Unraveling the Fog

The Royal Academy of Medicine.

In terms of Li Wei's world, it was more like a public school combining high school and university, funded and governed by the royal family, with no tuition or other expenses. Conversely, those qualified to study here were the nation's future elite. Regardless of their background or status, only those with talent could gain admission.

Of course, in exchange for royal support, they all had to work for the royal family after graduation, with no freedom to choose otherwise-which was perfectly normal.

Standing at the gates of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Li Wei savored a long-forgotten taste of youth. The atmosphere reminded him of a university, that sense of young people brimming with life. It was wonderful.

Except...

Li Wei silently looked at the girl beside him. She was none other than the masked, cloaked "boss" from last night. Her outfit was much more normal now: a relatively ordinary jacket and a flat cap with her hair tucked inside, its brim pulled low. She looked like a youngster who had yet to lose her childish air, and would hardly look out of place at school.

Li Wei had originally wanted to keep her from coming, but she had insisted. Not wanting more trouble, he had simply agreed to her request and brought her along for the next stage of the investigation.

"What are we going to do now?"

Though the girl deliberately lowered her voice, she sounded excited. Well, hopefully she won't get in the way.

"Hold this."

Li Wei handed over his briefcase, gesturing for her to take it.

"Just stand behind me, don't say anything, and follow me. Understood?"

"...Fine."

She sounded distinctly reluctant, but after glancing at Li Wei, she obediently nodded.

Hopefully she really will behave. Li Wei glanced at the girl without saying anything more. Most of the time, whenever he made a request, girls would obediently do as he asked.

Of course, some girls had inexplicable ideas and insisted on doing things he had never asked them to do, always tearfully claiming, "I did it all for you..."

Just thinking about it exhausted him.

Forget it. Better deal with the trouble at hand first.

Li Wei shook his head, then looked toward the gates of Shuo Academy. Spotting several female students arriving together, he smiled and approached them.

"I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but there are a few things I'd like to ask..."

It took Li Wei very little time to find "Amelia's boyfriend." The reason was simple: an elite school like this would not have many students to begin with. And in Li Wei's experience, when he asked someone for help, even if they could not help personally, they would enthusiastically introduce him to someone who could.

Just as they had now. After Li Wei questioned a student at the gates of Shuo Academy, she eagerly took him to a second-year female student, who just as eagerly called "Amelia's boyfriend" over for him.

"What is this about?"

Seated before Li Wei was an ordinary-looking young man wearing thick-lensed glasses, who did not stand out much. His gaze held little warmth toward Li Wei, along with a hint of wariness.

"Hello, Mr. Edwards. Sorry to trouble you."

Smiling, Li Wei nodded to the young man.

"I'm actually an investigator for the Atlantic Insurance Company..."

"An insurance company?"

"Yes. Miss Amelia purchased personal accident insurance from us before her death."

Li Wei casually invented a lie. It was not as though anyone could expose him.

"But we never expected her to pass away so soon..."

"So what do you want from me?"

The young man frowned, looking impatient, while Li Wei stared at him.

"She listed you as her emergency contact on the policy."

"Huh? Me?"

"Yes, which is why I've come to investigate... How much do you know about Miss Amelia's accidental death?"

"I don't know anything!"

The young man stood, staring at Li Wei in astonishment.

"I had no idea she'd even done any of this... Really, I know nothing about it!"

"If that is your final answer, that's perfectly fine."

Li Wei closed his notebook, adopting a strictly professional manner. He noticed the young man clutching the hem of his clothes with both hands, his eyes wide with a trace of fear. Even so, he firmly insisted that he had nothing to do with the matter.

"But we suspect insurance fraud..."

"Huh?"

"I hope you'll stand by your testimony in court."

With that, Li Wei turned and gestured for the girl to follow him out.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Four steps, five steps, six steps...

"W-wait."

Li Wei stopped, turned toward the deathly pale young man, and smiled slightly.

"Was there something else?"

"I-I'll talk..."

The young man had completely wilted, like an eggplant struck by frost.

Li Wei was not surprised. Students at the Royal Academy of Medicine held prestigious standing and cherished their reputations. They certainly wanted nothing to do with courts or anything of the sort. His earlier words had merely been a bluff to put some pressure on him. After all, if a student at the Royal Academy of Medicine were taken to court for insurance fraud, whether the charge was true or not, his days at the school would be numbered.

"It really was an accident."

Once he had made up his mind, the young man quickly began telling Li Wei the truth.

"I warned her at the time that it was risky, but Amelia..."

"Please start from the beginning."

Li Wei tapped his notebook, maintaining his professional demeanor. This made the young man even more nervous, but he began explaining anyway.

"O-our research group is developing a new steam-powered surgical apparatus. You see, surgery normally requires several people working together, doesn't it? We're trying to develop a fully automated operating table that uses steam power to assist the doctor during surgery. That way, a single doctor could perform an entire operation with the machinery's assistance..."

Good grief, you really dare to dream big!

Listening to the young man's answer, Li Wei remained outwardly unmoved, but inwardly he reeled.

Even in the age of artificial intelligence, nobody dared build something like this. People in this era really fucking went all out!

"...But there was a problem. We'd built it, but we needed to test it. Experiments on living subjects are illegal, though, and extremely risky..."

The young man swallowed and continued.

"I was just complaining to Amelia about it at the time, and she told me she could help conduct the experiments."

"Oh?"

"She... she said her father was a doctor and often operated on poor people, so she wanted to test the new equipment there. She said those poor people had no money anyway, so even if something went wrong, it wouldn't cause any trouble..."

"O-of course I thought that was wrong!"

Seeing Li Wei staring at him, the young man hastily waved his hands.

"But she promised she'd only use the apparatus for simple procedures! Nothing that would endanger anyone's life! That was what she promised me! We only helped her install it. We never used it! Really!"

"Doctor Dolittle claimed she died in an accident."

Li Wei stared coldly at the young man, fully playing the part of a heartless, ruthless capitalist lackey.

"Is that true? Or did you conspire to fabricate the story?"

"I-I really didn't!"

At this, the young man shouted again, frantically waving his hands.

"Believe me, Amelia was already dead when I arrived...!"

"Oh?"

Realizing he had let something slip, the young man hastily shut his mouth, but Li Wei merely watched him without hurry.

"I'd like an explanation, sir. Otherwise... how about explaining it to the police?"

"No, I'll talk! I'll talk...!"

Young students were the easiest to intimidate and fool. This insurance-claim scam routine worked particularly well on naive, foolish university students who had yet to enter society. Besides, this was the Royal Academy of Medicine, the equivalent of a top-tier institution back home. A student here being summoned by the police, or even taken to court, would make a fair bit of news.

Judging from the bespectacled young man's behavior, Li Wei doubted he wanted to become the subject of that sort of headline. Though they had only spoken for a few minutes, Li Wei had already figured him out: intelligent but inflexible, somewhat bookish, an honest fellow who knew books but not society. His clothes suggested his family had some money, but were hardly rich or influential-a typical lower-middle-class background.

He was meek, honest, and obedient, the sort who would help a swindler count the money after being sold out. He was also weak-willed; a little scare was enough to leave him utterly at a loss.

It was only fortunate that phone scams did not exist in this world yet. Otherwise, this fellow would definitely be conned out of everything he owned.

"What exactly happened? I'd like you to give me a clear account of the circumstances so I can determine whether you were involved."

"O-of course... Let me think..."

The bespectacled young man's face was ashen. He frowned, thinking for a moment.

"It was... six months ago. I lent Amelia the apparatus, and she was responsible for reporting the data to me once a week. Most of the time, the data looked good. As she'd promised, she only performed minor, localized procedures on patients. But later, she decided that wasn't enough, since it couldn't demonstrate the machine's potential, so she wanted to perform..."

"A proper operation."

Li Wei questioned him while searching through the knowledge surfacing in his mind.

"But you're only students. You don't have medical licenses, do you?"

"If you don't want to explain it to me, you'll have to explain it to the police."

"I-I'll talk...!"

When Li Wei started to leave again, the bespectacled young man was so frightened he nearly dropped to his knees and clung to his leg.

"That was what I told her at the time. Those localized procedures before-bandaging, disinfecting, suturing, and so on-were fine for her to do as an assistant, since her father was a doctor. But being the lead surgeon was another matter entirely. Of course I objected, but she insisted this was the best way to demonstrate the machine's value... If even a student like her could complete an operation independently with its assistance, that would prove the value of our invention!"

Sure enough, a naive, foolish university student.

Li Wei inwardly rolled his eyes. He had been like that himself back then... just not quite so extreme.

"And then?"

"I-I didn't think it was acceptable... And even if we did it, I thought a licensed doctor should perform the operation... But... she wanted to do it herself. She was a top student at the school, after all, and genuinely excelled in this field... She was also very good at anatomy and dissection..."

"Go on."

"We argued about it afterward, but the next day I still felt uneasy, so I decided to go and check. I'd been to the operating room beneath the clinic before... Then, when I walked into the operating room, I saw..."

Remembering the scene, the bespectacled young man turned deathly pale.

"Oh, Holy Lord preserve us, it was horrible! I saw Amelia lying beside the operating table, covered in blood, with those scalpels embedded in her body. Doctor Dolittle was screaming as he pulled the surgical instruments out of her. When he saw me, he immediately shouted at me to turn that damned thing off. I was terrified, frozen stiff..."

"So you mean... you don't know what happened, or even what Amelia was doing?"

"Y-yes... I think she must have been trying to operate on a patient, because I saw someone lying on the operating table..."

"A man or a woman?"

"I-I think it was a woman..."

"And then?"

"I switched off the machine, then lowered Amelia down, but by then she was already... Oh God..."

At this point, the bespectacled young man covered his face, his ten fingers digging deep into his tangled, bird's-nest curls. He looked utterly pitiful. Li Wei, however, remained unmoved-outwardly, at least.

"What do you think caused the accident?"

"Well... I'm not sure. Perhaps something went wrong with the machine's calibration, or perhaps it was simply an accident..."

"And what about the patient?"

"I-I think she died too... I was stunned at the time. After switching off the machine, I just stood there blankly watching Mr. Dolittle try to save Amelia, but... it was no use. By the time I came to my senses, Doctor Dolittle was staring at me with blood all over his face, telling me not to tell anyone, not to tell the police, because we were practicing medicine illegally and we'd all go to prison..."

"In other words, Miss Amelia died accidentally due to her own error while engaging in illegal activity. Well, thank you, sir. Your testimony is very useful. Under these circumstances, the insurance company will not pay out."

Li Wei convincingly played the part of a coldhearted capitalist bloodsucker as he finished the last line in his notebook.

"Please sign here."

"I... well... all right."

After a moment's hesitation, the bespectacled young man picked up the pen and signed his name at the bottom of the statement. He was reluctant, but if it spared him further trouble, he would have to accept it, wouldn't he?

"One last question."

"What is it?"

"From what you've said, that apparatus must be quite large."

As he spoke, Li Wei recalled the pharmacy's narrow wooden door. He did not know what operating tables were like in this era, but he at least remembered that those in his own world were no folding deck chairs that could be casually dismantled.

"How did you get it inside? Were there any witnesses?"

"I-I don't think so. We brought it in through the sewers..."

"The sewers?"

"Yes. Doctor Dolittle's underground operating room connects to the sewers. We transported the equipment into the sewers by boat, then carried it into the underground operating room to assemble it..."

"Where?"

"The outlet of the fifth waterway in the lower district."

"May I... leave now?"

"Go ahead."

With Li Wei's permission, the bespectacled young man turned and hurried away almost immediately. Li Wei watched his retreating back, sinking into thought.

The sewers.

Li Wei recalled how the footprints he had followed earlier had vanished by the river. He remembered that reeking waterway piled with rubbish. Then he lowered his head, looked at his crisp, spotless formal suit, and silently sighed.

"You lied."

After they left the school gates, the girl stared at Li Wei and spoke with complete seriousness.

"You're not an insurance agent at all."

"Of course not."

"But isn't that illegal?"

"If I swindled him out of his money, that would be illegal."

Li Wei spread his hands, looking at the girl with a slight smile.

"But I only concealed my identity and asked him a few questions. As long as he doesn't need to testify in court, there's no problem."

"That's nothing but sophistry!"

I won't argue with that.

Li Wei did not respond, merely smiling to brush it off. Fortunately, the girl soon changed the subject.

"So, do you think Doctor Dolittle is the murderer?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't know. I've never been to Doctor Dolittle's clinic."

The girl shook her head.

"But I've heard lots of people talk about him. He's willing to treat them for free or charge very little. He's a good person, so I don't think it's him. Besides, he has no reason to kill anyone, does he? His daughter's death shouldn't have anything to do with those courtesans, should it?"

"There really isn't."

Li Wei nodded. Amelia's death had been an accident, a chance occurrence, and it had nothing to do with the courtesans. Even if the patient Amelia had wanted to operate on had been a courtesan, Doctor Dolittle could simply have taken his revenge then and there. Whatever the case, there was no reason for him to strike again and again.

"But that doesn't mean there's no connection at all."

"What do you mean?"

"I tracked that killer before. His footprints disappeared by the river."

Li Wei offered the girl an explanation.

"And according to this young man's testimony, Doctor Dolittle's underground chamber connects to the sewers, and the exit is right where the killer disappeared. So it's very likely that the killer escaped through the sewers into Doctor Dolittle's underground chamber... at least, it's a possibility."

"But... why would Doctor Dolittle do that?"

The girl's voice was filled with disbelief.

"Perhaps once we catch him, we can ask him directly and find out."

Li Wei looked down at the notes in his hand again and sighed helplessly.

This isn't remotely like being a detective.