The Jingming Dynasty enjoyed peace throughout the realm, flourishing and enlightened.
A dignified gate stood before them, with a plaque bearing five large characters:
Judicial Review Office.
A storm was brewing, and the fierce winds had already arrived.
Jiang Yunxin secretly rubbed her leg. The ground outside the morgue was simply too hard. She had been in this era for barely a month and still was not accustomed to the custom of kneeling at every turn.
Her current identity was that of an apprentice coroner at the Judicial Review Office. She was kneeling here today because the old coroner under whom she apprenticed had gotten into trouble. She vaguely knew that something had gone wrong with an important case.
She was kneeling here alongside him, getting an earful as well. Fortunately, the official in charge was easy on the eyes, so sneaking a few glances at him was enough to pass the time.
Jiang Yunxin lifted her eyes. Standing on the steps was the head of the Judicial Review Office, Fang Mingyan.
Fang Mingyan was very young, with the graceful bearing of a young master from an eminent family. At first glance, it almost seemed as though he had won his position in a beauty pageant.
He was tall and straight, with exceptionally regular and handsome features. If he had been wearing different clothes, in a different setting, he would truly have looked like a man as pure as jade, an unmatched young master of the world.
But his expression was dark now, his eyes lowered, and it was obvious that he was extremely displeased.
“Lian Tianlu, you examined Qiu Xingfa’s body. You’re an old coroner—how could you make such a basic mistake? Qiu Xingfa had suffered internal-organ damage. You opened him up and performed the autopsy, yet you failed to notice it.”
The object of Fang Mingyan’s reprimand was the man kneeling in front of Jiang Yunxin, a Judicial Review Office coroner of around fifty.
He had made a mistake that even an ordinary coroner should never have made.
When an old coroner made a mistake he should never have made, it might be excused if it had merely been an oversight. But what if it had not? Could he have accepted a bribe and deliberately misled the investigation?
The former could still be forgiven with a minor punishment as a warning. The latter would make him a criminal, and there would be no mercy.
Feeling Fang Mingyan’s fury, Lian Tianlu broke into a cold sweat and trembled all over.
In truth, considering that Lian Tianlu had worked at the Judicial Review Office for decades, Fang Mingyan was already being quite courteous.
Lian Tianlu kowtowed repeatedly. “My lord, my lord, I didn’t examine Qiu Xingfa’s body.”
“You didn’t examine it? Then who did?”
The Judicial Review Office had originally had two coroners, but one had fallen ill a few days ago. Now only Lian Tianlu remained.
“It was her.” Without the slightest hesitation, Lian Tianlu pointed toward Jiang Yunxin. “She insisted on getting some practice and learning the ropes, so I let her. Who would have thought she could even make a mistake with such a simple case?”
“Me?” Jiang Yunxin stared in astonishment and pointed at herself.
She had thought that something had gone wrong with the case today and that, while her teacher was being reprimanded, her own role was simply to keep him company. She had never expected a huge black pot to fall from the sky onto her head.
“Yes, her. She’s the student recommended by Wenxin Academy. Her name is Jiang Yunxin. She’s been apprenticing under me and helping with odd jobs.”
Fang Mingyan had noticed the young girl following Lian Tianlu around these past few days, but he had been busy and had not paid her much attention. Only now did he look her over more carefully.
She looked refined and scholarly, hardly like a coroner.
“You were recommended by Wenxin Academy to serve as an apprentice coroner?”
Wenxin Academy was one of the capital’s four great academies. It trained all kinds of talent for the imperial court, dividing its students into different fields. It was not unheard of for the academy to produce renowned criminal investigators; the previous head of the Judicial Review Office had also been a student there. But very few students chose the obscure profession of coroner, and female coroners were rarer still.
In most cases, students would retain a little interest through the first few lessons, only to break down after spending their first night with a corpse and change majors. Some even broke down and dropped out.
Jiang Yunxin was one of those female students.
She had wanted to drop out as well. But her family had undergone a great upheaval: her birth mother had died of a sudden illness, and her stepmother now ran the household.
Her stepmother had already announced that if Jiang Yunxin dropped out, she would have to marry. The man chosen for her was the son of a dissolute family, notorious for drinking, womanizing, and gambling. He had a violent temper and had even tormented one of his own concubines to death. If Jiang Yunxin married him, she certainly would not live long either.
Unable to withstand her own shattered state of mind, Jiang Yunxin had hung herself with a strip of white silk one night and died young. Yet she had not truly died. After she was rescued, a soul from the future took up residence in her body.
A senior female forensic pathologist from the twenty-first century had been in a car accident and become a female student in a dynasty that could not be found in the history books.
Jiang Yunxin quickly adapted to her new identity. Her profession suited her perfectly, allowing her to thrive. She was successfully recommended for an internship at the Judicial Review Office, and if she could remain there, she would have a government position and her family would no longer be able to force her into marriage. Of course, no man would willingly marry a wife who worked as a coroner, either.
I have to stay. I cannot be framed for something I did not do.
“Yes,” Jiang Yunxin said calmly. “I did study under Lian Tianlu for five days, but my teacher never allowed me to touch a corpse.”
Lian Tianlu’s exact words had been: A little girl like you can’t do anything. Go stand somewhere else and stop getting in the way.
He had planned to send her away as soon as her half-month internship ended.
Lian Tianlu seemed to have some disagreement with the coroner who taught at Wenxin Academy. He had constantly mocked and sneered at her. She had not yet figured out how to win him over and change his opinion of her when this happened.
And it was no minor matter. If she took the blame for this, not only would she fail to win Lian Tianlu over, she might even end up in prison.
The case involved a brawl in the capital that had left people injured. The deceased was Mu Ziqi, the son of an official. Most of those involved were also the sons of officials and their retainers. After Lian Tianlu examined the body, he concluded that Mu Ziqi had three wounds: one on his neck and two on his chest and abdomen.
After examining the corpse, Lian Tianlu had concluded that the fatal injury was the one on the neck. The two wounds to the chest and abdomen were not fatal and had penetrated no more than two inches into the body.
In a mass brawl, everyone carried weapons, ranging from daggers and wooden clubs to short swords and all manner of other things. It was therefore extremely important to determine where the fatal wound was located.
Although all of them were considered assailants, whoever had inflicted the fatal wound would bear the greatest responsibility.
After Lian Tianlu confirmed his findings, the case was about to be closed. Then someone suddenly testified that he had clearly seen one of the men wielding a blade half the length of an arm and stabbing it into the victim’s abdomen.
That could not possibly have caused a wound only two inches deep and injured nothing more than the flesh.
All the people involved were sons of court officials. As soon as these words were spoken, the family of the man originally identified as the killer immediately refused to accept it. They suspected that Fang Mingyan had taken a bribe from the other side and was deliberately showing favoritism—or that he simply lacked the ability to handle the case.
When Fang Mingyan returned from the palace, he shut the gates and first questioned his own people.
“That’s nonsense,” Lian Tianlu said. “You were the one who examined the corpse. I only let you do it because you begged and pleaded so pitifully. How dare you refuse to take responsibility after doing it?”
Jiang Yunxin steadied herself. “Although I’m new, I studied at Wenxin Academy for five years and have had practical experience as well. I’m capable of handling most situations. Besides, I’m exceptionally talented. My teacher said I was born to be a coroner. This case isn’t complicated. If I had examined the body, I would stake my life on the fact that I could not have made a mistake.”
She had not merely failed to examine it—the corpse had never even been placed before her. Otherwise, she would have spotted the problem at a glance.
Perhaps they only saw her as a novice fresh out of the academy, someone who had learned little beyond theory. Thus, no matter how firmly she spoke, they did not quite believe her.
“You couldn’t make a mistake?” The old coroner found that laughable. He turned his head and sneered at her. “Little girl, don’t say something you’ll regret. I’ve been a coroner for thirty years, and even I wouldn’t dare claim I could never make a mistake. You’ve only just left the academy and spent two days helping me. How dare you say you couldn’t be wrong?”
Fang Mingyan had not expected what should have been a simple matter to turn into a quarrel between Lian Tianlu and Jiang Yunxin, with each of them shifting the blame onto the other.
Fortunately, the Judicial Review Office had only two coroners. Otherwise, would they have put on a live performance of passing a flower around to see who would take responsibility?
His gaze moved slowly between the two of them.
“Who exactly examined the corpse this time?” Fang Mingyan said. “The Judicial Review Office does not tolerate lies. This matter is extremely serious. Whoever did it should admit it now. That way, when you enter the interrogation chamber, you won’t have to suffer through another ordeal before you die.”
They were going to execute her? Jiang Yunxin was horrified. Was it really this serious?
Lian Tianlu began trembling even more violently.