Episode 242

Of course, Zhao Zhi’s elite guards immediately took action.

A large group rushed out from behind with fierce looks on their faces, ready to arrest Zeng Deyong.

“Stop right there!” Madam Wei took a step forward, her pretty brows furrowed angrily as she stood imposingly next to her husband. “You are in the Count of Peace’s residence! Commandery Prince Zhao, I don’t think you can arrest him just like that! There is no such law in our country!”

She flicked her sleeve and stared steely at Zhao Zhi. He was in her territory. How could she allow him to whisk her husband away like that?

Her strong stance gave Zeng Deyong courage. He was back on top of the situation. “That’s right! This is my house! You can’t just arrest me! I didn’t break any laws!”

Zhao Zhi spoke very, very slowly, “And who said you didn’t break any laws?”

Zeng Deyong was even more confused. He stared so hard at Zhao Zhi, his eyes almost met in the middle as he blinked and pointed a finger at his own nose. “Wha? I’ve…broken the law?”

“According to the laws of this country, as long as there is a dead body, it must be handled by the authorities. Once the coroner has confirmed that the deceased has died from natural causes, the family can proceed with the fune—”

Zeng Deyong understood what Zhao Zhi was saying and nearly started jumping on the spot. He pointed at the body wrapped in a blanket on the bed and said, “But she’s not a member of my family! She’s a servant! She’s a concubine I bought! I can deal with her as I like!”

That was cold. Regardless of what may have happened while she was alive, the poor woman was already dead. Yet, he wasn’t willing to even speak about her nicely.

As he spoke, he even stole a glance at Madam Wei. When he saw that Madam Wei still looked a little worried, he straightened his back and became even more confident.

He was the man of this house, so he was going to hold up the family! Even his wife had to rely on him for that!

Zhao Zhi snorted as his lips curled upward very slightly, his voice even nastier than before, “Even when an elder of a family, or the official wife of the head of a household passes away, the family allows the authorities to conduct the necessary checks. Are you saying that a woman you bought to be a concubine is of higher standing compared to the elders of a family?”

Zeng Deyong was furious. “You know that’s not what I mean?”

“Oh, I’m sorry but I’m a bit stupid and I don’t know what you mean, but,” Zhao Zhi folded his hands behind his back and smiled as he spoke slowly, “getting in the way of investigations is considered obstruction of justice, and according to the laws of the land…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone knew what he was trying to say.

Obstruction of justice was a crime here.

“Are you still going to stand in the way, Count Zeng?”

“You—” Zeng Deyong was about to continue arguing, but Madam Wei could tell that Zhao Zhi was determined to have his way today and there was no point in arguing.

She didn’t even try to find some other way to get out of this and pinched her husband hard.

He stared at her and immediately quietened down. “Alright then.”

He stepped aside and even took his wife’s hand, patting it gently as he said, “It’s alright, he can investigate all he wants. Fourth Missy Gan died because of her own shameless act, so we don’t have to be afraid of being questioned, since we didn’t kill her anyway. At most, we’d be a little embarrassed and we won’t be able to attend any gatherings for the time being. It’s alright, don’t be scared, don’t be scared…”

Madam Wei just gave him an annoyed grunt in response and frowned as she looked around at the people in the room. Her gaze seemed to stop at each person for a moment, as though she was thinking about each one.

Besides Zhao Zhi, Song Caitang, Wen Yuansi, Zeng Deyong and his wife as well as Zhao Zhi’s guards who came in earlier, there were a few more people. They were Lu Yuxue, Wei He’an, Gan Zhixuan, Sang Zheng and Qiu Wenkang.

As Madam Wei stared at each one of them, their expressions were different. Some were shocked, some were grossed out, some were a little afraid…they were all different.

Wen Yuansi stood right at the back and took note of all of this. His eyelashes trembled slightly as he went into deep thought.

But Song Caitang wasn’t looking at these people. She turned all her attention to the victim.

The first problem was the smell. Someone had definitely lit an aphrodisiac incense stick and very passionate lovemaking had definitely happened too. She looked around at the rest of the room and saw that the charcoal burner was still burning, so it was nice and warm. The curtains around the bed were still tied up. A pile of clothing that had clearly been ripped was still laying next to the bed. They were all women’s clothes, so they must have belonged to the victim.

Zeng Deyong had stepped aside and Zhao Zhi said that he needed a coroner to conduct the examination of the body, so as a coroner, Song Caitang naturally stepped in to take on this role.

She approached the bed and asked Gan Zhixuan, who was still on the footstool. “You’re the first one to discover that your mother had died?”

“Y-yes.”

Gan Zhixuan covered his face as he also threw a panicked look at Madam Wei. The words “your mother” had probably made things awkward for him.

Song Caitang looked at the marks on the bed and the blanket that was tightly wrapped around the body. “Everything was already like that when you came in?”

Gan Zhixuan shook his head. “I was the one who wrapped the blanket around her. My mother…my second mother had not died in an elegant fashion. But I checked her breathing and I was sure that she really wasn’t breathing anymore.”

“I see.”

Song Caitang pulled the blanket away.

There were tearstains at the corners of Fourth Missy Gan’s eyes and she kept the aggrieved and indignant expression she had just before she died. She no longer exuded the charming beauty she used to have.

Song Caitang put two fingers beneath her nostrils to check for any breathing, then checked her neck for any pulse. Then, she lifted the eyelids to check the pupils and confirmed that Fourth Missy Gan was dead.

The body was still warm and had been lying down, so the area that touched the pillow, including the back of the neck, shoulders and back, had small stripes that could hardly be seen. These were actually the initial stage of livor mortis and would be hard to detect if you did not look closely.

She tried to move the victim’s arms and there was little sign of rigor mortis setting in.

The victim’s corneas were not clouded over yet either.

So…Song Caitang concluded, “The victim died within the last two hours or so. No more than four hours ago.”

Out of respect for the victim, the group in the room automatically took a step back as Song Caitang examined the body. But everyone was curious and the circumstances under which the victim had died were also unusual, so they couldn’t help but take a few extra peeks.

They could see most of what Song Caitang could see, so their reactions varied widely.

Fourth Missy Gan sustained a lot of injuries. There were marks left behind from kissing and pinching, as well as bruises. The more sensitive the area, the more in number and the clearer those injuries were. Her thighs and abdomen were clearly covered in sticky semen residue. How that happened was very obvious – relatively violent sexual intercourse had occurred here.

Zeng Deyong was especially disgusted and even spat. “This shameless slut! This immoral lowlife! How dare she sleep with another man in MY house, and why today of all days! Was she so thirsty that she couldn’t even just wait one more day?!”

Song Caitang used her body to try and shield the body from the prying eyes behind her so that the victim could have some dignity as she continued a more thorough examination.

Fourth Missy Gan’s wrists looked like they had been tied up, but the marks were not too obvious. Perhaps the killer had not tied her very tightly. But she had exerted a lot of force. The bedsheets were torn and some of her nails were ripped. It was just impossible to say if that was from too much pain or too much pleasure.

The victim was completely naked, but besides the bruises left behind from sexual intercourse, there were no other wounds. No knife wounds or anything like that. The body was intact and there wasn’t excessive bleeding anywhere.

“She died from overdoing it, didn’t she? She seduced some man and died from pleasure?” Zeng Deyong snapped sarcastically. He was clearly displeased.

Everyone exchanged glances. She had died with no obvious fatal external injuries and no excessive bleeding, so it did look like she had died during sexual intercourse for whatever reason. This normally happened to men, but it could happen to women too. It was just rarer to hear of such cases.

But Song Caitang shook her head. “The victim did engage in sexual intercourse before dying and it was a vigorous one. But it was against her will.”

“The victim’s vulva, thigh, and lower abdomen have severe bleeding under the skin and the outer layer of the skin has been torn. There are clear signs of scratching and pressure, and her genitals have been severely injured. There’s bleeding from tearing.” She frowned slightly. “The victim was not some ignorant young woman with no knowledge or experience in sexual intercourse. If she was a willing party, no matter how rough it got, she would subconsciously tried to find a more comfortable angle that would protect herself from injury. The fact that she’s so badly wounded proves that she was not a willing party at all.”

The room fell silent.

After a long time, Madam Wei let out a snort. She covered her nose with her handkerchief, her expression disdainful. “Even if she was some virtuous woman who wouldn’t simply sleep with men, I think you’ve missed out something, Miss Song. Someone lit an aphrodisiac incense stick in this room.”

Once such an incense stick was lit and its smell filled the room, whether you were willing or not, whether you liked it or not, it was going to draw out the most primal instincts of a person. It would make you do something completely insane, things that are totally against your own will.

How could Fourth Missy Gan have resisted that?

Song Caitang’s gaze remained calm. “You’re right. Despite the fact that such a smell was in the room, she managed to fight back and remain logical. That’s how resilient she was, how much she hated the killer and how unwilling she was to participate in this act.”

“Are you mocking my wife?” Zeng Deyong was always defensive when it came to his wife, so he immediately got angry when he heard such words and glared at Song Caitang. “Who do you think you are? How dare you say such things!”

But Song Caitang ignored him and continued examining the body in front of her. “Oe more thing, the victim was poisoned.”

That successfully made the room fall silent again.

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes. “You’re sure?”

“Yes.” Song Caitang nodded. “There are no obvious signs on her body and neither her lips nor her nails have turned blue, but if you go closer to her mouth and take a sniff, you’ll find that the smell inside her mouth is very strange. I’m pretty sure she’s been poisoned. It’s just that she was poisoned for a very short time before dying and the poison was not able to take its full effect. I’m not sure exactly what poison it is right now, that would need closer inspection and testing.”

She sensed that Fourth Missy Gan’s death was unusual. It couldn’t be merely from an over stimulating orgasm or just the effects of poison, since it hadn’t even had time to take effect completely before she died. It was likely that the combination of both had resulted in this.

If they were in modern times and she had all the testing equipment the lab had, she could just take a sample of the semen and run it through DNA testing to find out who she had sex with. But now…everything was a mystery. They had no choice but to try and find out through traditional investigation methods.

Zhao Zhi was one who never doubted Song Caitang’s analysis. If the victim was poisoned…

His gaze sharpened as he suddenly turned to look in a particular direction. “Sang Zheng, why are you standing there?”

Sang Zheng’s high nose bridge and deep set eyes were very typical features belonging to people from their neighboring country, but he had lived his whole life in this country, so even though his general personality was a little strange, he spoke and behaved just like any local. “The room is only so big. Where else could I possibly stand? I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

He was trying to imply that the room was too small for him to choose where to stand. He didn’t deliberately choose to stand here.

But his expression was wary and his eyes narrowed slightly. It was obvious that he knew what Zhao Zhi was trying to ask him and was wary of Zhao Zhi now.

Zhao Zhi scoffed and pushed him aside. He looked carefully at the area behind where Sang Zheng had been standing and quickly found a small bottle on the floor that was placed in the space between a table leg and the wall. The bottle was the size of half a palm, a very dark blue color and bore a pattern unique to Sang Zheng’s people.

Zhao Zhi waved the bottle in front of Sang Zheng, which made the latter’s eyes widen a little. Zhao Zhi grinned and said, “Oho, looks like you know what this is.”