Chapter 40 Lin A Cui
Pei Zhiwei jumped off the carriage and followed closely behind Xiao Yunzhan and Pei Lin, walking quickly towards the alley near Xumen Water Gate.
Last night's downpour washed the stone path underfoot exceptionally clean.
She was already anxious because she was unsure whether any more of the herbal wine containing the Cold Food Powder had leaked out.
This morning, Zhou Wenbin exclaimed, "Another death has occurred."
It made her feel as if a bell was ringing in her ears.
"Lord Pei, Your Highness!"
Because Xiao Yunzhan has long legs, one step is faster than two steps for Zhou Wenbin, and he walks very fast.
Zhou Wenbin had no choice but to jog ahead and lead the way.
"Coroner Chen should already be performing the autopsy; he's in the porch in front."
Pei Zhiwei looked in the direction he pointed and saw a piece of coarse linen spread out under the eaves at the end of the alley, with a young girl lying on it.
The coroner was squatting nearby, wearing his linen gloves, carefully parting the girl's sleeve to examine the marks on her skin.
Several constables stood guard at the alley entrance and outside the corridor, solemnly watching over the area and preventing unauthorized personnel from approaching.
The girl looked to be no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, and her hair was disheveled.
It seems that the coroner had already tidied up a bit, but there were still a few strands of wet hair sticking to his pale skin.
Even more striking were the several clearly visible dark marks on the girl's wrists and ankles, as if she had been tightly bound with something like thick rope.
There were also many bruises and contusions on his exposed arms and calves.
"Coroner Chen, did she... die from poisoning by Cold Food Powder?" Pei Zhiwei asked.
When Chen, the coroner, looked up and saw that it was Pei Zhiwei, he said, "Reporting to Madam Pei, I just tested her throat with a silver needle. The silver needle did not change color, and I have not yet detected any signs of Cold Food Powder or other poisons."
As he spoke, he reached out and gently brushed aside the wet hair on the girl's neck, revealing a bluish-purple mark.
“Look here, and these bruises and marks on her body, they don’t look like the reaction to poisoning, but more like she was tortured to death.”
"Torture and murder? What exactly happened? Can the time and cause of death be preliminarily determined?"
"He was about fifteen or sixteen years old, and his body was still soft. It is estimated that he died more than three hours, but less than four hours later."
Looking back, he died during the heaviest part of the rain last night.
Besides the ligature marks, there were also numerous blunt force injuries on his body. The ligature marks on his wrists and ankles were so deep that they were embedded in his flesh, indicating that he had suffered a great deal of violence and abuse before his death.
In addition, there was a small amount of mud and sand around the mouth and nose, suggesting that the cause of death was drowning.
But we'll need to take the person back to the yamen for an autopsy and bone examination to confirm the diagnosis. I'll fill out the autopsy report in detail and submit it to Lord Zhou then.
Pei Zhiwei carefully observed the girl, and when his gaze swept over her half-open collar, he suddenly stopped.
A reed leaf was stuck to the girl's collar.
She looked at the water, where the water was flowing slowly deep in the alley.
An idea suddenly popped into her mind, and she said to the yamen runner beside her, "Please go to the nearby grain shops or farmers' houses and get some dry bran, the more the better, the kind of dry, fine bran."
"Bran?" Zhou Wenbin was taken aback, scratching his head in confusion.
"Madam Pei, what are you asking for bran at this time of year? Could it be related to an autopsy?"
Pei Zhiwei didn't explain immediately. Instead, she squatted down, dipped her finger in the river water by the pass, and gently smelled it.
The water only smelled of muddy water, without any other odor, so it didn't seem like there was anything wrong with it.
You'll find out soon enough.
The map of Suzhou, showing the distribution of waterways, came to mind.
Xiao Yunzhan remained by her side the whole time, without saying a word, but now his eyes had become clearer.
Lightweight objects are best suited to move with the current, and bran, being both light and brightly colored, is indeed a good tool for measuring the direction and speed of water flow.
Before long, the constable returned carrying a bag of bran.
Pei Zhiwei took the bag and asked the constable, "Where was the body originally found?"
The constable ran forward and stopped three zhang away. "It was right here. This morning, just as dawn broke, an old man carrying water discovered it and immediately reported it to the authorities."
Pei Zhiwei went to a spot a foot further away from the yamen runners, grabbed some bran, and sprinkled it evenly into the water.
After the bran landed on the water's surface, it did not drift aimlessly with the current. Instead, it moved slowly in a stable direction, not very fast, but always heading towards the interior of Suzhou City.
She stared at the flow of the bran for a long time, and gradually she got a sense of it.
"I need to go to the water gate to check on the situation."
Xiao Yunzhan immediately replied, "I'll go with you."
Xumen Water Gate is located in the southwest corner of Suzhou City. It is an ancient stone gate.
Dark green moss climbed all over the bluish-gray stone wall, and withered yellow reeds were embedded in the cracks between the stones.
In the middle of the water gate is a fence made of thick iron bars, which should have been arranged closely together to block debris in the river and prevent boats from passing through without inspection.
But at this moment, the fence was crooked, with a section of iron bar broken and one end hanging in the water, swaying gently with the current.
Near the west side, a gap has appeared, through which water flows in, and the area around it has accumulated a lot of aquatic plants and broken wood.
The fence was still some distance from the shore, and Pei Zhiwei was figuring out how to find a foothold to measure the width of the gap.
Xiao Yunzhan: "Do you need to measure the width of that gap? I'll help you."
Pei Zhiwei took out a roll of leather rope from her brocade bag.
She made this herself, marking the dimensions with cinnabar; it's sturdy and easy to handle.
Xiao Yunzhan raised his chin at the crooked fence: "You hold one end of the rope, I'll hold the other end, and we'll go along the base of the wall, hooking our feet on the crossbars of the fence to avoid wading through the water."
Pei Zhiwei agreed, "Then I'll go first."
As soon as she finished speaking, she lightly touched the ground with her toes and landed steadily on top of the fence like a flying catkin.
The fence was no thicker than an arm, yet she stood on it without moving an inch, not even the iron bars swayed.
Upon seeing this, Xiao Yunzhan's ear tips first flushed slightly, and then his handsome face also turned a light blush. He shook his head self-deprecatingly.
With a push from the toes, using the wall as a springboard, I leaped to the fence, then did another somersault, hooking my foot firmly onto the fence bar.
Although her movements were swift, they were more deliberate and cautious than Pei Zhiwei's.
Pei Zhiwei tossed him one end of the leather rope, and the two of them each grabbed one end, taut the rope, and positioned it precisely against the gap exposed by the broken iron bar.
She glanced at the markings on the leather cord and said softly, "Two feet wide."
The two exchanged a glance, then each used their own strength to nimbly jump back to the shore.
As Pei Zhiwei put away the leather rope, her deduction became clearer—the body must have been swept in from outside the city by the current.
She was about to tell Xiao Yunzhan her thoughts in detail when she looked up and saw that his face had turned red, so she changed her words.
"Your Highness, why is your face red?"
With his skills, he should be able to climb the fence a hundred times without breaking a sweat.
Xiao Yunzhan seemed to have been struck by something, letting out a heavy sigh, his tone tinged with helplessness: "Although this isn't the time to talk about this, I still can't help but sigh—comparing people is infuriating. It's shameful!"
Pei Zhiwei blinked, full of doubt: "What does this have to do with being embarrassed?"
Xiao Yunzhan refused to say more, saying, "It's alright! Let's go back and tell Lord Pei and the others about the fence."
As he spoke, he strode ahead with his long legs, and even the roots of his neck turned red.
When the two returned to the corridor, Pei Lin cut to the chase and asked, "Did you find anything?"
"The body must have been swept into the city from outside during last night's torrential rain," Pei Zhiwei stated directly.
"They rushed in from outside the city?" Gu Boheng, who had been standing silently to the side, suddenly spoke up.
"How can you be so sure, Madam Pei? What if someone in the city murdered her and then threw her body into the water, where it drifted here with the current?"
Pei Zhiwei didn't answer directly, but turned to look at Zhou Wenbin.
"Lord Zhou, were you busy all night last night having people go door-to-door to notify people to recall the Guben wine?"
Zhou Wenbin nodded quickly, "Yes, Madam Pei! After parting ways with you two yesterday, I immediately sent people to notify the heads and administrators of each neighborhood."
Afterwards, the village head and neighborhood chief, along with government officials, went to the streets, knocking on doors from house to house, instructing everyone not to drink the "Gubenjiu" (a type of liquor), and to hand over any stock they had.
Last night, the streets were teeming with officials, even the most secluded alleys were visited, and they were busy until dawn, without daring to rest for a moment.
After hearing this, Pei Zhiwei's deduction gained another layer of support. Just as she was about to speak, Xiao Yunzhan took the lead and spoke first.
"Last night, the streets were full of officials and village heads. Although it was dark at night and they couldn't see the movement in the river, everyone was on their guard, afraid that they would miss notifying any household. They paid extra attention to any pedestrians on the street."
Let alone someone dragging a corpse to the water, even a suspicious person would be stopped and questioned by officials or the village head; it's impossible for them to dump a body quietly.
Following his words, Pei Zhiwei pointed to the water surface where bran had just been sprinkled and added:
"The bran that was just scattered is all drifting towards the city."
The coroner, Chen, said that the deceased died around midnight last night. If the body was thrown into the water in the city, it should have floated out of the city with the current.
However, the body was found here, clearly indicating that it had been swept in by the current from outside the city.
Moreover, when His Highness and I inspected the water gate, we found that the fence had been broken by driftwood washed away by the torrential rain, leaving a gap about two feet wide.
The girl was so slender that the water could easily have carried her in through that crevice.
She paused, then pointed to the reed leaves at the girl's collar.
"Besides, the reed leaves stuck to her collar were not found in the city, but were everywhere in the reed marshes outside the city."
It must have gotten from the body in the water outside the city.
After listening, Gu Boheng slowly nodded and did not refute it again, but his eyes became more solemn.
Before one case was resolved, another arose. No, it was two cases that were not resolved before a new case arose.
It's unclear whether Suzhou City offended some deity or if he was simply having a run of bad luck.
"Come and see," Pei Lin, who had been squatting beside the corpse, suddenly called out.
The crowd quickly gathered around, and saw Pei Lin carefully lifting up the girl's trouser leg to reveal her right ankle.
There was a large, dark brown birthmark on it.
"Dad, what's wrong with this birthmark?"
Pei Lin stared at the birthmark. "In the supplementary files that Lord Zhou sent earlier, there was information about several missing girls, one of whom was a girl named Lin Acui, who is exactly fifteen years old this year."
Her family specifically mentioned that Lin Acui has a dark brown birthmark on her right ankle, and its location and shape are exactly the same as this one.
According to the case file, Lin Acui disappeared half a month ago. Her family said she was lured away by someone claiming to be recruiting workers at an embroidery workshop outside the city, and there has been no news of her since.
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