Chapter 145

Fang Rui and Mu Mian's investigation into the source of tung oil wasn't going well. Tung oil wasn't a controlled substance and had many sources - people could even collect tung seeds from the mountains and press them for oil themselves.

Seeing Fang Rui's disappointment, Mu Mian consoled him, "Fang Rui, what Zhang Taotao did by switching babies at the hospital was illegal. If we can find evidence of him swapping the two children, we can still put him in prison."

"That might not work. There was a similar case before where a poor mother switched her baby with a rich family's child at the hospital. Twenty years later, when confronted, the mother denied switching the babies and instead sued the hospital for negligence, eventually receiving compensation. Zhang Taotao will definitely blame the hospital unless—"

Fang Rui paused mid-sentence. He pulled over to the side of the road and searched for the news article about the baby switch on his phone. He discovered that the hospital involved was Jiangzhou University Third Affiliated Hospital - the same hospital where Zhang Mingli was born.

"Fang Rui, what is it?"

"Let's investigate that hospital."

Zhang Mingli was born in the obstetrics department of Jiangzhou University Third Affiliated Hospital. After understanding Fang Rui's purpose, the hospital staff agreed to help them locate the medical records from that time.

The hospital had digitized their medical records, so the staff quickly found Zhang Huanhuan's medical file.

The hospital staff said, "On November 13, 1998, Zhang Huanhuan was admitted to Room 706. On November 14 at 3:09 PM, she entered the delivery room and gave birth to a daughter."

The staff printed out Zhang Huanhuan's admission certificate, prenatal examination reports, and discharge papers, handing them to Fang Rui.

Fang Rui asked, "Who shared the room with her?"

The staff checked the ward records and replied, "It was a double room. The other mother was Wang Yuanfang. She was admitted on the morning of November 14, and entered the delivery room at 3:23 PM the same day, giving birth to a son."

"Who were the doctor and nurse who delivered Zhang Huanhuan's baby?"

"The doctor was Li Qing, our best obstetrician, who passed away two years ago. The midwife was Wang Pandi, who has retired."

"Do you have her home address?"

"One moment, I'll need to check."

The staff quickly printed out Wang Pandi's employment records.

"Has your hospital ever had incidents of babies being switched?"

"We were wrongly accused in that case. It wasn't our hospital's fault. The mother deliberately switched the babies herself because she knew her son had a genetic disease, and she noticed that the mother in the next bed was wealthy, so she had ulterior motives. Over twenty years ago, hospital security wasn't as strict - babies were only identified by wristbands, so it was easy to switch identities by swapping the bands."

"Who were the doctor and nurse involved in that delivery?"

"Doctor Li Qing and Nurse Wang Pandi..." The staff member suddenly realized something.

"How easy would it be to switch a boy and a girl?"

"That would be impossible! Right after birth, the mother is told the baby's gender. While same-sex babies might be switched, different sexes couldn't be - unless the nurse was involved."

Fang Rui gave Wang Pandi's name and ID number to Li, asking him to investigate any connection between Wang Pandi and Wang Yuanfang.

Li quickly reported back: "Wang Pandi is Wang Yuanfang's paternal cousin."

Fang Rui had Wang Pandi brought to the police station immediately.

She was a woman in her sixties, short and slightly hunched, with a kindly appearance.

Wang Pandi asked confusedly, "Officers, what crime have I committed? Why have you brought me here?"

Fang Rui silently placed two DNA test reports in front of Wang Pandi.

"What's this?" Wang Pandi was farsighted and held the documents at arm's length. Upon seeing the results, her brow furrowed briefly, but she quickly feigned ignorance. "Why are you showing me these reports? I can't understand them."

"You were an obstetric nurse. Are you saying you can't understand a DNA test report?"

"I understand the report, but I don't know these people."

"Isn't Zhang Taotao your brother-in-law? Don't you know him?" Fang Rui questioned.

"Oh, now I remember, my cousin's husband is also called Zhang Taotao. Ah, I'm getting old and forgetful, I can't remember many things anymore."

Fang Rui said, "In 1998, Wang Yuanfang and Zhang Huanhuan shared a room, but their babies were switched. The babies were different sexes, making it unlikely to be an accident. You deliberately switched them, didn't you?"

"The babies were switched?" Wang Pandi feigned surprise, saying, "How could that happen? I never made mistakes in my work. It's impossible. Maybe the parents switched them themselves?"

Fang Rui placed another stack of files before her, "The hospital has given us the list of all the pregnancies you handled, and we found two other cases where babies were switched. The suspect in one of those cases was your distant in-law..."

Wang Pandi turned pale and covered her face, crying, "I had no choice, they forced me to do it. I got into that hospital with fake credentials, and they threatened to expose me if I didn't help them. I had finally made it to a city hospital, I couldn't let them ruin my career... My sister-in-law was also struggling, how could a family like hers raise a child with congenital heart disease? I had to help her..."

"So you destroyed other families instead?" Zhang said angrily. "You separated parents from their children - where was your professional ethics?" Sёarch* The Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Wang Pandi kept crying, covering her face, "I had no choice, I was forced into it."

"How was Zhang Huanhuan's baby switched?"

"Li Bao didn't care about having a daughter, but my cousin's husband desperately wanted a son. Wasn't it better to switch them? Both children would have happy lives. I was helping them..."

Aliali: 6748dac1c4f3f33ac47efe1b

Fang Rui laughed bitterly at her logic, "Ms. Wang, judging by your name, you were also a victim of son preference. Why did you become their accomplice?"

"I..." Wang Pandi didn't know how to answer. While she hated her name and the preference for sons, when she had her own child and discovered it was a girl, her first instinct was to abort. She had been assimilated by these evil thoughts, just as she had accepted her name.

"Please explain what happened back then."

"My cousin and her husband Zhang Taotao came to me, asking me to help check the gender of my cousin's baby. I didn't want to at first, but Zhang Taotao threatened to expose my fake credentials if I didn't help. I had no choice but to arrange for someone to check the baby's gender.

When they learned it was a girl, they initially wanted to abort. But my cousin's health was poor, and if she aborted this baby, she might never be able to conceive again. That's when Zhang Taotao came up with the scheme to switch babies. He was very particular about it, so we couldn't find a suitable match for a while.

Soon after, Zhang Huanhuan was found to be three months pregnant. Their due dates were two weeks apart, which normally would have made switching impossible, but Zhang Taotao forced me to get labor-inducing drugs for his sister, causing her to deliver early. He deliberately convinced his sister to share a room with his wife.

On that day, knowing his sister was about to give birth, Zhang Taotao sent Li Bao away, then switched the babies after birth. I helped by falsifying the medical records. The children were related by blood anyway and looked similar, so no one suspected anything all these years."

Wang Pandi, now elderly and superstitious about karma, had been tormented by her conscience for years, so she confessed everything.

"Officers, I was coerced. Zhang Taotao was the mastermind; all the ideas were his. I was just an accomplice."

"Do you have evidence that he was the mastermind?" Fang Rui asked.