“The night before the fire, I had already sent someone to replace the body. The body burned in the mortuary was not Li Qingming’s.”
Su Yan looked at Losang with some confusion, not understanding why he would do such a thing.
"Since Li Qingming's death is related to the Luo family, why did you steal the body? Wouldn't it have been better for the Luo family to turn it to ashes?"
Losang avoided answering Su Yan's questions and instead changed the subject, "That's all I can do. As for the rest, you'll have to investigate on your own. Li Qingming's body is in the cave. Someone will take you there later."
Although Su Yan didn't understand why Losang did this, all signs indicated that Losang had no ill intentions towards her.
"Is this your pledge of allegiance?"
Losang smiled but didn't continue. "Commander Su, I have other matters to attend to, so I'll take my leave..."
Having said that, Losang turned and left the garden.
Su Yan wanted to chase after him, but was stopped by the guards and could only watch helplessly as Losang left.
A short while later, the Luo family's guards brought Shen Yao to the garden.
As soon as Shen Yao saw Su Yan, he immediately ran over to check on her.
He grabbed Su Yan's shoulders anxiously, checking her up and down for injuries. "Su Yan, are you alright?"
Shen Yao was kept outside the door the whole time, so he had no idea what was going on inside.
Su Yan shook her head. "I'm fine. Guess who I saw?"
"who?"
"Ma Er".
Upon hearing this, Shen Yao's eyes widened. "How could Ma Er be here? Shouldn't he be in Luoshui Town?"
"Actually, Ma Er is not the real Ma Er. The Ma Er we know is actually Losang, the son of the Tusi of Suizhou."
"Losang?" Shen Yao was completely confused.
Actually, when they were in Luoshui Town, Su Yan had investigated information about Ma Er. The background he mentioned at the inn that day was indeed true, but the person was not the real Ma Er.
"It's hard to explain in a short time. Let's go to the cave to examine the body first."
"Autopsy? Whose body will be examined?"
Shen Yao was even more confused.
“Li Qingming…”
…………
The body was stored in a natural cave. It was so cold that you would shiver as soon as you went in. It was indeed a good place to store a body.
The guards led Su Yan to a spacious stone chamber where a coffin was placed.
"The body is in that coffin. You can search it at your leisure. I'll wait outside."
The guard communicated with Su Yan in broken Chinese, and after speaking, he left the stone chamber with a torch in his hand.
Su Yan held up a torch, and the flickering flame illuminated the dark stone chamber, where a stone coffin was indeed placed.
The stone coffin was very thick; one person alone could not push it open.
However, this was nothing in Shen Yao's eyes.
Shen Yao handed the torch in his hand to Su Yan, and then walked towards the stone coffin.
At this moment, Su Yan suddenly spoke up to remind Shen Yao, "Shen Yao, when you open the coffin lid later, you must hold your breath and not inhale. The corpse will produce corpse gas in the sealed space, which is poisonous and bad for your lungs..."
After hearing Su Yan's reminder, Shen Yao tore off a corner of his clothes, covered his mouth and nose, held his breath, pressed his hands against the coffin lid, gathered his strength, and pushed forward, opening a crack in the coffin lid.
Then, with a burst of energy, he forcefully pushed the coffin lid open completely, revealing the corpse inside.
Su Yan did not bring any autopsy tools, but she did carry a dagger and gloves with her.
Li Qingming's body lay quietly in the stone coffin. Because he had been dead for more than three months, his body was rotting and emitted a pungent odor.
Su Yan tore off a corner of her clothes and used it as a face mask to cover her face.
After finishing her preparations, Su Yan went into the stone coffin.
Because the weather has not been hot during this period, and the body has undergone embalming treatment, the degree of decomposition is not serious, at least the surface of the body is intact.
Su Yan handed the torch to Shen Yao beside her. Using the torchlight for illumination, she reached out and removed the clothes from the corpse to begin the examination process.
The body's muscles were soft, and the joints could still move freely, indicating that the person who performed the embalming on Li Qingming was a master.
Continuing the examination, Su Yan discovered a very subtle mark on the corpse. It didn't look like an injury sustained before death, but rather like a pieced-together wound that had spread from the chest cavity to the abdominal cavity.
Su Yan found the wound strange, so she reached out and pressed on the corpse's abdominal cavity. It was very hard, like pressing on a stone, which was completely illogical.
Under normal circumstances, even if the corpse has undergone preservation treatment, the abdomen would not be this hard.
unless……
Someone removed the corpse's internal organs and stuffed them with other things.
After thinking it over, Su Yan used the dagger to make another cut along the existing scratch.
Just as she expected, someone removed Li Qingming's internal organs and stuffed them with all sorts of preservatives.
No wonder Li Qingming's body looked almost as if he had just died a month ago, even after so much time had passed.
After examining the preservative herbs, Su Yan found nothing particularly noteworthy and then looked at the other parts.
Soon, she discovered another unusual place.
Li Qingming's neck was broken intentionally; the bones were completely fractured. It wasn't visible on the outside, but you could feel the misaligned bones when you touched it.
Su Yan remembered the record in the case file that Li Qingming had hanged himself, but now it seemed that his neck had been snapped and he died instantly.
It seems that there were indeed suspicious circumstances surrounding Li Qingming's death.
After Su Yan told Shen Yao about the cause of Li Qingming's death.
Shen Yao suddenly fell silent, looking thoughtful.
Su Yan noticed that something was wrong with Shen Yao and asked curiously, "What? Have you seen murderers who like to break necks?"
Shen Yao looked at Su Yan with a solemn expression and nodded to her.
"Holy crap, you actually know him! Tell me about him..."
Su Yan was surprised that Shen Yao knew him, and her eyes lit up as she awaited his answer.
Do you remember the first time you infiltrated Drunken Dreamland?
Su Yan nodded. She remembered that if Bai Yunfei hadn't called Shen Yao, she probably would have been sold into the ghost market long ago.
“When I saved you, I fought with a man in a drunken stupor. He practiced this kind of kung fu and was fully capable of snapping an adult’s neck.”
Su Yan seemed to have some recollection of the person Shen Yao mentioned, but unfortunately, her head was spinning at the time, and she didn't get a clear look at what the person looked like.
"Could it be that the Dark Moon Pavilion was also involved in Li Qingming's case?"
Shen Yao nodded in agreement. "That person's martial arts skills are not bad, and his status in the Dark Moon Pavilion should not be lower than that of Yu Liuli. It's a pity that Yu Liuli is dead now, and that person's identity has not yet been found out."
If the Dark Moon Pavilion is indeed involved, then the person behind it must be a remnant of the previous dynasty's royal family.
"But I can't understand it. Suizhou is a poor and remote place, and it's also the territory of the Qiang people. Why would Dark Moon Pavilion go to such great lengths just to kill Li Qingming, the prefect of Suizhou?"
Shen Yao thought about it and felt that Su Yan was quite right.
Li Qingming had neither power nor status in the court; killing him would be less effective than killing the emperor, which would make it easier to restore the country.
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