farmers’ Market.

But now, from Lu Chuan’s test results, no pufferfish toxin was found on the buns and the vegetables used for the vegetable soup.

This implies that the pufferfish toxin did not come into the construction site canteen through these two channels.

If the pufferfish toxin is not external, it must be internal.

The detection of toxin in the vegetable soup precisely proves this point.

But the vegetable soup was made by Wu Guichun himself; would he poison his own food?

The motive doesn’t make sense!

Wu Guichun has no reason to poison; as the canteen’s operator, he would benefit from its success. A thriving canteen means he earns money.

If he had conflicts with some workers and wanted to kill them, with pufferfish toxin at hand, he could achieve this by targeting them specifically; there’s no need to cause a widespread food poisoning by putting the toxin in the vegetable soup.

Moreover, pufferfish toxin is colorless and tasteless; once added, it won’t be noticed.

So, who was it?

Everyone looked at Lu Chuan, waiting for his next report.

"Secondly, everyone, look at this picture."

The image projected was a magnified picture showing a milky white lump.

"This is what we found at the bottom of the vegetable soup pot at the crime scene canteen."

"We just contacted Wu Guichun. The vegetable soup he made was pure vegetarian, without any meat."

"However, we detected the presence of meat at the bottom of the vegetable soup pot."

"After testing, we can confirm it’s the skin and some internal organs of a pufferfish."

Skin and internal organs?

The toxins carried by pufferfish are mostly concentrated in the liver, with a small portion in the skin.

However, pufferfish meat itself does not contain toxins.

"From the residues of these pufferfish skins and partial internal organs, it can be deduced that the method of poisoning was not through direct extraction of the toxin, but by putting the pufferfish skin and internal organs into the vegetable soup pot, causing the soup to be contaminated with toxins."

Qin Yong understood Lu Chuan’s implication: "You mean someone intentionally threw the pufferfish skin and internal organs into the soup pot to poison it?"

Lu Chuan nodded affirmatively: "As for the motive for the crime, the likelihood that Wu Guichun himself poisoned is very low."

"But if the poisoner was among the workers having breakfast, the possibility is much higher."

Why?

Everyone had this question in mind.

Why would a worker poison the food?

There doesn’t seem to be any other explanation.

Lu Chuan continued with his report: "Based on the current results of our investigation, those having breakfast in the canteen were all workers from the construction site."

"I think we could start our investigation from this angle because pufferfish are not easy to come by."

"We should trace the source of the pufferfish."

"I agree with Lu Chuan’s opinion. It’s difficult to obtain wild pufferfish, so the source should be thoroughly investigated."

Zhang Hui straightened his back, frowning as he closely examined the projected image.

"Moreover, there’s another point we overlooked in the morning’s investigation."

"In the morning investigation, we primarily focused on the social connections of Wu Guichun, the canteen owner, and the suppliers of the buns and vegetables."

"But the likelihood of conflicts arising between either Wu Guichun or the Aihui Farmers’ Market suppliers and the workers is actually low."

"So, if the diners poisoned the food, shouldn’t we investigate from these two aspects?"

"First, check if there have been any conflicts among the workers recently."

"The use of pufferfish toxin to poison serves one simple purpose: to kill."

"Therefore, among today’s diners, identifying any individuals involved in particularly intense conflicts could provide a breakthrough point."

"Secondly, have there been any conflicts between the workers and the construction site?"

"With this kind of large-scale poisoning incident, it’s unlikely the poisoner targeted just one or two individuals. If they had a conflict with someone, they could have just poisoned that person directly. But considering such broad poisoning, could it be due to a conflict with the construction site itself?"

"Hmm, I think this analysis is plausible."

"Yes, if the workers poisoned the food, our previous investigation direction was indeed somewhat off."

Solving a case is like this; the direction is crucial. If the direction is wrong, the more you investigate, the harder it becomes to solve the case. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Because the poisoning incident occurred in the canteen, the early investigation naturally focused inward on the canteen itself.

The Criminal Investigation Team concentrated on the canteen due to its vested interests.

Now, with Lu Chuan’s test results, it seems quite certain that the poisoner was a worker, bringing the conflict among workers, or between workers and the construction site itself, into focus as a point of contention.

Qin Yong tapped the table and looked around: "Does anyone else have other suggestions?"

Everyone shook their heads. Lu Chuan’s forensic analysis identified the likely suspect group as the workers.

Then, what Zhang Hui proposed is indeed accurate.

Investigate the interest relations among the workers, and between the workers and the site itself.

"Alright, since there are no objections, let’s split into two groups."

"Sun Jun will lead the first group, with the action team investigating whether there have been any unstable conflict situations at the site recently."

"The second group, led by Zhang Hui, will investigate the source of the pufferfish."

If it were merely pufferfish toxin, that could be particularly challenging to trace.

Because once refined, pufferfish toxin could come from anywhere.

But pufferfish themselves are different.

Compared to trading in pufferfish toxin, tracing the origin of an actual pufferfish is relatively easier, especially if it’s a wild one.

The waters around Haizhou City don’t have wild pufferfish; only a few restaurants in all of Haizhou City deal in pufferfish.

So, checking into this shouldn’t be too difficult.