Chapter 177 The Well-Deserved Expert in Trace Analysis
Just after noon the next day, Yunfei, who thought he would arrive in the evening, jumped off his horse, dressed lightly.
He patted away the dust and grime left by his fast-moving horse, smiled faintly, and pointed in the direction of the lower city: "Let's go, let's go see the scene first."
After speaking, she looked at Yun Jianlin standing next to Li Jin and nodded gently in greeting.
The father and son, who hadn't seen each other for half a year, conveyed a thousand unspoken words in their smiling gazes.
Li Jin did not respond, but turned her head to glance at Yun Jianlin's face.
As if sensing Li Jin's probing, Yun Jianlin smiled, cupped his hands, and said, "Official business is more important."
Under the golden autumn sun in Shengzhou, the streets are bustling with traffic.
Looking at the vendors hawking their wares, Yunfei bought a sesame seed cake with two copper coins and listened as Jin Shu told him about the autopsy.
"So, what we can be sure of now is that the murder weapon itself hasn't been found yet, but it's probably a piece of broken wood, right?" Yunfei said with a smile. "Mr. Jin is as capable as ever."
Li Jin, who was walking in front, stopped and glanced back at the two people walking side by side behind him.
He took a deep breath through his nose and squeezed himself between the two.
“But right now, the situation at the scene and the surrounding area is not very good,” Li Jin said. “Neither Jin Shu nor I can determine the nature of the case.”
Yunfei took a bite of the sesame seed cake, somewhat surprised: "Neither of you can be sure?"
"Exactly."
Jin Shu, who had been walking side by side, was suddenly pushed to the back. She blinked, glanced at the solemn Zhou Zheng beside her, and looked a little dazed.
On the streets and alleys, besides the vendors selling their wares, you can occasionally see groups of girls traveling together.
Many people, carrying baskets and incense sticks, walked towards the City God Temple. They chatted and laughed, strolling slowly and leisurely, enjoying the languid and soothing atmosphere of an autumn afternoon.
The horses' hooves clattered, and the carriage wheels moved slowly forward.
The area is bustling with people coming and going.
Li Jin walked ahead, her mood as bright as the sun after the rain, her tone refreshing: "The victim's feet were clean, but there were footprints inside the house, the barefoot kind. The scene was quite messy, and your father had it sealed off; no one has been able to get close for the past two days."
As he added to the list, he looked at the bustling traffic and marveled at the ever-growing prosperity of Shengzhou.
Seeing Yunfei nod, Li Jincai held up his finger again: "There's a bloodstain on the hitching post, about this wide. It's been there for a while, so take a look later."
At this point, Yunfei finished the last bite of the sesame seed cake and patted the crumbs off his hands: "Actually, I know the victim." He said, "When my father first took office in Shengzhou, I caught a cold, and it was this Doctor Hua who treated me."
"He has superb medical skills and is a refined and cultured person," Yunfei said.
Li Jin glanced at his smiling face and nodded.
Just like before, the shop of Youcaotang was still sealed off with doors and stamped with the seal of the Shengzhou government.
The news of Dr. Hua's untimely death had already spread. People passing by the gate either stopped to peek in, whispered among themselves, or looked on with regret before shaking their heads and leaving.
Li Jin and Yun Fei's group avoided the main entrance and walked through the alleyway they had used before, heading towards the increasingly quiet back entrance.
The marks on the hitching post were still there. Yunfei glanced at it, pondered for a moment, and then looked toward the wall behind the hitching post.
The outer wall of the courtyard was covered in gray dust and moss, making it look very mottled.
He peered closely at the wall and found some unusual marks in the lower areas.
It looked like someone had sat down here; a patch of grass at the base of the wall had fallen over, and the moss deep inside showed signs of being scraped.
Yunfei turned around, stood on the other side, and slowly lowered his head, reaching his right hand towards the hitching post.
"The killer must have stopped here for a while," he said. "Perhaps he got injured."
Sitting by the wall, Yunfei's fingers were about the same height as the marks on the hitching post: "Like this, I stopped here for a moment, holding onto the hitching post."
After saying that, he glanced at the end of the alley, then got up, dusted himself off, and walked into the courtyard.
Behind him, the scrapes on the wall, the leaning grass at the base of the wall, and the traces next to him that appeared to be left by the murderer were exactly the same.
It was still that same conventional courtyard house. The left wing room was where the old man's family lived, while the empty right wing room contained the lingering footprints.
“Nothing has been touched.” Li Jin stood behind him, watching his back as he looked around. “The only unusual thing on the outskirts is that empty room.”
Pushing open the door, Yunfei saw specks of dust shimmering in the sunlight. He squatted down, took out a piece of paper from his pocket, and took the brush from Li Jin, sketching out one of the clear marks.
"These footprints have traces of small insects crawling on them, which means that the murderer was here in the first half of the night."
As Yunfei spoke, he lifted the hem of his robe and stood beside the two clearer footprints, leaving his own footprint on top of them.
He took two steps back and looked at the two different footprints in front of him, one of his own and one of the murderer's.
The murderer's involvement was deeper, while Yunfei's was shallower.
He placed the brush beside the footprint, observed the length of the wolf-hair brush relative to the footprint, and calculated a rough value.
“The footprints are quite distinctive.” Yunfei remained squatting there without getting up. “The heels are deep and the forefoot is shallow, which means that this person has his chest out and stomach in, and his body is straight.”
"The length of the wolf hair brush with the tip is about 7.8 inches, and the footprint is a little longer than the total length of the brush body."
He stood up and gestured with his hand: "According to normal body proportions, height is generally 6.8 times the length of the foot, about this tall."
Yunfei's hand stopped on his own cheekbone.
Jin Shu looked over and roughly estimated that, according to the calculation method of her previous life, he was about 1.8 meters tall.
“Besides, this person is obviously fatter than me.” He pointed to his own footprints on the ground. “His footprints are much clearer than mine.”
"He's about five and a half feet tall and rather plump." Li Jin nodded. "Anything else?"
"Judging from the spacing between his steps and his unsteady gait, he seemed hesitant," Yunfei said as he walked out.
He scanned the entire courtyard before taking a step towards the main hall.
As they walked, he said, "This room that Dr. Hua left vacant was originally where his wife lived."
He stood with his hands behind his back, walking side by side with Li Jin: "But since I was a child, the two of us have often quarreled and threatened to divorce at the drop of a hat."
He chuckled, "My dad often comes to mediate."
After saying that, he stepped over the threshold of the main hall, and with just one glance, he saw the barefoot footprint on the ground and paused for a moment.
"Is it a woman?"
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