Unexpected Coordination

Coroner Sun stared at the brown, stripey, oval-shaped object in the forceps and couldn’t snap out of his daze for a long time.

A castor bean?

What the heck was that?

He didn’t know what it was and had never heard of it.

And supposedly, this thing was very toxic, and eating two of them could get one killed?

“Castor beans do not contain the sort of poison that makes one immediately cough blood or choke and die. It will act up depending on how much was eaten in the first place. It could take a few hours, or it could take several days for the poison to take effect, and it could take much longer to cause death. After consuming it, it can take anything between two hours and two days for the first symptoms to appear.”

As Song Caitang elaborated, she looked down at the body and made a conclusion, “The victim ate the castor beans…probably no more than 24 hours before death.”

“A day, you say…” Zhao Zhi stroked his chin and began to think.

On the morning of the 9^th, the maid discovered Yun Nianyao’s body. The body was clearly rigid, so the coroners concluded that she must have died in the middle of the night.

When Song Caitang removed the stomach and examined its contents, she discovered that the victim ate sweet fermented rice balls before she died. According to the maid’s statement, the victim said she was hungry, and the maid had gone to make red bean pancakes at around 10 plus. The time of death had to be around this hour as well.

If the castor beans were consumed a day before, that would be around 10 plus the night before…

“Surveillance Commissioner Zhao, when was the last time the victim ate on the 7^th? Do the notes have any record of that?”

Zhao Zhi turned his head slightly to meet Song Caitang’s eyes. Her long brows were slightly raised, her almond-shaped eyes clear and watery.

That was the first thing he had thought about as well.

“Yes, it’s recorded,” Zhao Zhi frowned slightly. His gaze deepened as he slowly put the hand that was stroking his chin down, “In her statement, the maid said that from the start of the 2^nd month, Yun Nianyao needed to sleep a lot. She would not eat anything after dinner, and she would go to bed early. There was no exception.”

But on the 8^th day, her morning sickness was very severe, and it shocked all her maids.

Before this, he couldn’t understand why. But now, he understood. That wasn’t morning sickness. She had been poisoned.

Song Caitang paused to think and narrowed her eyes slightly, “So, the victim did not eat anything after dinner on the 7^th, then only ate breakfast on the 8^th, which was probably some gruel. After that, her appetite was poor, and she didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day.”

It was clear when she must have gotten poisoned. It had to be the morning of the 8^th!

Zhao Zhi nodded with a glint in his eye, “And then at night, at around 10 plus, Yun Nianyao woke up and asked her maid for something to eat. The maid then proceeded to make her some red bean pancakes.”

Song Caitang had an intelligent gleam in her eyes, “And it was at this time that the murderer seized the opportunity to enter the room, and give Yun Nianyao the sweet fermented rice balls in order to get close to her…”

“And when Yun Nianyao was least expecting it, they did something that resulted in her death!”

Both of them said a sentence each, at a speed and tone that was almost identical. In just a few seconds, they had spelled out the rough timeline of what happened in an unexpectedly well-coordinated manner!

Governor Zhang stood by the side and couldn’t squeeze a single word in at all. His mind had to remain on high alert in order to keep up with their thoughts.

He blinked a few times, then blinked a few more times. He looked at Zhao Zhi, then at Song Caitang. There was a very suspicious look in his eye.

Did these two seriously just meet? How could it be that they were so well-coordinated?

Wen Yuansi suddenly spoke up, “As Miss Song pointed out earlier, castor beans can cause miscarriages. Could that have anything to do with the motive of poisoning the victim?”

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Wen Yuansi, then turned toward Song Caitang. He folded his arms, and his lips curled into a mysterious smile, “Who knows? Maybe someone was jealous of something she had that they didn’t.”

Song Caitang paused to think for a moment. She really couldn’t answer this question at all.

She could only provide actual clues and evidence from her examination of the body. She couldn’t analyze the mind of the perp.

Some motives could be deduced based on societal connections or peculiarities in one’s behavior, but they were not necessarily accurate and needed to be proven. And if she could not say for sure, she didn’t dare to even suggest it.

Especially since they were now examining the victim’s body and Wen Yuansi was writing her autopsy report.

The most important thing right now was to make sure the things that were true and visible were recorded properly.

Coroner Sun had already snapped out of his daze by now, “Waaaaaait a minute! Just because SHE says it’s a castor bean, this thing is definitely a castor bean? Just because SHE says castor beans are toxic, then castor beans really contain poison? The coroners have no record of such a thing, so how could you just take her word for it like that?”

Governor Zhang immediately rolled his eyes.

Even Wen Yuansi couldn’t remain gentlemanly and sighed as he looked a little pitifully at Coroner Sun.

Zhao Zhi was even more direct. He gave a loud snort and glared at Coroner Sun as though he were an idiot.

Song Caitang didn’t need their help. She smiled and asked Coroner Sun, “If you don’t believe me, would you like to try eating one of them?”

Coroner Sun stared at the little seed. There was no way he was going to eat one of those!

What if it was really poisonous? He’d end up dead!

“To be fair, I happen to know the poison we’re dealing with today. I’m willing to teach you about it, but Coroner Sun doesn’t even want to believe me. What a pity.”

Song Caitang’s eyes were smiling and spoke very slowly, “Actually, when it comes to poisons, the best way to find out about them is to test it out instead of arguing about it. If you’re not willing to eat one, you can catch a rat and feed this to it. We’ll still be able to get the results.”

Coroner Sun realized that he had been too hasty and had said something stupid. He was so angry, his teeth chattered violently.

Under such circumstances, it would be impossible for Song Caitang to lie. This thing…had to really contain poison!

Song Caitang adjusted her bloodied gloves and smiled at Coroner Sun, “Coroner Sun, why are you still standing here? Is it too difficult for you to catch a rat too?”

Both Governor Zhang and Zhao Zhi couldn’t hold back their laughter and sniggered. Governor Zhang even stroked his beard and said, “Coroner Sun, if you’re not very flexible and you can’t catch one, I’ve got some younger subordinates who would be willing to help.”

Coroner Sun’s face turned red.

He had been utterly humiliated today.

Not only had he lost to Song Caitang in terms of coroner skills, but he had also lost that bet with her…what was he going to do now?!

Song Caitang watched the changes in Coroner Sun’s expression with some interest and felt rather happy inside.

It felt so good to be able to give this man who despised women a good slap in the face!

What was the point of squabbling with other women in the house or quibbling over small matters? Destroying the pride of these MCPs was way more fun.

The corpse examination room was a battlefield she was most familiar with. It enabled her to display everything she had learned, it helped her to get to the bottom of incomprehensible mysteries, it assisted the truly responsible ones to solve crimes, it could do justice to those who had died wrongful deaths and it could step all over the faces of those men who thought they were better than women. It was such a meaningful job!

It brought her a sense of satisfaction and achievement like no other job. She was going to be a coroner for as long as she lived!

After checking through the other internal organs and finding no other clues, Song Caitang began the body restoration process.

The small intestines she had cut out, the stomach she had cut open, were all sewn back into one piece before being placed back where she had taken them from. The blood vessels, the subcutaneous tissues, the muscle tissues…she sewed everything back together.

The last one was the skin.

The people around her did not stand around and do nothing while she was sewing the body back up.

Wen Yuansi frowned as he pondered, “The amount of castor beans consumed doesn’t seem like a lot. Did the person who gave the poison calculate the amount wrongly? Or did they just want to cause a miscarriage but not kill her?”

It was hard to tell if this had been done on purpose or not.

Zhao Zhi was more focused on the cause of death, “The heart went into a spasm but the body doesn’t have any wounds. So…the victim was given a really terrible scare?”

The last question was within the professional knowledge of a coroner, so Song Caitang replied that quickly, “That’s possible. But it could also be a very small injury that doesn’t leave a wound on the surface of the body. The victim’s heart stopped immediately, so she must have suffered a very severe shock.”

Zhao Zhi watched as the needle and thread in Song Caitang’s slim fingers moved swiftly across the body and went into deep thought, “So, I have to take note of two things for this case. The first thing is to find out who touched Yun Nianyao’s breakfast on the morning of the 8^th, and the second thing is to find out if there are any witnesses around 10 plus that night who might have seen the killer or noticed anything happening in the room.”

Song Caitang added a reminder, “In most cases, no matter what motive someone might have for poisoning another person, they would pay close attention to how the person is reacting to the poison, like whether the person is displaying symptoms of being poisoned or not…you might get some unexpected results if you pay extra attention to this poisoner.”

Zhao Zhi immediately realized what she was saying, “I might have an eyewitness!”

Song Caitang nodded, “If the poisoner’s motive was to kill her, but the victim failed to have any reaction for too long, the poisoner might have gotten a bit anxious and…”

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes, “The poisoner would be the killer we’re looking for!”

This clever woman was really very clever!

Zhao Zhi looked at Song Caitang, who was focused on sewing up the body properly and had not even raised her head, and suddenly felt that she was really pretty.

Her hair was very black and it shone in the sun, like high grade silk. The angle of her long brows were aligned with her side burns, her eyes as beautiful as distant mountains. She was very skinny, but she had full earlobes which were round and fair…She looked different from when she was speaking solemnly while facing him. When she bowed her head, she looked very gentle and exuded the softness and cuteness that a girl her age uniquely possessed.

But Song Caitang wasn’t done with her little hints, “Checking if everyone has alibis is also very important. Since it’s someone the victim knew who did this, you could also take note of who would have enough time and good reason to do something like this without being noticed by others. And about those sweet fermented rice balls – when you interrogate the suspects, you could use a trick or two to make the suspect tell you about it themselves…”

“And about these castor beans. The number of people who would know what it is and understand its toxicity must be very few.” According to the history that Song Caitang studied, castor beans were brought in from India during the Tang Dynasty. She…couldn’t tell exactly which era she was in right now, but based on her analysis of the books she had been reading thus far, castor beans were probably rare items.

When something was rare, it made it both easy and difficult to investigate.

Either you couldn’t find anything on it, or you would find exactly what you wanted.

“Surveillance Commissioner Zhao could send someone to find out where castor beans in this country come from and what’s the trading situation for it is like.”

Perhaps he could make use of these to find more evidence.

She had said so much but didn’t get any response, so she looked up, only to meet with Zhao Zhi’s half-dazed expression.

When he didn’t have his boastful aristocratic air around him or that cheeky and wicked wastrel aura, he looked a little silly, like a large, obedient dog.

Did he…break character for some reason?

“Surveillance Commissioner Zhao?”

“Ahem,” Zhao Zhi cleared his throat. His brows were raised as he used the back of his hand to rub his nose, “Springtime is really annoying. Dust flies everywhere and I keep wanting to sneeze. What were you saying? Please continue.”

Song Caitang did not seem to think he was lying, since it was true that many people experienced allergies during spring. She didn’t give it much thought and bent her head to continue sewing, “As for what sort of agitation the victim suffered, I will do another thorough examination and try to find the reason. Please do not worry about this part and go ahead with the investigation.”

Zhao Zhi was about to say “got it” when a commotion broke out outside the room.

Messy footsteps and loud shouts could be heard, as though some people had lost their temper…

The atmosphere became a little strange.

Song Caitang wasn’t done sewing, but her clear gaze paused for a moment, “The examination is basically done, so I can handle the rest myself. I know everyone has other official duties to handle, so you can feel free to leave first. Magistrate Wen, you can just leave the autopsy report on the table there. I will stamp and sign it, then pass it to the authorities for their records.”

Since she had already said so, nobody was going to stick around any longer. Moving on with the case was of utmost importance, and there were two suspects outside who were at each other’s throats at all times, so they had to be watched. Zhao Zhi and the rest took their leave and walked out in no time. Song Caitang was left alone in the room.

Song Caitang ignored the ruckus outside and quietened her heart as she focused on the sewing process. She made sure that every little stitch of hers was done neatly, then she tied a small and delicate butterfly knot right at the end.

Her movement was very gentle.

She did not know Yun Nianyao at all, but after this short time of examining her body, she knew that Yun Nianyao was a woman who took good care of her looks.

Her nails were round and trimmed very neatly. Her hair was well cared for and was smooth from root to end. There wasn’t a single split end. Her clothing was a little messy because of what happened to her, but both the colors and the material used showed that she had taken much time and effort to pick them out…

Death was something that nobody wanted to go through. Song Caitang wasn’t acquainted with Yun Nianyao while she was alive, but she was willing to do everything she could to make Yun Nianyao the prettiest she could be in death.

After she had finished sewing, Song Caitang took a soft cloth, doused it in warm water, then wiped the body down. Once she had wiped the body clean, she put the victim’s clothes back on.

Yun Nianyao was a very pretty woman. Her face was small, her brows curved, her eyelashes very long, here lips full but soft. Her stay at the temple had been a little tough for her, but she had clearly been well taken care of, as though she were a fragile young girl.

What in the world happened to such an aristocratic woman?

Why would she come all the way to Tianhua Temple when her health was like this?

Song Caitang had initially thought she would have to fight a really tough battle.

The society here did not take the idea of dissection very well, plus Yun Nianyao came from a very prominent family, so there would be many affected parties who would kick up a big fuss. Even with Zhao Zhi pulling off his schemes, she didn’t think anybody would have agreed to this autopsy so quickly. At that time, she was sure that there would be a huge commotion.

It all seemed too easy this time.

She ran a finger across the autopsy table and murmured to herself, “What secrets are you hiding?”

As she pulled the white cloth over the body again, the sun shone down, illuminating the higher areas and casting shadows in the lower parts. The somber mood in the room was broken as the cloth separated the living from the dead.

Song Caitang’s gaze was quiet. The tassels on her hairpins swayed gently in the breeze.

This case could be even more important than she imagined.