Episode 256

Time ticked by slowly. The sky began to brighten slowly and they no longer needed torches and lamps in order to see clearly.

The sound of people talking, moving, buying breakfast and walking about, as well as the sound of cracking whips and horses pulling carriages kickstarted the daily activities of the surroundings.

But it was absolute silence within the little yard.

It was as though nobody knew what fatigue was. None of them was tired, sleepy or even yawning.
Some didn’t even blink as they stared at the hole. The fire had been put out and the smell of vinegar had faded. The hole and the skeleton inside was probably cold by now, so…was it done yet?

After waiting a little more, the sun rose much higher in the sky and shone brightly. Song Caitang raised her head slightly and squinted at the brilliant sunshine. She was pleased.

It was a sunny day today. That was perfect.

“Alright, you can take the body out now.”

Everyone had been waiting for this instruction. They felt energized immediately and quickly but carefully dug the skeleton out of the hole again.

They patted away the ashes, removed the mats and blankets, then placed the bones back on the autopsy table.

They opened their eyes wide to stare hard at the skeleton, but…it didn’t seem very different from before.

The white bones were still white bones, except that they had been heated and left to cool down again.

Zhao Zhi, Wen Yuansi and Qi Yan came forward to take a look too, but they couldn’t see any difference either.

Qi Yan got a little anxious. “Tangtang, are you able…to work with this?” Or did she need to do something else?

Song Caitang nodded. “Yes.”

But it doesn’t look any different from before…“

There is a difference,“ said Song Caitang as she looked down at the skeleton on the autopsy table with a very solemn look on her face. “Steaming the bones makes it possible for one to check for injuries. If the injury was inflicted before death, there will be red lines on the joints, faint blood stains. And if the bone is broken, the area of the fracture will have a blood halo. Any damage done to the bones after the person has already died would not reflect such signs.”

Qi Yan lit up instantly. “I see!”

But even after he opened his eyes very wide and stared very hard and very seriously at the skeleton, he couldn’t really see any difference and began to scratch his ears and cheek.

Song Caitang examined the skeleton one more time, then looked up at the sky.

The steaming process had taken quite a while. After waiting and all that, the sun was already high in the sky.

She turned to instruct Qingqiao, “Get the red umbrella.”

The entire crowd was stumped. She wanted an umbrella?

It wasn’t even cloudy, never mind rain. Why would she need an umbrella? The sun was bright, but it was still very chilly and the sun didn’t feel warm. They had never heard anything about this Miss Song being a particularly fragile person.

But Song Caitang didn’t care about what the others thought. She took the umbrella from Qingqiao and used her slim, fair hand to push the 20-spoke umbrella open.

Her fingers slid over the wooden handle and the red umbrella covered her head. She happened to be wearing a white dress, so her complexion matched the umbrella perfectly. A beautiful woman carrying an umbrella, her eyes shining brightly, her brows almost like a painting. It was a gorgeous sight to behold.

She looked like a fairy and nothing like a coroner here to examine a bunch of bones.

Like everyone else, Qi Yan was completely confused. He felt as though he had left his brain at home or something. How was he constantly unable to understand what she was doing?

It was only until Song Caitang used the red umbrella to also cover the skeleton that…

“I see it now!” Qi Yan’s eyes suddenly widened as he grabbed hold of Zhao Zhi’s sleeve, nearly tearing it out in the process. “Brother Zhi, look!”

Of course, Zhao Zhi would miss any movement that Song Caitang made. When Song Caitang asked him to dig a hole and steam those bones, he figured that she knew some special way to get more information from these bones. While it was true that he couldn’t really see any difference after the skeleton was taken out of the hole and he was just as puzzled as everyone else, he never thought she had failed or suspected her methods were pointless. He guessed that she had other tricks up her sleeve. He just didn’t expect the trick to be an umbrella.

His line of sight followed Song Caitang constantly, so he had noticed the difference in the skeleton even before Qi Yan did.

“There’s a difference now!”

“You’re right! I see it now!”

“Gosh, just steaming the bones can make such a difference? And such significant differences? Miss Song’s ability is almost magical!”

Everyone could see it now. The reddish lines and the faint glow of where blood was could all be seen on the white bones. They weren’t terribly obvious, but one could not dismiss them for sure.

And these marks were almost all over the white bones!

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes.

Wen Yuansi couldn’t figure out how Song Caitang’s method could have worked, but since it did and it was very helpful to cracking this case, he focused on one matter, “These marks are all over the skeleton. This person must have suffered a lot of injuries before dying.”

Qi Yan’s eyes reddened again as he clenched his fists tightly. “He had been abused!”

If this was his uncle…

Song Caitang casually passed the umbrella to Zhao Zhi so that he could hold it while she inspected the marks on the bones more carefully.

After some time, she narrowed her eyes and looked at Qi Yan. “I remember you said before that your uncle, Jing Yan, was a super ordinary person. He was just a very cheerful and exceptionally kind and helpful man.”

“Yes, he was… My uncle really had a great personality. Everybody in the neighborhood praised him. If they needed help and asked him to help, he would definitely go over.” Qi Yan bit his lip so hard that it started bleeding. “I’m serious… All my life, I’ve never met another person who was as kind as him and he’s the only person whom I’ve relied on and trusted with my life. What sort of wicked murderer would do such a thing to him!”

Zhao Zhi shook his head slightly. He knew that wasn’t Song Caitang’s point.

But Qi Yan was clearly grieving, so he didn’t say anything and just looked at Song Caitang.

Song Caitang sensed his gaze and glanced back at him. Their gazes seemed able to speak to one another.

They knew what each other thought and what each other wanted to say.

Wen Yuansi got it too. The problem was that Qi Yan had described Jing Yan as a super ordinary person.

“Damage to the bones were found all over the body, which meant that the deceased was badly injured everywhere. Most people would not be able to survive. They would have died with perhaps just 60% of these injuries.”

Song Caitang nodded and looked very solemnly at Qi Yan. “Either this skeleton does not belong to Jing Yan but to someone unknown, or… Jing Yan was not the super ordinary person you knew. This man was definitely no ordinary person.”

The whole place fell silent. The red umbrella blocked the sun, making the faint marks around the bones seem to glow, as though they were trying to say something.

“Regardless of what matter he was involved in, or why he was in such danger, it’s clear his attackers were not going to let him get away. He could hold up for so long and not die despite his severe injury most likely because he was very determined for some reason to hang in there.”

Zhao Zhi had witnessed the deaths of so many martial artists in his life and could understand somewhat. “This was a very stubborn and strong-willed man.”

Wen Yuansi looked thoughtful. “What would have helped him to hang in there? Love? Righteousness? Or family?”

All three looked at Qi Yan, but Qi Yan merely hung his head. “My uncle…lost his parents at a young age and was not close to his family. He didn’t seem to have any especially close friends, he didn’t get married or have children…”

He felt a little ashamed that he knew so little about his uncle. “In my impression, my uncle was really just an ordinary guy who couldn’t be more ordinary. No matter what happened, he would always face it cheerfully.”

Song Caitang frowned slightly. “So what did he do day to day? Surely he had to work to make ends meet, right?”

Qi Yan said, “He made pretty good tasting wine, so he supplied that to some taverns. Sometimes he would sell it directly to regular customers and deliver it himself if they lived far away…”

“The bones here are a little blackened,” Wen Yuansi pointed at the bones near the throat section. “Was the victim poisoned?”

Song Caitang responded, “It does look like it, but the blackened area only spread until here, so it wouldn’t be the cause of death. He might have been poisoned, but he died before the poison could take effect.”

Zhao Zhi was a martial artist and had gone through a good number of battles and fights as he grew up, so he was very familiar with weapons. After he took a few more looks at the bones, he frowned. “The victim was faced with more than one opponent. There were at least ten of them.”

And every one of these opponents were extremely skilled fighters. They were a force to reckon with.

Song Caitang nodded in agreement.

“Different people used different weapons and had different habits. Look at the direction of these wounds,” said Song Caitang as she pointed at the more obvious marks on the victim’s limbs. “Some are from large sabers, some are nicks from the tips of swords. The angle and strength used are completely different, so they must have been inflicted by different people. But things changed later.”

She pointed to some other injuries on the bones. “The angle and direction of the weapon’s impact is extremely similar and the marks left are almost the same size.”

Zhao Zhi finished off for her, “He was initially attacked by a lot of people, but he managed to get away from them. His attackers were determined to get him, and continued attacking him, but eventually, only one person was left fighting with him.”

This person was the murderer.

“That’s right. As for the fatal blow…” Song Caitang pointed at the left side of the chest bone, which was sunken in. “It’s here.”

The victim’s ribs were broken and there was a hole in the chest bone. There were reddish, bloodied glows around all these areas, so these injuries were inflicted before the victim died.

In other words, the victim had managed to get away but was covered in injuries. One final blow caused his ribs to break and dented his chest bone. These bones were mainly protecting his heart…

“His heart was badly wounded and he died from excessive bleeding.”

“Also,” Song Caitang went on, “the victim has a lot of scarring on the bones from having suffered fractures. There is no bloodied glow around these areas, but they are numerous. So, I assume he had gone through very tough training when he was younger.”

She was just short of saying that the victim had been an extraordinarily skilled martial artist.

Qi Yan was in shock. “My uncle…knew martial arts?”

“Of course,” Zhao Zhi nodded without hesitation. “He was able to escape a group attack, go through such a fierce battle and suffer this much injury without dying, and could still fight his opponents to the point where they kept decreasing in number and was finally left with just one person…”

“This man was definitely no ordinary man. He was much more highly skilled than all his opponents.”

One question instantly came to mind. Wen Yuansi said doubtfully, “The body was buried by Fourth Missy Gan, but she’s definitely not the killer, right?”

After all, she certainly didn’t look like someone who even had the strength of a martial artist.

“People from unknown backgrounds who have been specially trained or belong to a particular group, or who practice forms of martial arts that are not recognized or accepted by the rest of the community would try to hide the fact that they are trained,” said Zhao Zhi quietly after giving it some thought. “This is a very unusual case and it has implicated a lot of people of high standing. I personally don’t think she knew any martial arts, but I wouldn’t dare to make any conclusions at this point either.”

But Song Caitang shook her head. “The killer is definitely not Fourth Missy Gan.”

Everyone turned to look at her.

Song Caitang’s eyes shined brightly and her voice was confident, “I don’t know if Fourth Missy Gan knew martial arts or not, but I’m certain she wasn’t a woman with much strength.”

“We came into contact with her back when we investigated Lu Guangzong’s case in Luanze, and there was a point when she became overly emotional.” At that time, Song Caitang had held onto her, or rather, she was trying to stop Fourth Missy Gan from trying to do what she wanted to. “She wasn’t very strong.”

“One might be able to hide the fact that they know martial arts, but if you’re naturally strong, you won’t be able to hide it when you’re overcome with emotion. The person who dealt this fatal blow must have been very strong.”

She pointed at the broken rib and the dented chest bone of the victim. No further explanation was needed.

Human bones were very hard and the victim was trained in martial arts, so he must have tried to block such an attack. The fact that the killer succeeded in dealing such a blow meant that the killer must have been very strong.

The killer could not have been Fourth Missy Gan.

“Also, this weapon seems rather special… I thought it was rather unusual and now, I can see it more clearly.” Song Caitang carefully picked up the broken bones and put them together. “Take a look.”

Qi Yan rubbed his eyes but couldn’t make anything out of it. Wen Yuansi didn’t have much knowledge about weapons and the markings on the bones were too faint, so he couldn’t guess either.

Zhao Zhi hadn’t noticed when he first saw the damage to the bones, but after Song Caitang put a bunch of them together, he began to frown.

“It’s something that’s sharp, or rather, something with thorns that are very close together but not very large…”

What could it be?

Qi Yan blinked. “Something sharp, close together and can cause such severe damage repeatedly? A…meteor hammer?”

“No,” Zhao Zhi shook his head, “the surface area of this weapon is much smaller than a meteor hammer.”

Song Caitang blinked. “So…a mini meteor hammer?”

Zhao Zhi stared at her in silence for a moment before he snorted, as if to say, “You’re so cute.”

It was rare for her to be so silly. And so silly that she was cute.

What in the world was a mini meteor hammer? A child’s toy?

Song Caitang probably also realized she just said something really stupid and quietly looked elsewhere.

“My guess is that it was a mace.” Zhao Zhi had other reasons to believe this was so. “Meteor hammers are good for long range attacks, since attacking at close range would only cause injury to the attacker. Based on the wounds I can see on the victim, a number of the wounds inflicted were inflicted at close range. A mace would have been much more convenient for this purpose and the size fits too. Look at this one, for example. The killer must have been half a step behind the left of the victim, and if he struck the victim at this angle…”

To make things clearer, Zhao Zhi decided to just re-enact what he was thinking about.

The more detailed he was and the more realistic everything sounded, the more Qi Yan found it hard to believe that the victim could be his uncle. Everything he was hearing was completely different from his impression of his uncle.

But if this skeleton did not belong to his uncle, then who was this person?

After all, Fourth Missy Gan was the last one seen with his uncle’s jade pendant.

“In other words, the identity of this skeleton remains a big question mark,” Wen Yuansi frowned. “We can’t be sure ourselves, and we will face more questions when we report back to the authorities. This is making the case even more complicated.”

Zhao Zhi agreed that this was a problem. “We must resolve this problem.”

And they had to resolve it soon.

But Qi Yan was not able to come up with more clues that could identify this skeleton…

He felt very bad too and tried very hard to think of other things. Suddenly, a thought hit him, “Is it possible to match blood to bones?”

His eyes shone with hope as he stared at Song Caitang. “I read about this in a collection of strange things before. It said that you could confirm a father and son relationship like that. If a man died, you could put a drop of his son’s blood on his bones and it would show if they’re father and son!”

As he spoke, he even brandished a knife and was ready to make a cut on his finger. “We can use my blood!”

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow. “So, are you his father or his son? I don’t think it works if you’re not a close relative.”

Qi Yan’s face fell. “But Jing Yan lost his parents at a young age and he has no siblings…”

He was about to cry when Song Caitang said, “I have a solution.”

Qi Yan nearly pounced on her to give her a hug, but Zhao Zhi stopped him in time.

He whimpered and stared at Song Caitang with a pitiful look on his face. “Tangtang…”

Zhao Zhi pinched his arm hard and he shut his mouth immediately.

“I’m afraid using blood on bones won’t work,” Song Caitang had considered the probability of it working. There was a chance it might work, but it didn’t have much scientific basis and the results wouldn’t be very accurate. But she had a better solution. “I can do skull restoration.”

“Skull…restoration?” Qi Yan repeated her words twice before comprehending what she was telling him. He stared at Zhao Zhi. “Am I hearing things? Is she trying to say that she can restore someone’s head? So…she can restore a dead man’s face?!”

Zhao Zhi was rather shocked too, but he managed to keep a straight face and nodded with pride. “You aren’t hearing things at all.”

Qi Yan almost rolled his eyes. The one who knows how to do this isn’t you, so what’s with that smug face?!

Wen Yuansi was surprised by this as well and it was written all over his face as he stared at Song Caitang. “You really know how to do that?”

“I can follow the skull’s shape and combine it with other peculiarities I see in the features to reproduce what the person could have looked like.” Song Caitang had done this before, so she had a good idea of what needed to be done. “I just need a lot of time.”

Qi Yan leaped up immediately. “You focus on that then! We’ll handle the rest!”

Song Caitang looked at the other two men.

They too, in a rare moment of agreement, said, “Go ahead and focus on that. We’ll settle everything else.”

Song Caitang took that as the go ahead for her and said, “I’ll just finish up the autopsy report and leave the rest to you guys?”

Zhao Zhi nodded. “Yup.”

“I’ll also need a quiet room where I won’t be disturbed.” Song Caitang paused to think, then added, “I’ll also need some plaster, rubber and modelling clay…” She realized that it would be hard to get these things in this era, but there were other similar materials she could get her hands on. “I’d need someone with knowledge of clay.”

“I’ll settle that for you!” Qi Yan patted his chest. “I’ll get you plenty of servants too!”