I really don't want to take shortcuts anymore

Chapter 373 Midnight Autopsy
After beating the drum three times, the kneeling wives and concubines stood up in the mourning hall of Dinghou's mansion and went back to rest with the support of the female envoy.

The night wind gradually picked up, and the two white lanterns in front of the mourning hall flickered on and off. As the mourning flags swayed, three figures suddenly appeared in front of the open coffin.

Gao Yang's appearance was already ugly, and although his remains were retouched after his death, they were still unsightly.

Luo Qianhuai didn't show any strange expression about this. She calmly took out a pair of gloves sewn from intestines, and took out two pairs of prepared masks, giving them to Wei Cang and one other person.

The person in charge of the investigation and autopsy of the Tingwei Mansion did not arrive. The person who came was his deputy named Diao Wei.

Time was running out, and Wei Cang couldn't figure out a way to get the envoy onto Mr. Mo's ship, but he found out a big deal about Vice Envoy Diao and coerced him to come here.

Diao Wei had seen a lot of corpses, but this was the first time he sneaked into the Marquis's mansion to conduct a secret autopsy in the middle of the night.

Of course, he didn't expect that there would be such a pure and beautiful girl among his fellow travelers.

It is a strange thing for a young lady of such an age to stand in this windy mourning hall and not be afraid of the corpse. Judging from her posture, it seems that she wants to do the autopsy herself?
Is this kind of dirty work something a little lady like her should do?
Seeing that Luo Qianhuai reached out his hand towards the body in the coffin without hesitation, Diao Wei finally couldn't help but said: "This little lady, when Gao Hou's body just came out of the water, the envoy took us there. After the on-site examination, it was confirmed that he was drowned, so there is no need to disturb the deceased any more, right?"

Luo Qianhuai didn't even raise his eyelids and said quietly: "Oh? Do you think that all corpses fished out from the water are drowned?"

"Otherwise?" Diao Wei stretched out his hand and scratched the back of his head.

"Falling into the water after death, entering the water after being comatose or drunk, are different from pure death by drowning. On what basis did your envoys base your assertion that Dinghou was indeed drowned?"

"But we have checked and found that there are no other fatal injuries on Dinghou's body, ruling out the possibility of homicide."

Luo Qianhuai shook his head, stretched out his hand and pointed at the mouth and nose of the corpse: "There is no white mushroom-like foam around the mouth and nose of the corpse. I think you didn't notice it when you first saw the corpse last night, right?"

Diao Wei's face was full of doubts: "If there are no bubbles, what does it mean?"

Luo Qianhuai explained patiently: "If the human body is drowning while awake, cold water entering the respiratory tract will stimulate the mucous membrane to secrete a large amount of mucus. The mucus, water and air are mixed and stirred by the violent breathing of the deceased, producing a large amount of Small, uniform white foam. These foams will overflow and block the mouth, nostrils and around them, and will continue to overflow after being wiped off. Therefore, mushroom-like foam is of great significance in confirming drowning before death."

Diao Wei was about to refute, but a picture suddenly flashed in his mind. When he first entered the industry a few years ago, the woman who drowned in the Yong'an Canal had white foam overflowing from her mouth and nose, and she couldn't wipe it away no matter how hard she wiped it off.
For no reason, he felt somewhat convinced of the young lady in front of him. It’s just a few points, but overall I’m still doubtful.

"What the little lady said may not be absolute. I have indeed seen similar situations, but there are also a lot of people who didn't foam. It can't be that they were all assassinated, right? Forgive me for speaking frankly, if you just rely on this I just want to clear Xianghou’s name, but it’s probably of no use.”

When Wei Cang heard this, his brows furrowed even more tightly, and the veins in the hand holding the sword hilt were exposed.

During the day, he deployed a large number of manpower and searched almost all over Xijing City, both covertly and covertly, but those six people seemed to jump out of the ground out of thin air and disappeared immediately after they had done their evil deeds, leaving no trace behind.

News came from the palace that Shangguan Jin and Zhang Shichang together advocated the torture of the young master, and the young emperor had agreed. Wei Cang was so angry that he almost broke his steel teeth. If he had known that the little emperor was so unreliable, the young master should not have given him so much money.

Fortunately, Mrs. Luo had great medical skills. After hearing the news, she quickly prepared a medicine called "Dai Zang Dan". It is said that if taken before execution, it can activate blood circulation and remove blood stasis, protect the heart and pulse, and relieve pain.

Although the medicine has been delivered, the current evidence is extremely unfavorable to the young master. I heard that in order to appease Princess Pingyang, the palace has decided to close the case as soon as possible.

In other words, if the six perpetrators cannot be found, the results of Mrs. Luo's autopsy tonight will become the key evidence to save the young master's life.

If even Mrs. Luo fails, then in the end there is only one way left for him - to rob the prison.

At that time, the son's painstaking plan to recognize his ancestors and return to his clan will be completely meaningless. The overt and covert lines he has laid out both inside and outside the court for many years have also been in vain.

He was anxious, but he saw that Luo Qianhuai's eyebrows exposed outside the mask were still calm and relaxed, and he didn't look nervous at all.

"Why are you so anxious?" She said, "As I said just now, the mushroom-like foam is just an important indicator. If you want to prove that the deceased was not conscious when he drowned, there are other evidences."

Luo Qianhuai pointed at the dead man's hands clasped in front of his chest and abdomen: "Commissioner Diao, please look at Dinghou's fingers. There are no scratches on his fingers. There is no sand, water, or algae between the nails."

When Diao Wei stepped forward to take a look, he found that it was indeed the case.

He is not a fool, and he has also discovered something wrong by now: "In that section of the Qingming Canal in Chongrenfang, the stone walls of the embankment are covered with green moss. The position where Dinghou's body came out of the water is very close to the shore. Under the fierce struggle, it is inevitable that he will be thrown around. It’s inappropriate to scratch and rub your fingers and nails so clean.”

Luo Qianhuai nodded, leaned down, pulled open Gao Yang's clothes with both hands, exposed his shoulders and chest, and pressed and observed carefully.

This action shocked both Wei Cang and Diao Wei. In their eyes, Luo Qianhuai was always a young lady who was not yet married. How could she look at a man's body so casually, let alone a corpse that had just died.

Luo Qianhuai found what he was looking for and raised his head with satisfaction, only to find that the two people standing beside him were looking at him blankly and hesitated to speak.

After thinking for a moment, she figured out the reason.

"In the eyes of doctors, there are only patients, regardless of gender. The same goes for autopsies. Don't be so pedantic and rigid." She said while pointing at Gao Yang's sternocleidomastoid muscle, diaphragm, internal and external intercostal muscles, and abdominal muscles. The auxiliary respiratory muscles involved in expanding the chest: "Deputy Commander Diao, have you ever observed these parts of a drowned person?"

Autopsies in this era were limited to examining whether there were fatal injuries. As for other forensic common sense that would be familiar to later generations, it was completely blank.

"It has never happened before." Diao Wei said, "But do these parts have anything to do with whether the deceased drowned?"