Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 130 Go Back and Take a Look

Jia Chuan paced back and forth in the mortuary at first, as if the continuous movement would keep his memories flowing.

"In the late stage of hypothermia, muscle paralysis occurs, commonly known as 'frozen stiffness.' If the person hasn't curled up by this point, their limbs are no longer able to curl up on their own. They may undress abnormally, or they may be lying on their back or with their limbs spread out. After experiencing heat hallucinations, they lose consciousness. In this case, all four people were curled up and hadn't taken off their clothes, but there were pulling and tearing motions. Because they were all elderly, this process was faster. After the pulling and tearing, they lost consciousness and quickly froze to death."

Old Zheng opened his mouth again, then closed it again.

"I really can't remember how the forensic doctor explained the livor mortis after freezing to death. I only remember that he mentioned three possibilities, which are related to temperature. One is that the blood slowly settles, and the livor mortis may gradually form over several days. It is bright red in color, but because decomposition is inhibited, the livor mortis is relatively well preserved. Another possibility is that the blood coagulates rapidly, and gravity deposition is hindered, so the livor mortis may be very inconspicuous or even absent, or only local light red patches may form. The last possibility is... I can confirm that the body was thawed, and the settled blood may have redispersed, causing the livor mortis to become lighter in color or abnormally distributed."

After Jia Chuan finished speaking, he looked at Old Zheng.

Old Zheng frowned: "I've already said it, you understand it yourself, you don't need to worry about me."

Jia Chuan scratched his forehead: "Right now, I just can't remember what temperature conditions those two descriptions of lividity correspond to."

"Their livor mortis was bright red."

Jia Chuan nodded and said, "Yes, so when you first suspected poisoning, I didn't say anything. The lividity after carbon monoxide poisoning is bright red. For example, if charcoal is burned in a sealed room, it is easy to produce carbon monoxide. If a person is asleep, they will die in their sleep from inhaling too much carbon monoxide."

“That temple is drafty everywhere; there’s no enclosed space like you described.”

Jia Chuan nodded and said, "That's what puzzles me. There was a hot water bottle on the bed and firewood in the courtyard. The nunnery was drafty and really cold. If you just lit a pot of firewood in the room, you wouldn't freeze to death that night. Besides, those two old monks have survived decades of winters. How could they have frozen to death when those two old Taoists came?"

"Someone must have done this on purpose."

"Come on, let's go talk to the village chief and the others."

……

Originally, the village chief and a group of villagers had not yet been convicted and should have been detained separately. However, since it was the Lunar New Year, the yamen runners and jailers had to take turns to rest, and there were not enough people, so these people were directly imprisoned.

It was cold in the prison. The men were crammed together in one place. When Jia Chuan saw this, he couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

The jailer opened the cell door, and Jia Chuan went in and sat down on the hay opposite the others. Old Zheng didn't go in at all, saying, "I'll wait for you outside," before following the jailer out.

Jia Chuan looked at the group, remained silent for a moment, and then asked them how many acres of land they owned, who mainly farmed it, and how many people were in their families.

These seemingly casual words touched the group. The village chief was the first to shed tears, saying with remorse, "I shouldn't have been greedy when I saw the money."

Jia Chuan asked, "Were you one of the first to climb over the wall and get in?"

“We waited outside the temple gate.”

"How many people climbed over the wall and entered? But they opened the gate immediately after entering?"

“The three of them climbed over the wall and immediately opened the courtyard gate. I waited with him outside the gate.” The village chief pointed to the middle-aged man beside him.

"Are the three who climbed over the wall here?" Jia Chuan asked, glancing at the others.

The village chief nodded.

Jia Chuan nodded and said, "That means it was the five of you from the beginning."

The village chief nodded again.

What did you do first after entering the temple?

"Of course I was looking for someone. I was worried something had happened since I hadn't seen any smoke from the chimney for several days. The two old monks were both quite old, and those were the coldest days after the snow."

Jia Chuan thought for a moment and asked, "You didn't find anyone inside the temple, and the gate was still bolted. What were you thinking at the time?"

"We were scared! The temple was small. The five of us searched around and found something was wrong, so we quickly closed the gate and went down the mountain."

Jia Chuan immediately leaned forward and asked, "You mean you didn't see that bundle the first time you entered the temple?"

"I saw it, but I didn't think about doing anything at the time," said the middle-aged man next to the village chief.

"Did you go a second time that day?" Jia Chuan asked.

The village chief sighed and said, “After we went down the mountain and returned home, the more I thought about it, the more frightened I became. This little temple has been around for a hundred years, and suddenly such a bizarre thing happened. I… The neighboring villages all know that the two old Taoist priests stayed overnight in the temple. If someone asks, how should I answer? If the government finds out and asks, how should I answer?”

A middle-aged man at the far end, with his head down, said, "This is my fault. I saw the village chief was flustered, so I said that we might have missed checking something. The village chief said that the temple is only so big, with only a few rooms in total. I said that there was still the cellar that we hadn't checked..."

"A cellar? You're saying there's a cellar in the small temple?" Jia Chuan's eyes lit up. "Was the bundle found in the cellar? No way!" Jia Chuan immediately denied himself. "If it were in the cellar, the bundle wouldn't be so clean."

"It's not in the cellar, it's on the platform under the Buddha statue," the village chief said.

Jia Chuan frowned and thought about the main hall. The Buddha statue was indeed on a high platform. There were only prayer cushions inside the hall, and no offerings or incense. At that time, Jia Chuan thought that the monks here might be more like monks.

Jia Chuan took a deep breath, choked by the pungent smell, coughed a few times, and then asked, "When you go back again, are you still thinking of finding someone?"

The village chief lowered his head and said, "If they were really in the cellar, how could they still be alive? I wouldn't feel at ease if I didn't go and check. What would I do if they were in the cellar? What would I do if no one was there? That day, my mind was truly in turmoil..."

"What's in the cellar?" Jia Chuan interrupted the village chief.

"There's nothing there. Few villagers have cellars. What would they store? It's already difficult enough to have enough to eat every day, let alone need to store anything."

Jia Chuan said, "They didn't just grow some melons, fruits, and vegetables..."

"If any green vegetables cannot be eaten in time, they can be pickled. Why would a cellar be needed?"

Jia Chuan asked, puzzled, "How did you know there was a cellar in the temple?"

“I’ve heard from the elders in my family that when we were kids, a few of us would sneak into the cellar to look for things. Back then, the cellar was empty; there was nothing there.”

Jia Chuan nodded and asked, "When you went back, did you go down into the cellar to check?"

"No, there's no need to go down. The cellar is very small; you can see it just by peeking out." The village chief replied, "We went up three times that day. The last time, I called more than a dozen people, and we searched the mountain and the valley several times."

Jia Chuan was about to get up when he suddenly remembered that he hadn't finished asking the question, so he sat down again and asked, "When you came up for the second time, you saw the bundle in the main hall and thought about taking it away so that the people who came later wouldn't see it. Since you were trying to create the illusion that some of you might be traveling far away, you naturally couldn't leave the bundle behind."

Several people nodded at the same time.

“But you… I don’t know who picked up the bundle and found it heavy, reached out and touched it…” At this moment, a thin middle-aged man, with snot and tears streaming down his face, looked up and choked out, “If it weren’t for treating my little girl’s illness, the village head wouldn’t have left five taels of silver. Arrest me, they… their families are old and young…”

Jia Chuan frowned and looked at the village head, asking, "Did you leave five taels to treat his child's illness?"

The village chief didn't look up, and said in a low voice, "We each kept five taels."

Jia Chuan paused for a moment and then asked, "Did you take the bundle home?"

The village chief nodded and said, "Otherwise, how would we know how much silver we have? We were thinking of exchanging it for banknotes after the New Year..."

"No, the timing is wrong. When you brought the bundle home, you didn't know the four were dead. Since you wanted to create the illusion that the four had left, you would naturally have left all the silver behind..."

"We were thinking of leaving everything behind, a little over five taels per family. But yesterday I found out that the county government had sent people, so they put all four of our families back into their bundles. They only let Gouzi leave the silver. His Niu Niu has been sick for half a year. They finally found a clinic, and the doctor is doing alright, but... where do they get the money to buy medicine? Their two children died before, so they can't just..." The village head sighed and explained.

Jia Chuan opened his mouth, disregarded past grievances, and took another deep breath, only to cough a few times from the choking. At this moment, Old Zheng came in with a bowl of water and handed it to Jia Chuan, saying, "They are more like people than our county magistrate."

Jia Chuan took two sips and said, "Do you need to tell me?"

He handed the bowl to Old Zheng, then looked at the village head speechlessly and asked, "I'm just wondering, what can you do if you don't put the money back?"

“I… I’ve never done this before, I’m scared! Besides, this matter at the temple is strange. Maybe the county government came because we touched the silver in front of Buddha.”

Jia Chuan sighed, stood up and said, "I need to go to the small temple in the village again. You guys lead the way for me."

……

Zhao Guang accompanied them on this trip as well.

He felt that the best way to build a relationship with Magistrate Song was to accompany him in investigating the case.

Therefore, this trip involved a horse-drawn carriage.

Jia Chuan still loved himself and pulled Lao Zheng onto the carriage.

Zhao Guang had always believed that Old Zheng was an old servant in the household of Magistrate Song. Although he had heard from the yamen runners that Old Zheng was the first to examine the body after it was pulled out of the dry well, Zhao Guang felt that he must have learned something from his master. It was normal for Magistrate Song to be unwilling to take action in such cold weather. How could a scholar who had taken the imperial examinations know the skills of a coroner?

Zhao Guang didn't have time to think about the problem in detail. The carriage slowly drove towards the city gate. Zhao Guang looked at Old Zheng several times, signaling him to get off the carriage, but Old Zheng didn't look at him. He only whispered to Jia Chuan.

"...If you don't wait for Gao Yuntian to return, what if there's a master hiding in the cellar? What if you die not in Le'an, but in a dilapidated temple? What am I supposed to do if Duoduo comes looking for me later?"

Jia Chuan's eyes lit up, and he asked in a low voice, "You can tell that Duo Duo has feelings for me... um?"

"What?"

"What do you say?"

Old Zheng pretended to be serious and said, "If something happens to Shunzi, Duoduo will be worried too. We've been through life and death together. I'm not capable, otherwise I would be worried too."

Jia Chuan glanced at Old Zheng and then closed his eyes to rest.

“I’m not joking with you. Think about it, the temple gate is bolted shut. You probably don’t believe it’s the power of gods or ghosts. That means someone with high martial arts skills can fly over walls and roofs. Even if they were carrying dozens of pounds more, they could still jump over walls…”

"How could you utter such nonsense!" Zhao Guang couldn't stand it any longer and couldn't help but interject, "Is that courtyard wall so easy to climb over? If someone has such ability, what's the use of those high-class mansions' courtyard walls? Wouldn't they be just for show?"

“It’s not that I didn’t consider that possibility. Guess what? Yesterday, I only knew to check the walls on both sides of the gate for signs of climbing over. There are three other walls, and I completely forgot to check them.”

Jia Chuan pretended not to hear Zhao Guang's words and continued his discussion with Old Zheng.

"What does this show? It shows that no one in this world is perfect. Even someone like me has flaws, let alone others," Jia Chuan said modestly.

Old Zheng snorted and asked, "If someone really did this, why would they climb over the wall when there's a temple gate to pass through?"

"In this way, some fools will think it's the power of gods and ghosts, and the case will become an unsolved mystery."

Zhao Guang's face immediately felt a little hot.

Old Zheng waved his hand and said, "You have clearly deduced that all four of them froze to death. Since it was not murder, why cover it up? Just report it to the authorities. If there are other people involved, and it is inconvenient for him to come forward, then leave the bodies where they are and wait for the villagers to find them. They will then report it to the county government. At that time, the conclusion that they froze to death by accident will sound better than an unsolved case."

"Yes, why would he, or rather they, do that? Besides, how do you know it was an accident to freeze to death? All the people you've seen who froze to death did so because they had nowhere to go, or couldn't make it to their destination, or the weather was too cold. The four people in the temple could have easily avoided freezing to death..."

"It really does seem like someone watched them freeze to death, but what was the point?"

"The nunnery has walls to block the wind and bedding to keep warm. Although it's not exactly warm, it's not enough to freeze to death. It's possible to get sick from the cold and then die. As for why someone would do that, that needs to be investigated."

Old Zheng thought for a moment and said, "These people not only watched the four freeze to death, but also carried their bodies to the dry well at the foot of the mountain. They must have been very strong."

Jia Chuan rubbed his face and looked at Zhao Guang, who was holding a hot water bottle in his arms, and said, "We're probably in grave danger on this trip. I'm used to it. Is the county magistrate sure he wants to go to his death with us? No, I should say we'll go on an adventure together. It doesn't necessarily mean death."

Zhao Guang took a deep breath and leaned forward nervously, asking, "Do you think this case was deliberate?"

"Have you ever seen gods and ghosts with your own eyes?"

"Uh……"

"They're not on the same level. They can't manage human affairs. Even if they could, they'd deal with you, the muddle-headed and incompetent county magistrate, first. What did those monks and Taoists do to deserve this?"

"you……"

"You'd better decide quickly whether you want to go or not. We've just left the city gate. If we come back later, it won't be easy for you to get back. I won't let you have this carriage. You should make yourself comfortable before you die."

Zhao Guangzhen followed Jia Chuan's train of thought, and when he realized he was walking towards the city gate against the northwest wind, he couldn't sit still any longer. He stopped the carriage, intending to say something more to Jia Chuan, but Jia Chuan impatiently spoke first: "Let's go, this is none of your business..."

"If the superior asks..."

"You won't live to see that day."

……

(End of this chapter)