Chapter 367: Chapter 352 Expired Medicine_1
Hearing what Zhou Ning had said, Xu Dayuan quickly nodded in agreement.
"You go ahead, I’ll leave Mr. Bai’s team with you, I’ll take the others back first. Apart from our colleagues, we’ll also look into Lou Sanfeng’s old neighbors from the courtyard of his family home. Let me know as soon as the inspection results are out. I’ll communicate any information I find about Lou Sanfeng with you in a timely manner," Xu Dayuan instructed.
After making arrangements, Xu Dayuan led his people away quickly.
Of course, Liu Yufei didn’t leave; the entire staff of the River and Lake Management Office was taken out one by one for questioning.
With all the commotion, people were left anxious and uneasy. Not much useful information about Lou Sanfeng was obtained; instead, quite a few secrets within the unit came to light.
Zhou Ning and Mr. Zhao headed straight to the parking lot, where Mr. Bai had already received an arrangement from Xu Dayuan and hurriedly ran to them, pointing to an old Jetta in the corner and saying:
"I asked the gatekeeper, and this old Jetta really is Lou Sanfeng’s car. It’s quite conspicuous in this parking lot."
Zhou Ning looked around and, indeed, the old Jetta stood out noticeably.
It wasn’t because of the model of the car; after all, some people deliberately drive very common cars or even take the shuttle bus to appear low-key while being lavish in other aspects.
But working at the water bureau, and the location being so remote, most people had their own cars, and they were typically not more than a hundred thousand yuan worth. However, the silver grey Jetta had four or five spots with filler, the windshield had a couple of cracked lines, and the area around the tail lights had multiple patches of peeled paint.
Mr. Zhao smacked his lips and, for a moment, was at a loss for words.
"Even the cars used on construction sites look better than this. What, was he treating it like a bumper car? Good Lord, I can’t even count all the dents and impact marks. He doesn’t bother repainting after applying filler on the back half, and the depressed areas couldn’t be fixed with some metalwork?"
After chattering for a while and shaking his head repeatedly, the gatekeeper hurried over, holding a plastic bag that conspicuously contained a set of keys.
"Officer, this was left by Lou from our department."
Zhou Ning was taken aback, Mr. Zhao had a set of keys in his hand which had just been retrieved from Lou Sanfeng. This person could leave a spare key for the car with the gatekeeper; Zhou Ning’s interest in this car diminished greatly.
"All right, thank you, sir. We’ll get to work now, please step back a bit, don’t get caught in the picture."
Mr. Zhao was polite, took over the keys, and started photographing the car. Then he opened all the car doors and the trunk, and as soon as the car doors opened, a stench of fishy, sour, and stinky feet wafted out, and Mr. Zhao gagged while holding his mask.
"Damn, is this the smell of athlete’s foot mixed with mantis shrimp paste?"
With that one sentence, Zhou Ning felt his stomach churn. He had been able to bear the scene at the Giant’s Lookout, but now he couldn’t approach the smell described by Mr. Zhao, so he took a step back and looked towards him.
"Could you not describe it like that? You inspect the car, let the smell disperse a bit before I move closer."
Mr. Zhao pouted.
"Heartless."
With that, Mr. Zhao turned and headed into the car. Inside, especially the driver’s seat, was extremely dirty. Starting from the back of the sun visor, upon close inspection, there were piles of ticket stubs and leftovers such as fruit peels and cigarette butts.
After inspecting for half an hour, he finally finished his thorough check. Mr. Zhao climbed out of the car, drenched in sweat, not because of the heat, but because the smell was intolerable, reaching the limits of his endurance. He pulled off his mask and sat on a stone bollard nearby, gasping for breath and raising his hand in a wave.
"Goodness gracious, did he think of his car as a trash can? I actually found two bags of snacks that expired three years ago, plus a few bottles of medicine with production dates going back to 1997. I suspect that since he bought the car in 2000, it has never been cleaned out, ugh!"
By the end, Mr. Zhao had already begun to dry heave. Zhou Ning remained silent, took the camera to look at it, and then examined the items Mr. Zhao had sorted out, especially the medications. Zhou Ning opened each bottle to inspect them one by one.
The variety was quite comprehensive, including torasemide tablets, irbesartan, captopril, nitroglycerin, metoprolol, clopidogrel, cyclophosphamide, methylprednisolone, and so on.
These medications—hormonal, antihypertensive, diuretic, vasoconstrictive—covered many aspects indeed.
Even according to what Peng Enxin had said, with Lou Sanfeng suffering from kidney disease, many of these drugs were ones he should not touch, particularly the diuretics. Without guidance, these were definitely not to be taken at random. Moreover, all these medications were expired. Could it be that they weren’t meant for Lou Sanfeng’s consumption?
This thought halted Zhou Ning’s movements.
He quickly checked again. Most of the medications had been manufactured around 1997-1999. According to Peng Enxin, Lou Sanfeng began to take frequent sick leaves after 2000, and he had joined the water bureau in 1999.
Kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, coronary heart disease—these were ailments more common in elderly people. Could it be... these medications were prepared for Lou Sanfeng’s father?
Seeing Zhou Ning silent, Mr. Zhao leaned in as well.
"I say, I feel like this car was prepared specifically for going to work. It’s made to make him look sloppy, to reduce interaction with others. However, there’s no useful information in the car. How come you’re just looking at these expired medications and not saying anything?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"It’s not that there’s no information. These medications have been expired for many years, yet they’re still left in the car, mostly drugs from the late ’90s, treating common chronic diseases in the elderly, including kidney disease, of course. What’s the purpose of keeping expired medications here?
We need to know now whether Lou Sanfeng has kidney disease and how serious it is. Does his father’s medical information also include these diseases treated by the medications? And when was this car purchased? Is it registered under Lou Sanfeng’s name?"
Mr. Zhao nodded.
"The purchase date was November 1999. It looks like after his military transfer, he thought commuting was inconvenient, so he bought this car. The initial registration is indeed under Lou Sanfeng’s name, but could he get it through the vehicle inspection like this?"
Zhou Ning didn’t pick up on that but instead started to make a phone call, informing Xu Dayuan of their findings, asking someone to start retrieving Lou Sanfeng’s father’s information. Although Lou Sanfeng was transferred to a civilian post and then forced to retire due to illness, it’s possible that the unit he transferred to might not have retained some of his medical information because of such a reason for his transfer.
Mr. Zhao asked a junior officer to clean up the items at the edge of the vehicle while he dialed Yang Xuetong’s number.
"Have you finished checking Lou Sanfeng’s home?"
"We just got there not long ago; we’re still investigating. Why, have you finished so quickly?"
Mr. Zhao glanced at the Jetta.
"How is it? Is Lou Sanfeng’s home like a trash dump?"
Yang Xuetong was taken aback, glanced at the situation inside the room, and was full of confusion.
"What are you saying? His home is spotless. If you put a strong flashlight on the floor, there’s not a speck of dust. Even the sheets and blankets on the bed are all military standard tofu block alignment. We looked for ages and didn’t know where to start."
Mr. Zhao was flabbergasted.
"Take a photo and let me see, how could that be possible? You went to Lou Sanfeng’s home? His car is like a trash heap, with candy wrappers and packaging from years ago all over."
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes, such a mercurial character, could it be...
