Farsighted Thinking

Since a corpse had been brought in, naturally it had to be examined.

Song Caitang did not care about the reactions of anyone present and pulled the white cloth covering the body away, exposing it.

The body was not dressed in eunuch robes, but ordinary everyday clothes. The body was completely wet except for the chest area. The hair was entirely drenched.

She squatted and opened the man’s eyelids. The pupils were clouded and the cornea had decomposed. She opened the man’s mouth to find that the oral mucosa was also decomposing. The man’s face and his skin beneath his clothes had varying degrees of greenish discoloration.

Along both sides of the body and the inner thighs, greenish, net-like patterns were visible. These were indicative of putrefactive vascular patterns, also known as postmortem circulation.

Upon closer inspection, she found small amounts of bubbles in certain areas that were a result of decomposition, as well as areas where the bubbles had burst. There were leather like marks on the skin after she peeled them away…

She examined the body very seriously, as though she couldn’t see how filthy it was or detect the rotting smell, and even used her hands to touch the body.

Meanwhile, everyone else in the room was on the verge of vomiting.

Nanny Sun turned around and solemnly checked with Empress Chen. “I will bring the screen over.”

“No need.” Empress Chen waved her aside.

Her expression had not changed, but she had already put down the tea she was holding, probably because she no longer had any desire to drink anything.

The body did not have the usual bubbles that were a sign of drowning and the fingers were not bent, but the nails and lips were a dark blue.

This man did not die by drowning, but by poisoning.

Song Caitang narrowed her eyes.

The body was so wet and so cold probably because Empress Chen had stored it in a dark and cold place to preserve the body, somewhere like an ice cave or the bottom of a deep well.

“The time of death is around five to eight days ago.”

After making that first observation, she found more problems. Li Qi could not have died more than ten days ago, but the crown prince and Zhao Zhi started looking for him more than ten days ago. This man must have gone missing for more than ten days.

Where did he go before dying?

Nobody knew at all. Had he been held captive?

Was the person who held him captive the same person who killed him? If it was the same person, why did that person not kill him immediately but wait for so long? Was the person trying to interrogate Li Qi? What did the murderer want to know? Did Li Qi say anything in the end?

Her mind was filled with a barrage of questions.

But every question started with the same starting point – Empress Chen.

Empress Chen was concerned and anxious about this matter because it must have some significant impact on her.

Song Caitang pulled the white cloth over the body again, dusted her hands off and got up. “Let’s talk then.”

Empress Chen did not say anything, but Nanny Sun spoke on her behalf, “What do you want to talk about?”
Song Caitang’s expression remained calm. “If you don’t tell me how all of this came about, what happened before and what happened after, and you don’t give me any information or even who else the deceased might be tied to, how do you expect me to crack the case?”

She had a point. Nanny Sun paused for a moment, then turned to look at Empress Chen.

Empress Chen nodded, so Nanny Sun bowed, then replied, “Nobody know why Li Qi went missing. He went about doing his daily duties, which was to send water and other items to the different parts of the palace. He was getting on in age and probably did not have a strong stomach anymore, so he got the runs after eating something that probably wasn’t too clean. Halfway through his duties, he got another servant he knew to help him complete his tasks for the day. This is pretty normal practice in the palace, and as long as it isn’t a very difficult job, everyone’s willing to help each other… But in the end, after Li Qi left, he didn’t return again. The next day happened to be his rest day too, so it took even longer for anyone to realize he was missing…”

Song Caitang had heard all these details from Zhao Zhi already. Nanny Sun did not provide anything new.

She frowned slightly and asked Nanny Sun, “What about before he went missing? Was he in charge of anything important recently? Who did he come into contact with?”

Nanny Sun replied, “That’s…those things happened a long time before his body was discovered. Is there a need to know about that?”

“Yes.” Song Caitang took a step forward. “Every piece of information is very important.”

Nanny Sun had no expression on her face. “Every matter in the palace is important. Everyone who works in the palace would end up running into each other while carrying out their duties. I too, had seen Li Qi before he went missing, and I even spoke to him. He had come to Her Majesty’s residence and Her Majesty had seen him too. Everyone in the palace had seen him.”
Song Caitang was an astute woman and quickly picked up on one point, “He came to the empress’ residence – was it because Her Majesty sent him to do something? What about the people outside the palace? Who had seen Li Qi during this time?”
Nanny Sun pursed her lips into a straight line. “That is not convenient for me to say.”

“It’s not inconvenient for you to say, it’s inconvenient for you to tell me, isn’t it?” Song Caitang scoffed, then looked at Empress Chen, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to crack this case. I think you should kill me now and look for someone better.”

Empress Chen glanced at Song Caitang, then gave Nanny Sun a signal with her hand.

Nanny Sun then continued, “The palace remembers their ancestors during the 5th month of the year. I’m sure Miss Song knows about that?”
“Yes.” Song Caitang nodded. She had read about the history of this country. The first emperor of Da’an established the nation in the 5th month and it was also the day he was crowned emperor, so not only did the royal family have to celebrate this day and hold many banquets, the people were expected to celebrate it too. The festive air in the streets were only second to New Year’s.

As the ruler of the country, the emperor also had to go through a grand ceremony, first to honor his ancestors, then to pray for the heavens to protect and bless the country.

When Nanny Sun mentioned this, Song Caitang immediately connected the dots. “Li Qi was sent by the empress to put together everything needed for the ceremony?”
Any family with a bit of history would have to carry out a similar ceremony every year. This would be an important family occasion, and the one preparing the things needed was usually the wife of the head of the family. The equivalent in the palace was basically the empress.

Of course, Empress Chen did not need to see to everything personally, like wiping the things needed and all that, since she just needed to give her servants instructions. But once she gave instructions, someone had to carry them out.

After receiving the instructions, Li Qi died and Empress Chen got antsy. Could it be that…there was a problem with this matter?

Nanny Sun continued, “He did receive instructions to oversee some of the items needed, but every part of this ceremony is very important and everyone was cooperative, so it went on smoothly and nothing went wrong.”

Song Caitang frowned. “Nothing went wrong?”
“That is correct,” Nanny Sun lowered her gaze, “and so, I felt that whether you knew about it or not wouldn’t make any difference.”
“I will decide if anything makes a difference, not you,” Song Caitang’s eyes gleamed brightly. “Everything went on as per normal, nothing went wrong, there were no signs, everyone walked the same paths they did every day, saw the people they saw every day, nobody made any mistake. But when someone goes missing and dies, you tell me that everything had been normal and there was no reason for this to have happened? I don’t think that’s normal! This death happened without a sound and without anyone realizing at all, which means this person is very familiar with this process. Did one of you betray Her Majesty?”

Her words were as though a bolt of lightning struck the room. Everyone besides the empress fell to their knees with a loud thud.

Nanny Sun fell to her knees the loudest and her face was pale. “Song Caitang! Her Majesty has summoned you to crack a case, not to cause chaos among her own!”

Empress Chen lowered her gaze slightly and did not react to the room full of people kneeling at all.

Song Caitang…got it now.

She had found the right direction without meaning to.

There was no need to pause to think and she quickly continued, “Also, everything has been fine so far, but this person suddenly decided to do this right before this important event, and threw everyone into a panic – did that person do this on purpose? Because this was a good opportunity, and it would be easy to do things without raising suspicion…”

She didn’t elaborate further, but she was sure Empress Chen knew what she was driving at.

There was one thing that she hadn’t mentioned, but both sides knew about: someone in the palace was betraying the country.

After Song Caitang was brought to this place, she was already fairly sure that Empress Chen was an important part of this matter. Regardless of whether she was the mastermind or a middle person, she played a very important role. She had a lot of people working for her and carrying out different instructions.

If Li Qi’s death was because he was just carrying out instructions connected to the ceremony and not because he was carrying out instructions connected to the country’s traitor, then the organization was safe – that was what Song Caitang was trying to say.

And Song Caitang was also using this to sound the empress out.

As she spoke, she carefully observed Empress Chen’s expression.

Empress Chen did not deny it!

And she did not ask any other questions either!

So…she was basically admitting to it?

Song Caitang’s pupils constricted suddenly. That must be right, she thought. She had guessed it right!

After all, if Li Qi had died while preparing for the ceremony, that would be a simple matter and Empress Chen would not need to go through all this trouble. But she was anxious because she felt that Li Qi’s death wasn’t because of the ceremony.

Empress Chen must have felt that something had gone wrong among her own people, that a traitor had killed Li Qi. But she did not know who this traitor was and had to find out!

No wonder the empress was so antsy…

Song Caitang felt that if she were the empress, she would also have felt that this unknown traitor might mess up everything she had painstakingly done. She was living like she had a knife over her head and wasn’t able to feel at ease.

Perhaps…

Song Caitang’s eyelashes trembled slightly. Perhaps Empress Chen already suspected someone but wasn’t sure, so she decided to get Song Caitang to help. This way, she could scare Zhao Zhi and the team while getting help. If Song Caitang couldn’t find this person, Empress Chen might even be able to use this situation to lure the killer out.

She was killing a lot of birds with just one stone. That was excellent planning and foresight.

If that was the case, Song Caitang had to be even more careful.

Perhaps cracking the case was the smaller matter. What she needed to do now was to play mind games with all the people here.

Empress Chen spoke very little and did not express her opinions or even react. But Song Caitang knew she was right based on her observations of the empress’ micro-expressions, the details given and the atmosphere in the room.

Empress Chen spoke little because she wanted to listen to what others had to say.

She wanted to see if anyone might implicate themselves.

Song Caitang’s mind started moving very quickly. Not only did she have to crack a murder case, but she also had to guess what other people were thinking about. The worst part was that she had to act fast. If she was too slow, she would be considered useless. And if she was useless…

“Your Majesty, cracking a case is not something that can be done within minutes. Besides gathering more information and clues, I need to examine the body in greater detail,” Song Caitang looked straight at Empress Chen. “I will need to dissect the body in a quiet environment and I will also need you to give me two maids who can answer any questions I have about Li Qi’s case.”

“To play safe, you can give me low ranking maids with limited information.”

She emphasized that last sentence.

Limited information meant that they didn’t need to know too much. They just needed to know who Li Qi was and what he normally did. They did not need to know what Empress Chen was up to or work closely for Empress Chen. That way, everyone was safe.

“Permission granted.” Empress Chen looked at Nanny Sun. “Arrange that for her.”

“Lastly, I need tools.” Song Caitang spoke boldly. “Since you’ve invited me here, I’m sure you know that I examine bodies differently from other coroners and I use different tools too. My knives and scissors are all extremely special.”

Empress Chen narrowed her eyes.

Song Caitang went on, “Since you need the results fast, it would take too long to make a brand new set. Why don’t you send someone to my house to get my tools?”

Empress Chen didn’t need to respond. Nanny Sun immediately scoffed, “Are you hoping to use that to send a message home and get them to save you?”
“Why do you say that, Nanny Sun? I’m just trying to do my best for Her Majesty. Without my tools, how am I going to cut the body open? How am I going to separate the bones? Do you expect me to hack the body with a cleaver?” Song Caitang scoffed even more loudly than Nanny Sun. “Why do you always go against what I have to say? You put in so much effort to oppose me when I’m just trying to complete the task Her Majesty has given me. Unless…you have some other reason for doing so?”

She was just short of accusing Nanny Sun of being the murderer.

Nanny Sun was angry, but she had no choice but to kowtow to Empress Chen. “That is not true! Your Majesty, please don’t listen to her!”

Song Caitang ignored her and looked straight at Empress Chen. “You can choose not to give me any tools. It will just take a little longer. I can try using a small scissors to cut through the body slowly.”

She had all the time in the world, but not Empress Chen.

After lowering her gaze to think for a moment, Empress Chen stood up. “I will get someone to bring you the tools you need later.”

With that, she left the room along with all the people who came with her, leaving only Li Qi’s body in the room with Song Caitang.

Song Caitang wasn’t scared of being left alone in a room with a corpse. Dead people were so much safer. Much safer than all these scheming living humans.

She started wondering where Empress Chen was going to get a set of tools from…

Perhaps Empress Chen had prepared them ahead of time and was just pretending to be stumped in order to fish out more information and reactions. Or perhaps, she had really forgotten and she was going to find a way to get the tools now.

If she didn’t get it from her house, then she would have to find a metalsmith. The best would be to hire the metalsmith who had a copy of her designs and made her current set of tools.

The tools needed for dissections had to be very sharp, very thin, yet very safe to use. They wore out quickly and had to be changed often, so Song Caitang had a regular shop in both Luanze and Bianliang.

She hoped Empress Chen would go to them.

Zhao Zhi, you’d better pick this clue up!