Scary

Coroners did not hope to immediately identify the killer after an autopsy. Even if they could not draw a conclusion from the clues they found, they had to make sure they were detailed about everything they discovered.

They could not be superstitious or biased. They had to check every inch of the victim’s body, regardless of how clean or filthy the body was. The hair, the orifices, everything. Sometimes, the more hidden a place was, the more it was hiding. Sometimes the light wasn’t enough for one to look inside, so they had to stuff their hands in to check.

The killer was human too, after all. If they wanted to make sure nobody could find something, they would think of some unique method to cover up what they’d done.

One by one, Song Caitang pulled them out.

Round pearls…
White clamshells…
High grade turquoise…
Gold beads…
Silver beads…

Some were bigger, some were smaller. They were generally all round items. Even the turquoise pieces were oval shaped.

But there were so many things.

So many things…

Qingqiao was so scared that she turned around and dared not look anymore.

Governor Zhang’s hand trembled slightly too. “What an animal! A beast!”

It was bad enough that the killer had tortured the poor girl, but they did this to her too?! Was that a place for putting stuff?! The killer should have tried stuffing all these things up his own ass!

Tipping was NOT done this way!

Song Caitang’s brows were tightly knit.

But as long as she was in charge of the autopsy, she would not overlook any details. At the same time, she remembered very clearly that Wenxiang’s body did not contain these things.

So…

Was Yuetao the special one? Or Wenxiang?

Was this characteristic of the killer’s modus operandi?

If it wasn’t, why was it different this time? What was different about Yuetao?

Or…

Was this a copycat crime?

A thousand and one thoughts flooded her mind in that instant, causing her gaze to dart from side to side.

Either way, this was a new discovery and it was definitely a new angle they had to investigate.

But…

“I read the autopsy report done by Corner Wu. Why didn’t he mention this?”

Before Zhao Zhi arrived, Governor Li had been in charge of Yuetao’s case and he assigned the body to Wu Bo, so Wu Bo had done the first inspection. Any official had access to the autopsy reports, so anyone would be able to confirm that it wasn’t in the first report.

Governor Zhang had read the report too, since he had to direct the investigation. “Maybe he forgot? Or didn’t notice?”

Song Caitang shook her head.

A professional coroner couldn’t have missed this. One just needed to touch the body gently and you would notice something amiss.

Why didn’t he do that?

Was it because he felt it was dirty?

Or because the victim was a courtesan?

“Come to think of it, Coroner Wu isn’t around today either.”

Governor Zhang paused to think, then said, “Oh, one of my subordinates did mention that his youngest daughter-in-law is about to give birth soon, so he can’t be around today.”

Song Caitang nodded and did not pursue the matter further.

Regardless of whether others had done a good job, she just had to make sure she did the best she could.

Once she was done observing the outside of the body, she proceeded to cut the body open.

The cause of death was very obvious and dissection seemed a little pointless, but without trying, how could she be sure she wouldn’t find any other clues?

She picked up her scalpel and began slicing the body open.

The victim had been stabbed in the heart, then thrown into the river, so almost all her blood had already drained out. There was barely any blood as Song Caitang sliced through the skin layers. This was probably the cleanest dissection yet.

Song Caitang looked at the victim’s organs.

They were normal and didn’t look like she had been poisoned.

She paused to think, then removed the victim’s stomach and heart.

The dagger had stabbed into the heart, so the shape of the wound matched the weapon. If they were lucky, they might find some evidence here.

The stomach was connected to the mouth, so anything that went into the mouth would end up here, regardless of whether the victim swallowed it willingly or not. Anything she swallowed would turn up in the stomach.

The heart didn’t contain many clues. The only conclusion she got was that the tip of this dagger was quite special. It curved upward slightly.

There was actually stuff in the stomach.

Gold and silver beads, pearls…

There was even gold silk thread.

That was what she could see.

Her nose detected a strange smell.

It didn’t seem to come from any source and it was formless and colorless, but it was very, very fragrant. And it was clearly coming out from the victim’s stomach.

Song Caitang tried to search for anything that could be connected to this smell, but didn’t find anything and had to give up.

Also, this was present only in Yuetao’s body. Wenxiang’s body was not like that.

Even though Wenxiang’s body had decomposed so badly and smelled awful, she wouldn’t have missed such a smell.

Wenxiang’s internal organs were badly rotted and half her stomach was gone. The inside was sticky and covered in maggot eggs, but Song Caitang had checked it carefully. There had been no valuables inside her stomach.

This was yet another difference.

Song Caitang vaguely sensed that this was vital in cracking the case.

Everything that seemed mysterious or scandalous always spread especially quickly. Furthermore, the victim was a beautiful young lady who used to work as a courtesan, an occupation that captured the interest of thousands of men.

“Hey, hey, did you hear about it? Miss Song is dissecting bodies again! And this time, she discovered something incredible!”

“What did she find? She always just digs out a heart or a liver and stuff like that, nothing new. What are you so excited about? I’ve been in Luanze long enough to know all about her skills. Boast about what you’ve seen to an outsider when you run into one!”

“No, no, it’s different this time! Guess what’s inside Yuetao’s body? A LOT of things were stuffed into her from down there…”

“Rich people really know how to have fun, huh. Even their method of tipping is different from other people.”

Song Caitang did not hear what the men outside the room were talking about, and even if she did, she wouldn’t be bothered by it.

After she completed the autopsy, she sewed up the victim’s body properly, dipped a cloth in hot water, wrung it, then wiped Yuetao’s body clean.

She wiped every part of Yuetao’s body without missing any section.

She wiped the body very diligently and very gently, as if she was afraid of hurting Yuetao.

Even though Yuetao was covered in bruises from abuse and could no longer feel any pain.

She even combed Yuetao’s hair neatly and used a string to tie it up nicely, as well as comb any stray hairs plastered to her face aside.

Finally, Song Caitang turned to pick up the clean, white cloth used to cover the body and slowly pulled it over Yuetao’s body.

Before covering the face, she paused and said, “You’re the prettiest and purest of young ladies. Rest in peace.”

The corners of the cloth flapped slightly as the wind, along with Song Caitang’s gentle words, sent Yuetao on her way.

Qingqiao couldn’t hold her tears back and large drops began rolling down her cheeks.

The sun outside was so glaring and so hot, but she didn’t feel warm at all. It was as though a young lady, a living, beautiful, young lady, was basking in the gentle sunshine, crying as she smiled faintly at her Young Mistress, revealing her crooked canines. Nobody could be more adorable.

Governor Zhang was also feeling rather emotional. He had been a governor for so many years, but he had never come across a coroner like Song Caitang.

“It’s been a long day, Miss Song,” said Governor Zhang as he watched her pack up. “It’s getting late, so if you don’t mind, why don’t you have lunch at the courthouse?”

His invitation was sincere, and it was rather late, so Song Caitang agreed.

“Don’t mind if I do! Thanks for the free meal!”

“Aw, you don’t have to be so polite with me, Miss Song!”

But they didn’t get to enjoy their lunch.

Because new bodies were sent to the courthouse.

“Newly discovered bodies? Six of them?!” Governor Zhang nearly jumped out of his seat. That was so many! How did so many people die all of a sudden?

The one who came to report the matter quickly finished the rest of his sentence, “It’s not a new case. These are bones that Surveillance Commissioner Zhao commanded us to dig up. The victims died a long time ago. He said they might be related to the serial murder and wants Miss Song to take a look.”

Governor Zhang was relieved to hear that these were not new cases. He looked at Song Caitang, “Miss Song, what do you think…”

Song Caitang had already gotten out of her chair and straightened out her clothes, ready to go anytime. “I’ll go and have a look.”

This time, they had to use a larger autopsy room. The runners were busy placing the bones on the tables.

Song Caitang asked the man who brought the message to them, “You only have the bones? Anything else?”

The messenger scratched his head confusedly. Just the bones weren’t enough?

Qingqiao was exasperated by his inability to catch on and helped to ask, “My Young Mistress is asking if there’s anything that would belong to a woman! Hair pins, earrings, necklaces, clothes, shoes, jewels, gold, that sort of thing!”

She was so dumb, but even she knew what Song Caitang was trying to ask!

The messenger nodded, then shook his head. “There’s some clothing and accessories, but most of it has fallen off the bodies. The men digging are doing their best to find everything and they’ll send the things over later. Don’t worry, Miss Song, we’ve assigned numbers to everything, so we know exactly what belongs to whom, and it won’t be mixed up! But as for jewels and gold… there isn’t any. All the victims were courtesans, so the fact that they’ve been buried and we’ve been able to find their remains is already quite remarkable. Nobody would bury grave goods with their bodies.”

Qingqiao’s cheeks puffed up angrily. “Who said they were grave goods?”

“If they’re not grave goods… then what jewels and gold are you referring to?”

“I’m asking…” Qingqiao suddenly realized it was too difficult to explain the situation to the messenger. Her face was red with anger as she simply turned to one side and stopped talking.

Song Caitang chuckled, then helped to settle the matter for her maid, “We are indeed asking about grave goods. They could be a clue of sorts. But if you didn’t find any, it doesn’t matter.”

“We really didn’t find any! We’ve dug real hard! If you think there should be something like that, I’ll go back and tell my bros to keep a lookout! Surveillance Commissioner Zhao said there’s more coming, and they’ll be here any moment!”

“Please tell them that, thank you very much.”

Song Caitang inspected the bones very carefully and very seriously.

Because they were all bones with no flesh, it wasn’t easy to detect any wounds previously inflicted. But Song Caitang still tried using all sorts of ancient methods to inspect the bones. She used the same method with Madam Liang’s dry corpse on the bones too.

Modern medicine had proved that the principle worked. Be it wounds on the skin or on the bones, applying warm distiller’s grain on the surface could make the bones more translucent and denature hemoglobin. As long as the victim had been injured before, she’d be able to find it!

As she slowly went through the increasing pile of bones, she came to more conclusions.

All these bones belonged to women. They were all very young, and none of them were older than 20.

Besides one body, every body had a rib near the left chest that had traces left behind from a stab by a dagger of sorts.

Most of the women had been abused while they were alive.

Based on the time of death of the bodies before her, Song Caitang could see a pattern.

The killer struck twice a year or so, killing one or two courtesans on average. From the earliest body until now… it had been about ten years.

Or it could be more!

All of these girls had been through the same thing.

The messenger told her that they had confirmed who the victims were. Some were courtesans at the time of death, some had already gotten married. But all of them had been courtesans before.

It was as if Zhao Zhi had gone completely insane. He sent a total of 20 bodies to the courthouse. But that also showed how horrifying this killer was, yet the killer remained at large for such a long time without getting caught. It was infuriating. Anybody would be angry.

In most cases, the first murder of serial murders would contain a lot of information that could help to solve the case, but this case had dragged on for too long and nobody knew for sure who was the first victim. But it didn’t matter, Song Caitang had Yuetao.

Nobody had been stuffed with things. Only Yuetao.

There must have been something different about her.

Song Caitang just needed to find out what that difference was, and she was certain they would make a lot of headway in the investigation!

After she finished inspecting all the bones, checked the reports done by the clerks did not miss out anything, she called Qingqiao to bring her seal over and stamped the reports.

“Bring these to Surveillance Commissioner Zhao, I’ll take my leave now.”

“Got it. Have a safe journey home, Miss Song.”

Song Caitang and Qingqiao left the courthouse quite late, but there was still plenty of time before dinner.

Song Caitang spotted a notice on the entrance to a teahouse along the way.

The teahouse was offering a new type of tea.

She was feeling a little thirsty and tired after a whole day of work, and when she thought about how Guan Wan’s sumptuous dinner the night before was just missing a good pot of tea…

She smiled and said, “Come along, Qingqiao. I’ll treat you to some good tea.”

You couldn’t tell if the tea was good or not by just looking. You had to try it too.

In the past, Song Caitang didn’t care about this, but Guan Qing was right about one thing. It was fine for one to have no idea why a particular thing was high quality, but if you used high quality things every day – your clothes, your food and so on – you just needed to look carefully and try things out, and you’d know if they were of good quality or not.

Song Caitang still didn’t know how to differentiate between genuine and fake stuff, but after using and trying good things for some time, she started getting the hang of it.

The wait staff led the two ladies to a window seat on the second story and called the tea expert to come over. The tea expert began making several pots of tea and started complimenting and promoting his goods.

“Miss, what do you think of the tea? The color and the taste is amazing, isn’t it?”

“Try this cup too. It’s not this year’s tea, because only finely aged tea would have such a taste!”

“And this cup too! Isn’t it especially clear? It’s a little sweet too, so a lot of young ladies love this tea!”

He kept going on and on, but Song Caitang merely smiled back politely. She didn’t need him to promote the tea. She just needed to try it and she would know if it was good tea or not.

The tea expert was a little at a loss because Song Caitang wasn’t responding at all, but someone at the next table called for him, so he quickly excused himself, “Miss, I’ll leave you here to try the tea, I need to attend to another customer. If you need anything, just call for me!”

Song Caitang smiled and nodded. “Sure.”

Qingqiao glared at the tea expert’s back as he walked away, then leaned toward Song Caitang and whispered, “Young Mistress, is he trying to con you into spending money on the tea?”

“Shh…” Song Caitang narrowed her eyes as she placed an index finger on her lips to motion to Qingqiao to be quiet.

There were people at the next table. Voices that she recognized.