Black Lotus Concubine's Case-solving Notes

"What nonsense! Wang Da's body is still in the morgue! How dare you say he is still alive!"

Feng Jia turned her eyes to the side and said slowly, "Of course the lawyer told me."

"When did I ever say that!" The blue-robed lawyer's eyes widened. Facing the inquiring gazes of the prefect and the yamen runners, he felt sweat pouring down his back. "Thank you, young lady! I have no grudge against you! Why are you accusing me? The prefect was here too. When did I ever say that Wang Da was still alive?"

Feng Jia smiled faintly: "That's what you said when you read your confession just now."

"Nonsense!" The lawyer immediately brushed aside the confession and read angrily: "This confession clearly says: The four members of Wang's family were burned to death in their home. After examination by the coroner, the four had died of poisoning before the fire started. Three of them were sleeping on the bed in the east room when they died, namely Wang and his wife and their son Wang Da. The other body was sleeping in the east wing, that is Wang's daughter-in-law He..."

The lawyer's voice became smaller and smaller, and every word he said seemed to hit him on the head with a club. He looked up embarrassedly, only to see Xie Lanzhao looking at her with his back straight, a faint smile on the corner of his mouth. He didn't look like a prisoner at all, but more like a prefect than the bewildered prefect in the court. He was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.

"Wrong..." the lawyer murmured.

"What's wrong?" the prefect asked anxiously.

"The bodies are in the wrong position. The poison took effect during the day, right at lunchtime. According to the dose, these people would have suffered from severe abdominal pain in less than a minute and would have struggled to the ground. How could they have had time to go back to their rooms and lie on their beds?" Feng Jia continued, "Even if the poison took a long time to take effect and they went back to their rooms, Wang Da's position is wrong. Why was he lying in the main room, next to his mother? Instead of sleeping in the east wing with his wife?"

The hall fell into silence.

Feng Jia said, "Continue reading."

The lawyer wiped the sweat from his forehead, nodded and read: "After the on-site inspection, all four people died of arsenic poisoning. The time of death should be between noon and noon today... Wang Da's face was burned the most severely, and his appearance is basically unrecognizable..."

……

"We can't identify his appearance, so... is it just like what Miss Xie said, that the body is not Wang Da?"

"If it's not Wang Da, who else could it be?"

The onlookers were whispering, and the prefect slammed the table in annoyance, "Silence!"

Feng Jia bent over the desk, his voice was not loud but very intimidating: "Since the case is still in doubt, why not ask the coroner to come over and perform an autopsy! Give me a clear name! Give justice to the Wang family of Shicheng!"

The prefect sat in the hall, listening to the people's discussions below. He glanced at Xie Lanzhao, who was lying on the ground and refused to get up without an autopsy. He finally compromised and ordered the guards beside him: "Just do as Miss Xie said. Go and ask the coroner to come over... Wait, forget it. Go to Xu's house in the south of the city and ask Mr. Xu to come over directly."

Coroner Xu was originally the best coroner in the capital and had a long-standing reputation. Three years ago, he returned to his hometown due to illness and bought a house in the south of Shicheng. He no longer appeared in public, but occasionally when there were difficult cases, he would give face to the prefect and come out to help.

About an incense stick of time later, the guards came in with a man wearing a gray linen shirt and his face wrapped in a white scarf.

The man was in his eighties. He did not wear a crown. His messy long hair was tied casually behind his head. There were many silver threads hidden in his black hair. His forehead was covered with wrinkles. He dragged one leg and walked with a severe tremor, as if he was limping.

"Wang Da's" body was then carried out.

Coroner Xu bowed slightly to the prefect, dragged his crippled leg to the hall, and took out the knife and hammer used by the coroner from the box he carried with him. He wiped them carefully, and then said to the prefect, "Prefect... ahem, shall we perform an autopsy right now?"

He coughed a few times, and his voice seemed deeper and hoarser than usual.

The prefect nodded, and coroner Xu did not delay any longer and lifted the white cloth covering the corpse. "Wang Da's" face was burnt beyond recognition, and his entire body was pale and swollen, with pits and bumps on the surface. Red blisters could be vaguely seen under the charcoal black skin. His two pitch-black eye sockets were wide open, looking empty and terrifying.

"Sir...you'd better step aside." Coroner Xu turned around and said to the blue-robed lawyer who was standing aside and had turned pale.

The lawyer reluctantly said, "No...it's okay."

"This young lady..." Coroner Xu looked hesitantly at Feng Jia who was standing on the side.

Feng Jia skillfully poured ginger and vinegar on a white towel, covered her mouth and nose, and said, "If this body is really Wang Da, he has raised me for thirteen years and is like a family member to me. I am naturally not afraid. If it is not Wang Da, then it must be related to the murderer. Since he is an enemy, I am even less afraid. Coroner Xu can only perform the autopsy."

Coroner Xu did not answer any more questions. He used force on his wrist and cut the knife neither too fast nor too slow.

"Wang Da's" body was cut open at the throat, and bright yellow fat oozed out along the path of the knife.

The lawyer felt his stomach churning, turned around and ran, leaning against the wall and vomiting.

The sound of retching could also be heard faintly from the onlookers.

Coroner Xu did not stop his work, his knife moved like a dragon and snake, and he completed the operation in one go. However, he still found a chance to glance sideways and cast a glance at the person behind him.

The woman was about thirteen or fourteen years old, wearing a ragged cloth dress, with a mahogany hairpin inserted diagonally in her hair, which made her face look thin and haggard. Her facial features were bright and delicate, and her almond-shaped eyes were shaped like glass, with a pair of heroic eyebrows. She had a very thin waist and a slender figure, like a willow branch swaying in the spring breeze in March, soft but tough.

Her eyes were fixed on the corpse, and there was no discomfort on her face from beginning to end.

Half an incense stick later, Coroner Xu put away his knife and knelt in the hall.

"Mr. Xu, how is it?"

"My dear magistrate... cough cough... the deceased is a male, and judging by the bone joints, he should be around fifty years old. His throat is dark brown, but there is no poison residue in his stomach. There is a bowl-shaped wound on the back of his head, and it is believed that he was killed by a blunt object hitting the back of his head, and then he was poisoned after death. The time of death should be March 14, which is between the night before yesterday and the daytime yesterday. The right lung is blackened, which is different from that of ordinary people, because he has been accompanied by oil smoke for many years. There is a significant difference in the length of his legs, and he is a lame man."

"It's not poison? He was poisoned after death? But the other three died of poison..."

"About fifty... and a cripple?"

"Then this corpse is definitely not Wang Da! Wang Da is in his prime, thirty years old. And Old Xu also said that this person is accompanied by oil smoke. This Wang Da is a hunter, and there is no way he can be called a cripple!"

It was really strange. How could Wang Da's body turn into another person? Or was he poisoned after death? What was he trying to cover up? Who was this person? What was his connection with the murderer? Why was he soaked in water after death? Where did the real Wang Da go? Was he dead or alive? The prefect rubbed his swollen eyes, bewildered.

Another big question mark was discovered: "Mr. Xu, you said that the body died between the night before yesterday and yesterday? But how come the coroner at the government office found that it was noon today? There is actually a day's difference?"

Coroner Xu said, "My Lord, the corpse is pale and swollen, with bulging eyes. It must have been frozen in ice water overnight. The temperature caused the corpse spots to form slowly, so the coroner of the government office misjudged the time of death."

The hall was silent.

Everyone was caught up in the complexity of this case and couldn't figure it out.

"If there is nothing else, ahem... I will take my leave first." Coroner Xu carried the wooden box on his back, bowed to the prefect, and then left first, dragging his crippled leg. His hunched figure had not left the government office for long, but he felt a pair of eyes following him since he left, and he could not help but turn his head slightly.

The girl who was as slender as a willow branch.

She stood in the hall, the afternoon sun making her look transparent and flawless, her eyes as deep as a lake, and she was staring at him closely.

Coroner Xu retracted his gaze, as if he didn't care, and walked away with one foot deep and one foot shallow. From the gate of the government office to West Street, the hunched body finally turned into the corner of the street and disappeared. Not long after, a young man in dark purple brocade clothes and a gauze crown on his head walked out.

He pursed his lips tightly, his temperament was indifferent and detached, not like a person of the mundane world. He looked in the direction of the government office from afar, his eyes were as cold as a knife.