She’s Not Getting Near This Aristocratic Woman’s Case!

Now that the dissection of Ximen Gang’s body was complete, Song Caitang’s job should have ended there. But now, these two gentlemen in front of her kept exchanging glances, and Governor Zhang was even testing her now. Their intentions were clear.

They had probably discussed this earlier on, came to an agreement, and were prepared to talk to her. But she ended up coming here first.

And if they didn’t seize this chance to test her, then when would be a better chance?

Song Caitang had very keen observation skills, so she made a bold guess based on their expressions and behavior and tried to cautiously wheedle it out of them. The result turned out to be a positive one. The governor had finally decided on a plan of action.

This was a chance that she had been working hard toward and had been waiting for all this time. She wasn’t going to miss it!

Governor Zhang asked if she was bold enough…

She widened her eyes, her brows filled with confidence, “I’ve cut a dead body open and let blood cover the dissection table. I’m sure you know how bold I really am.”

Of course she was bold enough!

Even if she had to face tough challenges, even though the current social circumstances were dangerous for a young female like herself, she wasn’t afraid!

Governor Zhang had an excited look in his eyes as he slammed a palm against the table, “Excellent! Miss Song is always so confident, so if I continue to hesitate, I’m going to look very unreliable in comparison!”

He looked at Song Caitang and said solemnly, “Late at night on the 8^th day of the 2^nd month, two murders occurred in Tianhua Temple.”

Song Caitang already knew about one of them, since she had personally done the autopsy and identified the victim as Ximen Gang. That case didn’t seem too complicated. The other case…

Governor Zhang glanced at Wen Yuansi. Wen Yuansi nodded and continued for him, “The other victim is the daughter of an imperial duke. Her surname is Yun and her name is Nianyao. Her husband is a descendant of the Qi family, a family who is recognized for their contributions to the state and is from Bianliang, the capital city. Her social standing is very, very high. Mrs. Qi-Yun arrived in Luanze on the 25^th of the 1^st month and went to stay in the VIP residence in the north of Tianhua Temple. On the 9^th of the 2^nd month, her maid found her dead in her room at almost 9am. The victim’s entire body was stiff and had already died for some time…”

Wen Yuansi’s voice was just like the feeling his presence gave others. It was pleasant, confident, and possessed a gentleness that a stern official did not have. It was wonderful to listen to.

As Song Caitang listened to his description of the case, she began to understand why the two men seemed very wary of the case and dared not talk about it in the open.

The victim’s standing was simply too high.

She was the daughter of a duke, the wife to a man from a prominent family. She was someone who would have walked around like she had an aura around herself that attracted everyone to her, because of the connections and benefits her family could bring others. Never mind whether they could crack this case or not – how they cracked it was very important too. If they took one wrong step, it could result in terrible consequences.

Yun Nianyao was born in Bianliang and lived there. Her visit to Luanze was very sudden and logically speaking, she wouldn’t have any social ties to anybody here. But like the saying goes, the poor in a bustling city has nobody to ask after them, but the rich in the mountains would suddenly have “distant relatives” coming to visit them. If someone like Yun Nianyao came to a small place like Luanze, everyone would know about it.

Many, many people came to visit her during her stay here.

There was no way Yun Nianyao would lower herself to meet with ordinary people, so everyone she met were important people of this city.

That was the second thing that made this case difficult. There were too many suspects and all of them were important people here. Without any actual evidence or clues, it was very difficult to even interrogate these people.

Because this was such a big case, the prefectural governor, Li Guangyi, had quickly gathered every local coroner and prefectural judge he could to investigate this case together with him, effectively pushing Governor Zhang and Wen Yuansi off the case. And because this was such a major case, Ximen Gang’s case was also pushed aside and completely ignored.

That was why Wen Yuansi had been so frustrated. He couldn’t even get hold of a coroner for his case.

“And even though Governor Li has gathered all the coroners and prefectural judges together, they still haven’t made any headway.”

Governor Zhang was even more upset than Wen Yuansi about this.

The victim was an aristocrat and so, Governor Li was bent on getting the credit for cracking the case. Cracking the case was the best scenario. Even if Governor Zhang couldn’t claim any credit, at least their city would be spared. But if they couldn’t crack the case then…they were all doomed.

Governor Li had an uncle in Bianliang, while Wen Yuansi’s grandmother was on good terms with Zhao Zhi. Besides, Wen Yuansi’s rank wasn’t that high, so his job was relatively safe. But he was the provincial governor. He was in a position where he didn’t get the final say in things, but high enough to be cannon fodder for his superiors!

“Those coroners and judges are completely useless! They haven’t been able to confirm the cause of death, haven’t found any useful clues and haven’t confirmed any suspects at all. She’s died for seven days already! If they don’t get anything soon, the body’s going to rot!”

Governor Zhang was furious. If things went on like that, the chances of cracking the case would become extremely low and the chances of him losing his job were extremely high!

“Governor, calm down.” Wen Yuansi poured a full cup of tea out and placed it in front of Governor Zhang, “It’s hard to blame them. The cursed baby thing…is really quite frightening.”

Song Caitang raised an eyebrow but looked up calmly, “Cursed baby?”

Wen Yuansi nodded, “Mrs. Qi-Yun was five months pregnant and there was nothing unusual about her body when she was discovered. But after Governor Li sent the coroners and judges to take a look at her body, she suddenly gave birth sometime between 3 and 5am…”

Giving birth after dying was something rarely seen and terrifying at the same time.

Both Governor Zhang and Wen Yuansi’s expressions were extremely solemn. Even court officials observed certain taboos.

But Song Caitang’s lashes merely fluttered slightly. She wasn’t particularly bothered by this fact.

After death, a human’s organs would stop working and blood would stop flowing. Air would begin to accumulate inside the body from the decomposition process and increase the pressure inside. The victim was pregnant, so it was highly possible for her unborn baby to be pushed out of her as a result, making her “give birth” after death.

Song Caitang found this rather odd. The coroners had seen a lot of bodies in their lifetime and should be used to something like this. After a certain level of decomposition, the body would push everything in their stomach and intestines out. It was common for dead bodies to vomit and nobody viewed such things as taboo. Why was it so sensitive and frightening when it was a fetus that was being expelled? What made that unacceptable?

Governor Zhang stroked his beard and asked in a low voice, “Are you good with doing an autopsy for a female victim?”

“Just sitting around and talking is pointless. I have to see the body before making any conclusions.”

Governor Zhang let out a long sigh.

That was the problem right now. They couldn’t get anywhere near the body!

Governor Li was watching over that area like a hawk!

The room fell very silent suddenly and the atmosphere became rather tense.

“We’ll just have to do what we can. Being anxious only makes us frustrated and doesn’t help anything at all.” Wen Yuansi cast his gaze downward with a slight smile on his lips, “I need to advise Miss Song on one thing.”

Song Caitang held a hand out, “Please go ahead.”

“Governor Li refuses to give up his hold on the case, but Governor Zhang and I have the responsibility of seeing this case through and we can’t possibly just take a step back like this, so we will work hard to get our hands on this case. You will become someone who walks closely with us and you might get some special attention. If anyone tries to challenge or agitate you…”

“Ignore them.” Wen Yuansi’s eyes were on the floor but there was a glint in them, “They wouldn’t dare to go overboard.”

Song Caitang relaxed her brows and smiled, “Sure.”

“This is…” Wen Yuansi and Governor Zhang finally noticed the small piece of cloth on the table.

“I found this at the mountain area in the north just now.”

She described in detail where the cloth was, what the place looked like, what the tree looked like, its height and other characteristics.

Her encounter with Zhao Zhi wasn’t pleasant, so she didn’t mention that at all.

Wen Yuansi was quick to pick up what she was implying, “This could be evidence.”

Given the place and time, the chances of it being merely a coincidence was low. This piece of cloth might be crucial in pointing them to the suspect!

“That’s right! It’s very probable!” Governor Zhang’s eyes lit up, then he stroked his beard and frowned slightly, “But we don’t have much information on the case and it’s hard to point out any areas of suspicion. Who or what this cloth might be pointing toward is very hard to determine right now.”

They could only keep it for the moment, then make a judgment on its value after they gathered more information about the case.

This piece of cloth made Governor Zhang think about what he thought of the case. Since he had already invited Song Caitang to join them on the case, he might as well talk more about it. He got Wen Yuansi to sit down with him and they told Song Caitang everything they knew about the case, no matter how major or trivial the information was.

That included the suspects, who were very important people.

They told her whether they were male or female, what their social status was, how they were related to the victim, how many times they had met the victim, when was the last time they saw the victim and where they were now.

They didn’t have pictures of these people, so they described their facial features to Song Caitang.

Song Caitang listened to them very attentively and didn’t even stop to drink her tea. A long time passed as she listened to them, and she now had a more complete, foundational idea of the case.

She noticed that Governor Zhang looked tired, so she got up to take her leave.

Wen Yuansi walked her to the door.

“This case is rather complicated, so I’ll be counting on Miss Song’s help for the next few days.”

The sun shone brightly, shining through the branches to land on his face, making his face even more friendly and pleasant. His voice was as gentle yet energetic as the spring wind.

Song Caitang smiled, her eyes clear and her teeth dazzling, “I’m the one who needs to thank you for the chance to do the dissection and gain the attention of so many people. Please be assured that I will do my very best.”

She then turned and walked away. Wen Yuansi remained standing in the doorway until the pretty young lady walking under the sunshine had walked out of sight, before returning to the room.

As Song Caitang walked on, her mind kept turning.

She thought of Zhao Zhi.

This surveillance commissioner was a rather unique character. The stories about him were so varied, it was hard to figure out what sort of person he was. She had just come out from a long discussion about the case and Governor Zhang and Wen Yuansi had dropped a couple of hints while speaking. It wasn’t much, but she could sense that the two men were hoping to get the commissioner to help.

Whether she could get to be on the case or not might depend a lot on this man.

But she…had probably just offended him not too long ago…

Song Caitang frowned slightly. There was a grim look in her eyes.

It couldn’t be helped. There were two problems with her: one was that she refused to be on the losing end of things. If anyone tried to offend her, she would definitely fight back immediately. And if the one trying to bully her was a man, she wasn’t going to hold back at all. Zhao Zhi’s words had been so arrogant and nasty, so why should she tolerate that? The other problem was that her sense of direction was poor and she often got lost in places she wasn’t familiar with…

Wait, lost?

Song Caitang stopped walking and looked at the three identical pavements in front of her with a confused look on her face.

Which way was she supposed to go?

Her expression was stern as she narrowed her eyes and bit her lips as she paused to think for a long time, look carefully at each pavement and compared them. She finally decided on the one on the left. She was going to just give that one a shot!

She hadn’t walked far when she heard some voices coming from a nearby wall.

“So what if she can dissect a body? Prefectural Judge, sir, you mustn’t listen to all those people spout nonsense. Us coroners would never do such a thing, unless our technique was too poor, or our eyesight too insensitive. Otherwise, it means that our skills are too poor and so we would think of doing something insane like that to attract attention. Come to think of it, even those layman doctors who are obsessed with medical techniques often hope to dissect dead bodies to learn more about the body… This act was just to shock the crowd and gain their favor! Who hasn’t done such a thing before or seen such a thing before?”

“Humph, I’ve never seen this before, and I don’t think anybody in Tianhua Temple has either.”

“Sir, don’t be angry, let me finish. You’ve never seen it before and nobody has even heard of it before because the ones who tried had all failed and all of them came to nothing! Like the wind blowing up sand, even if they were famous for a while, they would eventually be scattered and forgotten again. Coroners require experience and a good eye, real skills! Even if a young woman had a good eye, would she have seen as many dead bodies as us veterans? Don’t worry, sir, there’s no way she can get anywhere near this aristocratic woman’s case! There’s no way she’s good enough!”