Chapter 155 Deserved Punishment, He Lived in a Way That Was More Than Enough
In early autumn, the sky was high and the air was crisp. In the carriage heading to Shengzhou, Jin Shu looked at the large Buddha statue in front of her with its eyes closed in meditation. After hesitating for a while, she finally spoke: "Didn't the Prince say yesterday that he would come along too?"
Li Jin remained leaning against the wall, eyes closed: "With me here, you don't need to pay for food, drink, or lodging. You can earn a daily allowance of one tael of silver. Isn't that good?"
Only then did he slowly open his eyes and glance at Jin Shu in front of him.
As expected, the woman's eyes shone brightly, and she spoke with righteous indignation, bowing respectfully and saying, "Thank you for your trouble, Your Highness!"
After saying that, he pursed his lips and asked again, "How many days will this trip take?" His expression practically screamed, "How much money can I earn?"
“In a few days,” Li Jin said. “I have to return to Beijing before the Mid-Autumn Festival, at most six or seven days.”
Upon hearing this, a gentle expression appeared on Jin Shu's face.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Jin Rong, who was studying at the Imperial Academy, rarely had a few days off. After not seeing him for a month or two, Jin Shu really missed this "younger brother" with royal blood.
Li Jin's feelings were much more complicated.
Since he handed over the tiger tally, the border has been guarded by his maternal grandfather, General Xiao, and his family. They are only allowed to return to the capital to visit relatives during the Mid-Autumn Festival and the New Year.
Therefore, Li Jin only had one chance during the Mid-Autumn Festival to see the young general who had stood guard outside the palace six years ago, refused Lin Zhongyi's two cartloads of armor, and then sent someone to inform Li Jin overnight.
To avoid attracting attention, the young general has not returned home for three years. This year is the agreed-upon year, and he will definitely be in the capital on the Mid-Autumn Festival.
That year was the best opportunity. Li Jin had many questions that needed his answers, and if he missed it, he might have to wait another three years.
“Shengzhou and the capital are more than 300 li apart, requiring a day’s journey by carriage.” Li Jin turned to the side, lifted the carriage curtain, and looked out at the plains. “It’s southeast of the capital, a place I often visit.”
I frequented the area, so I knew how badly bandits roamed the border region.
Firstly, there were concerns for Jin Shu's safety, and secondly, there was the delicate relationship between Shengzhou and Li Jin.
“Yun Jianlin, the prefect of Shengzhou, is Yunfei’s father.”
Because of this connection, Li Jin couldn't easily say "I won't lend it."
"You should rest more. We'll head straight to the crime scene in a bit to avoid having to turn back."
The body was found outside of Shengzhou City.
As the carriage slowly entered Shengzhou's territory, Yun Jianlin, along with the constables and yamen runners, waited on the official road, leading Li Jin and Jin Shu eastward together.
"The scene is rather horrific," Yun Jianlin said to Li Jin in the carriage from his horse. "In all my years as an official, this is the first time I've seen such a sight."
At the time, Li Jin and Jin Shu were in the car and neither could comprehend just how tragic this tragedy was.
It wasn't until I got off the carriage and walked along the path up the hillside for a quarter of an hour, until I reached a circular square that looked like a sacrificial ceremony, that I finally understood what this tragedy meant.
"Judging from the appearance, it looks like a family of four has all died here." Yun Jianlin frowned, pointed at the scene before him, and sighed.
In the center of the square stands a large tree, which, judging by the thickness of its trunk, is at least several decades old.
Four ropes hung from one of the branches, from which four corpses were suspended.
The corpses were exposed, without clothes. They were facing away from the city of Shengzhou.
But on the back of each person, a large, clear character was written in red paint, which together read: "Deserved punishment."
On the front, it says: "He deserved to die."
Jin Shu fastened her handcuffs, put on her veil, and waited for the artist to finish painting before releasing the youngest victim.
"The victim was between 4 and 6 years old. Rigor mortis had not subsided, and her pupils were still translucent." Jin Shu lowered her body, looking at the marks on the little girl's neck and the lividity on her body, carefully examining all the marks on her body.
The external injury was very minor, so minor that it only looked like a scratch.
This kind of situation hasn't been seen for many years. She calmly reached out and gently pressed on the bones of the young victim's limbs.
Sure enough, there were fractures of the femur, ribs, and even signs of fractures in the neck and skull.
She remained silent for a long time before solemnly saying, "This is not the primary crime scene, but merely the site where the body was disposed of."
"The cause of death for this little girl was not suffocation, but a typical fall from a height, which resulted in complex fractures and internal bleeding, leading to her death."
She paused for a moment, then added, "The time of death was within 12 hours."
"The girl must be living in relatively good conditions; her hands and feet have very well-maintained skin, so she must not come from an ordinary family."
Jin Shu gently touched the bright red "得" (de) character written on her body with her fingers; the paint had completely dried.
Upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that the characters are written in a crooked and irregular manner, forming a distinct style, and they do not appear to have been written with a brush, but rather as if they were brushed on with something else.
Moreover, this pigment looks exactly like tung oil used for painting walls.
But the second body was different.
The second victim, although not much older than the first girl, was a boy whose cause of death was definitely not a fall.
"There are bleeding spots in the whites of his eyes, and his tongue is sticking out..." As she said this, Jin Shu leaned down to look at the unusual bluish-purple marks on his neck and frowned slightly.
She picked up the section of rope she had just removed and looked at the two clear purplish-black handprints on the boy's neck: "Although the cause of death was suffocation, he was not hanged here; he was strangled."
The boy must have struggled quite a bit before he died; his fingertips were covered in scratches, and his eyes were wide open, which was quite terrifying.
Jin Shu placed her hand on the mark on his neck, changing the gesture and hand shape several times.
“That should be it.” Finally, Jin Shu fixed her hands in one position, with her thumbs crossed, left hand below and right hand above. Her brows furrowed slightly. “This position is very strange.”
Seeing her say that, Li Jin took two steps forward, squatted down to the side, first looked at the shape of her palm, and then imitated it, making the same strange pose.
That's really strange.
“When you cross your thumbs, the force is directed forward,” Jin Shu said. “But most people, when they pinch someone, should apply pressure from both sides, like this…”
Jin Shu opened her palms, as if she were holding a large bowl.
Li Jin nodded, looked up at the third body that had just been laid down, and glanced at the blood-red sunset behind him: "Let's look at the next one."
He got up to make room for the third body.
Unlike the previous two children, the female victim had obvious signs of external injury.
“There are obvious sharp force wounds on her waist and abdomen, but…” Jin Shu raised her hand to support her eyelids, “but she also died of suffocation.”
She released her grip, her expression extremely serious.
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