Chapter 2811: The Body is Found
The Chief Clerk went home unhappy. His wife saw him like this and said, "You've been angry all day long, your brow is full of furrows. What are you angry about today?"
The Chief Secretary plopped down on his chair and said, "Regarding the Luozhou Medical Bureau incident, Zheng Gu was framed. I asked the prince to submit a letter to impeach the Luozhou officials, but the prince refused."
The Chief Secretary's wife said, "Didn't you say that Your Highness should stay out of local affairs and just be a prince, collecting the rent he's supposed to collect every year?"
"...Isn't this a serious matter, so serious that the imperial court has sent angels? Prince Gong is a vassal prince, so it would be fine if he knew nothing, but since he has already found out, he naturally has to submit a memorial."
The lady smiled and said, "Since you can find it out, the delegation can certainly find it out too."
"That may not be the case," the Chief Secretary said. "Master Yu and his men are new here, after all. If they want to investigate these things, they have to check the accounts. Unlike us, we have been in Luozhou for a long time. Not only are we familiar with Luozhou, but we also have more people, so we can find information faster."
"But this is Prince Gong's Mansion after all. Can the angels believe what you say?"
The previously confident Changshi paused and fell silent.
The lady said nonchalantly, "If you ask me, you'd better not get involved. It's not a good idea to get involved. The Imperial Medical Bureau is managed by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. If the prince gets involved now, who would dare to believe the information he gives?"
The Chief Secretary slapped his forehead and said, "I actually forgot this."
The Chief Secretary had forgotten, but Prince Gong hadn't. It was cold that night, so he soaked his feet in the medicine Zhou Man had prescribed. He said to his confidant, "Just give them the body, and let them investigate the rest themselves. Wait until Zhou Man comes to us begging for mercy before we can discuss it. It's no use rushing in."
The confidant agreed, bowed and walked out.
Prince Gong knew about the fake medicine case later than Zhou Man, but he had been in Luozhou for several years and still had some influence.
And unlike the Angels, who investigated every possibility, Prince Gong spoke from the heart. He said directly, "Given Zheng Gu's family background, it's impossible for him to intentionally purchase counterfeit medicine. Given his medical skills, it's also impossible for him to carelessly purchase counterfeit medicine. Someone must have framed him."
The problem was determined in one sentence, and then someone was sent to check the time and approximate list of several purchases of medicinal materials by the Luozhou Medical Bureau. After careful verification, they found out where the problem lay.
Then the palace guards accidentally discovered the missing Dian Yao, but the person was already dead.
When Dian Yao was found dead outside the city, Lord Yu immediately dropped the account book in his hand and said, "I'll go take a look."
Lord Xia immediately followed, "I'm going too."
Imperial Physician Lu and Imperial Physician Xiao Tan, both dizzy from checking the accounts, wanted to go too, but Lord Yu stopped them and said, "We're trying to solve a case. It wouldn't be very helpful for you two to go. Why don't we split up? You guys continue checking the accounts here, while Lord Xia and I go to the scene."
Doctor Lu said, "We can perform an autopsy."
"Why use a butcher knife to kill a person? No, it's like killing a chicken." Lord Yu slapped his forehead. He had been confused by the accounts these past two days. "There are coroners for things like autopsies. There's no need for two lords."
Lord Xia: "Yes."
Doctor Lu insisted, "No, there are only two of us from the Imperial Medical Bureau here, and no one is supervising us. Aren't you afraid that we will falsify the results for personal gain?"
Lord Yu immediately said, "It is the responsibility of the Censorate to monitor all officials."
He looked at Lord Xia while speaking.
Lord Xia: ...I’m so angry.
In the end, it was Lord Yu who went out of the city alone with the clerks and guards.
He arrived a quarter of an hour later than County Magistrate Luo. The body had already been covered with cloth and was about to be thrown into the cart to be taken back.
Lord Yu hurriedly stopped him and went forward to look at the body.
County Magistrate Luo went over to him, covering his nose with a handkerchief and saying, "Why is Lord Yu here? It's freezing cold, and it's cold and dirty..."
Lord Yu raised his hand to stop him, lifted the cloth, and asked, "Is this the medicine from the Medical Bureau?"
"...Yes," Magistrate Luo said, covering his nose. "He smells. He must have been dead for two or three days."
Upon hearing this, Lord Yu glanced at him and asked, "Where is the coroner?"
County Magistrate Luo was stunned: "The coroner is in the county government office."
Lord Yu frowned, "Why isn't he coming?"
"The autopsy...must be conducted at the county government office, right?"
Lord Yu frowned and said nothing. He rolled up his sleeves twice, pulled open the cloth, and checked Dian Yao's hands and feet. When he saw the corpse spots on his body, he pressed them with his fingers, but the corpse spots did not change at all.
He pulled open his clothes and looked, and found that the corpse spots were all red.
Lord Yu raised his eyebrows slightly, withdrew his hand, stood up and asked, "Where was the body found, who found it, and how was it found?"
Soon, five young men were brought over. They were holding axes and other things in their hands, but they were wearing cloth clothes and puddings, and their necks were hunched in the cold winter.
Lord Yu looked at them and saw that their hands were frostbitten. He knew that they were not from well-off families. They were shivering as they stood in front of him. So he asked them faster, "What are you doing outside in such cold weather?"
"We're chopping wood," the five men said. "It's cold this year, so firewood is valuable. A load of firewood can be sold for ten coins, so we're out chopping wood to sell."
"Who discovered the body?"
A middle-aged man raised his hand, trembling, and said, "I, I was walking by and tripped. I felt like I stepped on something, so I looked over the snow and saw a person underneath."
"Where?"
The five of them took Lord Yu to see it. It was under a nearby tree, next to the main road. Lord Yu saw the shallow snow pit and narrowed his eyes slightly. "He was covered with snow at the time?"
"yes."
"Is the snow thick?"
"It's not thick, but it's not thin either. Anyway, we didn't notice anyone underneath when we walked past. If we hadn't tripped..."
Lord Yu stepped forward and stepped on the snow beside him, thinking, "When you dug him out, was he covered in fresh snow or old snow?"
"It's fresh snow. Didn't it snow last night? We think we can sell our firewood for twelve cents today."
That's why they came out in the snow.
Lord Yu then said to Lord Luo, "This is not the first scene. Send someone to search carefully."
"Your Excellency, are you talking about dumping the body? But if it were a body, it wouldn't be around here. Maybe they were killed somewhere and dumped here."
Lord Yu turned to look at him, making Magistrate Luo's smile almost unsustainable before he said, "I'm saying that someone dug up his body from nearby and left it on the roadside. We need to find this place."
He turned to the guards and said, "Why don't you go find it quickly?"
Everyone can only go and look for it.
Soon someone found an obvious snow pit at a location downhill. The snow was very thick and when someone stepped into it, half of their body was almost buried in it.
Lord Yu, who had already guessed that there would be a snowstorm in Luozhou and was not young at all, narrowed his eyes when he saw this, nodded calmly, and took the guard's hand to go forward to see the pit.
He didn't let more people in. Soon they swept away the top layer of new snow and vaguely saw several sets of footprints.
The guard was shocked. "Who is so perverted as to drag a dead person to the roadside and expose his body?"
See you at 10pm
(End of this chapter)
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