Chapter 49: Traces
Ling Tianshui's speed was always one step ahead of others. By the time the remains were mostly cleared out, the coroners from the Dali Temple were nowhere to be seen. The sound of horse hooves came from in front of the ruins. Qiandeng looked up and saw that he was already riding his horse over the barren ridge.
Leaping off his horse, he strode towards Qiandeng, but did not speak when he stood in front of her. His eyes swept across her face and then fell on the skeleton lying beside her.
Qian Deng asked nonchalantly, "Have you become familiar with the brothers in the mansion? I wanted to stop by with Cui Shaoqing to take a look, but unexpectedly I got something unexpected, so I quickly notified you to come. I hope I didn't disturb you from your work."
Hearing her say this, Ling Tianshui didn't say anything more: "How could that be? You originally asked me to come to your house to investigate a case. Anything related to the case is my job."
"Well, I feel relieved now that you're here." Qian Deng nodded slightly at him and pointed at the corpse. "I see that the clothes seem to belong to Su Yunzhong. Do you want to take a look?"
Ling Tianshui said, "No hurry, I'll get ready."
He opened the wicker box he brought with him and sorted out the various tools inside. He waited until the coroners from the Dali Temple hurriedly arrived before he walked to the corpse and examined it with them.
Although he knew what he was concerned about, Qiandeng hesitated for a moment and ultimately did not explain.
As the county lady, she naturally could not participate in the autopsy, so she waited under the shade of a tree not far away, listening to the movements on their side.
"Autopsy: The body is highly decomposed, and the time of death was approximately August or September of last year. There are obvious impact marks on the head, shoulder blades, elbows, and knees, with the elbows and knees appearing broken. Preliminary conclusion is that the deceased fell from a high cliff, resulting in fractures and ruptured tendons."
Ling Tianshui said this and used his fingertips wearing thin leather gloves to move the bones in front of him and arrange them neatly.
Qiandeng looked at him from afar, observing his every move with a feeling that she herself did not understand.
Just as he was adjusting a bone, his hand suddenly paused.
Those eyes that were usually calm and peaceful seemed to have suddenly stirred up huge waves, like the sea surface that was about to be stormed, shaking suddenly.
Qian Deng's heart moved slightly, and his eyes quickly turned to the bone in his hand.
Unfortunately, the distance was a bit far, and Ling Tianshui, a man of such determination, concealed his emotions in an instant. He calmly raised his hand and let go of the bones below. When he looked up at the others, his eyes had returned to their coldness.
The coroners from the Dali Temple examined the case one after another and all agreed with his opinion.
The oldest among them, Coroner Xing, pointed to the dent in the skull and said, "In my opinion, the impact mark here on the forehead is the point of death."
"It seems certain that this man fell from a cliff and died instantly. Judging from the tooth marks on the body, his clothes were torn and ripped apart when he was bitten by wild animals." The coroners reached a consensus on the cause of his death and made a judgment, "Perhaps a kind-hearted passerby couldn't bear to see his body exposed in the wilderness, so he buried his body behind the temple. It was considered a good deed."
Having reached a unanimous conclusion, the coroners gathered the remains, intending to send them to the cemetery. However, everyone knew that in these troubled times, the likelihood of relatives returning to search for the body was extremely low, so the pile of bones was ultimately left for a short while before being hastily disposed of by the cemetery.
Only Ling Tianshui glanced at Cui Fufeng, pointed at a mark on the corpse, and motioned him to check.
Cui Fufeng looked in the direction of his finger and saw that it was the palm and wrist bones, with a few shallow calluses on them. Without careful inspection, no one would notice them.
After the coroners left with the corpse, they came to meet Qian Deng who was waiting on the side.
"That corpse, is it Su Yunzhong?"
Cui Fufeng nodded. "It's definitely him. Besides the time and cause of death, we found callus marks on his left wrist, from years of fractures that have healed, proving his wrist bones have been fractured multiple times in the past."
That was the damage caused to his palm and wrist bones after the arrow shaft exploded.
One of the important evidences they used to identify Su Yunzhong as the murderer was that he had been learning archery since he was a child, but because of his family situation he could only use inferior bows and arrows for training, which left old injuries on his hands.
Could it be that this bone was the one that made Ling Tianshui's expression change so drastically just now?
Qian Deng pondered this while Ling Tianshui expressionlessly packed up his tools and confirmed the marks on the bones: "So, the real Su Yunzhong did die at the foot of the cliffs of Eighteen Bends and was buried here."
So, whose body was that found in the canal?
Qian Deng already had an idea in his mind, but he didn't say it out loud.
Now that they were sure that the body was Su Yunzhong, Captain Ma and the others carefully examined the earth pit where the bones were buried and sifted almost all the soil and rocks nearby, but they still did not find the Phoenix-Attracting Sign that belonged to him.
"The people who buried him must have found the Phoenix Sign and taken it away." This was not difficult to judge, Qian Deng said, "It seems that the 'benefactor' of the soldiers and bandits is not a simple person. He not only knows about the 'well fence', but also knows about Su Yunzhong's death."
Since the 'benefactor' can be confirmed to be a candidate for the county lady's husband, and Su Yunzhong's Phoenix Sign was found on the body in Caoqu, it can be imagined that the murderer must be related to the 'benefactor'.
"The most urgent task is to find out who the rebels' benefactor is. Although the other soldiers and bandits are dead, fortunately Feng Yi is still alive. We must search for him as soon as possible and dig out clues from him."
Cui Fufeng's proposal was unanimously approved.
"After I reported this matter to the Imperial Guards and the Dali Temple, I also instructed the Northern Court's Imperial Guards to investigate, but progress has been slow, and nothing has been discovered so far," Ling Tianshui said. "Now that I've been transferred, it's no longer convenient to order them to investigate. Since I'm here today, I'll stop by the camp to settle this matter and see if Meng Lanxi is adjusting there."
This place was indeed not far from the Northern Yamen Forbidden Army's camp. Qian Deng and Cui Fufeng both mounted their horses and galloped along with him.
But just as they were approaching the camp, they saw a group of soldiers and horses galloping out of the camp and heading towards the canyon ahead from afar.
Ling Tianshui whistled, and the leading horseman saw him and quickly turned his horse and came forward to greet him: "Ling Sijie, something's happened!"
Before they finished speaking, they saw Qian Deng beside them and remembered that Ling Tianshui was no longer their Sijie. They had no choice but to change their address: "Ling Dianjun, something happened to Doctor Meng!"
The military doctor Meng they were talking about was naturally Meng Lanxi.
"What's going on?" Ling Tianshui immediately turned his horse and galloped towards the canyon with them, and asked in a deep voice on horseback.
"It's the rogue soldier you ordered your men to track down. Today, we've finally tracked him down. He's just up ahead. Someone spotted him near the stream." Pointing toward the canyon ahead, the soldiers said anxiously, "He was incredibly ferocious. He injured two of our brothers and himself. Doctor Meng and his men rushed over to treat him, but they underestimated the enemy and fell into a trap set by the cunning bandits at the edge of the canyon. Several of our brothers nearly fell off the cliff, and Doctor Meng got lost in the dangerous situation and hasn't returned yet. So, we quickly mobilized our troops to rescue him to prevent any further harm."
After all, Meng Lanxi was brought in by Ling Tianshui, and she was also a candidate for the husband of Lingling County Lord. If something happened, it would be difficult for the Beiya Imperial Guards to explain.
Unexpectedly, Meng Lanxi had just abandoned literature and joined the army when such an accident happened. Ling Tianshui's face was gloomy as he and a group of Northern Yamen's imperial guards galloped towards the canyon.
Qiandeng looked at Cui Fufeng worriedly and quickly followed.
While speeding across the canyon, Ling Tianshui had already devised a plan. When he reached the edge of the cliff, he briefly exchanged directions with the searchers and immediately determined Feng Yi's possible escape route.
It rains a lot in the mountains at the turn of spring and summer. Not only is there abundant water in the valley below, but even the narrow mountain path is full of mud. The horses' hooves slip and it is impossible to ride forward.
The soldiers spread out along the mountain road and blocked the way separately, while Ling Tianshui carefully checked the surrounding traces.
Soon, he found traces of a fallen grass leaf, and judging from the outline, it should have been pressed out by a square object.
"Did Doctor Meng bring his medicine box when he came?"
After receiving affirmative answers from the soldiers, Ling Tianshui immediately selected a few more capable people to follow him down the mountain stream, following the traces of the medicine box rolling down.
Just as they tied the ropes and grabbed the wet grass and tree roots to search downwards, a soldier looked up and suddenly uttered a short shout: "Over there!"
Qiandeng above also heard the cry, but she couldn't go down. She only saw Ling Tianshui and others looking in the direction of the soldier's finger, all with shocked expressions on their faces.
She looked around, found a small slope diagonally below, jumped down, lowered her body, and looked over there.
I saw a piece of white clothes flashing among the bushes on the cliff, and then it was pulled behind the cliff.
Qiandeng immediately turned her gaze to the back of the cliff, because after Meng Lanxi's mother passed away, she was wearing white clothes like her.
There should be space for people to stay behind the cliff, but in the distance, a disheveled figure was seen swaying in the gap between the dense forests, and it seemed as if it was madly pushing a thin figure in white clothes in front of it.
The soldiers immediately shouted, "It's Doctor Meng and that rogue soldier!"
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