A female coroner arrived at the Jingzhao Prefecture.

Chapter 5 The Double Standards of Lord Song
Song Shuyu took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the suffocating feeling that lingered in his heart.

He could not accept Mu Qingcheng's speculation. He could accept that the deceased was a woman, and he could barely accept the result of two deaths. However, he absolutely could not accept that the deceased had stabbed her own unborn child to death, resulting in suicide.

How could a mother so cruelly kill her own child? As the sages said, "Parents who love their children plan far ahead for them." Even ordinary people understand the principle that a mother's love makes her strong. How could the daughter of a scholar in the Hanlin Academy, raised on the classics, commit such an inhuman act?
Therefore, he hoped that Mu Qingcheng was wrong, even if it was just a misjudgment. If it was murder, he could transfer all his anger to the killer. The word "mother" would still be sacred and inviolable in his heart.

While Song Shuyu was in a daze, Mu Qingcheng was already examining the dagger. She looked at it over and over, and the patterns on the hilt seemed familiar, as if she had seen them somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where.

"Coroner Mu, is there something wrong with this knife?" Seeing her pondering for a long time, her brows furrowed and her silence, Lin Shuban couldn't help but become curious.

Just as Mu Qingcheng was about to reply, she caught a glimpse of the absent-minded Song Shuyu out of the corner of her eye. She paused, then swallowed her thoughts and simply said, "I don't know. Let's investigate more carefully when we get back to the yamen." It was best to keep the uncertain clues to herself for now, lest Song Shuyu be prejudiced again and affect her emotions.

Lin Shuban then asked, "Where is the scabbard?"

That's right, no one found the scabbard from beginning to end. The constables searched the area around the crime scene thoroughly, but found nothing!
But Mu Qingcheng didn't think so, because the more she looked at it, the more she felt that she had seen this dagger before, but it was just a dagger, without a scabbard!
"Coroner Mu, once the preliminary examination is complete, cover the deceased." Song Shuyu's voice was muffled, and compared to his initial high spirits, he was noticeably less energetic now.

He didn't want to see the dead again, especially their swollen bellies, which made him imagine the miserable state of the infants curled up inside.

Mu Qingcheng replied, "Yes!"

She put the dagger into the evidence box, then called for a stretcher to be brought over. She lifted the deceased onto the stretcher, bound him with strips of cotton cloth, and covered him with a white cloth.

Zhang, the registrar, was in charge of registering the people who entered and left Yuntai Mountain that day. This was a big job, with many people and many things to ask, and it would take several hours to complete.

However, he suddenly turned back, his steps quick and hurried, his face showing the excitement of having just learned a big surprise. "My lord, Coroner Mu, guess what information I just got?"

Mu Qingcheng smiled slightly. Since she knew the deceased was pregnant, it was most likely related to the deceased's husband, Liu Pei. But she couldn't say it, lest it coincide with the adult's thoughts and steal the adult's thunder, which might worsen the adult's mood.

Sure enough, the exceptionally intelligent adult frowned, his gaze inadvertently drifting back to the deceased on the stretcher, and said, "The child's father?"

Registrar Zhang nodded immediately, his flattery flowing naturally, "As expected of Your Excellency, truly wise and capable..."

"Stop talking nonsense and get to the point!" Song Shuyu didn't give him a chance and kicked Zhang, the registrar, directly.

"Liu Pei, the eldest son of the Ningyuan General's Mansion, was the husband of the deceased Li Yunyao. He passed away from illness half a year ago!"

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(End of this chapter)