Coroner Sun Identifies The Killer

Saying something blatantly sexist, that women were only concerned with the affairs of the heart and couldn’t do anything else – that was quite the bomb from Coroner Sun.

The entire place fell silent immediately.

Everyone turned to stare at Coroner Sun with a different look in their eye.

Madam Ji clutched her handkerchief more tightly as the color of her face switched between a pale white and an upset red. She was feeling awkward and embarrassed, guilty but angry. Her lips moved slightly as if she wanted to talk back to Coroner Sun, but afraid that she might make Gao Zhuo angry, so she didn’t dare to say anything in the end, choosing to just look furtively at Gao Zhuo. She looked so conflicted.

Gao Zhuo’s brows were tightly knit. He seemed to have noticed that Madam Ji was looking at him, so he glanced at her with a really icy stare, as if he was warning her.

This man didn’t care for Madam Ji at all.

In fact, he looked like he couldn’t stand her.

Fu Xiuxiu’s entire face was red and felt too embarrassed to stand where she was. She wanted to pull her sister-in-law away, but she was afraid that it would be too big of a movement and attract the attention of those who didn’t notice before. Neither standing nor moving away seemed like the right thing to do, and she looked like she was in a difficult position.

She looked at everyone around her, and when her gaze landed on Song Caitang, she glared fiercely at her. It was all this woman’s fault! If she hadn’t done something so shameless, she wouldn’t have harassed her. And if she hadn’t harassed her, this unforeseen situation wouldn’t have happened to her!

Song Caitang ignored Fu Xiuxiu and stood with Guan Qing quietly by the far side. She didn’t come any closer and didn’t say anything.

Regardless of whether you considered who they were or their age, this wasn’t where they ought to be.

Madam Ge was rather unhappy, however.

She did have to admit that she hadn’t come from a family of very high standing, but she had been very good at handling important matters from a young age. Besides helping her cousin with the civil service exam so that he could become a court official, and handling her husband’s patients, she also studied and practiced acupuncture. She mixed with upper class ladies and was respected by a large majority of men even. She wasn’t some airhead who only had romantic thoughts and wasn’t capable of doing anything else!

“Coroner Sun, please watch your words.” Madam Ge looked down and slowly smoothed her sleeve out, “Trying to use one bamboo stick to kill a boat full of people? There’s no such thing. If you look down on women like that, a woman will teach you a lesson someday.”

Madam Ji was angry that Gao Zhuo was ignoring her, so she didn’t want Madam Ge to get all the attention. She immediately added, “You’re just a coroner, someone whom everybody can’t stand, the dogs hate and even the beggars despise. How dare you make such proud statements! If you don’t have anything better to say, then don’t say anything. Nobody will mind!”

Coroner Sun’s expression immediately darkened, displaying both his embarrassment and his aggression.

Song Caitang turned away slightly and fell into deep thought.

It seemed like Coroner Sun’s standing was…much lower than she had imagined. That was all it took to injure his pride so severely?

Judge Guo glanced at Coroner Sun indifferently, then smiled faintly at the two ladies as he placed a palm over his other fist, “Ladies, please don’t be angry. There are many matters to attend to and the process of investigating a case is tough. Coroner Sun has not slept well in days, so he can be a little snappy. Please don’t mind him.”

He had defended Coroner Sun in such a kind manner, but Coroner Sun did not feel relieved at all and felt his back tense up instead. He knew that he had made his superior unhappy.

As the saying goes, when the lord of Hades engages in battle, lowly ghosts end up getting killed as well. This case was a major one, so not only were the higher ups fighting to get the credit for cracking the case, but the lower ranked ones were hoping to get a chance. The bird that made the first move had the highest risk of getting killed, so if things didn’t turn out well, he was going to end up getting into a lot of trouble. But if things turned out well…his future was going to be bright!

Since he had faith in his own judgment and since he had decided to take this gamble for the sake of his future…he had made this decision, so he couldn’t back out now!

He had already come this far anyway. The bigger the scene he created, the more impressive he would look!

“I’m sorry, but I simply couldn’t stand seeing the murderer continue to fool the both of you, and that’s why I said such terrible things earlier…” Coroner Sun slowed his breathing down and stared intensely at Gao Zhuo, “Gao Zhuo! You killed Mrs. Qi-Yun in Tianhua Temple on the 8^th day of the 2^nd month! Do you dare admit to it?”

The entire place fell silent.

The case…had been cracked?

The murderer was Gao Zhuo?

But why?

Gao Zhuo was clearly deeply in love with the victim…

The frown on Gao Zhuo’s face was even deeper now.

Song Caitang felt her sleeve move and turned to see that it was Guan Qing tugging at her. Guan Qing pointed to a spot further away and mouthed some words to her. She was trying to say that since Song Caitang was no longer in a difficult situation and the authorities were here to talk about the murder case, it wasn’t right for her to hang around anymore and she wanted to leave.

Song Caitang didn’t give it much thought. She just nodded and watched as Guan Qing walked away.

When Guan Qing disappeared round the corner, Song Caitang’s gaze suddenly froze. There was a room there and when the wind blew the curtain aside, she noticed that there was someone inside.

This person was tall with broad shoulders and wore dark clothing. The angle of his jawline was sharp but handsome at the same time. That had to be Zhao Zhi.

Zhao Zhi seemed to be holding a teacup in his hand and his movements were lazy, as though he was just watching the show from afar.

Song Caitang raised an eyebrow. She looked at the people in front of her and sensed that the atmosphere was very tense. A thought suddenly struck her. Could Zhao Zhi have planned all of this?

If everything was merely a coincidence, then things happened too quickly for Zhao Zhi to have arrived here in time to sit down and sip tea. But if it wasn’t a coincidence, that meant that this was his plan all along.

But whatever for?

To crack the case? Huh?

She wasn’t looking down on him. There was just no way the case could be cracked by creating this hullabaloo.

But since he had been able to orchestrate this drama, he was definitely no fool. Zhao Zhi had a bigger plan.

She couldn’t understand his motives even after thinking about it for some time, so she shook her head and decided not to think about it anymore. The situation before her was more important. Perhaps she could even fight for a chance in the midst of all this…it was better that Coroner Sun did a bad job!

Besides, after such a big commotion, everyone would be aware that all the suspects had gathered together. And that would be the best time to gather clues as well, so Wen Yuansi and Governor Zhang would find it important to be here and would probably arrive in a while. As long as there was someone to guarantee her coroner skills, everything would go smoothly!

After thinking about it carefully, she quietly hid by the side. She calmed her heart down and silently observed the group in front of her.

Gao Zhuo’s had a darkened look in his eyes and his voice was as cold as ice as he squeezed it through the gaps between his teeth, “I didn’t know that the authorities were able to name a murderer and conclude a case based on what a coroner says.”

Coroner Sun barked, “Do you dare to say you didn’t kill Mrs. Qi-Yun?!”

“I didn’t do it, so why wouldn’t I dare to say so?” Gao Zhuo narrowed his eyes, “I did not kill Yun Nianyao!”

His voice trembled slightly, as though it was difficult for him to utter the victim’s name.

This agitated Coroner Sun further. He raised his voice and spoke with gusto, “The victim died in the middle of the night, and based on her maid’s statement, after the victim went to bed, there was nothing strange about her room and she did not hear any commotion. Everything was silent until she went to report for work the next day, to find that Mrs. Qi-Yun had already died. There was still nothing unusual about the room.

“What sort of person could sneak into her room to meet her secretly without her becoming wary and shouting for help? It has to be someone she knows well! Someone who should not be around her, meeting to talk to her about things that they should not be talking about!”

Gao Zhuo said flatly, “You’re saying she woke up in the middle of the night?”

“Of course she did!” Coroner Sun snorted, “Based on the maid’s statement, the victim had changed into her pajamas and did not carry anything into the room with her. But when we conducted the autopsy, we found a light yellow tassel in the sleeve of her innerwear. That’s the one on your flute!”

“And how did the tassel from your flute end up in the sleeve of the victim’s innerwear? Even if you were meeting on the sly, and even if she had touched your flute, it wouldn’t end up on her innerwear. You must have done something and left this piece of evidence behind!”

“The victim was sleeping, but you came by and then she died. If you’re not the murderer, then who?”

Everything he said implied that the two of them had committed adultery. These words agitated Gao Zhuo and he blew his top.

“If only that were the case! But she had always been very careful to keep her distance! After she got married, she didn’t even send me a letter, so why would she… Besides, she was already five months pregnant! Even if I were an animal, I wouldn’t have done such a thing!”

“I was an old friend of the victim, so why is it strange that she has something of mine with her? Instead, Coroner Sun, you,” Gao Zhuo glared murderously at the coroner, “make baseless accusations without any evidence, painting the victim as an immoral person and ruining her reputation! How dare you! Who allowed you to even say such things? Was it Governor Li? Or him?”

Gao Zhuo pointed a finger at Judge Guo.

Gao Zhuo was from a prominent family in the capital and wasn’t some young man from a rural village or something, so Judge Guo dared not offend him, even though this man could very well be the murderer.

As long as it wasn’t confirmed, he couldn’t insist on arresting this man.

“Mr. Gao, please calm down. This case is different from other cases. The more we investigate, the more things become clearer to us. If we find clues and ignore them, that would be irresponsible of us as investigators and we could even lose our…” He smiled deferentially at Gao Zhuo, “As long as you can explain yourself clearly, you will not be a suspect anymore.”

Gao Zhuo had a frosty look on his face as he glanced coldly at Judge Guo.

Judge Guo sighed, “The color of the tassel is still very bright and we’ve already checked – that tassel appeared very recently on your flute, so it’s not an old item from years ago. As for how that ended up with the victim…we’ll need you to give us an explanation.”

Gao Zhuo closed his eyes for a moment before saying quietly, “Even though I don’t know why she had the tassel of my flute when she…passed away, I did not look for her that night. She was a very proper woman and I am a gentleman. There has never been anything illicit between us.”

Even after he said that, Coroner Sun and Judge Guo did not let him off. They continued to look intently at him.

Gao Zhuo sighed, “It is true that I saw her in the morning of the 8^th. I had returned from a walk along the mountains and brought my flute along. A light yellow tassel was attached to my flute at that time. Perhaps it happened to brush past something and the tassel fell off my flute, then she knocked into it and it got on her.”

“That’s it?”

Coroner Sun clearly did not believe him.

Gao Zhuo clenched his teeth, “That’s all!”

“Is there anybody who can support your statement?”

“No!”

“That wasn’t what you told us in your statement, Mr. Gao.”

“That’s because I was afraid that someone would create rumors like this! And even though I hadn’t said any of this, some people were still able to make such terrible things up!”

“Mr. Gao, please don’t simply lie to us because you feel pressured. If that were the case, it would have been found on her outerwear. Why would it be on her innerwear?”

Gao Zhuo gnashed his teeth, “How would I know? Isn’t it YOUR job to investigate?!”

This went on for a while. Coroner Sun continued to push Gao Zhuo into a corner while Gao Zhuo couldn’t seem to defend himself.

All of a sudden, a female voice interrupted their squabble, “I can support his statement! I did see Gao Zhuo meet with Yun Nianyao that morning!”

It was Madam Ji who had spoken.