Easy-Peasy

The items Song Caitang requested were very simple.

She wanted table salt, a honey locust plant and jujubes.

Her list didn’t contain any alcohol or vinegar, to Coroner Wu’s surprise.

Honey locust plants had cleaning agents, that was something everybody knew about. Ordinary table salt could clean stains under certain circumstances too. But these two items were nowhere as effective as alcohol and vinegar. Alcohol and vinegar were more corrosive in nature, so they were more effective at cleaning.

He had tried it himself. But the Indian madder’s pigments stained so well, no amount of alcohol or vinegar had worked. How could salt and honey locust do the trick?

Or could it be…

Coroner Wu narrowed his eyes. The most important thing wasn’t these two items?

It was the jujubes?

He had never heard of anything like that!

He wasn’t the only one sneering at this list. Most of the people in the hall didn’t think this would work either. Jujubes were for eating, that was common knowledge. But to use it as part of a corpse examination?

Had Song Caitang gone mad?

Nobody had ever seen or heard of this!

But Song Caitang remained calm and didn’t look the least panicky.

Indian madder juice was similar to mulberry juice, but it was more stubborn and was difficult to remove. Alcohol and vinegar already had trouble removing it, so it was impossible for salt and honey locust to get the job done. But adding jujubes would make a big difference.

She remembered the trick to handling such stains - it was vitamin C!

If she were living in modern times, a vitamin C tablet would have settled this matter easily. But she was in ancient times and there were no vitamin C tablets, so she had to find an alternative method.

Most people knew that citrus fruits carried higher amounts of vitamin C, but jujubes carried 20 to 30 times more than citrus fruits!

Jujubes were the real king of vitamin C fruits!

Jujubes usually grew in mountainous areas and were commonly found in the Taihang Mountains. Luanze did not specialize in cultivating this fruit, but it wasn’t something impossible to find. It was in season now, so you could find ripe ones easily. They just needed to send someone out to get some.

When it came to examining corpses, Song Caitang had already used her capabilities to gain Zhao Zhi’s trust. Even if he didn’t know what she was trying to do, he would do whatever she asked for without question.

It wasn’t going to take a long time to get the jujubes, but the time spent waiting was hard on everyone present.

There was only one thought in everyone’s mind - they wanted to know how this would go as quickly as possible!

“They’re here! They’re here! The jujubes are here!”

Everyone turned their attention to Song Caitang again when they heard the announcement.

The jujubes were here! What was she going to do?

Song Caitang didn’t get excited. She quietly washed her hands, then approached the body.

She used the salt and honey locust to clean the area around the fake bruise, then crushed some jujubes and applied the juice on the area, then used some slices to wipe it down.

The bruise had lightened!

Her hand had just wiped the area very gently, and that huge dark purple patch had almost disappeared!

Everyone stared at Song Caitang wide eyed, their eyeballs nearly falling out of their sockets.

Was this woman… seriously related to the Lord of Hades?!

As long as it was about a dead body or a dead person, no matter how difficult it seemed or how unbelievable things were, she could handle it without any problem!

Song Caitang stood where she was, her long brows calm, her eyes sparkling with intelligence, as she exuded confidence, “As everyone can see, this bruise here is fake.”

Her slim fingers were still covered in the pulp of the jujubes and didn’t look very clean, but nobody in the room dared to disregard her because of that.

She wasn’t the coroner in charge, so once she was done, she excused herself and walked away to wash her hands. But as she walked away, she threw Coroner Wu a glance.

These eyes of hers were really bad at judging others.

She thought that Coroner Wu was a mature elderly man who was serious about his work and deserved much respect. But to her disappointment…

Coroner Wu was also reeling in shock. He had lived his life in vain! These eyes of his had misjudged Song Caitang!

This had been a genius idea that should not have failed, because he was basically the only person who knew how to use this substance. To his dismay, Song Caitang actually knew how to get rid of it!

And she even used a method that he himself didn’t know about!

Qi Yan placed his hands on his hips and burst out laughing loudly. He pointed at Liu Qinian and said, “Now, what do you have to say for yourself?”

The servant, Liu Sui, had confessed to all the crimes, but most importantly, he was the one who pointed out that this bruise existed, which proved that he definitely had to be the killer. The Lius probably thought that other types of evidence might not be as good as something on the victim’s body itself, so they decided to do it this way.

In the end, it would have been better if they hadn’t done anything. Doing this was even worse. Now, they were guilty of falsifying evidence!

A deal had been made under the table! They had abused their power!

But what was fake was fake, and what was true was true. Nothing could change that!

Liu Qinian was a little too stunned to speak. He glared furiously at Song Caitang and didn’t know what to say.

But Zhao Zhi looked at Wu Bo instead. “Coroner Wu, do you have any explanation for this?”

The courthouse had strict procedures for the mortuary. Who could go in, who could not go in, what paperwork they had to do whenever they went in and out were all recorded carefully. Zhao Zhi just needed to check the records and he would know.

After examining Yuetao’s body, Song Caitang did not request to examine it again. Only Coroner Wu could have created this fake bruise.

Coroner Wu knew it would be best if he just did not make any comment, because otherwise he would definitely be cornered. He immediately fell to his knees and kowtowed, “I do not have anything to say.”

But Liu Qinian didn’t want things to end just like that and continued fighting his case.

He glanced at Coroner Wu from the corner of his eyes, “Coroner Wu has always been very professional and has a lot of experience. Perhaps he did this to make the evidence more obvious. After all, by making the bruise clear, no one will miss it.”

He was trying to imply that this bruise did exist, but it was very faint. As the coroner in charge, Coroner Wu purposely made it very big and obvious so that the investigation team would be able to see it and use it to crack the case.

Zhao Zhi snorted. “Thanks for the explanation, Commissioner Liu, but whether it’s just faint or it’s fake, anyone with working eyeballs will be able to tell.”

Besides…

“There’s no such practice among coroners,” Song Caitang took a step forward, her gaze clear and her voice crisp, “Regardless of whether the bruise is faint or not, large or small, these are all indications of what the victim went through before they died. Anything you do to it will only serve to create confusion, distort the truth and make the case harder to crack. There are no benefits to doing such a thing.”

Song Caitang had a distant look in her eyes as she turned to Coroner Wu, “In this line, the one thing coroners must remember and respect is the concept of the truth. I suppose Coroner Wu has forgotten that.”

Coroner Wu kept his head on the floor and did not speak.

Zhao Zhi knew there was more to this than met the eye.

“Abusing your position for selfish gain, altering the truth and obstructing the investigation of a major case are all crimes that will get the death penalty. You should have realized this right from the start,” he narrowed his eyes, “but I can grant you a special pardon. As long as you tell me the truth in detail, I will make sure you live.”

Immediately after Zhao Zhi finished saying that, Liu Qinian quickly followed up, “That’s right! If you speak the truth IN FULL DETAIL, I too, will MAKE SURE you LIVE!”

The former was trying to tempt the old man into speaking the truth, while the latter was clearly threatening him.

Liu Qinian was reminding Coroner Wu about what he could and could not tell Zhao Zhi. If Coroner Wu said the right things, he would live. If he didn’t…

Coroner Wu kept his head on the floor and did not utter a single word.

It was clear that Liu Qinian had some hold over him.

Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang exchanged glances. They knew they wouldn’t be able to settle this case today.

Liu Qinian had been too well prepared and kept causing disturbances to the case, so it was going to be too hard to get the truth out of Coroner Wu right now. Liu Sui’s statement was suspicious, but most of what he said was true and the evidence was quite clear too, with the exception of this one fake bruise. The Lius still had the upper hand, so it was going to be hard to turn the tables now.

What they wanted was to arrest the actual killer and close the case properly. Forcing Coroner Wu to speak now would not be very useful, so it was better to leave things as they were for the time being and rethink their strategy…

Song Caitang nodded and Zhao Zhi made his decision swiftly. “Arrest Coroner Wu and take him away. We will stop here for today.”

And… that was it.

Liu Qinian was a little surprised by the sudden turn of events.

Zhao Zhi was so insistent just moments ago, and his expression was so terrifyingly aggressive too. But he was pulling out now? What? What did this mean?

Was he admitting defeat?

Governor Li and Governor Zhang had no idea what both sides were trying to do, so they didn’t say anything.

“Humph!” Liu Qinian narrowed his eyes as he spun around angrily and stormed off.

I don’t care what tricks you have up your sleeve, Zhao Zhi, but I’ve got a million and one ways to deal with you!

Once they were in the privacy of a smaller room in the courthouse, Qi Yan flew into such a rage that he kicked a stool and sent it flying.

“ARGHHHH! THIS LIU FAMILY! A whole nest of bastards! Animals! Lowlifes! The old man is trash and his son is shameless! He refuses to admit to the murders and even found a scapegoat?! Leave it to this guy to solve all the problems the world has!!!”

Zhao Zhi let him vent his anger and ignored him while motioning Song Caitang to take a seat.

Actually, both Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang were very angry too. But being angry would not solve the problem.

The killer was clearly Liu Zhenghao. Liu Sui knew the details of the various cases obviously because he had helped to clear the mess after the deed was done.

Liu Qinian knew what sort of son he had, but instead of stopping him or educating him, he kept covering up for his son and even had a plan in place for what to do if a day like this came.

For all they knew, Liu Qinian had already brainwashed Liu Sui from a young age and planted him near his son to help his son without question.

And so, when the day came for him to be the scapegoat, all three men were very calm and confident.

Because they had already decided how everything would end.

Song Caitang suddenly really missed having access to DNA technology. In the past, she just needed a sample for comparison and they would have all the information they needed… But the technology of this era was way too far behind. The other party’s tactics were seriously making it hard for her.

She needed more direct proof.

“A master and his closest servants would have access to the same things, so as long as the master doesn’t find out, it’s safe for servants to secretly use their things once or twice. But…”

Song Caitang looked down at the steaming cup of tea in her hand and continued murmuring in a low voice, “Is there anything that would not get mixed up, or something that they would definitely never use by mistake?”

All of a sudden, she remembered the golden silk thread she found in Yuetao’s stomach.

Silk thread clearly belonged to clothing, and the fact that it was in Yuetao’s stomach only meant one thing – the killer had stuffed something into her mouth.

This item was made from gold silk thread, something nearby when engaging in intercourse, was not too big or too small, but a good size that fit into a person’s mouth…

There was a gleam in her eye. She thought of something that fit that description!

One item, regardless of era, remained personal and private. Not even the servants would take each other’s by mistake, never mind a master and his servant!

Song Caitang suddenly stood up, her eyes bright as she looked at Zhao Zhi. “I’ve thought of something… which I will need your help to find.”

Zhao Zhi quickly understood what she wanted. His eyes glinted, “I’ll send someone out right now.”

Song Caitang reminded him, “Do it secretly and try to sound them out. Don’t let them smell a rat.”

But this item alone was not enough. The Lius had planned for every possible scenario. If they wanted the Lius to confess, they needed a lot more evidence that was much more concrete than what they had now.

“You mentioned Fan Zishi the last time,” said Zhao Zhi after some thought. “I’ll ask him.”

Song Caitang nodded. “I’ll inspect the body again and see if I find anything else.”

But that was a little unproductive, since she had already examined the body several times. Given how she was used to being meticulous and thorough, it was hard to find anything new at this juncture.

“One more thing.”

She thought of a rather bold approach to the case, so her gaze was burning as she stared at Zhao Zhi, “There must be a reason why Liu Zhenghao’s personality has become so twisted to the point where he’s killed so many people over a decade. If we can find out what triggered him and recreate those circumstances, we could trigger him into confessing…”

Then this case would definitely be resolved!

Liu Qinian would not be able to do anything about that!

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly as he quickly thought about how feasible this idea was, when was a good time, where was a good place, how to avoid interruptions, how to make sure the other party would let his guard down…

But before he could make any reply, Song Caitang shook her head.

It was feasible, but…

“Liu Zhenghao’s personality is like that most probably because of something that happened within the family several years ago, so it’s going to be hard to investigate.”

“How is that hard to investigate?” Qi Yan suddenly leaped forward and patted his chest. “You’ve got me! Tangtang, have you forgotten my nicknames?”

Song Caitang stared at him. “You mean the nicknames about how you’re great at eavesdropping and fishing for gossip?”

Qi Yan gave her a proud “uh huh!”

He had kept his anger bottled inside for a long time now and had nowhere to vent it. If he didn’t make sure Liu Zhenghao got arrested for his crimes, he was going to lose his mind!

“Wait for my good news!” Qi Yan didn’t say much and didn’t even tell Zhao Zhi he was leaving. He just dashed out of the door and flew into the trees like a monkey, disappearing in seconds.

Song Caitang was speechless.

“Don’t worry,” Zhao Zhi stood up and headed for the door as well, “just wait here for our good news.”

His already tall body was made longer by the shadow cast by the sun. He did not turn back and just raised a large palm and waved it.

Song Caitang heard the faint sound of windchimes ringing somewhere.

For some reason, she suddenly felt a peace in her heart.

So what if they ran into difficulties? As long as everyone worked together and worked hard at the case, they’d definitely catch the killer!

Qi Yan was truly impressive. His case cracking skills were questionable since he was terrible at guessing who the killer was, but he was seriously the best at gathering information. He did not disappoint at all.

He even returned earlier than Zhao Zhi!

“Fuck these fucking bastards! That Liu Zhenghao is trash, and his dad is a piece of trash too! The entire family is fucking screwed up from top to bottom!”