Chapter 78: Another Autopsy
When the brocade quilt was lifted, Qiandeng saw the wide-sleeved silk dress on his mother at a glance.
The bright crimson-purple dress that she had personally put on her mother had been soaked with rotten blood and turned into a dull brown color.
Tears streamed down his face, and the psychological defenses he had built up over several months completely collapsed.
Qiandeng closed his eyes tightly and covered his face with his hands, not daring to look at his mother's current face.
Even Ling Tianshui, who was always tough, was silent for a while when he saw Qiandeng's mask soaked with tears.
He lowered his eyes to look at the decayed corpse in the coffin, his gaze sweeping over the bones exposed beneath the decaying flesh. He asked in a low voice, "Princess Lingling, can you record the condition of the corpse?"
Qiandeng took a few deep breaths and forced himself to calm down.
Ignoring the damp mask stained her face, she grabbed the brush and ink with trembling hands, hovering it over the paper. Unable to suppress her heavy breathing, she could only try her best to stay awake, awaiting Ling Tianshui's conclusion.
"able."
Ling Tianshui's voice came, his words steady and powerful, as if he was facing just an ordinary corpse, and he was just conducting an ordinary routine investigation -
"Investigation: The deceased is a female, approximately five feet three inches tall, with dark hair and white teeth. Her hair and nails have all fallen out. Her skull, sternum, and ribs are exposed. Her limbs and spine are rotten, with joints beginning to separate and scatter. Her bones are white, with no signs of poisoning..."
As these words fell, even though Qiandeng had never seen his mother's body in person, he knew what the situation was now.
Cui Fufeng helped Ling Tianshui to examine the condition of the corpse one by one. In his impression, Lady Qi was still the graceful and gentle princess of the royal palace, but in the blink of an eye, she became a skeleton like this, which was almost unbearable for him.
Glancing at Qian Deng with concern, he lowered his voice and asked Ling Tianshui, "The deceased's muscles have already decayed and are almost completely rotten. Even..."
Three months later, even the blood from the decayed body had almost dried up, with only some muddy residues remaining on the bones. How could we examine the wound and find out the truth behind the death of Mrs. Qi?
Ling Tianshui pondered for a moment and asked him to fetch some water from the table next to him. He then took out a brush, clamps, tweezers and other small tools from the box, put on some thin tanned leather gloves, and prepared to examine the bones and flesh.
He asked Cui Fufeng to hold the candle high, aiming it at the exposed chest of the deceased, while he carefully peeled back the shrunken flesh with clamps and asked Qian Deng, "Do you remember exactly where your mother's wound was when she was in the accident?"
Qiandeng gripped the pen tightly, trying to recall the events of that day clearly. "The arrow pierced my mother's chest, about four inches below her left collarbone, slightly to the left. When I arrived, she had already collapsed, frothing with blood from her mouth and nose, and in excruciating pain, but still able to speak with difficulty."
"There's blood foaming from the mouth and nose. The arrow must have hit the lungs. Where did you come from? How long did it take you to get here?"
"We were in the outer courtyard at the time, and my mother was murdered in the inner courtyard. Our farmyard isn't very big, and it took me about half a cup of tea to run past the gate, up the porch, and into the water pavilion."
Ling Tianshui nodded, scrubbed the sternum at the place she mentioned, and carefully checked, finally finding the trace he was looking for.
His expression was solemn as he carefully examined a thin, narrow mark on the sternum. He said, "Looking at the sternum, it seems the arrow tip did indeed leave a scratch there. But the victim clearly ran away in haste and lacked strength. According to the angle of this scratch, if the arrow tip had moved forward half an inch, it would have damaged the pericardium, killing the victim instantly. It's impossible for her to survive that long, let alone be able to speak or cough up blood. So, your mother was only injured in the lungs, not the heart."
Although he had guessed it in his mind, but now that it was confirmed, Qiandeng's hand that was writing the notes could not help but tremble violently.
Ink dripped onto the file, leaving behind mottled traces like black blood. But all she could hear was a whistling roar, and all she could see was a madly surging darkness. How could she control herself? How could she write down Ling Tianshui's words according to his analysis?
Ling Tianshui didn't rush her. He paused for a moment, confirming she was still conscious, and then continued, "Also, there's a scratch from a sharp object on the edge of the shoulder blade, roughly diagonally below the fifth left rib."
Qiandeng didn't understand what this meant for a moment and stood there in a daze.
The darkness before her eyes enveloped her like a black fog. After a long moment, she finally grasped what Ling Tianshui had shown her in a hoarse voice, "When I left, the arrow had only injured her lungs; but when I returned, the wound had penetrated her torso."
After examining the chest wound, he searched the entire body to make sure there were no other traces.
Ling Tianshui raised his hand to cover the collar of his wide-sleeved silk gown, and completely covered the body of Lady Qi with a brocade quilt. Together with Cui Fufeng, he rolled up the quilt again and put it back into the black lacquer coffin.
"Princess Lingling, your guess is correct. When your mother was injured that day, she did have a chance of survival. Someone at the manor, in order to sever her last chance of life, drove the arrow deep into her heart, delivering the fatal blow."
The autopsy was completed, and all suspicious points were written down in black and white and recorded again.
Qiandeng held the file tightly in his arms, as if he wanted to squeeze the truth of his mother's death into his chest, forcing himself to engrave it firmly in his heart and never give up on tracking down the real culprit.
Cui Fufeng and Ling Tianshui replaced the coffin lid and opened the windows to ventilate. However, the pried-open coffin not only had cracks, but the black paint had also cracked in many places, revealing the wood stumps underneath.
Cui Fufeng went to the warehouse at the back to find the black paint used for construction and to repair the traces.
Ling Tianshui then straightened the copper nails of the coffin one by one and nailed the coffin lid back on to restore it to its original state.
His arms were strong and steady. Every strike made the hard copper nails penetrate deeper, making Qiandeng feel more and more clearly that they were separated forever.
The feeling of suffocation was overwhelming. Qian Deng, who had been trying hard not to fall, finally couldn't bear it anymore and fell stiffly and numbly into the chair beside him.
Ling Tianshui nailed the coffin lid and turned around to see that her face was extremely pale and ugly. He hesitated for a moment, took off his soft leather gloves, and tried to touch her forehead.
Her body was hot and cold, and trembled slightly under his palm, like a sick and trembling cub, her consciousness was hazy.
This girl who kowtowed deeply before her mother's spirit and decisively requested that the coffin be opened for an autopsy had actually been carrying too much unknown pain and suffering for too long. At the moment when she finally saw a glimpse of the truth, she could no longer bear it and was overwhelmed.
He leaned over and stared at her, and asked, "County Lady, are you okay?"
Qiandeng leaned weakly on the back of the chair, but his arms were still tightly clenched, tightly guarding the autopsy file in his arms.
She heard what he was asking and slowly shook her head, but she no longer had the strength to answer.
The grief was so heavy that she could no longer bear it.
But he was even more cruel than the reality that was encroaching on her, forcing her to face the most pressing issue she needed to face: "So, now that you're certain that one of these men in your backyard must be your mother's murderer, what are you going to do?"
Qian Deng gritted her teeth and didn't answer. Her fingers, clutching the file tightly, seemed to be twitching. Her bangs, damp with cold sweat, stood on her forehead, revealing the scar left by the drastic change she had experienced when she was thirteen. It cut across her brow bone, causing her to frown in pain with a resolute determination.
Perhaps because of the angle of observation, the figure looked particularly petite and fragile under his gaze - but she had truly grown up, and was no longer the little girl who could only cry for the death of her loved ones.
An indescribable wave passed through his heart. He lowered his head and stared at her curled up in the chair, unable to look away.
After a long time, the great grief after learning about his mother's experience gradually dissipated, and Qiandeng slowly sat up straight, as if he was going to run towards and destroy his biggest obstacle.
She finally spoke up and said, "I don't choose."
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