A female coroner arrived at the Jingzhao Prefecture.

Chapter 76 I had no choice but to do this

Song Shuyu pondered for a moment and said, "So, to summarize, the primary scene of Li Yunyao's suicide was the outhouse between the Guanyin Temple and the northwest temple gate, which Sanhu and the short, fat man witnessed. The people who were not in the outhouse were Xie Da, Shuanzi, and Xia Yu. Shuanzi was following Xie Da and was discovered by Xie Da. Xie Da was interrogated, which corroborates their testimony. Only Xia Yu was alone!"

"And then what? Did you leave the First Madam in the outhouse and then leave?" Mu Qingcheng continued to ask.

Sanhu's face flushed with shame as he said, "The First Madam forbade us to stay any longer, nor to touch her body. She said that after her death, someone would take care of the aftermath, and told us not to worry about anything and to leave the city immediately. However, we cannot abandon the First Madam and leave. We will risk our lives to help her with whatever she wants to do."

Mu Qingcheng frowned. "So, you don't know who disposed of the First Madam's body?"

"I don't know." Sanhu shook his head, then paused, his eyes suddenly lighting up. "Could it be Xia Yu?"

Mu Qingcheng remained silent.

She pondered for a long time, her seemingly casual gaze occasionally falling on Sanhu's face. Sanhu did not flinch, seemingly without any guilt.

"My lord, send someone to Yuntai Temple..." Mu Qingcheng turned to the side and only then realized that her left hand was not free. It was lying peacefully in Song Shuyu's large and thick palm. His fingers gently held her, and the thin calluses on his fingertips seemed to be wrapped with scalding heat, which suddenly burned her face and heart.

So, the words that were about to come out were changed at the last minute, and he said instead, "Sir, why are you holding my hand?"

Her eyes were so sincere that not a single impure thought could be seen, but her face was slightly flushed, whether from shyness or simply from a fever, it was hard to tell.

Zhang, the registrar, and Sanhu, who were sitting opposite the two, suddenly looked over, but quickly looked away, their expressions quite awkward.

Song Shuyu, as if he had thrown away a hot potato, suddenly let go and retreated towards the door, stammering, "I, I am... I was worried that you would harm yourself again, so I had no choice but to do it."

"Oh, then thank you very much, sir." Mu Qingcheng did not react as strongly as he did. She remained calm and composed as usual, focusing on solving the case. "Now that we know the location of Li Yunyao's suicide, we should immediately send people to seal it off. We will go there after we have finished investigating the mortuary."

Song Shuyu inwardly cursed Mu Qingcheng for being so flirtatious without realizing it, but he spoke with utmost seriousness, "What the coroner said is quite right." After saying that, he ordered Jiang Zhan to dispatch a group of constables to immediately turn around and head to Yuntai Mountain.

With some time still to go before reaching the mortuary, Mu Qingcheng questioned the three tigers again, comparing their statements with Shuanzi's, and the results were almost identical.

The four servants belonged to three different factions, each carrying a secret mission assigned by their master. They were only aware of the affairs of their own faction, and their knowledge was superficial. Moreover, their perspectives and subjective understandings differed. For example, in Sanhu's eyes, the eldest young master and his wife were deeply in love, but when asked why they had not consummated their marriage after two years, Sanhu looked completely bewildered.

Registrar Zhang showed Song Shuyu the complete transcript of the three tigers' confessions, his brow furrowed with worry. "Sir, Coroner Mu, although we now have a lot of information about the Liu and Li families, we still have no clue who disposed of Li Yunyao's body or who murdered Li Mu. In fact, we haven't even obtained any physical evidence! The Emperor has given us seven days. Can we really solve the case?"

My darlings, let's show our support! If you can't wait for updates, you can check out my completed novel, "Dragon's Bone Mirror," a suspenseful detective story with a different kind of excitement.
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(End of this chapter)