A female coroner arrived at the Jingzhao Prefecture.

Chapter 112 The Mu Residence is a Hidden Place of Filth (6)

"Rejuvenating Pill!"

Bai Zhizhi immediately became interested. She loosened her grip, threw away the wooden stick, and stepped forward to examine the medicine bottle, her tone filled with undisguised excitement, "If I take Li Mu's Youth-Preserving Pill, will I be able to stay young forever?"

"Vulgar." Song Shuyu said without hesitation: "External beauty is certainly worth pursuing, but if one only pursues appearance and ignores inner qualities, isn't that putting the cart before the horse?"

Upon hearing this, Bai Zhizhi was not convinced. She argued vehemently, "Lord Song, loving beauty is human nature. You are born with good looks, so you don't care about your appearance. But what if you were an ugly monster? Wouldn't you want to become beautiful?"

"If it's just about using normal cosmetics to nourish the skin, then that's perfectly acceptable. But to maintain one's youthful appearance forever is defying nature, like immortality, which violates the natural laws of life and death. How can anyone support that?"

Song Shuyu spoke vehemently, pointing to the glass jar, "A youth-preserving elixir obtained at the cost of human lives, would you dare to eat it? To become beautiful because of it, do you think it's worth it?"

Bai Zhizhi glanced at the deceased before abruptly withdrawing her gaze as if electrocuted. She covered her mouth with both hands and mumbled indistinctly, "I was just a little excited, I didn't really want to endorse Li Mu's heinous anti-aging pill..."

Watching the two argue, Mu Qingcheng didn't immediately take sides. He waited until they calmed down before speaking, "The matter of the Youth-Preserving Pill is merely my conjecture, and it still needs to be verified by the imperial physicians. Let's assume our conjecture is correct; then your viewpoint is entirely correct and beyond doubt. However, my lord, from Zhizhi's reaction to the Youth-Preserving Pill, we can see the world's yearning for eternal youth! But ordinary people dare not think of it, and those who dare to think of it must be Li Mu's motive for developing the Youth-Preserving Pill!"

Upon hearing this, Song Shuyu nodded repeatedly, praising him highly, "The analysis is spot on, every sentence is reasonable, truly worthy of being my coroner!"

Bai Zhizhi fully agreed with Mu Qingcheng's impartial and fair assessment, but when she heard Song Shuyu's praise laced with personal bias, she secretly made a disgusted face while he wasn't looking, thinking to herself, "This corrupt official really has the advantage of being close to the source, taking care of both public and private matters!"
Unfortunately, Mu Qingcheng was used to Song Shuyu's way of speaking and showed no sign of rejection or dislike.

Moreover, having received the adult's affirmation, Mu Qingcheng was invigorated and no longer felt dejected or uneasy. She continued, "The pills made by Li Mu must have miraculous effects on beauty and skin care, as evidenced by the speed and extent of the recovery of Liu's mother, the maid, the old woman, and Huang Yiyi's facial injuries! However, this medicine has not yet achieved Li Mu's ultimate goal; otherwise, there wouldn't be those three corpses!"

Song Shuyu lamented, "So, Li Mu's death actually prevented more innocent girls from dying tragically?"

"Objectively speaking, that's true." Mu Qingcheng pursed her lips. She felt regret for every life that was deliberately terminated, but she wasn't a saint. She held onto her beliefs about right and wrong, justice and fairness. Therefore, she could only respect reality. "This ebb and flow may not be a bad thing."

After a moment of contemplation, Song Shuyu raised a new question, "Coroner Mu, what do you think was the murderer's motive for killing Li Mu? Someone who could drive Li Mu to such lengths to make medicine must have had the ability to control and protect him. Did they abandon him after he failed to make the medicine?"

Mu Qingcheng said, "Previously, I was thinking that the two families had a feud over Li Yunyao's marriage. Li Yunyao wanted to take revenge on the Liu family, which led us to focus our attention on Liu Changqing and his son. However, we did not have any concrete evidence that the Liu family had committed murder. We could not identify the murderer, so we could not speculate on the motive. But now, if it is confirmed that these three dead people are the missing maids of the Liu family, then the feud between Li Mu and the Liu family may have other secrets, and may even be related to the person who made Li Mu make medicine."

"Well, that makes sense."

Song Shuyu paused, then suddenly remembered something, "By the way, we haven't found the crime scene where Li Mu was murdered. Could it be here?"

Reminded by this, Mu Qingcheng carefully examined every inch of the place and finally found a small amount of dried blood in the gap at the bottom of the bookshelf!
"grown ups!"

Hearing the call, Song Shuyu wanted to go over, but found that Bai Zhizhi had already thrown away the wooden stick in his hand. So he called out, "Miss Bai!"

Bai Zhizhi snorted with her nostrils pointing to the sky and said lazily, "I'm sorry, Lord Song, I don't know where I threw the stick. Let me look for it."

Seeing this, Mu Qingcheng was both amused and exasperated. She waved to Bai Zhizhi, signaling the little girl to go outside and stand guard, then walked up to Song Shuyu and directly took Song Shuyu's hand. Song Shuyu was startled, "Qingcheng?"

"It's me." Mu Qingcheng smiled. "Your intuition is truly accurate."

Song Shuyu was delighted and grabbed her hand tightly. "If Miss Bai is unreliable, then I'll rely on Coroner Mu."

Mu Qingcheng smiled but did not respond.

One is her best friend, and the other is her boss. Speaking up for either of them will make the other jealous, so it's better to stay neutral.

Upon reaching the bookshelf, Mu Qingcheng removed Song Shuyu's blindfold and said, "We can't see the glass jar from this direction, so please don't cover your eyes for now, sir."

Upon seeing the bloodstains, Song Shuyu frowned immediately. "With such a small amount of bleeding, has the scene been cleaned up?"

"Yes, there were no traces left around the bloodstains, not even footprints." Mu Qingcheng said helplessly, "If it weren't for the fact that it was hidden at the bottom of the bookshelf, we wouldn't have left even this little clue!"

Song Shuyu suddenly said, "Qingcheng, bring the lantern over here. There seems to be something over there, but I can't see it clearly."

Mu Qingcheng followed his gaze to another crevice not far from the bloodstains, where something seemed to be hidden, a dark, indistinct mass.

"My lord, there is no need for lanterns; I have a luminous pearl."

The precious item was tucked into her bosom and completely forgotten by Mu Qingcheng until now. Suddenly, she remembered it and quickly reached into her bosom, took out a small square box, and took out the luminous pearl that Bai Zhizhi had given her.

Song Shuyu asked in surprise, "Where did you come from?"

"It's a gift from Zhizhi," Mu Qingcheng said frankly.

Song Shuyu's expression was not very good. He even suspected that Bai Zhizhi was a man dressed as a woman, deliberately coming to steal his wife.

Using the light of the luminous pearl, Mu Qingcheng crouched down, reached into the crevice, and carefully took the item out.

"A sachet!"

The two exclaimed in unison!
Mu Qingcheng immediately thought of something: "This sachet is black, while the one Liu Xiao gave Yuanbao is dark blue. If we take them back and compare the fabric and stitching of the two sachets, we can find out if they were embroidered by the same person!"

Song Shuyu analyzed, "If Li Mu did indeed die here, perhaps this is what Li Mu pulled off the murderer before he died!"

(End of this chapter)