"Boss, are we going to patrol the city?"
"What city are you patrolling? Aren't you tired of patrolling the city every day? Can't you do something else?"
"Then what are we going to do?"
"Go play script killing."
"What?"
"Boss, what is that?"
"Are you 100,000 Whys? Follow me, and I will take you to an immersive experience of script killing."
After crossing a few streets, they arrived at the Criminal Department. After showing the official investigation documents, the guard let them in. At the turn of summer and autumn, the Criminal Department was very busy. There were several big cases in the backlog and they were rushing to be closed. There was one Chief Liu came in from the outside and warmly received Su Xiaolou and his party, saying that he was the person in charge of the Donglin Academy murder case.
After some conversation, Su Xiaolou realized that handling murder cases was so troublesome. Large murder cases were often investigated in other places, such as in Henan, and Hebei came to investigate. This case involves nobles, so the inspector of Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment are required to investigate together.
The head of the Huzhou Police Department is on his way here and will arrive in the next few days. Only when he arrives can the investigation of the case begin.
Director Liu took out a few files and gave them to Su Xiaolou: "Here are the scene conditions, autopsy results, life information of the deceased, etc., please take a look." Su Xiaolou took the files and glanced at them a few times. Director Liu continued. : "Yesterday, after the Yingtianfu Yamen received the news, they immediately rushed to see a person hanging on a beam with hemp ropes. The hemp ropes on the beams had neat marks, and a hanged person would have violent seizures before death. There were no such neat strangling marks on the beam, so they suspected it was homicide disguised as suicide."
Su Xiaolou rolled up the file and handed it to Director Liu: "It does sound like homicide!"
Director Liu asked: "The scene has been sealed off and there is not a drop of blood on it. Sir, do you want to go take a look?"
"Not going."
Director Liu asked again: "The body has been stored elsewhere. It is still fresh. Sir, would you like to go take a look?"
"I won't go." Su Xiaolou wasn't very interested in a corpse, so he refused immediately.
"That's fine. After Chief Cui of the Huzhou Police Department comes over, we can go check on the deceased together, so we don't have to run back and forth."
Su Xiaolou reacted: "It must have stunk at that time! Smoke can kill people!"
Manager Liu said helplessly: "It is our responsibility. The superiors attach great importance to this case. It would not be worthwhile if we were punished for dereliction of duty because of such a trivial matter."
"Master Liu said that we will go there together when Master Cui arrives another day. It seems that there will be nothing to do today, so Su will leave." Su Xiaolou was stopped by Master Liu just as he was about to leave.
"My lord, my lord! There are so many things going on right now, how can everything be okay! We are about to leave for Hangzhou. The first student who died was from Hangzhou. Since it was found out last night that the deceased did not commit suicide, we must investigate the first student. Let’s retest the corpse of a deceased person. We may be able to find clues to the murderer.”
Su Xiaolou said in surprise: "You mean we have to go all the way to dig up someone's grave?"
Mr. Liu said helplessly: "It's an investigation."
"Okay" Su Xiaolou asked, "How many people can I bring?"
"It's not advisable to spend too much time here. It's useless if there are too many people. Just one is enough. The boat is already waiting. Mr. Su, please go back and get ready."
"I know, I know."
On the way back, Su Xiaolou looked around, and Xiong Er was the most suitable. The others were old, blind, and weak, so Xiong Er was the only one willing to go.
Rivers in the south of the Yangtze River criss-cross the river, and waterways are much faster than land routes. Su Xiaolou and Mr. Liu and their group will first take a carriage to Changzhou, and then take a boat down the Jiangnan Canal, which is the southern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and then He traveled by land and horse-drawn carriage day and night, and rushed non-stop to the deceased's home in Hangzhou. He couldn't eat well or sleep well along the way. When Su Xiaolou arrived, he felt that his body was no longer his own. This is really not a human suffering!
Digging graves was a big taboo in that era, as it meant disturbing the peace of the deceased. The family members of the deceased were originally trying to stop them, crying and making trouble, but Mr. Liu acted with love and reason, holding the parents' arms with tears in his eyes. Hands said impassionedly: "Do you really want to watch the murderer go free and let your son die inexplicably and become a lonely ghost?"
Su Xiaolou's nose felt sore after he said that, and he finally persuaded the old couple.
Behind a hillside in Hou'erling, a Taoist priest paid homage to the deceased in front of the grave. After the firecrackers went off, the strong man waved a hoe and began to dig the grave.
The two old people stood nearby and cried heartbrokenly. Why didn't it hurt when a white-haired person gave away a black-haired person? They spent all their efforts to cultivate such a Gongsheng student. They thought that the family had hope and could finally shine on the family lintel. In the end, it was true. Death in a foreign land.
It had only been a few days since the burial, and the soil was still soft. A few strong men quickly dug into the coffin, tied a rope and hung it up on the ground. The two old men had already fainted from crying. Chief Liu greeted people Carry them away.
After some beating, the coffin lid was pried open, and the stench of decaying corpses spread instantly, rushing into the nose and making people's stomachs churn. Several people could not control themselves from vomiting. Su Xiaolou He Xiong Er also vomited so much that he couldn't straighten his back. It wasn't because he was scared, it was just an instinctive reaction of his body.
The widower was used to seeing this kind of scene, and he walked over with tools on his back to conduct an autopsy with a calm expression.
Mr. Liu looked at Su Xiaoloulou pretending to be a joke: "Mr. Su, let's go and have a look too?"
Su Xiaolou looked at Mr. Liu's swollen face and looked like a fat man. He walked over and took his arm towards the coffin: "Let's go! Mr. Liu, that's what you want, let's go together."
Manager Liu finally couldn't hold himself any longer and hunched his body back, refusing to move away no matter how hard he pulled: "No, ugh... Su Da ugh... I was just kidding..."
Su Xiaolou suppressed his nausea and said: "Mr. Liu, it is your responsibility. The superiors attach great importance to this case. It would not be worthwhile if you are punished for dereliction of duty because of such a trivial matter."
"Master Su, I'm sick... I'm wrong... please let me go..."
Su Xiaolou saw that Mr. Liu had almost finished vomiting bile, so he let him go and walked away, mainly because he couldn't bear it anymore.
The autopsy was soon over, and the coroner came over to report: "The deceased did not commit suicide by hanging from a beam, but was strangled first and then hung from a beam to pretend to commit suicide."
"What's the proof?"
"Two adults, there are obvious dark purple marks on the neck of the corpse. If the hanging beam was self-inflicted, the strangulation marks would be obviously higher up, and there would be no marks on the back of the neck. The strangulation marks on this corpse are indeed one inch lower. The neck There are also slight marks on the back side, and the strength is also deviated. It is obvious that he did not die from suicide by hanging from the beam."
"Why didn't the post-mortem examination reveal it?"
"The murderer was very careful. The one who strangled and the one who hung were both killed with the same tool. The two methods of death were very close, and the naturally formed scars were also very close. Didn't Nuo think of this? After careful comparison, it would be easy to misunderstand. It is thought that he committed suicide by hanging from a beam."
