After hearing Jiang Yunxin’s words, Fang Mingyan fell silent again.
Jiang Yunxin thought he was pondering the case, but after a long silence, he asked, “You have experience too?”
Jiang Yunxin was caught off guard. After a moment’s hesitation, she forced out an explanation. “Experience from books is still experience.”
Fang Mingyan neither agreed nor disagreed, but judging by his expression, he approved of Jiang Yunxin’s process of examining the corpse.
Jiang Yunxin was very confident of that.
“Experience from books?” Fang Mingyan actually smiled when he heard that. Then he straightened his expression and said, “Although you are a student, your technique is indeed skilled, and what you said was true. All right, go get some rest.”
With that, Fang Mingyan turned and walked away.
Jiang Yunxin also returned to her little room.
Since she would be staying here for half a month, the Judicial Review Office had prepared a small room for her in the same courtyard as several maids.
That was fine by her. Jiang Yunxin did not care about any of it. As long as they did not send her back home, she could accept everything else.
But whenever she thought of something, it came.
Jiang Yunxin had only rinsed her hands casually in the mortuary. She had just been about to wash the blood from them properly and change her clothes so she would not frighten the young maids sharing the courtyard when someone came looking for her outside.
“Jiang Yunxin, someone is here to see you.”
“Who?” Jiang Yunxin asked, somewhat puzzled.
She did not know many people in this era. Her friends at the academy were all busy with their own pressing matters these days—where would they find the time to visit her?
“Your mother.”
Jiang Yunxin halted.
“My mother?”
“Yes. She says she is Madam Jiang.”
Jiang Yunxin’s brows drew tightly together. She had never actually met Madam Jiang, but in the original owner’s memories, there was one particularly terrible incident.
At the beginning of the year, Madam Jiang had come to see her. Wearing a stern expression, she had informed her, “You’re a girl, and at your age, you should be getting married. It’s only because your father indulges you that he let you attend school. I’ve already discussed it with your father. You’ll graduate in another six months, and I’ve chosen a marriage for you.”
Madam Jiang had then told her that the matchmaker had proposed the Second Young Master Ma, Ma Xiuneng.
Ma Xiuneng was a notorious young master in the capital, infamous for every vice under the sun. His family had tried and failed to arrange a marriage for him with several different families, yet Ma Xiuneng’s temperament and conduct had not changed. Instead, he had announced that the bride price would only grow higher.
Gong Ningmeng had naturally been tempted. After all, this was not her own daughter. If she could exchange her for money, all the better.
As for whether Jiang Yunxin would live or die after marrying into the Ma Family—that would depend on her own fate.
This had become the final straw that broke Jiang Yunxin.
Now that she heard Gong Ningmeng had come to see her again, Jiang Yunxin slowly wiped her hands and came to a decision.
I’ve dealt with corpses for more than a decade. Do you really think I’ll let you order me around? If I don’t scare you into having nightmares tonight, I’ll be letting down the former owner of this body for giving me a second life.
With that thought, Jiang Yunxin put back on the bloodstained clothes she had just removed, then pulled a slightly cleaner garment over them.
She had not yet managed to wash all the blood from her hands, either. Perfect. There was no need to wash them now.
Jiang Yunxin let out a cold laugh.
“Please ask her to come in. Tell her I’m not able to go outside right now.”
Before long, Madam Jiang was shown in.
The moment Madam Jiang entered, she covered her mouth with one hand. She had not even reached Jiang Yunxin before she began complaining.
“I really don’t know what you’re thinking. You have such a spacious house at home, yet you refuse to live there. You’re a young lady, yet you won’t act like one—you’ve tucked yourself away in a little room meant for servants, working as a page…”
Before Madam Jiang could finish, Jiang Yunxin suddenly seized her hand.
“Mother, you finally came.” Jiang Yunxin grabbed Madam Jiang by the arm.
The blood on her hand smeared across Madam Jiang’s expensive clothes.
Madam Jiang was startled by Jiang Yunxin’s move. She took a step back and tried to wrench herself free. “What are you doing?”
But how could she possibly shake Jiang Yunxin off?
Jiang Yunxin had never practiced martial arts, but a coroner had to wield a knife, and her hands had to be steady, precise, and strong. Once Jiang Yunxin held on, even two Madam Jiangs would not have been able to break free.
“Mother.” With great feeling, Jiang Yunxin clung tightly to Madam Jiang and said, “You have to save me! I’m scared. I’m so scared.”
Unable to free herself, Madam Jiang could only ask, “What happened? What is it? What happened?”
Jiang Yunxin said, “I dissected a corpse just now, and then… I saw that person’s soul.”
For a moment, Madam Jiang could not even understand her.
“Look, look, it’s all blood.” Jiang Yunxin pulled open the collar of her clothes and said dramatically, “I saw him stand up from inside the corpse. He tore open the wound in his stomach and said, ‘I know you. I know your mother…’”
Madam Jiang struggled desperately, having smelled the blood and felt it smear from Jiang Yunxin’s hands onto her own.
“Mother, I’ll take you to see him. Help me explain things to him.” As she spoke, Jiang Yunxin dragged Madam Jiang toward the door.
Madam Jiang was scared out of her wits.
“I don’t even know him! Why are you taking me there?” Madam Jiang had completely forgotten her usual dignity. She struggled as she called for her maid by name, barely stopping short of screaming for help. She was on the verge of tears.
“It’s all right. He said that if I got married, he would move into my courtyard.” Jiang Yunxin shoved the maid aside with one hand and dragged Madam Jiang outward with the other.
Madam Jiang finally burst into tears.
“Don’t marry her off! Don’t marry her off!” Madam Jiang shouted with her eyes closed. “I’ll go reject the Ma Family’s proposal right now…”
Why hadn’t she just said that in the first place? She had only brought this trouble upon herself.
Jiang Yunxin gave a cold laugh and released her.
“Mother,” Jiang Yunxin said calmly, “I’m someone whose hands are stained with blood now. It’s inauspicious. From now on, you should come looking for me less often, and it would be better if you worried about me less as well. Otherwise, I’m afraid that with your precious life and delicate body, you won’t be able to bear it.”
With that, Jiang Yunxin let go.
Madam Jiang staggered away with the support of her maid, as if a ghost were chasing her in broad daylight.
She probably would not come back to cause trouble again anytime soon.
Jiang Yunxin walked out of the courtyard and watched Madam Jiang leave, only to see Fang Mingyan standing by the entrance. His two trusted aides, Long Qiao and Xue Dongyang, stood beside him.
All three men wore extremely strange expressions. It was impossible to tell how much they had heard.
“Lord Fang.” Jiang Yunxin steadied herself, adjusted her clothes, and bowed to Fang Mingyan.
Fang Mingyan nodded. “Your mother came to arrange a marriage for you? Men marry when they are grown, and women do the same. It’s perfectly normal. You needn’t resist it so strongly.”
Jiang Yunxin had never expected Fang Mingyan to be the sort of superior who took an interest in his subordinate’s personal love life.
But Jiang Yunxin said firmly, “My lord, my mother has already passed away. The woman who came is my father’s second wife. You may have heard of the family she was trying to marry me into—the Ma Family’s son, Ma Xiuneng.”
If Fang Mingyan said even one good thing about Ma Xiuneng, Jiang Yunxin felt that she could not remain in this place.
At the mention of Ma Xiuneng’s name, Fang Mingyan’s expression finally changed.
After a long silence, he nodded. “If the marriage is to be rejected, then reject it. You’re still young. There’s no need to rush into marriage.”
From the common people of the capital to Fang Mingyan himself, everyone knew that Ma Xiuneng was no man a woman should marry. Madam Jiang knew it too. She simply did not care. If anyone had dared to propose such a marriage for her own daughter, she would certainly have leaped up and fought them to the death.
Jiang Yunxin breathed a sigh of relief.
Fang Mingyan was fairly normal after all.
It had only been a minor interruption, and Fang Mingyan did not dwell on it.
He asked, “Can you ride a horse?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Make your preparations. You’re coming with me to the Mortuary.”