National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1008 - 944: Successful Experience

Jiang Yuan left Xie Wenyi and the others to Meng Chengbiao for on-site interrogation and took a few people to conduct a rough search of the second, third, and fourth floors themselves.

The many people going up and down likely compromised the scene somewhat, but at this moment, the most important thing isn’t the scene inside the guesthouse.

No firearms were found as expected, but in the second-floor kitchen, Jiang Yuan found more mushrooms and small knives used for chopping mushrooms, among other items. Beyond that, some ground mushroom powder was clearly meant for steeping in tea and coffee, perhaps even for soups. Also, there were small chunks of pancake and grayish powder mixed in with the fruit jam and Lao Gan Ma chili sauce, which also appeared to be crushed mushrooms.

If it weren’t already confirmed that the mushrooms were psychedelic, even on Jiang Yuan’s first search, one might assume they were just local specialties. It was like places known for fish having full-fish feasts, wild vegetable regions hosting wild vegetable banquets, or areas that produce nothing having full-duck feasts. For Jiali Village, which has characteristic mushrooms, consuming mushrooms as a specialty from start to finish seemed like a normal choice.

However, the side effect of being hallucinogenic was far too significant.

Following that, Jiang Yuan found a basket of crude accounting books made by Xie Wenyi himself in an enclosed space on the fourth floor.

The accounting books clearly contained various records of mushroom sales.

With this, the basic evidence was essentially in hand.

As Jiang Yuan descended with the accounting book, he saw the village chief being held separately in a room.

Jiang Yuan glanced at him, then went to find Xie Wenyi next door, showing him the accounting book and said, "Your mushrooms are quite expensive, and the price has even gone up. It used to be a few yuan for a tael, but now I see... 80 grams costs 20 yuan. Mushrooms that cost 100 yuan per pound?"

Xie Wenyi had already been thoroughly interrogated by Meng Chengbiao and had become much more sensible. He obediently replied, "Jianshouqing can also sell for over 100 yuan per pound."

"So, your mushrooms have better effects than Jianshouqing, right?"

"We haven’t compared them, but our mushrooms are quite distinctive and worth the price," Xie Wenyi said.

Jiang Yuan curled his lips, "People buy Jianshouqing to eat it."

"Who knows." Xie Wenyi looked up, "Our mushrooms can be eaten too."

Jiang Yuan looked at Xie Wenyi unexpectedly. From the conversation so far, it was noticeable that Xie Wenyi’s education level was not high, but these few sentences seemed to reflect a certain degree of cultured thought.

In other words, the few sentences Xie Wenyi just said were above his actual level of education. Following the logic of a level 3 cultural investigation, these sentences must have either been overheard by Xie Wenyi from someone else, or Xie Wenyi himself had a high level of understanding on this matter and had thought deeply about it. Alternatively, he might have had similar conversations before, even multiple times.

More likely, it’s a combination of all three.

Jiang Yuan’s fingers tapped lightly on the accounting book, then flipped to a page marked with labels and continued questioning, "Here you wrote: ’Seeing Dwarfs,’ 80g, 5, 100. Explain this."

Xie Wenyi hesitated, not knowing whether he should speak or not.

Meng Chengbiao, impatiently on the side, said, "I’ve already explained the logic to you. If you cooperate with our leader’s investigation, we can just talk about mushrooms. But if you refuse to take responsibility, then we’ll treat it as drug trafficking. The Ministry of Health’s ’List of Psychotropic Drugs’ lists Psilocybin and Spain as class I psychotropic drugs. According to the Anti-Drug Law, the misuse of controlled narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances by the state is considered drug abuse..."

"Seeing Dwarfs means you can see dwarfs after eating these mushrooms. 80 grams, 5 servings, 100 yuan," Xie Wenyi couldn’t resist and spilled it out, adding, "Isn’t Jianshouqing also used for seeing dwarfs, it’s the same."

Jiang Yuan didn’t dwell on it; his first question was an obvious one. Once talking about psychedelic mushrooms, the term "Seeing Dwarfs" couldn’t really be hidden.

"Ocean, 80g, 2, 50 what about that?" Jiang Yuan asked next.

"It means after eating it, it’s easy to see oceans, like swimming in the sea and seeing corals and big fish. 80 grams per serving, the person took 2 servings for 50 yuan," Xie Wenyi explained, feeling like there was no need for pretense anymore.

Jiang Yuan nodded, "This type is 25 yuan for 80 grams? 5 yuan more expensive? Are the mushrooms different?"

"Yes. There is a slight difference, the rim of the mushroom cap of this kind has a bit of yellow in it, and the stem is cream white," Xie Wenyi described the mushrooms quite clearly.

Jiang Yuan: "Starry Night, 40g, 4, 160. This kind is even more expensive?"

"Yeah, this kind has gray stems, and the caps are also somewhat gray, hard to distinguish. One serving is 40 grams, sold four servings for 160 yuan."

"What does Starry Night mean?"

"It’s like that painting, Van Gogh’s ’Starry Night.’ It’s said to be painted by Van Gogh after sniffing that thing, then if you eat these mushrooms and look at the stars, it’s possible to see a ’Starry Night’ like in the painting."

"Who told you this?" Jiang Yuan suddenly came up with this question. Given Xie Wenyi’s level of education, even if he were aware of Van Gogh and Starry Night, he typically wouldn’t name a type of mushroom "Starry Night."

Xie Wenyi was startled by the question and unconsciously looked towards the village chief, Chen Jifeng.

Jiang Yuan and Meng Chengbiao exchanged knowing smiles, stood up, and stepped out, heading towards the village chief.

Village chief Chen Jifeng chuckled awkwardly, "We just wanted to sell some local specialties, nothing more."

Before Jiang Yuan and the rest could speak, a string of information Meng Chengbiao had just seen flashed through his mind, and then he spoke up: "Your son studied arts and started a business in the village after graduation? He’s so young, what can he do for entrepreneurship by returning to Jiali Village?"

"It has nothing to do with him..." Chen Jifeng was really panicking, speaking with great difficulty.

"We don’t want to blow this out of proportion either." Meng Chengbiao lied effortlessly, deceiving Chen Jifeng, "You just tell us what we want to know nicely, then we don’t need to go ask your son, right?"

Chen Jifeng had no choice, even if he didn’t quite trust Meng Chengbiao, but in such a situation, he could only nod repeatedly. At this moment, he was like a shrewd man cornered by a debt dodger, even if the dodger’s words were unbelievable, he couldn’t make a decision to cut his losses. Because the losses were too great.

"So, you have been systematically providing mushrooms for customers? And you’ve evaluated and assessed their psychedelic properties, even pricing them differently?" Meng Chengbiao posed a difficult question for Chen Jifeng.

The village chief remained cowardly silent.

"Chen..." Meng Chengbiao pressed directly, "Wasting my time is one thing, but wasting Captain Jiang’s time won’t do you any good. Take advantage of Captain Jiang being here and behave yourself, then later, I can put in a good word for you."

Ultimately, Chen Jifeng could not bear it and after swallowing his saliva, he sighed and said, "Lijiang has cannabis, we have mushrooms. We also want to get rich!"

"Lijiang?"

"Lijiang is famous precisely because there are wild cannabis plants growing there. Our mushrooms are no worse than their cannabis, that’s what I mean." Chen Jifeng said in one breath, unconsciously straightening his back.

He didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.

Lijiang rose to fame as the "City of Romantic Encounters" in China, with the official explanation being the local ethnic minorities have the custom of marriage by capture, etc. In truth, not only Lijiang has this custom in China, so why specifically Lijiang.

It’s because there are wild cannabis plants everywhere around Lijiang. The nearby ethnic minorities do indeed have unique customs, but it wasn’t marriage by capture that brought them fame, it has been generations of cannabis cultivation. Nowadays in marriages, they have already abandoned the old custom of capture, but not wearing hemp clothes for a wedding is unacceptable. In addition, hemp seeds, which are also called fire hemp nuts, are commonly used edible oils in the area.

However, the locals in Lijiang do not traditionally consume cannabis, until the hippies arrived, finding $25 joints of cannabis just growing by the roadside as if for free...

It was really for free.

Tens of thousands of hippies then settled in the area, inviting friends during each year’s cannabis harvest season, and with their uninhibited lifestyle, they created the "City of Romantic Encounters."

Most people seeking romantic encounters are looking for handsome men and beautiful women, but most are not that good-looking themselves, which makes the system of romantic encounters unsustainable. Only the hippies, only the hippies high on the leaves who accepted every man and woman seeking romantic encounters, did the status of the "City of Romantic Encounters" really take hold.

"So, you’re thinking of using mushrooms to boost tourism?" Meng Chengbiao looked at the village chief in surprise.

The village chief did not respond but objected, "We haven’t set up anything, it’s just that if guests like to eat mushrooms, we provide them with mushrooms. We haven’t done any promotion or organizing, just selling some local specialties from the mountains."

Meng Chengbiao had plenty to refute the village chief’s words, but as an interrogator and not a debater, considering the danger behind this topic, he quickly changed the subject, "Was it you who asked Xie Wenyi to follow Jiang Yuan?"

"No. That idiot Xie!" When Chen Jifeng got to this point, he became quite annoyed, "They were some of the first in the village to start this, they have a screw loose, so self-righteous, saying they just wanted to see what you were here for..."

"Xie Wenyi decided to track the police? Who was driving their car? Who else was in the car with them?"

"Xie Wenyi decided. The three of them, maybe, I’m not too sure, maybe Xie Wenhua from the back village as well."

With a glance from Meng Chengbiao, Wang Chuanxing immediately began to arrange for personnel to capture them.

Meng Chengbiao then smiled, made a note in his notebook, and planned to ask Xie Wenyi later to verify the information.

After clarifying the tracking issue in a few words, Meng Chengbiao sized up Chen Jifeng again and asked, "Where have all the missing people gone?"

"They went into the mountains." Chen Jifeng exhaled and said, "They are growing mushrooms in the Qi Mountain Stronghold in the mountains. Qi Mountain Stronghold is an old village site, everyone has moved out, mushrooms grow easily when planted there, it’s just the roads are difficult to navigate."

"How are they supplied with other necessities if they’re growing mushrooms?"

"They buy them from our village, some people specifically do this business, and there are those dedicated to delivery, they earn quite a bit."

Meng Chengbiao frowned, "Sounds good. But if they went to live in the old village site, why is there no news at all? Not having phone contact is one thing, but there isn’t even internet?"

"Newcomers probably aren’t that free." Chen Jifeng lifted his head slightly, his voice dropping a bit, "As far as I know, those who’ve just gone there might need to grow mushrooms for some time."