The First Criminal Judge of the Zhenguan Era

Chapter 17: The breakthrough has been found!

Since it concerned Cheng Chumo's life and future, Cheng Yaojin's reaction was quick.

Upon receiving Cheng Chumo's plea for help, he rushed to the palace immediately, tearfully recounting to Li Shimin how difficult it had been to raise such a fine son.

Li Shimin cried so much that his head hurt.

Finally, unable to withstand Cheng Yaojin's tantrums and outbursts, Li Shimin agreed to Cheng Chumo's request.

Yun Cheng and Liu Shuyi jointly investigated the case, setting a three-day deadline to uncover the truth.

Ministry of Punishment.

Listening to Cheng Chumo's explanation, Liu Shuyi couldn't help but ask, "Why three days again? Are you all so fixated on this three-day timeframe?"

Cheng Chumo gave an awkward smile: "The murderer sent his head to the palace, which is clearly a provocation to His Majesty. If His Majesty didn't know that this case would not be easy to investigate, he wouldn't want to give it to us even for a day. Three days is the maximum period His Majesty can tolerate."

Liu Shuyi thought about it and could understand.

The murderer provoked him, and he himself felt uncomfortable, let alone Li Shimin.

However, he understood why the murderer had provoked him.

But why would the murderer provoke Li Shimin?

Didn't he know that if he angered Li Shimin, how many people would investigate him?
The difficulty of investigating alone is vastly different from that of investigating together with institutions such as the Three Judicial Offices, the Imperial Guard, and the Prefect of the Capital.

Is it because he was confident enough that he had done a flawless job of killing and silencing witnesses and was certain that he wouldn't be caught?
Or is this his way of declaring to the court that he is very dissatisfied with the court removing one of his important pawns?

If that's the case, how much audacity and capability must Zhao Chengyi's master have to dare to openly challenge the imperial court?

What would their identity be? To which faction would they belong? What would their purpose be?
After a moment of contemplation, Liu Shuyi let out a long breath, suppressing these chaotic thoughts.

Thinking about these things now is useless. The most important thing right now is to find the murderer based on the two heads in front of him!

Seeing the coroner sweating profusely, Liu Shuyi asked, "How's it going?"

The coroner wiped the sweat from his brow, looking embarrassed. "Well... with only a head and no body, it's really impossible to examine it in more detail."

"Moreover, it was during the cold spring season, so the head was completely frozen, and there wasn't even a chance for lividity to develop..."

Liu Shuyi frowned and said, "Get straight to the conclusion."

The coroner shook his head awkwardly: "We couldn't find anything, we can only confirm that she was probably not poisoned."

"You've been dawdling for ages without even detecting it, wasting my time!"

Cheng Chumo is not someone who understands the art of language, let alone now that things are so urgent that he can't afford to waste a single minute.

I initially thought that seeing the coroner walking around might bring some useful clues.

To everyone's surprise, they didn't utter a single word.

He couldn't help but look at Liu Shuyi and asked, "Master Liu, does your Ministry of Justice have any other coroners?"

It means this one won't work, quickly switch to another one.

Upon hearing Cheng Chumo's words, the coroner shrank back and whispered, "I'm already the most experienced one..."

Cheng Chumo slapped his forehead and cried out in anguish, "Is Heaven really going to destroy me?"

Liu Shuyi patted Cheng Chumo on the shoulder, signaling the coroner to leave first.

He knew there was nothing he could do about it.

In future generations, with advanced equipment and technology, even if the corpse is frozen, a lot of data can still be detected.

In ancient times, the results of autopsies depended entirely on the coroner's personal ability and experience. Without equipment and technology, whether the coroner could help was purely a matter of luck.

To encounter a coroner like Song Ci is incredibly lucky.

If you can't find it, you can only accept it by holding your nose.

It's obvious... he didn't get lucky.

Since the coroner couldn't be relied upon, Liu Shuyi had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

He came to the heads and examined the two heads, one large and one small.

After confirmation by Cheng Chumo, the head that the eagle threw into the palace was indeed the head of Zhao Chengyi's only six-year-old son.

Zhao Chengyi and his family of three were all killed.

His son, Zhao Zhi, had his hair styled in a childish bun, and his innocent face was full of bewilderment.

He seemed to have never expected that the person in front of him would try to kill him.

Perhaps the murderer acted quickly, and Zhao Zhi died before he could even feel the pain.

This made his face far less distorted, angry, and desperate than Zhao Chengyi's wife's, which immediately evoked a sense of resentment.

If there is such a thing as the chance in this world for someone to become a vengeful ghost due to resentment, then the chance of Zhao becoming a vengeful ghost is absolutely extremely high!
This also means that... there is a certain probability that she sensed the murderer's malice in advance and struggled or begged for mercy.

But the result was clearly meaningless.

Zhao Chengyi's wife had disheveled hair, and her long, smooth hair was stained with some bluish-gray powder.

Liu Shuyi raised his hand, pinched the bluish-gray powder between his fingertips, and examined it closely.

"Is the gray stuff dust?"

"What about the blue one?" Liu Shuyi was deep in thought when suddenly a voice, full of heroic spirit yet clear and cool, as melodious as ice colliding, rang in his ears: "The blue one is incense ash."

"Incense ash?"

Upon hearing this unfamiliar yet pleasant voice, Liu Shuyi instinctively turned his head to look.

Then two figures walked over.

One of the figures was very familiar to him; it was Du Gou, the gentle and refined Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, who had worked seamlessly with him yesterday.

But another figure caught his eye.

This is a woman draped in a white fox fur coat. She is tall and slender with long legs. There is a jade ornament between her eyebrows. Her eyes are clear as water, like a deep spring in the Tianshan Mountains. They are cool and aloof, giving people a sense of coldness that keeps them at a distance.

Just like the lotus in the old textbook, it can be admired from afar, but not touched.

She carried a black wooden box on her back, which accentuated the delicate and fair skin of her body.

The words just spoken were those of this woman.

Du Gou introduced, "Master Liu, this is my younger sister."

"Du Ying." The woman cupped her hands in a gesture of respect, behaving with a masculine grace despite her aloof demeanor.

Du Gou hurriedly explained, "My younger sister has been sickly since childhood. In order to cure her illness, my father sent her to Zhongnan Mountain to be treated by the Medicine King Sun Simiao."

"Afterwards, my younger sister followed Physician Sun to cultivate herself, learning medicine and pharmacology. She only returned to Chang'an at noon today."

"Therefore, my younger sister sometimes acts a bit unruly, and I hope that Master Liu will understand."

Liu Shuyi was somewhat surprised to hear this.

Unexpectedly, the woman with the unique temperament in front of me was not only the daughter of Du Ruhui, but also a disciple of Sun Simiao, the Medicine King. Her ability to cultivate in the deep mountains for several years speaks volumes about her endurance.

He smiled and returned the greeting: "Miss Du has a legendary life, is very heroic, and acts with a straightforward manner, which is quite normal."

Du Gou breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Liu Shuyi was not displeased by his sister's unusual behavior.

His father asked him to be a matchmaker, but he had no idea how to do that! In addition, his sister was completely different from a well-educated and refined young lady, so he was really terrified that the marriage would be cut short before it even began.

It's really difficult for him.

“When I was practicing with my master in Zhongnan Mountain, my master would often burn incense in the temple. The ash after the incense burned out looked like this.”

Du Ying looked at the blue powder on Liu Shuyi's fingertips and spoke.

Burning incense at a Taoist temple?

Liu Shuyi's eyes flickered, and some thoughts began to form in his mind.

At that moment, he saw the aloof and elegant disciple of the Medicine King suddenly come to the table where the head was placed, and then reach out his fair white hand to pick up Zhao's head.

Looking at the person who was both heroic and aloof, like a fairy, picking up the head full of resentment and examining it from all angles, pinching and poking it here and there... Cheng Chumo's eyes widened in astonishment.

"This...this..." He opened his mouth wide, unable to speak coherently for a long time.

Liu Shuyi was also somewhat surprised.

Because he noticed that Du Ying, who picked up the head, did not show the slightest discomfort that an ordinary person would feel when facing a head. Instead, her clear and cold eyes were full of seriousness, as if she were holding not a human head, but a precious piece of jewelry that a woman would love.

"Minister Du, what's this about Miss Du?" Liu Shuyi couldn't help but ask Du Gou.

Fearing that Liu Shuyi might misunderstand that his sister was a monster, Du Gou quickly explained, "My sister learned many skills from Sun Lang. She can not only cure diseases, but also perform autopsies through her medical skills and experience. Three years ago, she helped me examine a strange corpse and helped me solve the case."

"But she went to Zhongnan Mountain again not long after, so not many people know about her abilities. This time, my father asked me to bring her here, saying that you might need my sister's help."

She can perform autopsies?
But thinking about it, forensic pathologists do need to study medical theory, and if their medical skills are high enough, they can indeed switch to forensic medicine...

Will she let herself get lucky?
Liu Shuyi looked directly at the beautiful yet aloof female forensic doctor and asked, "Miss Du, what did you find?"

Du Ying looked at Liu Shuyi with her clear eyes and saw that Liu Shuyi's eyes were full of expectation, which was completely different from the suspicion and surprise of the dark-skinned man next to her. This made a hint of surprise flash in her cold eyes.

After all, when he was asked to perform an autopsy on his brother three years ago, his brother was full of surprise and suspicion.

I never expected that this handsome man would trust me so much.

The coldness in her voice lessened somewhat as she said, "Zhao Chengyi's wife has obvious scars on her face, and the scars show signs of redness and swelling. It can be confirmed that these scars were caused before she died."

Liu Shuyi's eyes flashed, and he quickly realized what Du Ying meant. He said, "So, she fought with the murderer before she died?"

"It may not be a fight; it could simply be being beaten."

"It doesn't matter..."

Liu Shuyi's mind raced as he continued, "Are there any signs of post-mortem injury?"

"No."

"No...that means there was no mutilation of the corpse after death, no dragging..."

He suddenly looked at the bewildered head of the child beside him, his eyes fixed on the small head: "So that's how it is!"

"I understand!"

Suddenly, Liu Shuyi turned his gaze to the group and said, "I know where they were murdered!"

(End of this chapter)