Zheng Sanji was originally very sad, but after listening to the words of the two young criminals, the passion that had long been extinguished by the years seemed to be revived in his blood.
He rubbed his eyes vigorously with his sleeve, and then said in a hoarse voice: "Let me talk about the case first."
"This case happened many years ago, but it was quite shocking to me back then, so I have always remembered it and have hardly forgotten it," Zheng Sanji said. "When the case happened, I happened to be working on a case with my master in Tongzhou. Because the Tongzhou coroner was ill and could not help with the investigation, the prefect specially invited my master, who was a little famous at the time, to Tongzhou to investigate the case. As soon as the case was closed, my master and I were about to return to the city, but the next morning, just as we were about to leave, we were invited by the Tongzhou prefect to come over."
Tongzhou was under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture, so the prefect of Tongzhou had to obey the then Shuntian Prefecture Governor and could ask the Shuntian Prefecture coroner to handle the case.
Zheng Sanji said, "I remember the prefect's name was Feng. He was very kind and polite. But that day, his expression changed. He told us that there was a famous garden in Tongzhou City. A dead person was found by the people in that garden this morning."
"When my master and I heard that there was another case, we couldn't leave, so we followed the yamen runners to the garden."
Zheng Sanji spoke every word very clearly, and one could tell that he still remembered the events of that year clearly.
"That garden is not as big as Jingye Garden. Because it is in the city, it is exquisitely renovated and picturesque, with mountains and rivers full of meaning. When we arrived, the yamen runners had already sealed off the site. Not long after we entered the garden, I saw a white figure lying in a rose bush."
"In April, when all flowers are in full bloom, the walls are filled with bright red roses, but the white figure is very abrupt, especially since she is dressed in white with only a patch of purple roses embroidered on her back."
Jiang Lingyao was immediately filled with shock. If what Zheng Sanji said was true, then the two cases were extremely similar and could almost be handled together immediately.
Neither she nor Duan Nanzhui interrupted Zheng Sanji, but just listened to what he said carefully.
Zheng Sanji said, "Although I had been an apprentice for two or three years at that time, this was the first time I had seen a case like this. On weekdays, most of the cases I saw were bruises, quarrels and fights, and there were not many murders. I had never seen such a horrifying scene before."
"I was young at the time and was a little scared. I just followed my master to draw the autopsy grid and didn't dare to look at anything else. The scene at that time was very similar to this one. Except for the flowers, the arrangement was almost exactly the same."
Jiang Lingyao asked, "Is there any difference between the two?"
Zheng Sanji thought for a moment and said, "Don't tell me it's true. I remember that the deceased had his eyes closed, but the deceased in this case had his eyes wide open."
Duan Nanqi said in a deep voice: "Although this kind of case is not common, it is not uncommon. In the archives of the Imperial Guard, there are dozens of such cases since the founding of the country. The murderers of such cases are often very biased. What they believe is what they believe. In this case, the eyes of the deceased may also be part of his bias."
Zheng Sanji didn't understand it back then, but now he is an experienced coroner, so he got to the point right away: "Yes, what Lord Duan said is very true. Let's go back to the case. The first victim was about 18 years old. She was probably unmarried, and her hair was loosely braided into a long braid. After the scene was thoroughly investigated and the victim was transported to the morgue, the government issued a notice."
"But unfortunately, no one came to claim the body, so the master dissected it and conducted a re-examination. The result of the re-examination was that the deceased did not have many bumps and scratches on her body, but her stomach was empty, which meant she had not eaten for a long time. She was not tortured. The master guessed that she must have been imprisoned for more than five or six days, and finally the murderer cut open her back when she was hungry and weak, and bled to death."
"When the body was dumped, the deceased had been dead for a long time, definitely more than ten days. There were spots all over the body, it was very scary."
Jiang Lingyao felt more and more uncomfortable as she listened.
This way of death is much more cruel than being killed with a single blow. The deceased will suffer for several hours, unable to struggle or resist, and die in loneliness and despair.
It can be said that the brutality and coldness of this murderer is something Jiang Lingyao has never seen before.
Seeing that the two masters looked unhappy, Zheng Sanji sighed and said, "When the cause of death was found, Master was also very angry. The deceased's hands and feet only had traces of light binding, and there were no more wounds on the body surface. The cause of death was actually difficult to determine, but when we removed the embroidery on the deceased's back, Master finally saw the wounds running vertically and horizontally on the deceased's back."
Zheng Sanji said: "At that time, Master thought that the murderer must have killed someone for the first time, so the wounds on the back of the body were uneven and crisscrossed. The skin was removed after the death of the deceased, but the incision was not smooth and there were various scars."
Jiang Lingyao still frowned, and she said thoughtfully: "Then can we assume that the murderer did not choose to cut the victim's wrists and neck where there are large blood vessels, just to make the victim look intact on the outside, and he chose to cut the victim's back because the skin on the back would also be removed and replaced with embroidery, so no matter how ugly the wound is, no matter how much pain the victim will feel, it doesn't matter?"
Zheng Sanji closed his eyes and drank the cold tea in the cup. The sound of his drinking became like the wind in the night.
"My master said at the time that the murderer did not consider the victim as a human being at all. He only regarded her as an object to display his beautiful paintings, and he killed her so coldly and ruthlessly."
Xu Qing is worthy of being the famous coroner in Yanjing. He has a keen eye and can see through the essence of this case at a glance.
Duan Nanqi said: "The murderer was not seeking revenge for the deceased, nor did he have any hatred towards the deceased. He just carefully selected an object that best met his requirements to hold his scroll, right?"
Zheng Sanji nodded: "Yes, that's why this case is so difficult to investigate."
"The victim was an 18-year-old girl. No one in her family reported the crime. Her identity was hard to find, which made the case difficult to solve. The victim and the murderer had no hatred, which made it even more difficult to find the murderer through the victim."
This type of case is the most troublesome for the government.
Zheng Sanji said, "After a careful autopsy, Master only found that the skin of the deceased was a little rough. Her hands had scars from repeated frostbite, and her fingers were thick and her skin was rough. However, she did not have to endure the embarrassment of living outdoors, nor did she have any old injuries from being hurt by others. Therefore, we can only speculate that she is a farmer's daughter from another place, and may be an orphan without a father or a mother. If the neighbors are kind, they can report her missing to the government. If the neighbors are indifferent, she will not even be missing."
Moreover, the deceased had just died and the case had caused such a sensation that people on the streets were talking about it. The Tongzhou government even posted a portrait of the deceased, but still no one claimed the body. So the deceased must not be from Tongzhou.
In this case, we can only double-check the clues at the crime scene.
Zheng Sanji said: "At that time, the prosecutor of Shuntian Prefecture also rushed to Tongzhou to assist the prefect in handling the case. According to the embroidery on the back of the deceased, the government inquired about the embroidery shops in the whole Tongzhou, but could not find any embroiderer with the same technique."
Speaking of embroidery, Jiang Lingyao paused for a moment and asked, "Brother Zheng, what color are the leaves of the embroidery?"
Zheng Sanji said decisively: "It is the same purple-red color as roses. At that time, everyone was very surprised as to why the petals and leaves on the embroidery were the same color. Later, they thought that the murderer did it on purpose to match the rose bush."
Jiang Lingyao's heart moved, but she didn't speak immediately. She just waited for Zheng Sanji to finish speaking.
Zheng Sanji said: "At that time, the master thought that the weight of the deceased was about 70 kilograms. After death, the person would be very stiff and difficult to move. If it was an ordinary woman, it would definitely be difficult to move her. There were no drag marks at the scene, and there were no drag marks on the body of the deceased. So the murderer could only have carried the deceased into the garden or carried her on his back to create that scene."
"Master believes that the murderer is at least a healthy man with strong hands and feet. Therefore, it is unlikely that the murderer embroidered the embroidery himself. Or he may have an accomplice, or he may have purchased it from other places and brought it to Tongzhou to commit the crime."
"As for why he chose Tongzhou, why he chose the deceased, and why he chose the city garden, we knew nothing at the time."
Zheng Sanji's slightly tired face showed a bit of pain. "That case is too difficult to investigate. As a coroner, my master and I did everything we could, but we could only provide a detailed autopsy report. What happens next is not something a coroner can handle."
"Every profession has its own specialty. My master and I are not good at investigating cases, so after waiting in Tongzhou for another three days, there was still no progress in the case. The then prosecutor, Mr. Zhao, stayed in Tongzhou, and my master and I returned to Beijing to continue the case."
The coroner only investigates the scene, examines the body, and gives the autopsy specifications. He or she will usually also assist the prosecutor or yamen runners in drawing a sketch of the scene and marking all suspicious points. This is roughly the entire process of a coroner's investigation.
Compared to them, the prosecutor is much more core. Usually, the prosecutor or the provincial prosecutor is in charge of investigating cases and solving them based on their experience.
Judging from this case, there were no problems either in Shuntianfu or Tongzhou at the time.
Obviously, this was only the first death. Zheng Sanji just said that there were two deaths that year.
Zheng Sanji closed his eyes again, took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then slowly opened his eyes.
"Ten days after my master and I returned to Beijing, Magistrate Zhao also came back from Tongzhou. He said that he could not find any more clues about the case. During these ten days, the yamen runners even went door to door with the deceased's portrait, but in the end they did not find out the identity of the deceased, nor did they find any more clues about the murderer. All they knew was that the man was a healthy man, that's all."
For cases like this, if there is no result after a month of investigation, the files will often be sorted out and the case will be kept as an unsolved case, so as to stop wasting manpower and resources on solving it day and night.
Zheng Sanji said: "My master and I were very sad and helpless, but we also knew that we had done our best. We also comforted the distraught Zhao Tuiguan. However, none of us could have imagined that two months after the incident, in June of that year, it was still the garden in Tongzhou, still a bright sunny day, and still a flowerbed full of flowers."
"But this time, the murderer chose a very old variety," Zheng Sanji said. "He chose the most famous cluster of green-calyx roses in the city's gardens."
"This cluster of green-calyx roses is an ancient species. In previous years, they would bloom in April. But for some reason this year, they never bloomed until early June."
Zheng Sanji said in a dry voice: "When the green roses bloom, that's when the innocent people die."
"We found a second dead person among them."
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