The courtyard where the incident occurred was small, located in the southernmost neighborhood of Beijing. It had gray walls and black tiles, and was a standard courtyard house.
As soon as the door was opened, the stench of decay hit you like a tidal wave, leaving you nowhere to hide.
The deceased was a loner who disliked interacting with others, and it was only after the neighbors smelled the stench of the corpse that they reported the case.
The room was simply furnished, and there were no signs of struggle or damage. The furniture was neatly categorized, except for one thing.
The courtyard and house of the deceased were covered with yellow paper money.
If the same object appears in two cases at the same time, it means that the murderer did it intentionally. A series of cases occurred at once, and the whole of Chang'an was in an uproar.
Because of the hot weather in Chang'an during this period, the corpse was obviously decomposing. Flies and insects crawled and flew around in the house, and the stench of the corpse filled the nostrils and went straight to the head.
Seven or eight of the yamen runners vomited from the fumes.
Only Su Yan and Sun San stepped into the house with calm expressions.
Although the room had been fumigated with mugwort and burned with atractylodes, it couldn't completely mask the stench of the corpse. Fortunately, it was still close enough. With a slice of ginger in his mouth, Sun San suppressed the nausea rising in his heart and looked at the woman hanging from the beam. He immediately realized something was wrong. "Hanging herself?"
Sun San had also followed Su Yan to many murder scenes and learned some autopsy techniques. The way the deceased died was obviously suicide by hanging, but the crime scene looked more like homicide.
Su Yan looked around, first measuring the distance between the deceased's toes and the ground, and echoed Sun San's words, "Not necessarily... Let's get the person down first!"
Sun San didn't say anything, but waved to the yamen runners standing in the courtyard, "Come in and lend a hand."
The constables were almost vomiting and exhausted, but they gritted their teeth and worked with Sun San to move the body to the ground.
Su Yan stepped forward, removed the deceased's clothes, and calmly began the autopsy.
The deceased, Yun Ying, was a woman aged between 26 and 28. Her eyes were bulging, her face was bluish-purple, her mouth was slightly open, her tongue was sticking out two or three inches from her teeth, her chest was covered with saliva, her toes were dangling straight down, and her lower body was overflowing with urine and feces.
The corpse's neck was stretched due to hanging. There were no injuries on the body before death. Pressing on the livor mortis with a finger showed no change. No blood flowed when the skin was cut with a knife. The abdomen was swollen, like a woman three or four months pregnant. Due to the hot weather, the internal organs and skin decomposed rapidly, and rigor mortis completely disappeared. The time of death was about two days ago, and the cause of death was suffocation from hanging.
After examining the body, Su Yan stepped out of the room, stood in the courtyard, removed the mask from her face, and took a deep breath.
"How is it?" Sun San asked as soon as Su Yan finished examining the body.
"It wasn't suicide by hanging; it was murder."
"Huh?" Now it was Sun San's turn to be confused. "What does this mean?"
"Besides the deceased, there should be another person present at the scene."
"But there's no trace of another person at the scene. Not even a footprint, let alone any trace." The scene had clearly been cleaned up, making it extremely difficult to extract any useful evidence.
"That's where the killer's cleverness lies."
"You mean...?" Sun San was completely confused, but he held his breath and looked at her, his eyes full of anticipation for an answer.
"After the murderer cleaned up the scene, I suspect that the murderer left wearing the victim's shoes."
Upon hearing this, Sun San suddenly realized and slapped his thigh, "I knew it! There wasn't a single trace left." He then curiously asked, "Brother Su Yan, how did you find traces of another person at the scene, and wasn't the deceased hanged?"
Su Yan smiled calmly, turned around and pointed to the wooden stool in the room, "It was this that told me."
Sun San followed the gaze and saw the wooden stool in the corner. He frowned slightly. "What can a stool prove?"
Su Yan smiled and wasn't in a hurry to explain. "Brother Sun, didn't you notice that the deceased was only five feet tall? But the distance between his toes and the ground was two feet. However, there was no stool under his feet. Given his height, let alone hanging himself, he couldn't even reach the white silk on the beam if he jumped."
"Could it be that the murderer made a mistake?"
Su Yan shook her head. "No, the murderer deliberately moved the stool to the corner."
"Huh? Did it on purpose?" Now it was Sun San's turn to be taken aback.
"The place was cleaned inside and out, leaving no trace, which means the murderer was a very careful person and would not have made such a small mistake unless it was intentional."
"Wait... is this murderer out of their mind? They could have just faked the death as a suicide and been done with it, so why leave a loose end?"
Su Yan raised her eyebrows and explained with a smile, "They probably left us such obvious clues because they were afraid the people in the county government were too stupid. If they really closed the case as a suicide, wouldn't the murderer have killed someone for nothing?"
Upon hearing this, Sun San's anger flared up immediately. "Damn it! A scholar can be killed but not humiliated! This is too outrageous!"
“However…” Sun San hesitated, his mind full of questions, “Brother Su Yan, I have a question. How did the murderer make the victim kill himself? That’s too strange.”
Sun San had been a constable for over thirty years and had seen all sorts of deaths, but this was the first time he had ever seen a victim kill himself.
Su Yan stroked her chin thoughtfully, "I've heard that there's a strange flower in the Western Regions called the Datura flower, which can cause hallucinations, immerse people in dreams, and make them unable to control their behavior. I suspect the murderer used this to make the victim commit suicide."
“Datura from the Western Regions? Wait… In the last case, the murderer mixed phosphorus powder into the perfume. I remember you said the perfume originated from the Western Regions.”
Su Yan nodded, "That's right, what's wrong..."
"If that's the case, then both cases were committed by the same killer."
Upon hearing this, Su Yan couldn't help but feel ashamed. She thought the murderer's suggestion of scattering yellow paper money was obvious enough, but she didn't expect that someone would actually fail to connect the two.
"Brother Sun, actually, the deceased Yun Ying was the first person the murderer killed, and Yun Hua was the second. It's just a pity that Yun Ying wasn't discovered immediately."
"You mean? The killer had more than two targets..."
Su Yan shook her head. "It's just too coincidental. The time of death of each of the victims was only one day apart, which makes me feel that things are far from over."
In fact, Su Yan felt uneasy. This case was different from previous ones. This time, the murderer felt more like a venomous snake that had been lurking in the darkness for a long time, and every step was carefully planned.
"The deceased were all from Wan Hua Lou. Could the murderer be Xin Yunniang? The three of them grew up together and knew each other best."
"How can you make wild guesses? Murder requires a motive. It can only mean that the murderer has not yet surfaced."
"So what do we do next..."
“There are people living near the deceased’s residence. We need to check if there are any eyewitnesses.”
"Okay... I'll arrange it right away." Sun San summoned two yamen runners and prepared to make the visit.
Just as he stepped out the door, he was bumped into by a yamen runner who came running in a hurry. Fortunately, Sun Sanbiao was strong and knocked the thin yamen runner to the ground.
Sun San glared at the person on the ground and cursed, "Are you blind! Didn't you see your brother Sun was about to leave? What are you rushing off to do?"
"Hey, something terrible has happened! Another person has died."
"What..." Sun San grabbed the constable by the collar. "What's going on? Explain yourself."
"Someone died at Baima Temple. Just like the previous two cases, Lord Guo is extremely worried."
Sun San loosened the constable's collar, turned his head and exchanged a glance with Su Yan, his eyes filled with a complex mix of emotions.
Su Yan calmly put away her tools and walked towards the door. "Let's go! Let's go check out the third murder scene."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com