Meng Qianzi was no coroner, but she guessed the situation had likely happened this way:
The killer had first strangled the Princess of Xiang with a rope, then discovered she was still breathing, and only then hanged her to finish the job.
She set the question aside and did not dwell on it further.
Ever since Xiao Jiuyi had set her this test yesterday, she had worked it out clearly, she was no coroner, no official of the Court of Judicial Review, no investigating magistrate. If she was going to find the killer, she could only do it using the one skill she knew best.
What was someone who had trained in martial arts since childhood good at?
Nothing more or less than understanding different weapons, different techniques, and the different degrees of harm different forces could inflict on the human body.
So she decided to start with the piece of skin carved all over with sutra text.
The moment she had seen the rubbing of the text back at the Jinyu Si, she had noticed something unusual, though she had said nothing at the time, since it still needed further confirmation.
That text had certainly not been carved with a knife, sword, or any other bladed weapon, it looked instead like the work of an uncommon weapon: a judge’s brush.
A judge’s brush is used mainly for striking pressure points. Its shape resembles a writing brush, tapering to a fine point, with a thick, round handle, some versions have a point on both ends, with a ring in the middle of the shaft that fits over a finger, allowing the brush to spin freely. ①
Now she only needed to prove that the text really had been carved with a judge’s brush, and then look for whoever used such a weapon, that would narrow the field considerably.
Meng Qianzi laid the piece of skin out in front of Xiao Jiuyi and pointed vaguely at it, saying:
“Your Highness, look at these characters. They’re written plainly, but very smoothly, every stroke is the same depth, as if carved in a single, continuous motion. That could never have been done with a dagger or sword or any similar blade.”
“Your reasoning!”
Xiao Jiuyi glanced at the piece of skin and immediately looked away in disgust.
Before Meng Qianzi could answer, the Prince of Xiang beside them gave a cold laugh first. “Nonsense. Did you see it happen with your own eyes?”
Xiao Jiuyi’s fingers rapped hard on the armrest of his chair, his mood suddenly turning volatile, and he said sharply, “If the Prince of Xiang interferes with this Commander’s investigation again, perhaps he’d like to spend a few days at the Jinyu Si instead!”
The Prince of Xiang was shocked at first, then furious. “You would use the Jinyu Si to press this Prince yet again!”
Xiao Jiuyi’s expression turned colder than Meng Qianzi had ever seen it, and he gave a cold laugh. “Has the Prince of Xiang forgotten what became of the Prince of Duan?”
At those words, the Prince of Xiang’s face went from blue to white, and from white to purple, but in the end he swallowed his fury and sat back down heavily, sweeping his sleeve aside.
The Prince of Duan was his own younger brother, discovered two years ago by Xiao Jiuyi to have kept private troops beyond the allowed limit② at his fief, and on the charge of plotting rebellion, strangled at his own residence by several thousand Yulin Guards led by Xiao Jiuyi himself.
Word had not reached him until half a month later.
It had taken enormous effort for him to prove his own innocence to His Majesty, otherwise, there was no telling what might have become of him…
Whether the Prince of Duan had truly kept private troops, or had been framed by this Commander, he had no way of knowing.
He only felt that his brother, who had spent his whole life idling about with no ambition to speak of, was unlikely to have had the nerve for something that could cost him his head.
Whatever the truth, Xiao Jiuyi’s reminder just now had made one thing clear to him, this imperial grand-nephew was not someone he could afford to offend. If Xiao Jiuyi truly meant to move against him, even Her Majesty the Empress Dowager might not be able to protect him.
What struck him even more was that Xiao Jiuyi had just made an open, naked threat, all but openly admitting that the charge against the Prince of Duan had been placed on him by Xiao Jiuyi himself.
Little Prince Yong, such insolence!
Seeing him finally settle down, Xiao Jiuyi’s temper gradually cooled, and he gestured for Meng Qianzi to continue.
Meng Qianzi produced a dagger as if by sleight of hand, and demonstrated directly by carving characters into the small table beside him.
“Look, Your Highness. This dagger of mine could cut through iron like mud, and yet even though I kept the same steady force the whole time carving, the strokes still came out uneven in thickness, that’s an inherent feature of this kind of weapon. No matter how sharp a blade is, the turns in a stroke will always come out wider or narrower, and the same holds true for every known hidden weapon.”
Xiao Jiuyi’s brow furrowed slightly, and he studied the faint characters Meng Qianzi had carved into the table with real attention.
In such a short time, she had reproduced that entire passage of scripture without a single error, her memory far surpassed an ordinary person’s.
And the handwriting was too elegant for someone like her to have written, that kind of fine calligraphy took a great deal of time and practice to master.
She trained in martial arts and practiced calligraphy both, did she never sleep?
Unaware that his attention had wandered, Meng Qianzi continued:
“The killer knew this passage of scripture by heart, and had remarkably fine control over their internal force, every character they wrote came out nearly identical in depth. Judging from how the Princess of Xiang bled, the killer wrote very quickly, the whole thing likely took less than a quarter of an hour, start to finish.”
Xiao Jiuyi tilted his head back slightly to look at her, still thinking it over, his deep eyes in the afternoon light looking uncannily like a dazzling kaleidoscope.
Meng Qianzi looked away hastily, seized by the strange feeling that if she looked any longer, she might forget herself entirely.
“So you believe the killer carved the characters using a judge’s brush?” He nodded slightly. “That’s not without reason.”
Meng Qianzi turned back to the coffin, undid the Princess of Xiang’s clothing, and with one hand turned the body over.
Her fingers moved slowly over the already-cleaned muscle of the back.
After a long while, her hand still moving over the wounds, she said very slowly:
“Every character was carved no more than three fen deep into the flesh, but because the killer’s judge’s brush wasn’t small, the strokes came out thick and rounded, causing a considerable amount of bleeding.”
“Judging from this, the Princess of Xiang was still alive when the killer carved the characters into her, because in someone who has been hanged, the blood sinks quickly into the lower body, and there wouldn’t be so much blood flowing from the back afterward.”
“Clack, clack…”
Two similar sounds suddenly broke the quiet of the front hall, Consort Chun’s teeth chattering in terror, and the Prince of Xiang’s teeth grinding audibly in fury.
Meng Qianzi cast Consort Chun a comforting look, then turned a flat glance toward the Prince of Xiang.
“Prince of Xiang, may I ask, did the Princess of Xiang ever offend anyone in life? I don’t mean ordinary people of low standing, whoever could afford to hire a killer of this skill would be no ordinary person.”
The Prince of Xiang had no wish to indulge her, but under Xiao Jiuyi’s icy gaze he cooperated with great reluctance, though his manner and tone stayed as haughty as ever.
“My beloved consort was pure and kind-hearted, she rarely even punished servants who made mistakes. What could a woman confined to her own quarters possibly have done to offend anyone? Besides, how do you know it was a skilled martial artist? Couldn’t it have been Consort Chun acting with an accomplice?”
Consort Chun opened her mouth, but in the end said nothing in her own defense.
Meng Qianzi ignored his stubborn twisting of logic, her expression full of confidence.
“This commoner would stake her own head on it, the killer’s judge’s brush must have been three cun longer and two fen thicker than an ordinary one, and the killer must have had at least twenty years of cultivated internal force, to leave such smooth, consistent marks three fen deep into the flesh!”
“If the Prince of Xiang doubts this, simply summon any master from within the palace guard, one look will confirm it.”
“Absurd! How could this Prince’s beloved consort’s body be allowed to be seen by an outside man?”
The Prince of Xiang, unable to contain his fury any longer, shot to his feet in agitation.
If not for that restriction, there would have been no need at all for this imperial grand-nephew to bring in some wild girl from who-knew-where to meddle in this matter.
The Prince of Xiang suddenly looked toward Consort Chun, then back at Meng Qianzi, his pupils contracting sharply.
This wild girl looked so much like Consort Chun, could the two of them be related by blood?
Had Xiao Jiuyi brought her in to investigate this matter without any fear of being accused of favoring Consort Chun?
Note ①: From an online annotation.
②: “Keeping private troops beyond the allowed limit” refers to a feudal prince maintaining more soldiers than permitted, a thing the Emperor regards with the greatest suspicion of all.