There is a god in the sky

Chapter 280 The City God Temple Turmoil 7

Shen Lan did not go into the yamen (government office) but went directly to the morgue.

There were already people inside. Coroner Ji was busy with his grandson, looking at the body that had just been moved in.

"That's strange, how did she figure out that this person wasn't a professional assassin?" Coroner Ji muttered to himself.

As Shen Lan put on her smock, she replied, "This person is different from other assassins. He has dark skin, large knuckles, and many evenly distributed calluses on his palms, which is different from people who have been wielding swords for many years."

Furthermore, he was stabbed to death by the outer guards of the Imperial Guard. A killer with a clear objective should logically focus all their efforts on killing their target. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, his abilities do not qualify him as a professional assassin.

Shen Lan walked to the corpse, undressed him, and analyzed to Elder Ji: "Looking at the scars on his body, most of them are fractures and burns, while other assassins mainly have knife and sword wounds."

After reading it, Elder Ji nodded. "That's correct, but it's not fair to conclude that he's not an assassin, is it?"

"It's just speculation, and these assassins come and go without a trace. If the authorities want to find out who's behind it, they need a breakthrough."

Ji Zeqian listened attentively, his eyes shining, and exclaimed, "Miss Shen knows so much!"

The profession of coroner is about examining corpses, not solving cases; they never talk about these inferences that are unrelated to examining corpses.

"It is Lord Xiao's magnanimity that allows me to offer some of my own opinions. As an experimenter on corpses, I originally sought clues from the dead, so I can speak my mind."

Whether these clues are right or wrong, useful or not, that's for the adults to discern and verify.

Ji Zeqian initially wanted to avoid suspicion.

After being rejected when he proposed last time, he didn't dare to see Shen Lan for several days.

I thought she would avoid me, but when we met again, she looked perfectly normal, as if nothing had ever happened.

Since the woman was so generous, he didn't need to be coy anymore.

He leaned closer and asked, "Didn't Miss Shen already examine it? Why are you here to inspect it again? Is there anything you missed?"

"I didn't have time to look carefully just now, let me take another look."

Old Master Ji coughed and said with a smile, "As for Shen Lan, I have other matters to attend to, so I'll be leaving now. How about my grandson stays to assist you?"

Shen Lan glanced at Ji Zeqian, whose face turned red and who lowered his head shyly.

She thought about it and didn't refuse.

"Perfect timing, I do need an assistant, thank you for your help, Coroner Ji."

"No trouble at all," Ji Zeqian said with a bright smile.

Shen Lan noticed that he had two small tiger teeth, which made him look quite cute when he smiled, but unfortunately he was too young.

To be fair, the conditions offered by the Ji family were indeed very good.

Shen Lan handed Ji Zeqian a mask, saying, "Put this on. The mask you wore last time was too stuffy, and it made your face break out in rashes."

Ji Zeqian awkwardly scratched his head.

"I tried to do this like you did before, but I could never get it right."

"Masks need to be breathable, so they have to be sewn with fine cotton gauze. Mine is six layers of cotton gauze. You can try it next time."

"it is good."

Shen Lan took out her tools and instructed Ji Zeqian, "Come over and help me hand over the tools. I need to perform an autopsy. If you're scared, you can still leave now."

Upon hearing about the dissection, Ji Zeqian immediately became excited and quickly stood next to Shen Lan.

He asked in a low voice, "Miss Shen, did you... get the adults' permission for this?"

"of course."

It's impossible for these assassins to find their families; even if they did, it would be an offense of guilt by association.

Since this case has fallen to Xiao Ji, Shen Lan should try to find as many clues as possible to help him solve it.

Superficial features offer limited clues; to understand more, dissection is necessary.

"Do you know anything about human organs?" Shen Lan asked Ji Zeqian while performing the procedure.

“My grandfather showed me the blueprints and touched the deceased’s internal organs, but he didn’t examine them closely.”

When Ji Zeqian saw the opened chest cavity, he felt a little nauseous, but he held it in.

He leaned closer to look and asked in surprise, "Several of the deceased's ribs are broken."

"Yes, and several of them are old injuries. He must have been in a state of constant fighting for many years."

His heart had been pierced by a knife. Further down, Shen Lan examined his stomach and esophagus.

The assassination occurred in the morning. At this time, a normal person should have eaten breakfast, but it would not have been fully digested yet.

After scooping the food out of her stomach, Shen Lan held out her hand: "Give me the smallest pair of tweezers."

Ji Zeqian hurriedly handed over the tools, and exclaimed, "Miss Shen has such a complete set of tools; I've never seen many of them before."

“I drew the blueprints myself and had them made. If you want them, I can give you the blueprints.”

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant," Ji Zeqian quickly refused.

Each family never shares their skills with outsiders, not even husband and wife. How could he just take things from the Shen family?

“Come and look, the food in their stomachs is a mixed bag and quite a lot, which means that these people had breakfast about an hour before they went to assassinate the Crown Prince.”

Some foods were hard to identify, but the large chunks of mutton and the individual beans were easy to spot, along with some flatbread pieces.

"That's true. Don't people chew their food? A lot of food is eaten whole."

"This suggests that he usually eats very quickly, perhaps because he is in a hurry, or perhaps because he lacks food, or it is a habit he has developed over the years."

“I remember there was a very famous mutton soup pancake shop near the City God Temple,” Ji Zeqian said with delight.

Shen Lan told him to write these things down.

"It might not be useful, but we can still send someone to inquire."

Ji Zeqian said happily, "There are quite a few of those people. If they've been to that shop, the shopkeeper must have seen them. So, wouldn't that allow them to know what the other people look like?"

"It's probably not that simple. Since they're planning to assassinate the Crown Prince, they're unlikely to show themselves in public as a group."

"Oh."

"Huh, what's this?" Shen Lan found a hard bead in the residue, not a bean.

This bead is a little bigger than a bean, but its surface is black, and it can't be crushed even when pressed with tweezers.

"Go and fetch a basin of clean water."

Ji Zeqian ran to fetch water, and when he came back, he saw Shen Lan throwing the dark beads into the water to wash them.

"What is this? Could it be some silver that was accidentally ingested?"

Silver will indeed turn black if it goes into the stomach, but who in their right mind would swallow silver?

And the portion size is too small.

Shen Lan washed the item clean, weighed it in her hand, and thought it was most likely silver.

"Put it away first, and have someone check it later. Also, wrap these chunks of food in oil paper."

Ji Zeqian did as instructed, thinking to himself: If anyone saw this, they probably wouldn't be able to eat.

“This man has many health problems. Besides being frequently injured, a section of his intestines is also damaged. Even if he hadn’t been killed, he wouldn’t have lived for more than a year.”

Ji Zeqian asked in surprise, "Miss Shen also knows medicine?"

Shen Lan picked out a necrotic piece of intestine to show him, "You don't need to know medicine to tell this."

The rotten intestines were incredibly foul-smelling, and Ji Zeqian covered his nose and backed away.

"I'm not watching anymore..."

Shen Lan chuckled inwardly, stuffed the intestines back in, and then began stitching up the corpse.

Ji Zeqian was amazed by her skillful suturing. What impressed him even more was that she showed no disrespect to the deceased. She even stitched up his wounds and changed his clothes.