Chapter 3 Mr. Jin is a woman

Hearing this, Li Jin was clearly very surprised.

Since he took charge of the Six Doors, accurately determining the time of death is a basic skill possessed by all coroners within the department. However, only about 30% of them can deduce the identity of the deceased from the details of the body, and even make a preliminary inference about the type of case.

Among them, the person in front of me is the first one who can deduce the murderer's situation from the traces alone, besides the old coroner with white hair.

It would be impossible to say there wouldn't be some surprises.

However, Li Jin was always one to keep her emotions hidden. She still had a slight smile on her lips as she slowly picked up the sharp knife she had just used and examined it from head to toe for a moment.

"What's your name?" he asked.

Upon hearing this, Jin Shucai snapped out of her hysteria.

Oh no, I was too focused and talked too much. I hope this "idle prince" will notice me now.

She hesitated for a moment, her lips pressed into a thin line, and somewhat reluctantly bowed, saying as she did so, "This humble one is Jin Shu."

Li Jin nodded and put down the knife. Unexpectedly, she pulled Zhou Zheng to her side, made him turn around, and put his hands behind his back: "In your opinion, when the murderer tied her hands and feet with hemp rope, was it like this?"

Before him, Zhou Zheng had his hands behind his back with his wrists crossed, while Li Jin simply took a piece of the hand-binding strap and quickly tied his hands together in a knot.

"Look, isn't that right?"

Seeing that he was really studying the case, Jin Shu's slightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and she squatted down to carefully examine Zhou Zheng's elbows.

“That shouldn’t be the case.” She stood up and showed Li Jin the girl’s wrist. “The way Prince Jing tied her up shows that one hand is on the outside and the other on the inside. But look, the marks on this girl’s left wrist are on the outside, and the same is true for her right wrist. There are no marks on the inside.”

She raised her hands, palm to palm, wrist to wrist: "So... it should be like this."

Li Jin looked at her fair and slender wrist, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He untied the bandage from his other hand and slipped it around her wrist twice, binding her hands together under Jin Shu's astonished gaze.

"Is that how it is?"

Although he had a smile on his face, his eyes were unusually cold.

While he was tying her up, he deliberately examined her bones closely.

His wrists were slender, with inconspicuous joints and subtle bone structure. When he looked up from below, the Adam's apple, which should have been there, was instead sunken inward.

In that case, everything makes sense.

Liu Cheng'an had kept this "Mr. Jin," who was proficient in the language of corpses, a secret for so many years. No matter which government office came to borrow him, he would simply and decisively say "no."

The coroner's black robes he wore looked unusually large on him, and he was not good at talking, exuding an eerie aura.

All of this led Li Jin to only one reasonable conclusion: the "Mr. Jin" in front of him was a woman.

But Jin Shu's attention was entirely focused on how the rope was tied around her wrist. She looked at it carefully from all angles, and after considering the girl lying there, she repeatedly deliberated in her mind before finally nodding.

“Yes, that’s right.” Jin Shu paused, “but the rope is much thicker than the one His Highness Prince Jing used.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Liu Cheng'an, who had returned with the protective book, was in such a hurry that he became careless. He only glanced into the room before turning around and vomiting.

Li Jin raised an eyebrow, asked no more questions, and strode over to Liu Cheng'an's side. Seeing him vomiting violently, she reached out and took the book in her hand, flipping through a couple of pages.

"Lord Liu, how dare you!" he said calmly as he read.

These words made Liu Cheng'an's back tingle and his face turn even worse. He was wondering if Jin Shu's identity had been exposed.

But Li Jin seemed to be doing it on purpose, changing the subject and saying with a smile, "You have such an excellent constable, yet you keep him hidden. Do you know how many people I hear complaining about this every year?"

So it wasn't that his identity had been exposed. Liu Cheng'an quickly breathed a sigh of relief, wiped his mouth, and his face was a mixture of grievance and forced laughter, making for a particularly interesting expression:

"This is not my fault. Ms. Jin has a younger brother who just turned six this year and hasn't started school yet. Even if I asked her to help in other prefectures, she wouldn't go because of her family."

Li Jin remained outwardly calm, but he heard everything clearly in his mind.

That's right, she also has a younger brother. If we want to get her into the Six Doors, we're really afraid she won't have any weaknesses and won't be able to control us.

The more Li Jin thought about it, the deeper his smile became. He turned to look at Jin Shu, who was standing at the doorway: "Sir, are you free later?"

Jin Shu was stunned for a moment.

Let alone the fact that she has a younger brother at home waiting for her to go back and cook, even if she really had free time, who would want to cook with this Prince Jing?

Every minute you linger around him increases the risk of being exposed.

But just as she was about to decline, Liu Cheng'an quickly interrupted, "Don't worry about Jin Rong. I'll bring him to my residence later. For the next few days, you'll only be under the command of Prince Jing until the case is closed."

He spoke clearly and distinctly, his face radiating a strong will to survive.

The only thing missing is a flashing lantern above their heads, clearly displaying the message, "Whether or not we can keep our official hats depends on you."

Jin Shu frowned, looked at the two people in front of her, raised her hand, and asked weakly, "Could you untie this first?"

The rope that Li Jin had tied around his wrist was still tightly bound there. Just like the fate of the two of them, from that moment on, their destinies, which should have been parallel lines, unexpectedly intersected because of a case.

As dusk approached, a thin, pale blue veil enveloped the sky above Dingzhou City.

On one side is a fiery deep red, and on the other side is a deep navy blue. Beneath the graceful transition between the two colors lies the bustling evening market of Dingzhou.

Zhou Zheng remained expressionless, his hand gripping the hilt of his knife tightly. Jin Shu followed behind Li Jin, staring blankly at the rope in her hand.

Both of them had their wrists tied, so how did this man manage to untie them so quickly on his own?

As for his own, he had to exert tremendous effort, biting and grinding, but it didn't budge an inch.

"Mr. Jin, would you like to untie the rope?" Li Jin stopped in his tracks, stood in front of the market, and asked with a knowing smile.

Seeing his relaxed and cheerful appearance, Jin Shu took a deep breath, repeating to herself several times, "He is Prince Jing, I can't afford to offend him," before finally putting on a smile and extending her hand: "Thank you, Your Highness!"

But Li Jin's smile deepened. He glanced at the knot on her wrist, suppressed a laugh, and said, "Since you've invited me to eat fish, I'll untie it for you, how about that?"

Well, all for a meal of fish.

Jin Shu raised her head and pointed with her chin to the restaurant in front of her that looked quite large: "Besides that one, Your Highness can choose any one you like."

Li Jin immediately nodded as if she understood: "That's the one."