autopsy
The burial room was in the backyard of the government office. It was midnight, and there was no moon in the sky, only three or five stars. The night was very dark, and only a few lamps on the backyard wall could barely illuminate the path.
The two had let go of each other's hands at some point.
The atmosphere was just right. Xie Chengnan turned around, a mischievous smirk on his lips—he had expected to see Qiu Qing also looking timid and uneasy.
However, the other person's expression was perfectly concealed in the dim light, while he himself stepped on a pebble and lost his balance.
A pebble wouldn't have made him fall, or even stagger; he'd just be a little unsteady, which wasn't anything to worry about—if Qiu Qing hadn't caught him either.
That's really embarrassing.
Fortunately, the hand on her wrist parted as soon as it touched. Xie Chengnan continued walking forward. As he stepped over the threshold, as if trying to save face, he reached out and grabbed the sleeve of the person behind him, leading her in.
"I was wrong, you are indeed very bold."
Through the thin fabric of the sleeves, he could sense that Qiu Qingye showed no unease or fear whatsoever. The fact that they were entering the dark and cold burial chamber had less impact on Qiu Qingye than the trembling sensation when their bodies touched.
The hand under the sleeve twitched slightly, then fell calmly to its side.
"It's just a dead person, nothing to be afraid of," Lin Yi said.
To prevent the bodies from rotting, the burial chamber was built without windows, consisting only of a heavy door.
Perhaps Xie Chengnan had made arrangements beforehand, because the lock on the door was gone, and the door was opened a crack about a foot wide, just enough for one person to pass through without hitting the door panel.
The room was dark and gloomy, with ice placed inside to prevent decay and charcoal piled up in the corners to keep it dry. The smell of decay was strange and unpleasant.
The moment Xie Chengnan stepped inside, he frowned. He instinctively wanted to check Qiu Qingye's reaction, but then remembered that it was pitch black inside, so he turned halfway around and then turned back.
Lin Yi assumed that it was because he was a noble young master of a marquis's mansion and had never been to such a filthy place before. He felt disgusted but did not dare to say it, so he comforted him, "Actually, you don't need to come in with me. I can go by myself."
Xie Chengnan didn't speak, but instead took out a tinderbox from his sleeve, blew on it, and slowly approached the corpse covered with a white sheet.
"The Mingdu Prefecture has already had a coroner examine the body, and she will be sent back to the Liu family for burial first thing tomorrow morning."
So tonight is the only time they can find clues from the body.
Lin Yi remained silent; she had been quiet ever since she entered the burial room.
She took the tinder from Xie Chengnan and bent down to approach the body of Madam Liu.
The closer Lin Yi got, the stranger it seemed; the smell here wasn't the strongest. She reached out and slowly lifted the white cloth covering the corpse.
But as the lid was lifted, a sudden change occurred!
Something leaped up from the ground; the light was too dim to see clearly, only a vague human shape.
At the same moment the humanoid corpse rose to its feet, Xie Chengnan grabbed Qiu Qingye, and the two switched positions in the struggle. Then, he kicked the unknown creature. The screams echoed throughout the burial room and lingered for a long time.
Lin Yi's gasp caught in his throat. After recognizing that it wasn't a reanimated corpse but a living person, he tentatively asked, "Are you... alright?"
The man had half a white cloth covering his head and was rolling on the ground in pain, clutching his thigh.
Xie Chengnan's arrow was aimed at his manhood, but fortunately, it was too dark to see clearly and he slightly deviated from his target, otherwise the man would have been finished tonight.
The two finally recognized the source of the pitiful howl and exclaimed in disbelief, "Feng Zhengxian?"
Feng Zhengxian clutched his wound, unable to speak from the pain. After a long while, he managed to choke out, "Xie Chengnan—you... damn it."
Xie Chengnan, unusually feeling guilty, didn't reply, but another voice rang out from inside the burial room.
"Serves you right."
Lin Yiben, who was about to step forward to check on the injury, stopped when he heard the sound.
Her memory was good. Just as she could identify the "zombie" from the howling sound as Feng Zhengxian, she also recognized the voice that said "serves him right" as belonging to the newly appointed Prefect of Mingdu.
Feng Zhengxian cried out in anguish, "Cousin, save me!"
Lin Yina realized why Xie Chengnan could easily bring her here; it turned out he had connections with the Mingdu Prefecture.
Yue Mingzhang turned out to be Feng Zhengxian's cousin. Xie Chengnan had indeed mentioned to her before that he didn't know why this friend had come to Mingzhou. Now that she thought about it, it might be because of this cousin.
Although Yue Mingzhang said it was deserved, he was still heartbroken. He turned on the wall lamp, rolled up his trousers to check the injury, but since it was on his thigh, he had to take his pants off to see it. Considering there was a girl there, he gave up and asked, "How are you feeling?"
"I don't feel good, I'm afraid my leg is ruined..."
Xie Chengnan frowned and stepped forward, tapping along the leg bone. After tapping it once, he said with relief, "No bone is broken, it will be fine in a few days."
Feng Zhengxian snapped out of his grimacing and glared at Xie Chengnan: "Just a few days to recover? Is that all you're telling me? You made a bad choice of friends... a bad choice of friends!"
Xie Chengnan: "Heh."
Yue Mingzhang shook his head and said, "Now you should know that you can't just make jokes like that."
With the lights on, the room became much brighter, and at least the layout could be seen clearly.
After looking around, Lin Yi discovered that Madam Liu's body was lying to their right rear.
"So, did you figure anything out?"
Feng Zhengxian was more excited than anyone else, dragging his limp to join in the fun. This was his first time being so close to a dead person. Besides his heightened curiosity, he was also quite interested in Qiu Qingye. He had always felt that this suddenly appearing young mistress of the Marquis's mansion was unusual, and now seeing her remain calm even in front of a corpse, he couldn't help but think even more highly of her.
Lin Yi remained silent after examining the corpse.
The coroner has already clearly analyzed the cause of Liu San's death: she died from a drug-induced miscarriage.
Lin Yi looked him over carefully from head to toe and found that there were no external injuries whatsoever, and his abdomen had never been hit.
She turned to the three of them and said, "Please excuse me for a moment."
...
If there is no external injury but obvious bleeding marks, then the only possibility is that it is caused by medication.
However, she was already five months pregnant, and the pregnancy was stable. Not to mention that abortion is not easy, even if it is a miscarriage caused by medication, it generally will not lead to death.
Judging from her pale complexion, the absence of any unusual odor from her mouth and nose, and the slow decomposition of her body, there were no signs of poisoning. The cause of death should be excessive blood loss.
Lin Yi actually had no clinical experience in obstetrics and gynecology. Her medical knowledge, particularly regarding abortion, was extremely limited.
After arriving here, the medical texts she had frantically studied in order to utilize her cheat ability contained very little relevant information. She had always been a diligent student since childhood, but now she was experiencing the bitter reality of "regretting the lack of knowledge when the time comes to use it."
The prescription given that day was clearly for preventing miscarriage. Even though it contained one ingredient, Chuanxiong, which has the effect of promoting blood circulation and regulating qi, the dosage was extremely small and had already been neutralized by the other herbs in the prescription. There was clearly no problem.
"Has Madam Xie noticed anything?"
The title was unfamiliar, and Lin Yi was preoccupied with his own thoughts, so he didn't realize that the question was directed at him.
Xie Chengnan tilted his head to look at her. "How is it? I'm asking you a question."
Seeing her serious expression and her silence for a long time, the group realized that her situation was complicated and not optimistic.
Lin Yi confirmed, "Does Madam Liu have any other serious illnesses?"
"We have thoroughly investigated and found that Madam Liu is in good health and has no illness whatsoever. She rarely even gets sick."
"In that case... she must have eaten something else. Perhaps the two medications are interacting, causing the pregnancy to become unstable..."
“As you said, this is only a possibility. Although as Zhengxian’s elder brother, I am willing to believe his friend, without evidence, I can only pursue the truth based on what I have seen,” Yue Mingzhang said.
"I see."
...
Even if no useful clues are found, Lin Yi should still return to prison.
However, Yue Mingzhang did not lock her back in her original place, but actually gave her a private room, which was already excellent treatment for a suspect.
With his movements restricted, Lin could only place his hopes on Xie Chengnan.
She was used to relying on herself for everything, and she never thought that there would be a day when she would completely depend on others.
But those were people she had married, so thinking about it that way made it less painful. Lin Yi consoled herself.
The prison meals were simple and monotonous, but the food was clean enough that Lin Yi wasn't picky. She took a big bite while flipping through the medical book that Xie Chengnan had found for her.
Last night she saw Madam Liu's body, but the cause of death did not appear in her mind out of thin air. She didn't know if it was because the medical books she had read did not cover the cause of death, or because the system's cheat code could not be used on the deceased.
Today, the Liu family will arrange for the burial, and the body will never be seen again, so the cause of death cannot be confirmed.
But she couldn't just sit and wait to die, nor could she rely on the system forever. So she asked Xie Chengnan for all the medical texts about childbirth she could find, hoping to discover some possible drug interactions that could lead to death.
She had been looking for half a day, but hadn't made any progress whatsoever.
Lin Yi didn't know how much longer he could drag things out, and since he couldn't produce any evidence to overturn the case, Yue Mingzhang had no choice but to close the case as it was.
She was extremely anxious here, and Xie Chengnan must have been too.
Xie Chengnan's life is indeed not easy.
This is his third visit to Wanmuchun today.
It was no secret that the eldest daughter of the Qiu family, the young mistress of the Yong'an Marquis's mansion, had been imprisoned in the Mingdu Prefecture on suspicion of murder.
To outsiders, Xie Chengnan had only been in the Marquis's mansion for two days, yet he was already frequently visiting brothels, truly displaying his unbridled debauchery.
Considering that Qiu Qing had been pursuing the Crown Prince for many years without success, she became even more convinced that the two were only superficially friendly. Now that one of them was imprisoned, this marriage was probably over.
"Maybe it was that Miss Qiu who did it. She's almost twenty now. If she knew medicine, how come she didn't know about it before? She might have killed someone while treating them."
"That can't be. I went to Xinglin Medical Clinic once, and they prescribed me antidiarrheal medicine. It worked after one dose."
"Who knows where that prescription came from? Don't forget who her father is. He's the imperial physician."
"To be honest, this is really hard to say. It's been so many days, and the Qiu family hasn't made a move at all. If they were truly innocent, they would have made a scene long ago. He cherishes this daughter very much."
...
Qiu Baiji was naturally very worried. But he still had some sense; it was normal that he couldn't find anything in such a short time, only two days. Besides, unlike other officials, he couldn't interfere in the affairs of the imperial government.
However, it was Qiu's mother who kept urging him to find connections to save people.
"Ah Ye has never suffered like this since she was a child! All sorts of people are imprisoned in there. What if they bully her?"
"Alright, stop spinning!" Qiu Baiji shouted. "Didn't that Xie family brat send a message? Qing doesn't allow us to interfere in this matter either."
"No! I still have to go to the palace." With that, he turned to leave.
"stop!"
The mother continued walking outwards without stopping.
But she ran into Xie Chengnan in the courtyard. "Where are you going, Mother-in-law?"
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