Shu Shu looked up and immediately caught the brief flicker of nervousness on the woman’s face.
“…I’m telling you, student, you shouldn’t be messing with a patient’s medicine like this. Don’t you know it’s easy to contaminate the pills? These imported special medicines are expensive!”
Shu Shu curled her lips and asked, “Is this really special medicine that treats chest pain?”
“Yes, otherwise what?” The woman in the white coat looked suspicious and displeased, turning to Shu Lingchen to scold him: “Xiao Chen, what’s wrong with your classmate? Coming up here to look at and smell the medicine—is she afraid I’m cheating her?”
Before Shu Lingchen could respond, she continued, “How many years have you been getting medicine here? Has Auntie Chu ever had a problem?”
“No, no, Auntie Liu, you misunderstand,” Shu Lingchen said, also confused, glancing silently at Shu Shu as if to ask: Mom, what’s going on?
“Ah, sorry, I was just curious,” Shu Shu said, placing the medicine bottle back obediently, then pulled out her phone and aimed at the payment code: “Five thousand one, right?”
“Yes.”
Hearing the payment success tone, the woman’s expression finally relaxed.
But the next second, Shu Shu didn’t pause. She exited the payment interface and switched to the dialer, decisively pressing 110.
In Shu Lingchen’s surprised eyes and the woman’s astonishment, Shu Shu held the phone to her ear and said clearly: “Hello, I want to report a pharmacy selling fake medicine. I have both witnesses and evidence.”
Coincidentally, the police station was right next door.
Within two minutes, two officers arrived. One, wearing a body camera, asked: “Who made the report?”
Shu Shu was about to raise her hand.
“Misunderstanding, officer, it’s all a misunderstanding,” the woman in the white coat rushed forward, glancing at Shu Shu, and told the police: “This girl is just playing a prank. She’s a student, doesn’t understand anything, can’t read foreign languages, so—”
Before she finished, Shu Shu picked up a bottle and recited several English drug names: “Then tell me, which of these ingredients treats chest pain?”
The woman’s voice stopped abruptly. She stared at Shu Shu in shock.
Her expression seemed to ask: How can she speak these drug names fluently?
Isn’t she just a regular high school student?!
“And—” Shu Shu crossed her arms. “The pills inside the bottle have nothing to do with what’s written on the label. They’re all just vitamins. Don’t tell me these are imported vitamins that treat chest pain.”
The woman’s face went pale, eyes wide with terror: “You… how do you know?!”
…
Even sitting in the police station lobby, Shu Lingchen’s mind was still reeling.
Shu Shu had just finished her statement when police notified them that the pharmacy had confessed.
The bottles indeed did not contain any chest-pain-treating imported special medicine. The packaging came from empty health supplement bottles, and the contents were just vitamins.
“This is outrageous!” Shu Lingchen stood up angrily, face dark under his messy hair, fists clenched, ready to storm over and beat the woman in the white coat: “She’s really a fraud!”
He looked at Shu Shu with relief and whispered: “Mom, you’re amazing! You saw there was something wrong with the medicine. If it had been given to Auntie Chu, it would have been a huge problem! This heartless woman!”
Shu Shu raised an eyebrow, silent.
Thinking: Stinky kid, things aren’t that simple.
Suddenly, a struggling sound came from the lobby entrance.
“Who do you think you are to arrest me? What did I do?!”
The voice sounded so familiar that Shu Lingchen immediately turned his head and froze: “Auntie Chu?!”
The two female officers were escorting none other than Chu’s mother.
“Auntie Chu? How… how did you come here?”
An officer said: “This person is related to a fraud case. We called her in for a routine interview.”
“…Fraud case?” Shu Lingchen was stunned, instinctively disbelieving: “No way. How could Auntie Chu be involved in a fraud case?!”
The female officer looked over: “Are you Shu Lingchen?”
“Yes.”
She nodded: “Alright, come in to give a statement. You are the victim in this fraud case.”
Shu Lingchen was confused: “???” What?
Shu Shu quietly watched Shu Lingchen walk into the office, calm as if she had anticipated what would happen next.
Sigh.
The clueless little boy didn’t know he was about to get a deep life lesson.
…
Shu Lingchen was genuinely dumbfounded.
He sat at the desk, unaware, as the officer asked: “How long have you been buying special medicine from this pharmacy?”
Shu Lingchen calculated: “…Almost eight years, once a month.”
“Without interruption?”
“No.” How could he skip? This was Auntie Chu’s “life-saving medicine.”
“How much per purchase?”
“Always 5,100 yuan.”
“Mm.” The officer typed on the keyboard and continued: “This Luo Ping, the person you call Auntie Chu, what is her relation to you?”
Shu Lingchen didn’t hesitate: “Family, elder.”
“According to our investigation, there is no blood relation between you.”
“She’s still my elder.”
The officer asked again: “Did you buy the special medicine voluntarily, or did Luo Ping ask you to buy it?”
“…?” Shu Lingchen puzzled: “Why are you asking me this?”
“Please cooperate. Did you buy it voluntarily, or did Luo Ping request it?”
Shu Lingchen exhaled: “I bought it voluntarily. When I had a fever as a child, Auntie Chu took me to the hospital in the rain. Her body got injured, and she needed this special medicine, otherwise she’d get chest pain. It’s what I should do for her.”
Whether it was his imagination or not, the two officers exchanged a glance, then looked at him with obvious sympathy.
Shu Lingchen: “???”
The officer turned the laptop, screen facing Shu Lingchen: “Take a look at this.”
Shu Lingchen, confused, looked.
The video played, showing the interrogation room at the police station. The woman in the white coat from the pharmacy was in the center.
Selling fake medicine is a serious criminal offense with severe consequences.
In the video, the woman, realizing this, cried out in protest:
“I didn’t harm anyone! This was all a scheme with Luo Ping. She deceived the boy named Shu Lingchen, claiming his health worsened because she took him to the hospital, making him spend 5,000 yuan each month on ‘special medicine.’ That medicine was just vitamins. Luo Ping knew everything!”