spoiled brat

Chapter 32 31. Countercurrent (1)

The young jailer, looking timid, covered his belly button with a blanket and continued to ask, "Then why is it taking so long to close the case?"

"These four people were all poisoned by arsenic, but Chen Jianshi searched all the clinics in the county and could not find anyone who had sold arsenic recently."

Coroner Chen replied casually, "Three people were intact, and one was decapitated. My guess is that the murderer saw that the fourth person was still alive, so he strangled him with a rope or something. By the way... could you describe the murderer's physique and appearance to me?"

The young jailer got angry just thinking about it, and his head ached even more: "He was a little shorter than me, thin, and his eyes... his eyes looked like those of a small animal like a cat."

"A cat?" Coroner Chen murmured softly, brush between his fingers, as if remembering something, the brush tip moving swiftly downwards.
“I understand! At first I was wondering why the killer, who clearly had a knife, used a rope to strangle the victim. Judging from your description, the killer was most likely a young woman who initially didn't want to see blood…”

"Later, she noticed the ligature marks on the neck were too obvious, so she dismembered the body and arranged the remains in a strange manner..."

Coroner Chen recalled the scene he witnessed when he first entered the prison and laughed, "He really was a child. After dismembering the body, he even drew all sorts of messy talismans on the wall to make it seem mysterious, which fooled all the people in the yamen who believed in ghosts and gods into thinking it was the work of evil spirits... How childish!"

Just then, a cat's meow came from outside the door.

The coroner, Chen, pushed open the door. It was already dark outside. He looked around but couldn't see the cat. It wasn't until he stepped on something soft and the meowing beside his feet became more urgent that he realized there was a small, dark kitten hiding in the darkness.

He moved his foot away, and the little black cat came over and leisurely licked the fish's flesh.

Black cats are unlucky, but they are really cute. Coroner Chen squatted down and rubbed the cat's head, only to find an egg lying on the ground not far away.

This is a good thing for nourishing the body.

He walked over, picked it up, wiped it clean with his sleeve, and put it in his pocket. Just as he was about to turn around and shout to the jailer in the room, "Add another egg drop soup tonight," he saw that there was another egg not far away.

One, two, three... there were more ahead. Like a fish that had taken the bait, he moved further and further away from his house and into the woods in front of it.

He collected a full seventeen eggs before stopping under an old banyan tree. There was a small cloth bag on the stone platform with a piece of paper underneath.

He weighed the cloth bag in his hand; it contained silver, about fifteen or sixteen taels. Then he picked up the letter and glanced at it in the moonlight—

They used ghosts and gods as a pretext.

Pay fifteen now, and thirty later.

The murderer bribed him to cover up the murder case.

Coroner Chen sneered, and without caring whether the murderer was still in the woods, shouted:
"You are wishful thinking!"

Catching the murderer is just as profitable, so why would you want bribes stained with human blood?
He left the silver on the spot, displaying a certain upright and unyielding spirit.

Should we throw away the eggs?
He remembered the silly look on his younger brother's face when he ate meat buns. Oh well... oh well... take it back.

In the darkness, Zhao Zhao sat on a tree branch, looking down at Chen Wu carrying eggs in his clothes as he walked home, a slightly sarcastic smile on her face.

wishful thinking?

We'll see.

Before dawn, Coroner Chen went to the county government office with the scrolls he had compiled while working through the night.

He arrived early, but the door wasn't open yet, so he had to knock on the door to wake up the people in the county office and ask, "Is Magistrate Wu here? I have important matters to report to him."

The man rubbed his eyes and waved his hand impatiently: "Why would he sleep in the yamen? He just married a fourteen or fifteen-year-old concubine, and he's at home every day, having a great time."

Coroner Chen's face showed undisguised disgust. A major case involving four deaths had occurred in the county, and these good-for-nothings were still playing around with women.

He looked down on these parasites, but he was a nobody and his voice carried little weight; if he wanted to climb the ranks, he had to suck up to his superiors.

Left with no other option, he inquired about the address of Magistrate Wu's private residence and went to visit him.

He slipped a copper coin to the gatekeeper and bowed obsequiously, saying, "Brother, please inform them no matter what. This matter concerns your master's promotion and wealth."

The gatekeeper, annoyed by the small amount he received, glanced at him disdainfully and said, "Just wait here." With that, he closed the door.

A light rain was falling, and mosquitoes were flying everywhere. Coroner Chen huddled under the eaves, his heart pounding with excitement.

As long as we help Magistrate Wu solve this major case and make him look good and establish his authority, when he asks for a transfer, Magistrate Wu will have no reason to refuse.

After the two of them received a raise, they first bought land and a house, then got married, and their lives gradually improved.

Just thinking about it made Chen the coroner smile. The wonderful life he envisioned for the future was so sweet it almost made him faint.

Once the excitement subsided, the coroner realized something was wrong: why hadn't the doorman who had taken the money come out yet?

He got up and knocked on the door, knock knock knock. The door opened, and the doorman appeared with an impatient face:

"No, no! My family won't see anyone!"

Coroner Chen's heart sank, but he was unwilling to leave. So he sat down at the door, hugging his knees, like a stone that had been misplaced.

It wasn't until midday that Magistrate Wu emerged, yawning, leisurely preparing to take a sedan chair to the county government office.

Coroner Chen's legs were so numb he couldn't move. He scrambled forward and grabbed Magistrate Wu's legs, saying, "...Sir! I've sorted out that case..."

As he spoke, he hurriedly pulled out a scroll from his pocket and respectfully, even fawningly, presented it to Magistrate Wu.

"Young Chen..." Magistrate Wu looked at him with a smile, "What case? How come I don't know about it?"

Coroner Chen's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that the murderer had also bribed Magistrate Wu?

"It's that case in the county jail..."

County Magistrate Wu rolled his eyes, pondered for a moment, and said, "How about this, let's go to the county office to talk." With that, he got into his sedan chair.

Upon hearing his words, the coroner felt a surge of warmth in his heart. He followed behind Magistrate Wu's sedan chair all the way, panting heavily, until his legs were almost thin from running.

When they arrived at the county government office, County Magistrate Wu looked refreshed, but he was covered in sweat.

Afraid of offending his superior with the fumes, he placed the neatly prepared roll of paper on the desk, stepped back a good distance, and respectfully said:

"Sir, four lives lost is no small matter; the people of the county are in a state of panic... If you can find the murderer, your prestige among the people will rise even higher..."

County Magistrate Wu pushed aside the scroll, glanced at it, and realized that this foolish subordinate was trying to give him credit.

This was originally a good thing, but he dared not and did not want to accept it, so he just smiled:
"Xiao Chen, you're a meticulous person, but sometimes you're too stubborn... A few thugs who used to bully the villagers are dead, so what's the point of investigating so thoroughly?"

The coroner was taken aback, not expecting this reaction: "The evil they committed will be punished by law. But since they died without cause, we should find out the truth."

Magistrate Wu stopped laughing, too lazy to engage in bureaucratic banter with the simpleton: "Then let me ask you, what do I need popular support for?"

Before Chen Wu could answer, he said coldly, "The next county magistrate dispatched by the imperial court is already on his way... What? Does the county magistrate expect to know as soon as he steps down that his deputy has just solved a major case and is a capable and thoughtful official?"

"Regardless of whether he thinks I'm trying to intimidate him, let's just say this: in officialdom, who would like a smart and capable subordinate who wasn't trained by them?"

"As subordinates, if we want to climb the ranks, we must learn to conceal our talents and maintain our composure. We shouldn't show off when we shouldn't, and we shouldn't reveal our faces when we shouldn't!"

Coroner Chen's heart sank lower and lower until it hit the ground. His body was covered in sweat like a layer of frost, making him look even more wilted.

“You don’t need to make a fuss about this. Didn’t the murderer draw some random talismans on the wall? Just write on the book that it’s the work of an evil spirit, and I’ll write it the same way. Go ahead.”

Magistrate Wu said no more, lit the oil lamp on the table, and burned the roll of paper that the coroner Chen had worked on all night to a few ashes: "I know you're going to such lengths to get your brother a transfer..."

The coroner stared blankly at him: "Sir..."

(End of this chapter)