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Chapter 269 Hell

Zhu Cheng heard the old coroner's words outside the door and his heart skipped a beat. He quickly signaled to the guards beside him to go in and help.

In his view, his son-in-law's personality was somewhat unpredictable. Apart from being genuinely good to his daughter, none of his actions were within the expectations of others. He also had a somewhat arrogant attitude towards others. He wasn't exactly difficult to get along with, but he wasn't exactly kind either.

Moreover, no matter what, he was still the carefree prince. It would be outrageous if an uninformed old coroner ordered him to move a corpse!

But by the time the two guards ran in to help, Lu Qing had already taken Jia Jun's body off the rope and placed it steadily on the ground for the coroner to examine.

Zhu Yu stood aside, watching Lu Qing carefully place Jia Jun's body down. She leaned over and whispered, "Was he limp or stiff as a board? Was he still warm?"

"More stiff than someone knocked unconscious, but not as stiff as a wooden board." Lu Qing tried to give Zhu Yu a suitable description. "He had no warmth left; he was completely cold."

Zhu Yu nodded, but didn't ask anything more. He stood aside with great interest, watching the old coroner examine the body.

She had previously witnessed a coroner at her wedding banquet who looked like an old walnut, someone she didn't know which government office he had come from. He was so flustered by the presence of all the high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the courtyard that she couldn't tell he had any skills.

The coroner at this moment was old but not so old that his teeth were loose, nor was he a young apprentice who had just graduated. He also seemed to have a lot of confidence, so it was a good opportunity for her to take a look.

The coroner solemnly asked the guards who came in later to find a tent to block the doorway so that the people outside could see everything. Then he looked up at the rope on the roof beam, then looked down and examined Jia Jun's clothes from head to toe, muttering to himself. Then he squatted down next to the corpse and began to remove Jia Jun's clothes.

Zhu Yu stood aside watching the coroner bustling back and forth, sometimes reaching out to check the temperature of Jia Jun's neck and armpits, sometimes touching his skull, neck bones, and all the way down to his ankles.

He even took a small wooden stick, wrapped it with cotton, and used it to wipe Jia Jun's nostrils and ears. He also used a silver needle to prick his neck once.

This work took quite a while, leaving the old coroner drenched in sweat, while Zhu Yu's gaze gradually turned cold as he watched from the side.

Finally, after working for half a day, the coroner began to examine the ligature marks on Jia Jun's neck again.

Jia Jun's neck was covered in a bloody mess of scratches. The blood had already congealed and looked dark red. The skin in that area was torn apart, so there were no visible marks from strangulation.

On the sides of the neck where the skin was intact, the marks were much more noticeable, not only obvious but also somewhat messy.

There was a light-colored mark that ran down the side of his jaw to behind his ear.

There was another mark, slightly darker in color, that intersected with this one and then spread towards the back of the neck.

After the coroner examined the body, he hastily put Jia Jun's clothes back on, stood up, placed the still-shiny silver needle on a cloth, and, covered in sweat, walked around the tent and said to Zhu Cheng, who was waiting outside: "Your Highness, I have carefully examined the body. Lord Jia has been dead for about an hour, and his body is still not stiff."

The villain inserted a silver needle into Lord Jia's neck, but the needle did not turn black, indicating that he did not die from poisoning.

Lord Jia had scratches on the front of his neck, with blood and flesh flakes between his fingers, and obvious ligature marks on the side of his neck. At first glance, it seemed that he had indeed hanged himself. People who hang themselves often scratch their necks when they are dying.

But there were two marks, one disappearing behind the ear and the other intersecting at the back of the neck, which was not right.

Therefore, I suspect... that Lord Jia..." The coroner hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Zhu Cheng frowned and urged, "Just say what you have to say. What kind of talk is this, stammering like that!"

"I suspect that Lord Jia was strangled to death," the coroner said quickly when he saw that Zhu Cheng was anxious.

"Strangled to death?!" Zhu Cheng was stunned, somewhat surprised by the result.

Upon hearing this, Jia Jun's wife and the two brothers from the Jia family also knelt on the ground again.

"Your Highness! The Left Chief Secretary had just left when I discovered that my husband had hanged himself... If my husband was strangled, please, Your Highness, do justice for our family!" Jia Jun's wife cried and pleaded, kneeling on the ground.

The two Jia brothers were also filled with grief and indignation, crying and kowtowing at the same time.

"Get up, get up, all of you! Even if you kowtow to death here right now, do you think this matter will be over?!" Zhu Cheng waved his hand impatiently. "Don't take down the curtain in front of the study. Go and bring the Left Chief Secretary here!"

The two guards immediately obeyed and stepped outside.

When Jia Jun's family saw that Zhu Cheng had spoken, they were helped up by others, still sobbing.

"Your Highness...that humble person..." the coroner asked cautiously from the side.

Zhu Cheng didn't want to say anything more to him and waved for him to leave on his own.

Zhu Yu was standing inside the curtained doorway of the study, with no intention of leaving. After listening to the coroner's words, he chuckled softly.

However, her laughter had nothing to do with pleasure; it sounded more like disdain and contempt.

Lu Qing looked at her questioningly, and she nodded to Lu Qing: "That coroner is quite an interesting person."

Lu Qing understood immediately and instructed the personal guard who came in to help: "Find someone to follow that coroner and keep a close eye on his every move these next few days. Don't disturb him or let him get into any trouble. Remember who he has been in contact with."

Although the guard did not recognize Lu Qing, he knew that this man had been following Prince Shuo around during the border patrol, and that Prince Shuo had treated him much more politely than others. He guessed that Lu Qing was some important confidant, so he nodded in agreement without saying a word and hurriedly followed him out.

Zhu Cheng saw the guard quietly follow the coroner away, his face expressionless, and he didn't say a word, but he glanced at the study again with a slight hint of doubt.

With no outsiders present in the study, Zhu Yu felt much more at ease. He walked to Jia Jun's corpse, squatted down, and pinched Jia Jun's jawbone with both hands, making a gesture to open his mouth.

But the upper and lower rows of teeth seemed to be fixed together, and they couldn't be separated at all; the cheeks felt hard to the touch.

Jia Jun's skin had an almost imperceptible dampness, and just as Lu Qing had said, it was ice-cold, devoid of any warmth.

"He's been dead for about an hour?" Zhu Yu laughed sarcastically. "That's truly unbelievable."