Chapter 96, Special Case Number Eight
A smiling corpse, though common, is truly chilling to behold when it appears before your eyes in this way.
Jin Shu frowned slightly, tied her hands, and waited to the side.
The scene was so eerie that the body could only be laid down after the artist had finished sketching it.
During this brief wait, Li Jin noticed her furrowed brows and asked, "Is it strange?"
He said, "Smiling corpses are rare, but I have indeed seen them."
Jin Shu turned her head and glanced at his face: "Let's wait until we put it down and examine it before we talk about it." She paused and murmured, "It's late spring and early summer, so it shouldn't have frozen to death."
freeze to death?
Li Jin remained calm, turned around, and looked up at the student's face.
In early June, although it wasn't sweltering heat in Beijing, there was no reason for anyone to freeze to death.
"Does the sect leader still remember the hypothermia I mentioned at the Six Doors at noon?"
She said, "To put it simply, they freeze to death. People who freeze to death have a delusion before they die, thinking that it is warm and comfortable. Many of them even take off their clothes and are in a very relaxed state. So after they die, they basically have a calm smile on their face like him."
"However, those who are smiling are not necessarily the ones who froze to death." Jin Shu stopped there.
Because of uncertainty.
Aside from death due to hypothermia, the fact that the corpse's face still bears a smile is a normal part of the change process.
It is indeed random; not every corpse is like that.
However, there is a special case where it is possible to artificially make a corpse appear to be smiling.
She waited there to confirm this second possibility.
The Imperial Academy and the Imperial College in the capital city were the highest institutions of learning in the Great Wei Dynasty.
The students who could study at the Imperial Academy, apart from truly talented individuals, were all either wealthy or of high social standing.
Ordinary people, let alone whether they can pass the entrance exam, even if they do, simply cannot afford the annual tuition fees without the help of a benefactor.
For this reason, the overall conditions of the student dormitories at the Imperial Academy were the best within the entire Imperial Academy.
She looked at the painted beams, elm wood table, antique display shelves, and four pairs of eight-immortal chairs facing each other. On the central wall hung portraits of sages painted by famous artists.
If it weren't for this abruptly placed corpse, this place could be considered a sacred place for studying and learning.
After the constables from the Six Doors hurriedly lowered the man who had been hanging there for who knows how long, Jin Shu squatted down in front of him, raised her hand and pinched her fingertips, observing the back of his neck, his back and buttocks, and touched his shoulder, her expression becoming increasingly solemn.
The man in front of me is about eighteen years old. His cornea is cloudy and has been connected to the lens. His upper body is slightly bent, his lower limbs are straight, his head is slightly tilted to the left, his thumb is bent and the other four fingers cover it, forming a semi-fist shape.
These are all normal signs of rigor mortis, which is not a special condition under normal circumstances, but it is obvious that this corpse is extremely stiff.
A question arose in her mind. Looking at his appearance, Jin Shu simply lay down, her forehead almost touching the ground.
She reached out and examined the victim's back, neck, and waist, carefully looking at his calves.
After thinking for a moment, he stood up and looked at Li Jin, whose face was full of surprise: "Time of death is about two days, mild decomposition, and rigor mortis is very strong."
She glanced at the door, pursed her lips, and asked, "Sect Leader, could you do me a favor?"
Seeing her serious expression, Li Jin nodded, puzzled, and said, "Go ahead."
"Help me hold him up, I need to take off his clothes."
Before him, Li Jin frowned, glanced at the victim, and pointed at Jin Shu: "You help her up."
Then, pointing to his chest, he said, "I'll take it off. Just tell me what you want to see."
After saying that, he gave her a look of disgust, his face showing a "disappointed" expression.
Jin Shu was completely dumbfounded.
She crouched down, supported his shoulders, turned the victim to the side, and pointed to the victim's back for Li Jin: "Take a look at his shoulders, back, and buttocks. Do you see any strange patterns imprinted on them?"
After a person dies, the muscles become relaxed, and usually those soft, protruding parts will flatten out due to gravity after coming into contact with a hard surface.
Jin Shu had been lying on the ground just now, looking at these peculiar flat marks.
If these areas came into contact with patterned surfaces, such as bamboo mats, during rigor mortis, these indentations will not easily disappear even after the body is moved. They will only gradually fade as the body decomposes.
Following Jin Shu's words, Li Jin lifted his clothes and slowly looked down along his spine, where he froze slightly above his buttocks.
“There are no patterns, but there’s something even more powerful than patterns.” He reached out to support the corpse, gesturing for Jin Shu to turn around and take a look.
With the spine as the midline, a stroke and a line, like a brand, bear a bloody "eight" on top.
Jin Shu was stunned: "This case..."
Li Jin took out his fan and gently placed it on her lips: "Shh."
He lowered his voice: "The Imperial Academy is one of the Crown Prince's powers, so don't bring up the case."
Seeing Jin Shu nod, he put away his fan and straightened the victim's clothes: "Any other discoveries?"
"The rest can only be confirmed after the rigor mortis subsides and an examination is conducted." She looked around the room with a hint of melancholy. "The victim has been dead for two days, and the degree of rigor mortis is quite unusual. Moreover, there are no marks on his neck, which clearly indicates that he was just hanged."
Upon hearing the results of her preliminary examination, Li Jin's lips pursed into a straight line.
It was just hung up, which means that someone brought a body here from outside in broad daylight, or...
“Either the victim never left this dormitory room from the moment of death until they were discovered,” Jin Shu said. “Besides the bed, where else could such a body be laid flat?”
The main hall of the dormitory was clearly visible at a glance. Apart from the spot where they were standing, there was nowhere else for the victim to lie down.
Li Jin glanced at her, watching her struggle with the case, and chuckled softly.
“You’ve overlooked something,” he said. “It’s not just a simple question of where to hide the body.”
He flicked the fan away, held it in his hand and shook it, without continuing to speak.
The corpse itself doesn't move; it takes at least one person to go from lying down to hanging up.
However, the timing and circumstances at which the item is discovered after it has been hung up are, in most cases, uncontrollable.
But now, it just so happens that Jin Shu came to the Imperial Academy.
Is this a coincidence, or is it inevitable?
If it is inevitable... how did the murderer know that the Six Doors would come to the Imperial College two days after he committed the crime?
Li Jin's hand, which was waving a fan, paused slightly for a moment.
He glanced at the gate behind him, and at the students who had been brought under the control of the Imperial Academy Chancellor, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Could it be that Chen Wen's letter was not a trap set by the Crown Prince, but rather a scheme devised by the mastermind behind this series of cases?
Having meticulously designed such a complex process to lure Li Jin to the Imperial Academy, what important secret did he intend to tell Li Jin?
As he pondered this, he casually picked up an empty teacup from the side and began to play with it in his hand.
Li Jin didn't notice that there was a small peony flower printed on the bottom of the teacup.
It is exactly the same as one of the thirteen flower patterns on the scroll beside his desk.
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