Chapter 54 is not the first scene.
Seeing his confusion, Jin Shu squatted down and picked up a charred piece: "If we piece it together, we might be able to find out the deceased's social status."
“Different clothing materials can sometimes reveal the deceased’s economic status and point the way in the case.” As she spoke, she gestured for Li Jin to look at the deceased’s mouth: “Moreover, the deceased had a gold tooth, which is not typical of a working woman.”
Gold teeth are a hobby typically reserved for wealthy merchants and nouveau riche.
He lifted the hem of his shirt, squatted down in front of the victim, tilted his head, and peered carefully inside.
This behavior is not at all like that of a prince.
She turned to look at Zhou Zheng and the other constables, only to find them all doing their own thing, showing no surprise whatsoever, as if this scene was perfectly normal.
Jin Shu pursed her lips, giving a slightly higher evaluation of Prince Jing, who was so hands-on.
It would be even better if he weren't scheming.
Li Jin lay there and saw the gold tooth clearly. After listening to her words and thinking for a while, he finally stood up.
After everyone had moved the victim away, he stood in the dilapidated house, looking at the ruins, and fell into deep thought.
Who is this woman? And why was she murdered? How should we approach this case? He stared at the charred marks on the ground, remaining silent for a long time.
Currently, all objective conditions are not favorable for solving this case.
It had rained for many days in the capital, and this place was leaky and drafty. After several attempts to reach it, there weren't many clues left.
“Normally, no one comes here.” The innkeeper looked at the group of constables in front of him and was almost in tears. “Really, sirs, there’s a stone pit not far behind this house. Someone was killed there before. No one usually comes to this place.”
"I was just out of my mind, I don't know why I thought of coming to take a look. If you insist that I explain why, I really don't know!" The innkeeper said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
The only path leading to this remote little house didn't pass by the inn's entrance, so everyone in the inn spent the whole morning trying to recall any valuable clues.
In addition, since a considerable amount of time had passed at the scene, all traces had been washed away by the rain, and nothing could be seen anymore.
"Are there any villages nearby?" Li Jin asked, holding his fan.
The innkeeper hesitated for a moment, then shook his head: "No, no more. We're only a dozen miles from the capital as the crow flies. Who would live in this desolate wilderness? Everyone's gone to the foot of the capital."
"What was this room originally used for?" Seeing that he didn't seem to be lying, Li Jin turned around, looked at the ruins, and asked.
"This..." The innkeeper looked embarrassed, his gaze darting between Li Jin and the group of constables several times before he awkwardly chuckled and whispered, "This...this was originally a bandit's shack..."
He pursed his lips: "In our post station, many wealthy merchants' caravans pass through here, so this group of bandits settled in. But they don't do anything big, just petty theft."
“However, when His Highness Prince Jing was in charge of the Three Judicial Offices, the caravans were escorted by officials. When they saw this situation, they dispersed.” The waiter scratched his head. “They’ve been dispersed for several years now.”
Unable to extract any other valuable clues from the innkeeper, Li Jin glanced at his face, waved his hand, and signaled that he could go back.
In that instant, he saw Jin Shu inside the house, diligently searching for something amidst the ashes.
She squatted down and pulled out several strange pieces of cloth.
It was straw yellow, not fully burned, and didn't look like clothing material, but it seemed like it would crumble if you squeezed it.
Jin Shu used a small stick to peel them off, pondering over and over, but still couldn't understand what they were.
Li Jin stood behind her, glancing at the fragments, and paused for a moment: "A yarn bag?"
He examined them closely for a long time; the fragments looked exactly like a yarn bag.
“These kinds of things are not common; they’re packing bags used to move large quantities of goods,” Li Jin said. “Liu Cheng’an used these kinds of bags to have caravans transport your and Jin Rong’s daily necessities from Dingzhou to the capital.”
He crouched down, picked up a small wooden stick, and began searching through the ashes.
As he searched, he asked, "Is there anything else unusual?"
Jin Shu didn't even look up, her gaze fixed on the pile of ashes in front of her: "There are no shoes."
Upon hearing this, Li Jin nodded.
Indeed, the victim's shoes were not found at the scene or in the vicinity.
The victim was barefoot and had been abandoned there.
The two of them stayed there until the sun began to set.
A crimson glow spread across the sky, enveloping the capital. The caravans gradually departed from the post station; the sounds of camel bells and horses ceased, replaced by the chirping of insects, signaling the approaching night.
At this moment, in the coroner's room of the Six Doors, Jin Shu was intently wielding her knife against the corpse before her.
She observed slowly and deliberately, recording all the characteristics of the victim on a piece of paper.
Li Jin stood at the door, glancing at Yan Zhao's face.
He covered his nose with one hand, his expression quite amused.
Originally, Jin Shu was given this horrific scene with the intention of scaring the girl away.
But now, he really didn't expect that Jin Shu could be so calm and unaffected by the situation.
His focused expression made it seem as if there was a line drawn in front of him, separating him and Li Jin from the outside.
In addition, Li Jin had just briefly explained to him Jin Shu's initial findings at the scene, so Yan Zhao didn't know what expression to make at this moment.
My heart is twisted like a pretzel.
He felt that Jin Shu was a rare talent and had great potential to become a pillar of the coroner's office in the future.
He also felt that it was not good to have a woman work as a coroner and face these things every day, as it would delay her marriage.
But the scene before her made Yan Zhao wonder if the dead were more attractive to her than the living.
That's truly astonishing.
Under Yan Zhao's watchful eye, Jin Shu unknowingly spent an hour or two busy, and the conclusion she reached was equally surprising.
"The deceased was about five and a half feet tall. The sixth tooth on the left side of the upper tooth was inlaid with gold foil. The hair roots at the temples had turned white. The deceased was wearing an embroidered ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) with a cotton lining. The upper garment was burned to too many pieces to be pieced together from its original state."
Jin Shu paused for a moment: "Although most of the neck was burned, there are several obvious dark purple pressure marks on the remaining skin tissue. The preliminary judgment is that the cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation, either by strangulation or by having the mouth and nose covered. However, due to the fact that the body had been burned and the face was highly carbonized, it is impossible to determine which one it was."
“Another characteristic of the victim is that she had no shoes.” She hesitated for a moment, then looked at the two people standing to the side: “Based on the material of her clothing, I tend to think that the victim was relatively wealthy, but the gold foil tooth in her mouth, even in Dingzhou, thousands of miles away, would not be an expensive product to make to this standard.”
“Or rather, it’s relatively inexpensive.” Jin Shu frowned and bit her lip. “If we’re tracing the source of the corpse, we might as well start with this gold tooth and see if any clinics have ever treated a woman who was well-off but extremely stingy. That might be a breakthrough.”
"As for the lack of shoes, combined with the yarn bag found at the scene, I speculate that the dilapidated little house was just a dumping ground for the body." Jin Shu paused. "The murder scene should not be there."
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