Chapter 120 The Fate of Royal Children as Pawns
The victim lay flat on the empty bed.
"The deceased was around sixteen years old. His eyes were wide open, his face was swollen, his lips were clenched, there were blood spots on the whites of his eyes, and his teeth were bleeding. His body cooled down slowly. Moreover, the livor mortis appeared faster than in ordinary deaths, showing the characteristics of corpse spasms. His joints were difficult to bend. His fingers and toes had already turned black and purple."
She paused for a moment: "It was a typical case of death by asphyxiation caused by respiratory paralysis following poisoning. If further information is needed, an autopsy is required. I didn't bring a single knife with me on this trip today."
"Can you determine exactly what kind of poison it is?" Li Jin stepped forward, raised his hand and pressed on the boy's cheek and lividity, examining him carefully.
“Yes,” Jin Shu said. “It’s all thanks to my master for teaching me a lot about poisons during this time.”
She pursed her lips and raised her hand to stroke her chin: "Arrow poison tree, also known as antiseptic tree."
Li Jin was very familiar with this poison.
Having fought for many years, they were already quite familiar with the poison tree.
This poison is a milky white liquid that is often applied to weapons to make poisoned knives and arrows. When people and horses are injured, the poison quickly enters their bodies through the wounds and then spreads throughout their bodies, leading to death in no time.
"Where is the wound?" Li Jin asked. Since it was "deadly upon contact with blood," there must be a wound that allowed the venom to enter the body.
Jin Shu frowned and said, "I examined him carefully for a long time and found no new injuries, except for a wound under his armpit that was already well bandaged."
As she spoke, she opened the victim's clothes under his armpits, revealing the wound with the bandages already removed in front of Li Jin.
The wound wasn't new; it looked like it had been there for at least two days.
Li Jin held the removed bandage in his hand; the blood on it had congealed and turned black. Inside the bandage was a special piece of linen. Li Jin gently picked it up and examined it carefully.
This was the first time he had ever seen a bandage technique where an extra small piece of cloth was placed under the tourniquet.
and……
On the small cloth, some white marks caught his attention. He touched them gently, and his doubts deepened.
That texture felt like wax.
“Actually, based on the victim’s condition, I judge that it may not just be a deadly poison, because the speed was too fast,” Jin Shu said. “It is very likely that it was mixed with strychnine.”
The combination of antihistamines and strychnine, which are also poisonous, is a common assassination tactic. The effect is many times stronger than using either ingredient alone.
As Li Jin listened, he carefully examined the white cloth bandage in his hand, feeling that the feel of the bandage was slightly strange. It was much thicker than those used by ordinary doctors or imperial physicians.
“I also think that bandage is strange. It’s very thick. Wounds usually need to be breathable and not accumulate sweat to heal, but this bandage obviously accumulates a lot of sweat, which makes it easy to get infected.”
"Moreover, we have no idea what that small piece of cloth was used for." Jin Shu picked up the victim's belongings and looked at them for a long time. "It's possible that due to limited financial resources, they hired an unreliable quack doctor and gave her a hasty treatment."
Li Jin glanced at the victim, put down the bandage in his hand, and patted the dust off his clothes: "You'll know which doctor treated you if you go and ask him yourself."
After saying that, he turned to the side, looked at Li Qian who was craning her neck to get closer, and said to Feng Chao, "I'd like to trouble you, Lord Feng, to send the princess back to the palace first."
"Why?" Before Feng Chao could even speak, Li Qian interjected, dissatisfied. "Why should I go back first? I was the first person to discover it, and a witness at the scene!"
But Li Jin turned around, speaking slowly and deliberately with great seriousness: "Something happened at Xiangji Temple, and you were surrounded by onlookers. You still made such outrageous remarks. Father Emperor and Crown Prince in Chang'an will soon know everything about this."
He coldly rebuked, "There's a limit to nonsense. Think about your current position. What would happen if they found out you're still here and unwilling to go back?"
Seeing Li Qian's stubborn refusal to nod, Li Jin turned to the side and pointed at Jin Shu with his eyes: "I sent you out to travel, not to speak for the dead. The longer you stay, the more people you will drag down with you."
Originally, Li Qian was thinking of arguing her case and maybe even using her charm to stay until the end. But when she followed his gaze and saw Jin Shu's back, she instantly calmed down.
If she goes back now, the worst that can happen is that she'll be punished.
If he stays here, the Ministry of Justice might accuse Mr. Jin of "plotting against the princess."
Although it's regrettable, doing as Li Jin said is clearly the best outcome at this moment.
After a moment, Li Qian sighed, put away her playful demeanor, and adopted a princess-like manner, nodding to Feng Chao: "Then I will trouble you, Lord Feng."
Seeing that she understood his meaning, Li Jin breathed a sigh of relief. He took off his sword and handed it to Li Qian, saying, "Please take this back with you, Your Highness. It's too heavy to carry. Once the case is closed, I will personally go to the palace to tell you about the rest."
He narrowed his eyes slightly: "I'll ask you for this knife later."
The knife was worthless; it was an ordinary Tang sword issued to a regular constable of the Six Doors.
The removal of the knife was something Li Qian was to tell the Emperor and the Crown Prince, to put her mind at ease knowing that Li Jin would also tell her the outcome of the case.
After Feng Chao led her away, Li Jin stood under the eaves and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He stretched out his left hand, palm flat, and with a snap, the black folding fan that he usually held landed precisely in his palm from the air. With a whoosh, he swung it open and called out, "Let's go, let's go to Tangxia Village."
Five li is not a long distance; it takes at most 15 minutes to walk from Xiangji Temple.
He slowed his pace and walked alongside Jin Shu. They bought two roasted sweet potatoes for a few coins and ate them as they walked, thus making do with lunch.
Along the way, there were still many people going to Xiangji Temple to pray for blessings, and occasionally you could hear them talking about the big event that happened at the temple gate at noon.
Only then did Jin Shu have time to ask Li Jin a question that had piqued her curiosity: "Is the young master's sister on his side?"
Beside him, Li Jin pondered for a moment: "Yes, ever since what happened six years ago, we've been allies."
The tragedy of sibling rivalry six years ago was also a significant shock to Li Qian.
“On the one hand, I’m afraid I’ll end up like that,” he said. “On the other hand, I’m worried about becoming a complete pawn.”
"piece?"
Li Jin smiled and glanced at Jin Shu, "Born into the royal family, whether male or female, no one can escape the fate of being a pawn."
He stopped talking there, just looked at the sky and smiled slightly.
But that smile, in Jin Shu's eyes, was full of helplessness.
She pursed her lips, changed the subject, and sighed, "Oh, it's such a pity that the lamp wasn't lit."
Li Jin chuckled dryly and called her a "money-grubber".
Tangxia Village is not large. When Li Jin and Jin Shu arrived, the county magistrate of Tangxia Village and Bai Yu were already waiting at the crossroads.
"I have already heard about this from Lord Bai. Your Highness, please come this way. Wang Guixiang's courtyard is rather secluded, about half an incense stick's worth of distance from the county government office."
The magistrate bowed respectfully and stepped aside to make way for him.
Because of its proximity to Chang'an City and its proximity to Xiangji Temple, Tangxia Village, despite being a small village with a small population, still exudes an air of wealth and nobility.
Most of the courtyards in the village are two- or three-courtyard siheyuan (traditional courtyard houses), with white walls and gray tiles, and bluestone paths, which are very beautiful.
"Besides her deceased parents, Wang Guixiang also had two older sisters who had been married for over ten years and lived in Chang'an, as well as her uncle's family. The child who died this time was named Wang Bin, and he was her uncle's only son."
"Uncle?" Li Jin frowned, puzzled. "Why doesn't her uncle raise his only son himself?"
The magistrate looked troubled: "This matter is somewhat related to her mother's sudden and mysterious death three years ago."
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