Chapter 246 – Huang Xiaorou

“A female corpse?”

The little eunuch was waiting at the palace entrance in a hurry, so something urgent must have happened. And the only thing Xu Qi’an had crossed paths with him was the Concubine Fu case. Then the female corpse must be related to the Concubine Fu case.

Xu Qi’an narrowed her eyes, her heart fluttering, “Is it the missing courtesan in Concubine Fu’s case?”

The little eunuch froze, heartily convinced: “Your Excellency is really a brilliant plan, slave admires it.”

The words were both complimentary and from the heart. After two consecutive days of supervision, the young eunuch realized that Xu Qi’an was a renowned arresting officer with a seemingly pompous appearance and too much intelligence for the norm.

This is not divine calculation, this is simple reasoning …….. Xu Qi’an nodded, “Take me to see the corpse.”

The little eunuch was busy leading the way.

“In which well was the body found?”

“The backyard of the Crab Court.”

“Crab Court?”

Xu Qi Min said something about a crappy name.

“The Crab Pavilion is where the palace ladies live.” The young eunuch replied.

Palace maids are also divided into three, six, nine grades, and those with high status are called female officials, and even have grades and titles, such as Jieyu, Meiren, Talent, Royal Lady, Caiwen, and so on.

This kind of courtesans have the hope of being honored by the emperor and becoming famous. Of course, during Emperor Yuan Jing’s reign, none of them will be able to make a name for themselves.

The next best are the palace maids who serve at the concubines’ side.

At the lowest level, it’s the handyman who lives in the big dorms.

The Crab Court is a courtesan’s dormitory.

As they walked, they soon arrived at the morgue within the palace, in a small secluded courtyard to the south, which was used to park the corpses of those who had been executed, died of disease, or died in accidents in the palace.

On the simple bedpan lay the slightly bloated body of a soaked body.

“Go fetch the knives over, I want to dissect the corpse.” Xu Qi’an ordered.

He was a bit of a hunter, and in his previous life, when he was working at the Yamen, he was often sent to observe forensic autopsies, as well as act as an assistant. He had accumulated a lot of specialized knowledge and experience.

From her initial horror and vomiting to her slow acceptance, and then to her unchanged face as she played her hand, Xu Qi’an vaguely realized that she quite enjoyed dissection.

After coming to this world, there are quite a few cases encountered, but not many opportunities that require dissection.

“Fu Fei is the old emperor s woman, I can t touch it, this little palace maid I can always open up …… if it can be a little fresher.”

While thinking that, he undid the courtesan’s clothes.

“Dog slave, dog slave, why don’t you send someone to inform me when you enter the palace ……”

Princess Lin An’s cheerful voice came from outside, followed by a red shadow darting and stopping at the door.

“What are you doing?”

Lin An looked at Xu Qi An grasping the female corpse’s bellyband in his hand, the bright smile on his face abruptly solidifying.

Behind her, the white-skirted Huaiqing followed as she crossed the threshold, glancing at Xu Qi’an, her gaze then landing on the bellyband.

It’s a little embarrassing …… Xu Qi’an’s face didn’t change, “Examine the body, intend to dissect it.”

“Don’t you touch something so disgusting.”

Framed stomped her foot repeatedly, she swept a glance at the female corpse’s naked upper body and immediately retracted her gaze.

In response, Princess Huaiqing takes the same view and gives the advice, “Why not let the coroner do it?”

Because I like to do this ……. Xu Qi’an shook his head in a serious manner, explaining earnestly, “Your two Highnesses, you know that humble servant does everything himself, is meticulous in his work, and won’t pretend to be someone else if he can do it himself. In the eyes of others, this is a good quality of diligence, but in the eyes of my humble servant, it’s really not worth mentioning as an ordinary thing.”

Framed admired Xu Qian’s work ethic. Huaiqing was expressionless and didn’t seem to believe his bullshit.

“Your two highnesses go back and drink tea first, wait a moment, don’t stay here.” Xu Qi’an wanted to drive people away.

Huaiqing sniffed and didn’t walk away, but instead walked to the female corpse with lotus steps.

“The body was salvaged last night, and after identifying it as Huang Xiaorou, it was taken away by Eunuch Chang.” Huaiqing said:

“I want to stay and look around, maybe there are clues in the bodies.”

Huaiqing seems to be very interested in activities that move the brain, playing chess, repairing history, and now solving crimes …….. Xu Qi’an twisted his head and silently looked into the clear, beautiful eyes of the eldest princess.

Wyvern’s gaze condensed slightly as she met his eyes, her voice had the texture of ice cubes crashing together and was extremely pleasing to the ear, “Hm?”

A simple “uh-huh” implies: you have a problem with that, little brother?

Xu Qi’an withdrew her gaze, no longer looking at the eldest princess’ flawless face, and turned her head toward the framed and said, “Where is the second highness.”

Framed glanced at Huaiqing and said somewhat hesitantly, “What’s the point, I’ll stay too.”

“Yes!”

Xu Qi’an painfully stripped the female corpse.

The framed face brushed red, then white, and hid his face.

“Second Highness, not staying to watch?” Xu Qi’an shouted.

Framed covered his face, thin as a mosquito: “Gone, gone …..”

Huaiqing swept his eyes over the female corpse, and despite hiding it well, Xu Qi’an nonetheless saw the embarrassment in those chilly, pool-like eyes.

This kind of embarrassment is just like Xu Qi’an used to accompany her parents to watch TV, and happened to broadcast the male and female protagonists in bed

With a perfect appearance and top configuration, the core is very powerful, that is, the kilometers are almost zero ……. Xu Qi’an made an evaluation in his heart.

If you compare Wyoming to a top of the line sports car, fresh from the factory.

Then the frame is a model car, the appearance is not beautiful, but the core well …… hard to say.

For men, though, it’s probably more popular to frame a woman who’s sappy, inwardly charming, and not too smart.

“What is it?”

From the palace maid Huang Xiaorou’s personal clothing, Huaiqing found a piece of dull-colored yellow silk embroidered with a red lotus flower and a line of small characters:

Spring of the thirty-first year of Yuanjing.

“The fact that it was kept close to her before she died means that it was something extremely important to her.”

Huaiqing looked at Xu Qi’an, as if seeking confirmation, and said, “What does Lord Xu think?”

Xu Qi’an let out a ‘hmm’.

The corners of Huaiqing’s mouth curled.

“Your Highness is so smart, why don’t you take a look at this female corpse, what can you tell?”

Huaiqing could not help but look at him, Xu Qi’an had a posture of wanting to test her, and could not help but tighten the curves of his mouth, surging with unconvincing emotions.

“Based on how white and swollen the body is, she didn’t throw herself into the well after the murder.” Huaiqing made a judgment.

“Within two days.” Xu Qi’an gave a more precise reply.

“There are no obvious external injuries on her body, so she should have drowned to death, and may have been knocked unconscious.” After saying that, the clear and elegant Rapunzel subconsciously looked towards Xu Qi’an.

Seeing that he was expressionless and didn’t reply, Her Highness was a little unhappy in her heart and gently skimmed the corners of her mouth as she lowered her head.

“Is there more?” Xu Qi’an asked.

Huaiqing thought about it and shook his head slightly.

“You’re missing the most important step, which is usually never forgotten when examining a female corpse, even if there are obvious features of death …….”

Xu Qi’an raised an eyebrow at Huaiqing and flashed a hefty smile.

Huaiqing was confused for a moment, then, seeing Xu Qi’an’s gaze fall on the forbidden place, intelligent as she was, she immediately understood.

Swish …..

The fair face immediately reddened, and the eldest princess’ willow eyebrows rose, gritting her teeth, “Xu Ningyan, you dare to molest this palace!”

Xu Qi’an decisively admitted his mistake with a sincere attitude, “I have no intention of offending, princess forgive me.”

Wyvern turned sideways, indicating that he did not accept his apology and was angry.

Flirting with a proud and high-flying princess is much more fulfilling than flirting with Lin’an ……. The flavor of Huaiqing when she is angry has a different flavor ah …….. Xu Qi’an coughed and said:

“She drowned yes, but not in a well, she was held down and suffocated.”

“How can you see that?” Wyvern questioned, twisting his head in disbelief.

Well, as long as academic issues are discussed, she will not be angry for a while ……. Female academics also have the weaknesses of female academics …… Xu Qi An silently memorized it, and on the surface, she did not move and explained:

“Look at the purplish color of her face; in a normal drowned person, the face is pale and puffy. Only when you are pinned under water, in a head-down position, and the blood flows back to the head at the time of death, the face becomes engorged with blood.”

Wyvern frowned and made a thoughtful gesture.

“There’s one more thing,” Xu Qi’an grabbed the female corpse’s wrist, “Look at her hand, it’s clenched into a fist, which is consistent with the characteristics of drowning. But look closely, there’s no sand or moss in the crevices of her nails.”

Wyvern stared, and the nail slits were really clean.

“That means she did drown, but not in a well?” She asked.

“Your Highness is just too smart, compared to you, Your Highness Lin An is just a younger sister.” Xu Qi’an arched his hand in admiration.

Even though he knew he was being complimentary, Wyvern still felt comforted.

All people love to hear good words, and saints are no exception. Not to mention that Princess Huaiqing has always been proud, she will superficially disdain flattery, but in her heart she will secretly feel good.

Wyvern gave a reserved “hmm”.

“So, she was silenced.” Her Highness the Rapunzel then added.

Xu Qi’an nodded, while hearing the sound of tiny footsteps, he looked up at the door and saw from afar the little eunuch coming over holding the knives for dissecting corpses.

Sharp footsteps rushed into the threshold, and the little eunuch’s first reaction to seeing the woman’s corpse was a sharp cry: yah~

“Little eunuch has never seen a woman, right? Come, come, come, this official will give you a physiological lesson.” Xu Qi’an flirted with the general tone of an old asshole.

The young eunuch, not responding, somewhat embarrassed, kept his head down and set the knives on the long table.

There were six knives, of various sizes and thicknesses, wrapped in thick linen.

Xu Qi’an wanted to lick his lips to express his inner anticipation, but he felt that this pose was too spooky to reveal in front of Huaiqing, so he had to hold back.

Really, I don’t like to have people on the sidelines when I carry out some fun hobbies ……. He selected a dagger-sized, single-edged, sharp knife, and placed the tip against the female corpse’s throat, slashing the larynx.

A slightly muddy stream of water came out.

“Vomit …….”

Tender red flesh and blood were exposed to view, and the young eunuch covered his mouth to stifle his dry heaves.

Xu Qi’an then switched to a larger knife and cut open the chest and dissected the lungs ……

“Vomit …..” The little eunuch fled.

Can’t hold out?

Huaiqing’s jade-carved face showed a very vivid expression – horror, disgust. Lashes fluttered and glanced away.

“There’s also water in the lungs, the cause of death can be confirmed, it’s drowning.” Xu Qi’an put down the knife.

Wyvern nodded and said, “Is there anything else we need to check?”

“No more, let’s leave, Your Highness.” Xu Qi’an said, and suddenly let out an ‘eep’.

Huaiqing, who had already twisted her head and was ready to leave, turned back to look and suddenly raised her willow eyebrows, “What are you doing?”

“She was injured.” Xu Qi’an frowned, and as he spoke, he flipped the “lump of fat” on the female corpse’s chest upward so that Huaiqing could see what was underneath her breasts.

Huaiqing froze.

This courtesan named Huang Xiaorou had a deep scar down her left side, positioned right over her heart.

She instantly knew that she had misjudged Xu Qi’an and understood his doubts:

How could a courtesan suffer such a dangerous injury? What’s so strange is that she survived?

Xu Qi’an re-spread out the coarse linen cloth, gripped the largest knife, followed the scars, and cut open the female corpse’s chest.

Huaiqing looked like he wanted to look but was afraid of hot eyes.

Xu Qi’an removed the heart, squinted for a moment, and said thoughtfully, “Judging from the scars, the wound was deep, and the weapon should have been scissors or some other sharp object. It has touched the heart, and she should have died from massive blood loss.”

Huaiqing nodded, his gaze looking towards the door as he analyzed, ”The medicine that can heal this kind of wound can only be used in the Harem by the mother consort and consorts of the rank of Noble Consort.

“The rest of you, if you need an elixir to save your life, with Mother’s permission, or have been rewarded by Father himself, need not divert it from the treasury.”

The “rest of the people” she mentioned naturally did not include the royal sons and daughters.

The two left the morgue, and there was a well right in the courtyard, so Xu Qi’an fetched a bucket of fresh water and carefully washed his hands.

Then he scrubbed the piece of yellow silk found on the woman’s body vigorously a few times and spread it out to dry by the well.

“You tell one of the officials in charge of the morgue that the body inside, which this official still has use for, is sent to the ice cellar.” Xu Qi’an dismissed the little eunuch.

“Xu Ningyan, help this palace fetch a bucket of water.” Princess Huaiqing stood aside playfully.

Based on her address, Xu Qi’an judged that she was in an okay mood at the moment, shouting Lord Xu when she was polite and rusty. When she was angry, she called Xu Ningyan.

At this moment, Huaiqing’s tone was definitely not angry, so this sound of Xu Ning Banquet was a bit of a shout for a friend.

Xu Qi’an brought her a bucket of water, Huaiqing squatted down, lifting her long sleeves, a pair of small white hands dipped in the water, her green jade fingers long and well-proportioned.

The little hands are so beautiful …… he said in his heart.

After dipping her hands, Huaiqing took out a brocade handkerchief to dry the water stains and said, “This palace will take you to the imperial pharmacy.”

Xu Qi’an was about to nod his head, when a thought suddenly popped into his mind, why did he cast his body into the Crab Pavilion?

In the palace, there are dozens, to say the least (River Crab, I don’t understand why this is shielded?) Wells, there are more hidden, such as in the Cold Palace, such as this well in the morgue.

“We’ll go to the Crab Court first.”

Seeing the two of them come out from afar, Lin An greeted them with brisk steps and said, “What have you found?”

“There are indeed some gains.” Xu Qi’an told her about the findings of the autopsy, and Lin’an nodded while listening, her small face focused, but when Xu Qi’an finished speaking, her attention immediately shifted, obviously going in the left ear and out the right.

Lin An pointed to the pale yellow silk drying by the well and said in surprise, “Dog slave, does the lotus flower on this look like it is you ………”

Before the words left his mouth, Xu Qi’an suddenly screamed miserably, covered his head, and rolled all over the ground.

Framed and Huaiqing were startled and said eagerly, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Head, headache ……” Xu Qi’an painfully clutched his head, not bothering to let his sable hat fall down, revealing his bare brain, which could be seen as a real headache.

“You wait, this palace will immediately go and call the eunuch.” Framed stomped her feet anxiously. With a turn, she twisted her water snake waist and ran away.

Huaiqing Princess saw that the annoying sister left, which is not to put on airs, squatted down beside him, and clasped the pulse: “This palace is slightly versed in medical skills ……”

Once he felt the pulse, it was indeed pulsing fast, and he thought that Xu Tongluo’s heartbeat must have intensified at this moment.

“Your Highness …..” Xu Qi’an held Huaiqing’s catkin back and said painfully, “Ever since my humble servant stepped into the Refined God Realm, he has had headaches at times, and Duke Wei said that it was due to the restlessness of the Yuan Shen, and that at some point, perhaps, the Yuan Shen would leave the body and die.”

Huaiqing was shocked that she didn’t know about this, and so she didn’t immediately draw back her small hand.

When Mounted ordered the guards to go get the Imperial Doctor and returned to the courtyard, he found Xu Qi’an patting the dust on his body without changing his face.

Nasty Wyvern crouched at the barrel to wash his hands.

“You’re okay?” Framed said, stunned.

“It’s fine, it’s a paroxysm, it’ll be fine in a while.” Xu Qi’an waved her hand with a tired face.

Hoo ….. Almost overturned the car, fortunately the old son reacted sharply. Otherwise, if the sisters know that I wrote them the same love letter and sent them the same lotus petals, Huaiqing can not endure, and framing can not endure ……. Favorability will definitely drop to the bottom ……. Xu Qi an did a beautiful job, not only stabilized the steering wheel, but also held Huaiqing s small hand …… He cheered for himself in his heart.

Huaiqing lowered his head and didn’t say anything, his small hand was pinched red, as if it still retained Xu Qi’an’s temperature.

Framed eyed him suspiciously.

………

Crab Pavilion in the west side of the palace, far from the consorts piled up the palace garden, is a very large courtyard.

At this hour, the palace maids had long since left the Crab Pavilion to work in various parts of the palace. There was only one custodial Sister, reclining on a large chair basking in the early spring sunrise.

The age spots on her face were clearly distinguishable in the sunlight, her body was fat and out of shape, and her hair was gray, simply stuck with a jade hairpin.

“Sister Yung, Sister Yung ……”

The young eunuch shouted a few times, and the old Sister awoke with a start.

Sister Yung?

Xu Qi’an’s childhood memories were evoked, and a famous line could not help but appear in his mind:

Your Majesty, do you remember Sister Rong at the Daming Lake.

“The two highnesses are here.” The little eunuch said.

Rong Maa fixed her eyes on the two prettiest princesses in the palace, who had joined forces to make a grand entrance.

She rose with age-inappropriate agility and saluted as she called out, “The old slave has met the two Highnesses.”

Huaiqing looked at her and said, “This palace accompanied Lord Xu over to investigate the case, it’s about the female corpse that was fished out of the well today, so if you know anything, say so.”

Sister Yung nodded in response.

Seeing this, Xu Qi’an was no longer silent and asked, “Who fished the body out and when was it found?”

“It was Xiaoyu who found it, this morning she went to the well to fetch water, she noticed that the sound of the bucket falling into the water was not right, it was a bit dull, she lay down on the mouth of the well and looked at it for half a day, aigoo, it was actually a corpse.” Old Sister’s expression was agitated.

Xu Qi’an pointed at the stone well under the acacia tree, “Is that the one?”

“Yeah.”

He walked to the well and looked in; it was deep and dimly visible, and the water was like a mirror.

With ordinary eyesight, it would take a very long time indeed to distinguish a body to be found in such a gloomy well.

“Did no one notice yesterday?” Xu Qi’an frowned.

The body of palace maid Huang Xiaorou was definitely soaked for more than 24 hours.

“Speaking of this matter is angry, this morning found that there is a dead man in the well, those dead girls only said, no wonder the day before yesterday when the water was pumped sounded strange …… “Old Sister mentioned this matter is angry, scolded:

“Not a single one of them plucked out their eyes and put them in to see, causing the old slave to drink corpse water for two days.”

Framed looked disgusted.

The corner of Xu Qi’an’s mouth twitched, “Sister do you know that Huang Xiaorou.”

The old Sister froze, “Yellow what?”

Xu Qi’an said, “Huang Xiaorou.”

Sister’s eyes widened, “What Zoe?”

Xu Qi’an said angrily, “I wasn’t asking you about Ma Dongmei, you don’t have to reply to me like that.”

After thinking for a long time, the Sister came to a realization, “Old slave is just reconfirming to confirm that old slave Huang Xiaorou recognizes, recognizes.”

Huaiqing’s eyes lit up as she comprehended the reason why Xu Qi’an wanted to come to the Crab Pavilion.

What kind of brain is this little gong? It spins so fast.

“You know her?” Xu Qi’an reminded, “She’s a palace maid beside Concubine Fu, how could you possibly know her.”

……….

PS: Thanks to “blue shadow herb tea” alliance reward.

Change before you change, help catch the bugs, please.