Chapter 217 Suspicious Suicide Scene
"Your Highness..."
In front of Li Jin, Jin Shu took half a step back, her face as pale as Xiao Chen's.
Her mouth opened and closed, she glanced at his face, and uttered a few words with great hesitation: "You really are gay?!"
Li Jin was stunned.
Did I just provoke a fire?!
Li Jin couldn't figure this out for several hours afterward, nor did he have the chance to.
Before he could even say another word, he saw Zhou Zheng rushing over from the other side of the corridor.
"Your Highness, Prefect Feng of the Capital Prefecture has sent someone looking for you."
Li Jin frowned: "Feng Chao?"
Feng Chao, the Prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture, has served as an official for thirty years, and has been stuck in this position for nearly ten years.
On the one hand, he is indeed very good at handling family matters.
On the other hand, he is too conventional and inflexible.
So much so that when Li Jin heard his name, she subconsciously felt that nothing good could come of it.
The carriage traveled for an hour before stopping at Xianningfang, near Anhuamen in the south of the capital.
This was the outer edge of the entire outer city of Chang'an, far from the hustle and bustle, and the neighborhood was deserted with only a few households.
Feng Chao saw Li Jin's carriage from afar and hurriedly came out to greet it. As soon as the carriage stopped, he said, "Mr. Jin, you've finally arrived!"
After saying that, he noticed Li Jin jumping down from the back of the carriage. His face stiffened, and he quickly bowed again: "Greetings, Your Highness Prince Jing."
Li Jin chuckled softly and helped Feng Chao up, saying, "It seems that Lord Feng is not looking for me."
Upon hearing this, Feng Chao chuckled twice: "That's because it's the palace banquet today. I thought the Prince might have entered the palace early this morning..."
Li Jin smiled gently, patted his shoulder, and went straight to the point: "What case is it?"
“I’m not sure if it’s a case…” Feng Chao straightened up and stroked his beard. “The lady of the house was found hanged in the side room yesterday.”
"My family went to a coffin shop and bought a ready-made thin coffin in preparation for the burial," Feng Chao said, turning to the side and gesturing for him to enter.
Li Jin looked up at the courtyard wall and gate tower in front of him, and after a long while, he finally took a step.
The courtyard wall was made of gray bricks for one-third of its base, and the remaining seven or eight feet high was made entirely of yellow clay mixed with straw.
He took two steps forward, but before he could reach out, Jin Shu leaned forward and gently chipped off a piece with her fingers.
“This family is indeed having a tough time.” Feng Chao explained upon seeing this, “There is only one male in the family, and it is really not easy to feed four people.”
Li Jin crossed his arms and turned to look at Feng Chao: "Lord Feng, you haven't finished speaking yet. They went to the coffin shop and bought a thin coffin, and then what?"
"We're holding a funeral, and we've notified the bride's family, but when the deceased's brother came over, he insisted that the deceased had been murdered and made a scene in the courtyard all day." Feng Chao frowned. "I arrived early this morning and have been looking around for a long time, but I still can't figure it out."
In the courtyard, a pitch-black coffin stood in the middle. A man dressed in mourning clothes pointed a sword at another person in the courtyard, saying vehemently, "If you can't give me a clear answer about how my sister died, I will not let this go!"
"The man he was pointing to was the deceased's husband." Feng Chao raised his hand to cover half of his face and said in a low voice, "It is said that the two of them had always been at odds."
After speaking, he stepped forward a few steps: "This is His Highness Prince Jing of the Six Doors, and this is the Corpse Whisperer of the Six Doors." Feng Chao waved his hand, and the constables beside him quickly stepped forward and separated the two men. "You two should not make a fuss. Wait a moment. If it is indeed a murder, I will seek justice for the deceased."
In the brief moment he was speaking, Jin Shu had already stood beside the black coffin.
The coffin was not yet closed, and the situation inside was clearly visible.
The deceased was a woman, approximately thirty years old.
She glanced at her neck, then looked up at Feng Chao: "How did she die? Where did she die? Who found her?"
Upon hearing this, Feng Chao pointed to the inner room: "It's here, sir, please follow me."
Seeing that Jin Shu's expression had become much more serious, Li Jin followed behind her and asked in a low voice, "Is there something suspicious?"
After stepping over the threshold, Jin Shu nodded: "There is a clear, fresh scratch mark on the deceased's neck."
She stopped there.
The inner room of the courtyard's side room contained only a few simple pieces of furniture.
The paper windows were tattered and rattled in the autumn wind.
The black lacquer on the bed had peeled off and become mottled. One of the legs of the table in the center was tied together with a rope holding down a piece of wood.
“It was found here.” Feng Chao raised his hand and pointed to a blank wall next to the window.
At eye level with Li Jin, there were two striking black dots.
He took two steps forward, turned his head to look at the protruding shape, and frowned: "A coffin nail?"
The coffin nail, about the length of Li Jin's palm. In the Great Wei Dynasty, these were thick, black, long nails used to seal the coffin during burial; they could be made of bronze, or copper and iron.
“Exactly,” Feng Chao said. “The deceased used a rope, one end of which was hung on this nail, and the other end was hanging around his neck.”
Jin Shu took two steps forward, her eyebrows raised and lowered. She turned around, leaned against the wall, stood under the nail, and raised her hand to indicate the height.
The nail was positioned below Li Jin's height.
She clapped her hands and said decisively, "It was murder."
Feng Chao was taken aback.
Jin Shu continued, "There are two points of doubt."
She held up one finger: "First, it's this nail." Then she held up another finger, "Second, it's this height and the rope used to hang myself."
She paused for a moment: "When a person hangs themselves, before they enter a state of suffocation, they will struggle violently out of their survival instinct. Therefore, most people who die by hanging have broken shoulder blades and broken hyoid bones, resulting in their tongues sticking out, their eyeballs bulging, their faces contorted, and they become incontinent."
Jin Shu turned her head and pointed to the nails on the wall: "Nails of this thickness, driven into an adobe wall mixed with thatch, simply cannot withstand such intense struggle."
"The wall is so clean, without a single sign of damage, it's impossible."
She glanced at the direction of the two people outside: "Moreover, the victim was five feet tall and had a well-proportioned figure. He was suspended in such a low place with only a belt rope the thickness of a little finger..." Jin Shu shook her head, "He couldn't have endured it."
At this point, she asked again, "Lord Feng, who was the first to discover the victim?"
Feng Chao responded, "They are the two daughters of this family." After saying that, he added, "The eldest of the two children is six years old. I saw them when we came back from our outing. They have already been taken away by their maternal grandmother's family."
Li Jin listened to these words while pacing back and forth inside the room.
A dilapidated courtyard, a dilapidated house, and a few old and worn-out pieces of furniture inside.
He casually opened a few drawers, looked at the contents, and a question arose in his mind.
There were no women's items in the drawers, not even a hairpin or a piece of clothing.
There was no trace of a woman living in this house.
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