Doctor Bai was in his fifties.
He pushed into the yard with his medical bag and seeing the arrangement on the table did not touch the glass jar at once.
“Who collected it? Who has watched it? Has anyone taken it from their hands?”
Aunt Sun recounted what had happened. Aunt San also held the other enamel mug close and nodded to confirm no one had touched it since they left the east room.
Doctor Bai washed his hands then. He dipped a bamboo chopstick into the remaining liquid smelled it and touched a drop lightly to his tongue.
Ma Guifen spoke immediately. “It is only sweetened water is it not?”
“There is a bitter taste.”
“Brown sugar burns bitter when boiled too long!”
“There is also the faint smell of powdered medicine.”
The crowd drew closer to the table.
Doctor Bai frowned opened his bag and took out several paper packets comparing them one by one. His supplies were limited. Many tablets were wrapped individually and dosage written in pencil on the paper. After a careful search he held up one packet of greyish white powder.
“It resembles one used for calming prescriptions. It could be something else however. Smell alone cannot identify it.”
Ma Guifen seized on the words. “Do you hear that? He cannot be certain! Shen Qinghe has made up a story about poisoned water to get out of the marriage!”
“I said the medicine cannot be named,” Doctor Bai said gravely. “I did not say there was nothing but sugar. This should not be drunk.”
“You were friendly with her mother,” Ma Guifen shot back. “Of course you take her side.”
The doctor was drawn into the dispute. People began arguing over whose family Doctor Bai had eaten with and the question of the water was forgotten.
Shen Qinghe looked at the jar and felt no disappointment.
She knew the village clinic could not identify the substance on the spot. With no equipment available nose and tongue were all they had and it was already something to confirm medicine was present. She had not asked him to act as judge. She only needed one more professional observation to strengthen the evidence.
“Doctor Bai,” she said, “what effects might this have on someone who drank it?”
“It depends on what was used and how much.” He glanced at Zhao Chengliang. “If it is ground calming tablets drowsiness and dizziness are the mild effects. Larger doses can cause loss of balance. On an empty stomach it acts faster.”
“I had not eaten this morning.”
“Then it was most unwise to taste it.”
Zhao Chengliang spoke up suddenly. “Doctor since you cannot be certain what it is do not speak as though it is something terrible. Qinghe drank half a mug and she is perfectly well is she not?”
“She drank from the other mug on the table,” Aunt Sun said.
Zhao Chengliang’s eye twitched. “Both mugs held sweetened water. She says she switched them but who saw her? It is just as likely she prepared the medicine beforehand and set me up.”
This was the turn he wanted.
From uncertainty about what was in the water to Shen Qinghe having put it there herself. If no one could prove who drugged it he could drag her down with them.
“What reason would I have to frame you?” Shen Qinghe asked.
“You did not want to marry me.”
“Before last night did anyone in the village hear me say so?”
“Who knows what you truly thought?”
“If I had access to medicine all along why would I not simply leave? Why wear my wedding dress stand before everyone and risk drinking it myself only to swap mugs at the last moment?”
Zhao Chengliang gave a cold smile. “Who knows who you have been conspiring with.”
The remark was clearly aimed at Zhou Yanchuan.
Zhou Yanchuan did not rise to it. He kept his head down folding a sheet of oiled paper for Xiao Man as if he had heard nothing.
Shen Qinghe did not look toward him either.
“Then let us investigate,” she said. “Find out who has been prescribed this medicine recently. Check who bought calming tablets at the cooperative and clinic. Search the Zhao home for leftover powder. And search me too.”
A hush fell over the yard.
She carried secrets of course. The brass warehouse token old currency and the Number Nine Warehouse none of which could be easily explained.
But she had not brought medicine into this world with her nor had she handled anything like it since arriving. She had weighed the risk.
Luo Youtian asked. “You agree to be searched?”
“Two women may search me. My room may be examined in full view of everyone. And the Zhao family must be searched too.”
Ma Guifen jumped up. “Why should our home be ransacked!”
“Because the water was on your table and you were the one who brought it to me.”
“I only meant to be kind.”
“Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear.”
Luo Youtian stopped the argument. He appointed four women to search the east room west room kitchen and the persons of those involved. Shen Qinghe tucked the brass token deep inside her innermost clothing where it could not be seen. Aunt Sun searching her found only a ten yuan note tucked into her waistband.
“Where did this come from?”
“My mother left it to me,” Shen Qinghe said calmly. “It is only one note. If it must be recorded let us attend to the water first.”
Aunt Sun looked at her did not conceal anything and held the note up for Luo Youtian to see.
A single ten yuan note was not remarkable. Luo Youtian had it written down and told her to keep it.
On Zhao Chengliang they found a cooperative key a fountain pen and seven yuan eighty fen. Ma Guifen carried only a key. Zhao Xing’er had nothing but a handkerchief.
The rooms were searched twice and no medicine was found.
Ma Guifen grew triumphant. “You see? She has made everything up!”
The woman searching the kitchen however returned with a crumpled scrap of medicine paper found behind the door.
It was no larger than a fingernail bearing half a blue stamp and part of writing indicating two tablets. It carried a faint bitter scent.
“Waste paper is everywhere,” Zhao Chengliang said. “Who knows how old it is.”
Doctor Bai examined it. “This paper is used at our commune clinic. The stamp matches too. It is torn too small however to read the name of the medicine or the date.”
A clue had appeared yet it was not enough.
Luo Youtian placed the paper with the glass jar and proposed sending people and evidence to the commune. Relatives of the Zhao family wanted the matter settled privately but the Cao family insisted and the situation stalled again.
Doctor Bai spoke quietly to Shen Qinghe. “The commune may not be able to identify it either. They can judge only by effects. For certainty it may need to be sent to the county hospital.”
“Then send it.”
“It will take time and someone must pay.”
“I will pay what I can.”
She had ten ten yuan notes hidden but could not produce them all at once. She took out only the one that had been found.
“Put the rest to my account.”
Zhou Yanchuan finished folding the paper for Xiao Man came over and said. “My companion and I are travelling to the commune this afternoon. The evidence may go with us but villagers must choose who guards it.”
He offered transport not personal testimony.
Luo Youtian agreed. Aunt Sun one person from the Cao family and one from the Zhao family were appointed to accompany the items. Ma Guifen refused to go and Second Uncle Zhao went in her place.
The jar was wrapped in three layers of oiled paper and sealed with thumbprints from all four people. Doctor Bai wrote his observations on the back of a prescription form and signed his name.
When the final thumbprint was pressed Shen Qinghe relaxed her right hand at last.
Four deep half moon marks were pressed into her palm.
Doctor Bai could not give a definitive answer. Neither could she. But when uncertain people speak the truth and when small clear facts are gathered together the truth becomes harder to hide.
As the cart prepared to leave the village Zhao Xing’er leaned against the wall and began retching.
Doctor Bai offered her water. Seeing undissolved sugar settled at the bottom of the bowl she reacted as if seeing something terrifying and knocked it violently from his hand.
Shen Qinghe watched her and understood something new.
Perhaps what Zhao Xing’er feared was not only Cao Yougen.