Back then, on the first Lantern Festival in Kunzhou, many people were fortunate enough to witness Miss Gu and Young Master Lu playing the qin and xiao together. Everyone knew that they shared the same birthday, and as for their ages, that was no secret.
"Huh? I thought Xiao Qiu was the same age as me, but she's older than me! I'll have to call her Brother Qiu from now on!" Gu Xin thought to herself, either Zheng Qiu's publicly stated age was wrong, or the information Bai Yi and the others had obtained by chance was inaccurate.
Soon, we arrived at Xima Alley.
The entrances and exits of Xima Alley had been surrounded by government officials, but these constables were not from the Dali Temple, but from the Jingzhao Prefecture.
Gu Xin got off the carriage and happened to meet someone she knew, namely the head constable in the case where Li Yuyan was wrongly accused, Constable Gao, a relative of the imperial concubine in the palace.
"Officer Gao!" Gu Xin walked over and patted him on the shoulder.
"Third Miss Gu." Officer Gao already knew from last time that this princess preferred to be addressed as "Miss," so he didn't perform a formal bow.
"How is it inside?" Gu Xin nodded and asked.
"The coroner from the Dali Temple is examining the body," said Constable Gao.
"Now that I'm a government official, please allow me to go in and take a look!" Gu Xin said.
"Please, Third Miss, I still need to inquire about the people around here." Officer Gao already knew that Gu Xin had found the important clue of curly hair in the Wangjia Village case, so she was considered to have been involved in the Wangjia Village case.
"I'll be going now!" Gu Xin led Zhang Bing into the alley.
There are twelve families in this alley, six on each side.
The courtyard where the incident occurred was the second to last house at the very end of the alley, and it happened to be adjacent to the courtyard where the Song family, the owners of this alley, lived.
The body has been retrieved from the well, and Zheng Qiu is conducting an autopsy in the main room. There are yamen runners guarding the entrance to the courtyard, and besides Zheng Qiu and a recorder, there is no one else inside.
After Zhang Bing went in, he went to the main room, while Gu Xin lagged behind.
"Third Miss, stop!" Zhang Bing was about to remind Gu Xin, but Gu Xin had already entered the main room.
The smell wasn't pleasant, and the corpse wasn't very attractive either.
Gu Xin only wrinkled her nose slightly, but did not back down.
Zheng Qiu nodded to Gu Xin and then continued with her work.
Gu Xin walked over to Zheng Qiu and watched her movements.
After a while, she went over to the person taking notes and looked at his notes.
The deceased was a woman, around sixteen years old. She had no obvious fatal injuries, but had abrasions and scratches.
By the time Zheng Qiu finished examining the body and stitching it up, it was already late.
Outside, Officer Gao had already questioned everyone in the alley.
"Coroner Zheng, in the past ten days, none of the 39 people from the 12 households in this alley have gone out, and no one has gone missing," said Constable Gao as he entered.
"Yes, the check is complete. Let them come in and see if this is someone we know," Zheng Qiu said.
A short while later, Constable Gao entered with his men.
There are still some weeds in the yard. The tenant just settled in yesterday and was preparing to clean up today. Before they even started cleaning, they discovered the body. So, the yard is overgrown with weeds and looks rather desolate.
There were two ropes tied to the big tree in the courtyard. One was probably tied when the tenant, Young Master Liang, went down, and the other was probably tied when the government officials came and brought the body up.
Gu Xin walked around the well, and the grass around it showed signs of being trampled.
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