Joint Autopsy

The next morning, the carriage sent by Zhao Zhi arrived at the Guans’ at 9am sharp.

Butler Hu was still wondering how the house of Prince Ping knew they lived here and was still in two minds about whether to inform his Master and Young Master when Song Caitang came marching out of the house with all her autopsy tools.

Guan Wan came running behind her and had a resolute look in her eyes as she clenched her little fists. “Cousin, don’t worry, you’re not alone!”

Song Caitang paused. “You’re not afraid anymore?”

Guan Wan folded her hands behind her back and her eyes started shifting. “Um… In any case, I’ll support you!”

Qingqiao had a serious look on her face as she watched the horsemen load the two large suitcases onto the carriage. “Make sure you’re careful with these things because Young Mistress will need them later. Don’t let them get damaged!”

Since things had already come to this, Butler Hu couldn’t stop them and could only shut his eyes as he stepped aside. “I hope both of you have a safe journey. I will be at home waiting.”

Even after the carriage had gone out of sight, Butler Hu continued staring into the distance with his hands politely folded in front of him. He finally sighed and turned to go back into the house when he started feeling really cold.

He wasn’t sure if traveling in such a flashy manner was a good thing or a bad thing.

The carriage wasn’t headed for the Justice Department but for another venue prepared specially by Zhao Zhi.

The gate was tall, the corridors were wide, the yard was spacious and the place was quiet.

People lined the way from the moment she set her foot through the door.

Song Caitang thought about what Zhao Zhi had told her before they parted ways the day before and had a good idea of what to expect.

Zhao Zhi told her that he was going to allow the public to come for the autopsy, since she was not afraid of a crowd watching anyway. Once the news of this spread far enough, it would have a great impact on the people. If Madam Gu really wasn’t the killer, then the actual killer would definitely come.

There were no urgent matters to discuss in the palace and the court had been dismissed for the day very early, so there were a number in official robes among the crowd. When Guan Wan heard them whispering among themselves and throwing them suspicious and distrusting looks, she instinctively grabbed hold of Song Caitang’s hand. “Cousin, don’t be scared.”

Song Caitang nearly laughed. Guan Wan was probably telling herself that.

Qingqiao wished she had a few more pairs of eyes so that she could watch her Young Mistress, watch her toolboxes, watch Third Young Mistress as well as keep an eye on the people here to make sure nobody was rude to her Young Mistresses!

Song Caitang spotted the autopsy table a mile off.

It was half her height, clean and smooth. The victim’s body was lying on it, covered with a white cloth. An old man stood next to it, his hair neatly combed and his clothing plain and clean. He was speaking politely to Zhao Zhi.

When Zhao Zhi spotted Song Caitang, he walked up to her himself and introduced the old man to her, “This is Coroner Zhou, a senior coroner at the Justice Department. He will inspect the body together with you today.”

Coroner Zhou looked seriously at Song Caitang.

This girl had an intelligent expression, bright and clear eyes, and an extraordinary aura.

A smile spread across his solemn face as he greeted her, “I’ve heard all about your amazing skills. It’s my honor to be able to witness it with my own eyes today.”

Song Caitang looked at him carefully too.

His beard was graying, his face was squarish and he seemed like an upright man too. His frown lines were deep, but he didn’t look glazed over like many elderly did. His gaze was very bright, in fact.

She smiled and bowed. “I’m still young, so I have lots to learn from you. I hope you are willing to teach me.”

“We’ll save the chitchat for later. Why don’t we start first?”

Coroner Zhou was not one who cared much for small talk. He preferred to focus on work.

Song Caitang didn’t like people who were all talk and had no real capability either, so she nodded, “Sure.”

Before the crowd was ready, the two coroners started work.

Coroner Zhou had his disciple to help him, while Song Caitang had Qingqiao. Both sides looked like they were very used to this whole procedure, so they moved with ease and got ready very quickly.

“Burn the herbs.”

A large, round pot was set ablaze.

“Water.
“Alcohol.”
“Ginger.”

Warm water and alcohol was used to wash their hands, alcohol was wiped under the nose and a fresh piece of ginger was placed in their mouths.

“Face mask and gown.”
“Prepare the tools.”

Besides the additional set of tools that Song Caitang had, both sides had the same preparation procedure. They moved at almost the same pace and moved in tandem.

This not only surprised the crowd, but surprised Song Caitang and Coroner Zhou as well.

The skills of a coroner were usually passed from teacher to disciple, so their habits would be different depending on their personalities and preferences, as well as how long they’ve been doing this for. It was impossible for almost every action to be the same. The fact that they did everything the same way meant that their thought process and speed of working was about the same.

Coroner Zhou looked at Song Caitang with admiration. “The younger one has overtaken the older one.”

Song Caitang smiled. “Looks like I’ll be able to learn a lot from you.”

“I’ve always wanted a chance to watch you dissect a body, since I’ve heard so much about your marvelous skills.” He turned to look at Zhao Zhi. “Miss Song is allowed to do that today, right?”

Zhao Zhi folded his arms and was standing by the side. He nodded in response to Coroner Zhou. “Of course.”

“Let’s begin?” Coroner Zhou looked back at Song Caitang.

Song Caitang’s gaze was calm. “Let’s begin.”

Coroner Zhou’s disciple took a step forward and removed the white cloth over the victim’s body.

Song Caitang and Coroner Zhou began to inspect the body.

“The victim is Lin Feizhou, male, aged between 20 and 24.”
“His fourth left rib has been injured by a stabbing. The knife was stabbed in horizontally. The wound is 1.2 inches wide and 3.5 inches deep. We will conclude that this was the fatal wound for now.”
“The wound is blunt on one side and sharp on the other. The weapon was a single-edged knife.”

Song Caitang and Coroner Zhou continued to list observations one after another and quickly arrived at conclusions without being careless or overlooking any details.

They had never worked together before, yet they were perfectly coordinated.

“The wound does match the weapon found at the scene of the crime.”

Because the victim had been killed in front of everyone and his time of death was certain, once they had done a quick inspection of the stab wound, the two coroners moved on to looking at other areas.

“The victim’s collar is very crumpled,” Song Caitang pointed it out to Coroner Zhou.

Coroner Zhou took a look, then said with certainty, “He had a scuffle with someone else before his death. Someone had grabbed him roughly by the collar.”

Song Caitang spotted something else. She picked up the victim’s right hand and showed it to him. “Not just that. The rest of the body has gone past the rigor mortis stage, but this hand is problematic.”

This hand was stiff not from rigor mortis, but from a cadaveric spasm.

When the victim died, he had been terribly shocked or agitated, or he had suddenly tightened his grip, which caused his body to look this way now. This would not go away like rigor mortis.

Song Caitang continued, “He was holding onto something.”

“But he’s not holding onto anything now. Either he failed to hold onto it, or someone took it away from him.” Coroner Zhou narrowed his eyes.

If it was the latter, then that could provide an important direction for investigation.

He glanced at Zhao Zhi.

Zhao Zhi nodded to indicate that he had taken note of it.

“The victim’s lips look like… they’ve been stained with a pale red color,” Coroner Zhou called out to Song Caitang. “Take a look – am I just seeing things?”

Song Caitang came over to take a look, then nodded. “You’re not seeing things. There is a bit of red here.”

It wasn’t obvious and wasn’t a lot. If one didn’t look closely, it could be missed out very easily.

Coroner Zhou frowned and stopped to think. “I remember that Zhaoze Temple conducted a ritual that day and gave out blessing biscuits. The biscuits had red fillings and a little red powder on top as well. Perhaps the victim ate those biscuits?”

“That’s possible.” Song Caitang came close to the body to take a sniff, then gently opened the victim’s mouth, but found no traces of food inside the mouth or lips. “There’s another possibility. It might be a woman’s blusher or lipstick.”

If it was a pale red and carried a fragrance, then it was either food or blusher powder. There was no other possibility.

Either the victim ate those biscuits, otherwise… he had kissed a girl before dying.

“The victim’s shoes have signs of wet mud beneath them,” Coroner Zhou had moved onto the victim’s feet and found some clues there. “Not just wet mud but some leaves. These leaves belong to grass that are found only on the mountain behind Zhaoze Temple.”

Coroner Zhou had worked on cases at the Justice Department for many years, so he wasn’t only highly experienced in inspecting bodies, but he was also very familiar with Bianliang. He had walked through many places and he would not get such a thing wrong.

Song Caitang raised an eyebrow. “Looks like our victim was very busy before he died.”

…

Song Caitang and Coroner Zhou, one old and one young, might have differences in focus as they pointed out their observations, but they were both very detailed. They agreed with each other’s conclusions and worked very well with one another.

After they completed the inspection of the victim’s exterior, they removed his clothing and took a close look at the stab wound in his left chest.

Coroner Zhou put a finger inside the wound, paused to think, then put his finger at an angle. “The murderer’s knife would have probably come from this angle…”

His pose made it simple for everyone to understand. The fact that the killer could stab the victim at this angle and this distance meant that the killer was around the same height as the victim.

Coroner Zhou continued thinking about this. “The wound is quite deep, so this person must be very strong and aggressive enough to do this.

“Not just that.” Song Caitang pointed at the position of the wound. “The killer only stabbed him once and he died. The angle was perfect and there was no hesitation. Either the killer got super lucky, or the killer understands human anatomy really well and knows exactly where to strike.”

Luck was something that definitely existed, but it was hard to believe that was the case right now. For now, they would assume this had happened on purpose and would return to luck only if they were certain it couldn’t be anything else.

So… the murderer might have done this before.

They might have killed someone in the past too.

Coroner Zhou and Song Caitang exchanged glances. They had thought of the same thing.

But inspecting the body wouldn’t answer that question. They would have to count on the investigation team to find out.

Now that the physical examination was complete, Coroner Zhou looked straight at Song Caitang. “Is it time to cut the body open?”

Song Caitang nodded, then walked over to Qingqiao and picked a sharp scalpel.

This was a knife with a short blade and long handle, and it was small and delicate enough for a young woman to hold it in one hand, so it didn’t look scary at all. But in Song Caitang’s hands, everyone couldn’t help but take a deep breath when the sharp edge of the knife glinted brightly in the sunshine.

They were reminded of where they were.

They were at an autopsy.

This young lady was going to slice the body open!

As Song Caitang approached the body with the scalpel, the people watching couldn’t help but take a step back.

Zhao Zhi motioned to his guards to make sure that the place didn’t become chaotic.

Everyone’s eyes were focused on Song Caitang’s knife and actions, including Coroner Zhou.

He kept his eye on Song Caitang’s hands and got more and more excited, as though her every step matched his heartbeat… He felt like he was that young man who had just started learning how to be a coroner and couldn’t help but feel really excited.

So… experts in dissecting bodies truly existed!

Song Caitang was often focused on her work and didn’t care about what people thought of her or how they viewed her. She just worked at her own pace. The blade landed on the victim’s shoulder and she sliced across his skin without hesitation to create a large Y cut.

The victim’s heart had been stabbed, so he had lost a lot of blood already. As a result, very little blood flowed out when she cut him open, so it wasn’t so scary to watch.

But even so, some people were unable to take it. Their faces were pale as they took several steps backward.

She used both a scalpel as well as a dissection scissors to cut through the victim’s skin, cut through the layers of skin, fat and blood vessels. Her movements were quick and clean, so it didn’t take long for the victim’s abdominal cavity to be exposed.

Some watching even felt that this had happened too quickly and it was too overwhelming. They barely even realized what had just happened.

Coroner Zhou was standing the closest to her, so he felt the most impact.

Of course, he wasn’t afraid. He even started trying to understand the process. So, you need such tools to dissect a body because they’re more efficient. So, that’s how you get through the muscles and other layers of tissue so that they remain clean and won’t be mistaken for a wound. So, that’s how you cut through blood vessels…

Coroner Zhou’s eyes seemed to grow brighter.

Song Caitang noticed the excited look on his face and moved a little to the side to let him have a better look. “Do you have any comments?”

Coroner Zhou stared at the open chest cavity and didn’t say anything.

As a coroner, he had always wanted to improve his skills and cut a body open like this. But even if he became excellent at cutting them open and had the best techniques, he didn’t know what to do after that.

Without any other information or resources, nobody would know how to proceed after cutting the body open.

What signs would they be looking for? What should internal organs look like?

They had no idea.

The role of a coroner wasn’t just a search for new things or the honing of one’s ability to cut things. It was to give accurate answers based on what they could observe from the victims’ bodies.

That required systemic learning, it required huge amounts of information. But they didn’t have that. Even if they worked hard at studying, observing and comparing, they still might not come up with a complete theory even at the end of their life.

It was a very niche area that was difficult to become good at.

Coroner Zhou stood by the side and waited to learn from her through watching. He was not at all ashamed as he said, “I was about to ask you to teach me about what we can observe.”

Song Caitang could tell that he wanted to learn the tricks of the trade and didn’t mind at all. She paused, then said in a clear voice, “The color of these organs is problematic.”

Coroner Zhou leaned over to take a look…

But he seriously couldn’t find any problem with the organs.

“The victim was at the peak of his youth and looked very healthy, his skin color was fine too. But the edges of his internal organs are a cherry red. These are signs of poisoning.” Song Caitang gently pinched the victim’s liver. “This part has already hardened. Its color is a lot deeper than a normal, healthy liver.”

“The spleen and kidneys show similar signs.”

Coroner Zhou looked at the organs very seriously, carefully compared them, then nodded gravely.

He couldn’t tell if these organs were different from those belonging to a healthy person, but it was true that they shared that commonality that she had pointed out and they looked different from the other organs.

“And why is this so?”

Song Caitang replied, “He’s been poisoned. It’s a slow acting poison. The fact that his internal organs have been so badly damaged shows that he was very badly poisoned, like a leech in the bones. The victim must have felt tortured by its effects for many years. From the looks of these organs, even if he survived this stabbing, he would have died within the next two years or so.”

Coroner Zhou had a wary look in his eyes.

Song Caitang knew what he was thinking about, so she shook her head. “But the cause of death is not the poison. The only thing that could have killed him is that wound in his heart.”