Timeline

The sudden change in Qi Yan’s expression was very different from the impression everyone had previously. He now looked extremely tough and incisive, and for some reason, Pang Qian actually decided not to engage him in an argument, but turned to pick a fight with others instead.

Others like Lu Shen, who kept insisting that he was the killer. Others like Fourth Missy Gan, who was easy to bully.

Lu Shen was certain that Pang Qian was the murderer and kept arguing with him, afraid that this murderer might escape if he didn’t do so.

Fourth Missy Gan started crying.

Most men couldn’t stand watching a woman cry, especially one as pretty as Fourth Missy Gan. Manager Liu couldn’t stand it and went over to try and console her. The Lu family butler, Loo Zhong, didn’t want the atmosphere to remain so tense, so he tried to help to calm everyone down too.

But the more they spoke, the more heated the air became. Niu Baoshan started behaving like a madman again as he sat down and laughed maniacally, said that none of them was a good person, and that they were all robbers and whores. He used every curse word he could find in his brain and the entire hall was in chaos.

Out of all the people connected to the case who were here, the leader of the Green Gang, Cao Zhang, was the quietest. He did not participate in any argument and just sat quietly to the side, sipped his tea and watched on without saying a single word. His narrow eyes would glance in one direction from time to time and his lips would curl into a sarcastic smile. It was hard to say whom he was laughing at inside.

Because of the mess it was becoming, the questioning had to come to an end quickly.

It hadn’t been a failed endeavor anyway. At least most of the questions that ought to be asked had been asked. Any further questions wouldn’t yield any real answers even if they were asked right now, given the tension in the hall.

Wen Yuansi checked with Zhao Zhi if he had anything to say. Zhao Zhi didn’t have anything to add, so Wen Yuansi calmed everyone down and got all of them to leave. He told them that they were not allowed to leave the city for the next few days and that if their help was required during the investigation, the authorities would summon them again.

There were no important pieces of information exchanged during this time, so Song Caitang stopped observing them and looked down at the tea in her hands as she started thinking about what she had just heard.

The people here seemed random, but they were actually connected in some way or another.

For example, there was Fourth Missy Gan and Niu Baoshan who both seemed very concerned about what happened more than ten years ago and took issue with Lu Guangzong. Manager Liu and Cao Zhang were trying to earn money for their businesses. If one thought further about it, some government and merchant relationship was involved here, like a new law that made things difficult for the merchants, so they needed the local officials to help them get around it or something like that… Song Caitang figured that Zhao Zhi and Wen Yuansi’s investigation efforts would probably yield results along this line.

Pang Qian wanted to progress in his court official career, which was something almost every official was preoccupied with. Just like how cutting off a merchant’s source of income was like murdering one’s parents, Lu Guangzong’s transfer to Luanze had shattered his dreams and his efforts all went down the drain, so it made sense for Pang Qian to feel angry.

Lu Shen was the son of the victim and was grieved by the loss of his father, but the way that Lu Guangzong went missing made him rather suspicious. But too much time had passed and it was probably going to take a long time to investigate this part.

Right now, Song Caitang was thinking about the slight panic that appeared in Lu Shen’s eyes before he argued back when Pang Qian said that Lu Shen bore a grudge against Lu Guangzong.

There were definitely some disagreements between this father and son.

But it was hard to say how bad the disagreement was and if it was enough to make one commit murder. Song Caitang felt that Lu Shen seemed genuinely heartbroken over the death of his father.

Loo Zhong and Qi Yan’s involvement in this case was a little strange.

The former seemed like he was here only because it was his job to follow his employer around and handle unforeseen circumstances. The latter seemed like he really just happened to be around when this happened and didn’t have any motive to kill.

She subconsciously rubbed a finger against the rim of the teacup. The color of her slim, fair finger and the smooth green of the cup went together well. It was calming yet attractive.

But she didn’t notice at all as she started sorting out the timeline of events in her mind.

Some time after 7pm, Lu Guangzong had appeared at the pub. But because he wasn’t dressed anything like how he usually was, despite how everyone in Luanze would have recognized his face especially if he were dressed in his work clothes, nobody actually recognized him at that point.

The pub was located in a small alley and had all sorts of customers in the first place. As long as they were able to pay up, the owner didn’t care how unkempt Lu Guangzong looked. In fact, as the owner of a pub, he was long used to seeing all sorts of people walk in, so he didn’t take special note of Lu Guangzong and didn’t notice anything unusual about him.

The rest of the customers were no different. Besides glancing at the door when Lu Guangzong first entered the pub, most wouldn’t have bothered after that.

Fourth Missy Gan said that she had only recognized him after he had sat down for a long time. This “long time” was about half an hour.

After that came Niu Baoshan and Manager Liu. Niu Baoshan had hated Lu Guangzong for a long time because of something that happened in the past, and that’s why he loved drinking so much too. He had very strong feelings toward Lu Guangzong and Fourth Missy Gan, so he drank even more when he spotted them “exchanging flirty glances”. But he got drunk not long after that and passed out on the table. So, he had no idea what happened later.

Manager Liu said that he didn’t know the old man was Lu Guangzong but had talked to him, because Lu Guangzong had banged into him and made him drop his second flask of wine. That was slightly past 8pm.

After that, Cao Zhang arrived.

Cao Zhang had come because he had an appointment, but when he arrived, he spotted a pretty girl and decided to flirt with her before going over to where Lu Guangzong was.

But shortly after he sat down, a subordinate came to tell him that something had happened to the gang and he had to settle it personally. So, he told Lu Guangzong to wait for a while and he would return once he was done. Lu Guangzong agreed to wait and continued drinking at his table.

However, he had a lot on his mind and looked worried. He ordered wine but didn’t drink much of it. He just kept looking out of the window and seemed to be waiting for someone.

At 9.30pm, Fourth Missy Gan finished selling her food and got ready to pack up and go home. But her son had run to the bathroom because of a stomachache and didn’t return for quite some time. She didn’t know what happened to him and was worried, so she entered the pub to ask someone to help take a look and ran into Lu Guangzong, who had just come out from the bathroom. He told her that Gan Zhixuan was fine, so she felt relieved, thanked him, then returned to her stall.

Not long after that, Gan Zhixuan came out of the bathroom. But because he had been squatting for too long, they waited for his legs to feel better before packing up and leaving for home.

During this time, neither mother nor son had noticed Lu Guangzong, so they didn’t know if he was still in the pub, who he had met with or whether anything had happened to him.

But when they walked into the alley behind, Fourth Missy Gan spotted Pang Qian in his work clothes.

And throughout all of this, Qi Yan was around.

He liked a good crowd and reached the pub early, and left very late. He had noticed how poorly dressed Lu Guangzong was, but it was too dark for him to recognize the old man. He had spotted Fourth Missy Gan and her son, Manager Liu, Cao Zhang and Pang Qian.

But because his own entertainment came first, these were merely passing observations. His main business at the pub was to drink, so he didn’t know if anything happened to Lu Guangzong or what time he left.

He was only certain that at around 10.30pm, he remembered the poorly dressed man and looked over to find that he was already gone.

Pang Qian, on the contrary, denied being there at that hour.

He said that he had gone there to drink in the afternoon, but did not go back at night…

Song Caitang frowned. That was all she got so far.

The timeline was very clear. According to Fourth Missy Gan’s statement, Lu Guangzong was still alive at 9.30pm. At 10.30pm, Qi Yan said that he noticed that Lu Guangzong was gone. That time matched the signs on the body. If nothing else unusual happened, then Lu Guangzong must have died around this hour.

The surroundings were crowded and noisy, and the lighting was poor. Who could have taken Lu Guangzong away quietly, killed him and thrown him into the pigsty?

Did this person kill the man first, made Lu Guangzong look too drunk to walk and carried him away? Or did they trick Lu Guangzong into leaving the pub, then strike?

How was this murder carried out? Why did the body look like it had drowned? What water was used? The best way to verify statements was to make sure that the statements of two unrelated persons matched. Qi Yan and Fourth Missy Gan didn’t know each other, so they couldn’t have corroborated beforehand. Since both of them claimed to have seen Pang Qian in his work clothes, then this person must exist.

Who could it be?

Pang Qian himself? Or someone dressed like him?

Was this person the killer? Or had the killer already chosen his scapegoat beforehand and was trying to frame the official?

The people connected to this case… Some were lying, some were trying to hide something, and some… some had other plans.

Did the ones who claimed to be there really there during the time they said they were? And the ones who said they weren’t there, were they really not there?

Everyone connected to the case left, but Qi Yan didn’t leave.

Neither did Miss Ling.

Qi Yan had heard from goodness knows where that a skeleton had been sent to the courthouse and Song Caitang was examining it, while Wen Yuansi was hoping to get the report by today. So, Qi Yan refused to leave and Zhao Zhi couldn’t see to get him to leave. He shamelessly insisted, “I want to go and have a look too! I don’t get to see any bodies getting dissected, but I don’t mind watching her examine the bones! I just want to see Miss Song at work!”

As he spoke, he ambled over like a monkey and fanned himself cheekily as he winked at Song Caitang, “Miss Song is so pretty, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind~~”

Song Caitang could practically hear those cringe-inducing ~~ in his voice.

Ling Qianqian refused to leave too. Her face paled when she heard the word “skeleton” and was clearly not interested in seeing them at all, but…

She glanced at Zhao Zhi.

Her face turned red.

The reason didn’t matter. She just wanted to remain by her Zhao-gege’s side.

She ran over to hook Song Caitang’s arm and looked up at Song Caitang with a pure and bright smile, “Me too! Song-jiejie, won’t you let us have a look?”

Song Caitang blinked a few times. Song… jiejie?

Then again, her real age was quite a lot older than this girl, so it was normal for Ling Qianqian to call her jiejie. She was used to being called just Song-jie¹ in her previous life. She didn’t think that adding one more “jie” would make it sound so sweet, it felt a little mushy.

She glanced at Zhao Zhi, then glanced at Wen Yuansi. Neither said no, so she agreed to it, “Alright then, come with me.”

Qi Yan let out a “woohoo!” and didn’t even wave his fan about, “I’m going for an eye-opening experience!”

Ling Qianqian patted her cheeks lightly to encourage herself. She wanted to make sure she didn’t do anything to embarrass herself in front of Zhao Zhi.

But her dreams turned out very differently from reality. The moment she walked into the corpse examining room and saw the two black holes in the skull that were staring at the door, she let out a little scream and fainted on the spot.

As her cousin, Qi Yan was a little embarrassed.

He caught Ling Qianqian and laughed awkwardly as he said, “She’s a young lady and isn’t the strongest, but it’s alright, she’ll be fine after taking a nap. Don’t worry about her.”

Thankfully, they had brought enough maids along, including some who were pretty strong and even knew martial arts. They came to carry Ling Qianqian away and brought her to a room that Wen Yuansi had arranged for to rest.

Song Caitang and the rest were obviously carrying on with the examination.

More than ten years had passed, so it was impossible to dig up a complete set of bones, but at least the bones had held up pretty well beneath the heavy soil. The bones were all separated and were covered in wet mud, so they were very dirty.

After they had arrived in the courthouse, Song Caitang had washed all the bones and placed them in the right position on the table. The bones were now neatly placed and very clean.

Qi Yan hopped over, “Wow. That’s amazing. Did you arrange the bones yourself?”

Song Caitang smiled faintly, “Yes.”

“How do you know where each bone is supposed to be?”

“I learned about it.”

“WOW! That’s amazing!” Qi Yan’s eyes lit up as he pushed past Zhao Zhi to squeeze in next to Song Caitang, “Can bones tell you anything about the person?”

Song Caitang nodded, “Yes, they can.”

“But there’s no more flesh left on them, so how is that possible? They can talk to you?” Qi Yan looked reverently at the bones, “But they can’t talk.”

“Didn’t I explain this earlier?” Song Caitang smiled, “They can’t talk, but I can.”

“Look over here. The pelvic bone is long but narrow, the surface is rough, the longitudinal diameter of the upper pelvic opening is larger than the transverse diameter, it’s shaped like the human heart, the pelvic cavity is also high and narrow and shaped like a funnel. The pubic symphysis is high and arched like the angle our second and third fingers make when stretched…“

“Everything about it is telling you that this bone belonged to a man.”

After that, she started with pointing to the skull, “The skull is just starting to fuse,” her fingers continued pointing to the various bones she referred to, “along with the collarbones, the shoulder blades, the hip, and the thigh bones. All their ends have fused. If you add those to the degree to which the teeth have worn down, all these signs tell you that he was between 20 to 24 years of age. It should be accurate.”

Qi Yan’s eyes were round and wide and it took him a long time to find his voice again, “What about wounds? How could you look for signs of those? There’s no blood or bruising since they’re just bones.”

“There are many ways to do that.” Song Caitang opened the window and pointed to the light coming in from outside. “If you put the bones against the light and check carefully, you will be able to see traces of a fracture, if that happened before. You could also cook the bones in a special mixture, or you could douse the bones in oil. If the bones have been broken before, the color would change and become more transparent. Or, you could use a faster and easier method, like…“

Song Caitang picked up the calligraphy brush on a table by the side and waved it, “You can use a brush to paint ink on it, then wash it off with water. Black marks will definitely be left behind in any cracks on the bones.”

Qi Yan was silent for a few moments. He was in awe.

After a long time, he looked up again and spoke with some difficulty, “What about… cause of death? What was his name? Who was he? Are we able to find out?” It was hard to tell if he was just too overwhelmed or if he was finally getting cold feet.

Song Caitang’s gaze deepened and she nodded, “Every person’s bones are different and they are deeply affected by the experiences of the person during their lifetime. If this person’s skeleton has unique signs, we’ll be able to find out who he was very easily.”