A female coroner arrived at the Jingzhao Prefecture.

Chapter 352 Ending (21)

The surname is Mu, and the profession is coroner.

These two keywords easily evoke the image of a certain person.

Therefore, as surprise and doubt appeared on everyone's faces, Mu Qingcheng raised his head calmly and fearlessly, and said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Thank you for your kindness, Lord Liang. I am willing to contribute my meager strength to this case."

A cloth covered half of her face, and her exposed eyes were as black as night, cold and unwavering.

They had only seen such familiar features and temperament in one other person.

Ji Yue's lips curled slightly, and a smile spread across his eyes. However, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review sitting opposite him suddenly stood up excitedly, completely unlike his composure and calmness in the palace yesterday. He stared intently at Mu Qingcheng, his eyes full of curiosity and inquiry.

Mu Qingcheng noticed Lu Xun's unusual gaze. She glanced back subtly before fixing her gaze on Qin Songyang's unreadable face and said, "Minister, regarding yesterday's case of the body hidden in the wine jar, I have completed the autopsy and obtained several clues. I wonder if you would allow me to present them?"

Qin Songyang truly admired Song Shuyu. Despite being imprisoned, he was incredibly resourceful and had connections everywhere. The female coroner he trained was no ordinary person either; she managed to escape from the Prince of Zhongshan's residence, then capture him, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, and move in and out of the Ministry of Justice to examine corpses and discuss matters as if they were nothing!

He felt a surge of emotions, but did not express them.

Qin Songyang looked around and passed the buck, "I wonder what the esteemed officials of the Court of Judicial Review and the Censorate think?"

Ji Yue smiled and said, "His Majesty has ordered the case to be solved and publicly tried within three days. I was just worrying about it. Now that Coroner Mu is willing to lend us a hand, why not? I would be more than happy to do so."

Lu Xun nodded vigorously, looking pleased. "My Dali Temple has no objection."

Seeing this, Mu Qingcheng looked at Lu Xun again, her brows furrowing slightly.

Qin Songyang immediately said, "Alright, Counselor Mu, then I will allow you to participate in the investigation of this case. You just said that you examined the body and found clues, is that right? But yesterday, Counselor Chen also conducted an autopsy. I have seen the autopsy record. The time of death and cause of death are clear at a glance, and there is nothing unusual."

Mu Qingcheng said in a calm voice, "Therefore, I asked Lord Liang to assign a trusted confidant to secretly monitor Coroner Chen."

Upon hearing this, everyone was taken aback!
"Insolence!" Qin Songyang's face darkened, and he said with displeasure, "The coroners of my Ministry of Justice have undergone rigorous examinations and their autopsy skills are among the best in the country. How could they possibly make a mistake?"

Mu Qingcheng sighed slightly: "Indeed. Any qualified coroner could not possibly misdiagnose this corpse, let alone a coroner from the Ministry of Justice." "Does Coroner Mu mean that Coroner Chen intentionally falsified the evidence?" Upon hearing this, Ji Yue hit the nail on the head.

Qin Songyang's expression grew increasingly grim.

Mu Qingcheng lifted the top and bottom of the white cloth, allowing everyone to see the deceased's head and feet, and also revealed the arms.

She said, “The words of the living are hard to verify, but the dead do not lie. The time of death is correct. As for the cause of death, judging from the external appearance of the body, the abdomen is bloated, there is bleeding in the eyelids, the eyeballs are bulging, the lips are cyanotic, clear blood is flowing from the mouth and nose, the face is covered with bloodstains, and it is reddish-black. There is blood stasis in the internal organs, the pupils are dilated, the anus is prolapsed, and urine and feces have been excreted and soiled the trousers. All of the above are consistent with the characteristics of death by suffocation due to obstruction of the mouth and nose. Coroner Chen recorded the facts truthfully and did not falsify them.”

"However, there were minor marks on the deceased's neck caused by external force, which is one point. Secondly, the deceased's left foot had congenital clubfoot, that is, the bone, muscle and ligament structure of the foot was malformed, causing the foot to turn inward and drop, making it impossible to put weight on the ground and walk normally, which seriously affected the gait and manifested as lameness. Thirdly, the deceased's arms and elbows did not have any virginity marks. After joint examination by three midwives from the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice, it was determined that the deceased was no longer a virgin. However, the coroner Chen did not record these three important issues."

As she finished speaking, all the officials present stared at the corpse with a mixture of shock and fear in their eyes!
"A cripple? She was born crippled?" Ji Yue's eyes widened like saucers, his tone filled with disbelief. "Guo Xuan's legitimate daughter, Guo Yuanke, how could she be born crippled? Countless people saw her at the Spring Banquet. She was demoted to the palace as a maid for more than three months. There's no way she could be crippled!"

Lu Xun stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Miss Guo is not yet married, yet she is no longer a virgin? Tsk tsk, this matter is quite extraordinary!"

Qin Songyang's face was as black as ink. He slowly shifted his gaze from the corpse's left foot to Mu Qingcheng's face, his eyes flashing with an unprecedented sharpness. "Coroner Mu, what guarantees that your autopsy results are correct?"

Mu Qingcheng's eyes turned cold. "Heh, if Minister Qin doesn't believe me, he can always summon coroners from other government departments to conduct a second examination, or ask the imperial physicians to check whether the deceased was born with a limp. If what I said is false, Minister Qin can punish me according to the law."

Qin Songyang pursed his lips and remained silent.

"Your Excellency, whether you believe it or not, the body is here, and the truth lies within the deceased. No one can fake it." Mu Qingcheng paused after speaking, then continued, "Coroner Chen did not record the wounds on the deceased's neck. I speculate that he recorded them based on what Lord Liang saw, to ensure consistency between the testimony and the autopsy results, thus closing the chain of evidence. However, Lord Liang overlooked one thing during his testimony at the Jade Brewing Pavilion yesterday. Lord Liang not only saw the murderer cover the deceased's mouth and nose, but also saw a virginity mark on the deceased's left wrist. Yet this body does not have one, and the deceased was not a virgin."

At this point, Mu Qingcheng sighed slightly, her voice becoming a little deeper, "The Guo Yuanke that Lord Liang saw had not been injured on the neck by the murderer and had a virginity mark; the Guo Yuanke that the world saw was a normal person, not a cripple. Obviously, the characteristics of the corpse hidden in the wine jar do not match the real Guo Yuanke!"

"But... but her appearance looks exactly like Guo Yuanke's!" Qin Songyang still couldn't believe it. "Moreover, Guo Xuan identified the body on the spot. He's Guo Yuanke's father, how could he mistake his daughter?"

Others were also completely baffled.

Mu Qingcheng nodded. "Yes, the appearance of this corpse is indeed exactly the same as Guo Yuanke's. I've examined it myself; there was no disguise, and no human skin mask was worn. But the fact is, the Guo Yuanke seen by the eyewitnesses is not the same person as the deceased in the wine jar. So, there are several questions that need to be answered. First, what is the true identity of the deceased? Second, where is the real Guo Yuanke? Third, why is Chen Wu concealing the truth? Fourth, what role did Guo Xuan play in this case?"

"Thoughtful, logical, and insightful, truly worthy of the title Mu..." Ji Yue clapped his hands in praise, but then remembered that he couldn't reveal Mu Qingcheng's identity, so he quickly changed his words: "This coroner Mu that Minister Liang found is truly a talent for autopsies and detective work!"