Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 18 Learn to learn
Shunzi said quickly, "Didn't you just say that it might be in the hands of the first group of people who died? Our people buried them, so naturally they couldn't find it."

Jia Chuan turned his head to look at Shunzi and asked, "Do you think our brothers would not empty their pockets when they buried those people?"

Shunzi blinked and looked at Dong Shuben.

Dong Shuben coughed lightly.

Jia Chuan continued, "I just thought of that, too. Captain Gao ordered his men to go around the house and find rags to make face coverings. I saw Captain Gao and a few others wearing white linen. Our men don't have such inner garments. Where did they get them?"

Shunzi sighed and said, "The one we met was dead a long time ago. When they buried him, he had just died not long ago. Naturally, we have the courage to touch him and take off his clothes. In the final analysis, it's all because of poverty. There are so many inspection offices, but our Huang Luling grandmother and uncle don't love him. He was the last one to change into a hidden armor..."

Jia Chuan looked at Dong Shuben and said, "He changed after a good night's sleep. He was a complete idiot before, but now he can't stop talking."

Old Zheng suddenly said, "From what you said, I think the person inside is not from the Han Palace, right?"

"Hmm?" Jia Chuan suddenly became interested and asked hurriedly, "Why do you say that?"

Just as Jia Chuan finished speaking, a voice that annoyed him came from the gate of the courtyard: "Old Zheng, there's a case on Zishi Street. Come with me! You, Mr. Jia, come with me too. I'll teach you what investigating a case is all about!"

When Jia Chuan heard the first half of the sentence, the bed he had slept in that morning flashed through his mind. He thought he could catch up on some sleep, but after hearing the second half, he couldn't help but snort coldly and turned to Dong Shuben and Shunzi and said, "Come on, let's go and learn from him."

……

Gao Yuntian walked swaggeringly down the street with a few detectives, telling people around him who reported the case, and that there would be fun to watch soon.

Jia Chuan felt that these words were meant for him, as a prelude. He also knew what was going on. The two people who were discussing marriage had their wedding night early. The woman did not return home last night. The woman's family went to the man's house but could not get her back. The two sides started arguing, so the woman's people ran to the county government to report the case.

Jia Chuan was very puzzled. He asked Old Zheng, "Why do you need to follow me on this case?"

Old Zheng chuckled and whispered, "With me, there won't be any murders. He's just scared."

"Huh?" Jia Chuan didn't understand.

Old Zheng explained:
"There are a lot of trivial cases on a daily basis, so there's no need for me to follow them. But once, a house was robbed, and Gao thought he could identify the thief with just a few words..."

"High school?" Jia Chuan wondered who it was.

"Oh, our captain acts like a successful Jinshi every day. That's what we jokingly call him."

"Oh."

"That time he actually guessed who the thief was, but when he went to look for him, he found him dead. Then there was another time when neighbors got into a fight over a verbal dispute. He went to the house and found an old man who had been dead for many days. It was the neighbor who gossiped to others that the old man in this family had died a long time ago, which led to the fight between the two families."

"So, whenever he has a case like this again, he'll ask you to come along, hoping to save him the trouble. But who knew that as long as you're with him, there won't be any more murders?"

Old Zheng smiled and nodded, saying, "I will become his door god, and you can just follow along to watch the fun."

Sure enough, after turning into an alley, a burst of yelling and cursing from an old woman suddenly came from the front. The constable in front quickened his pace, and Jia Chuan also quickened his pace.

As I got closer, I saw a middle-aged woman dressed in colorful clothes standing outside the courtyard gate with her hands on her hips, pointing at the courtyard and cursing:

"...You damned slut! I was on high alert, yet you managed to piss me off like this! Where did he even grow? Why are you so eager to sleep with him? You heartless bastard, I've raised you for nothing! And now you don't even want to show your face, and I haven't even given my approval to this marriage yet!"

Gao Yuntian and the detectives stood among the crowd, but they were not in a hurry to go in. Jia Chuan could only stop and look into the yard.

The old woman was so engrossed in her cursing that she didn't even notice the arrival of the yamen runners.

Jia Chuan looked into the courtyard. In the shadow of the sun, a young man dressed as a scholar stood with his head lowered, hiding behind a middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man said to the old woman with a smile: "Oh my goodness, originally we kept the fact of losing my virginity a secret, so who would have known about it? But now, alas, the matter is done, and this marriage has to go through no matter what..."

"You're daydreaming!"

"If you're not unwilling, when you marry someone else in the future, you can just cover yourself with a quilt and it will be enough to fool people..."

The old woman was even more angry at what she said. She walked into the yard, pointed at the middle-aged man, spat at him, and then cursed, "Go back and ask your mother if she got away with it on the first night of the wedding?!"

The people outside the courtyard who were watching the fun laughed out loud. Jia Chuan looked at everyone and thought to himself that the matter of eating melons was really the same in ancient and modern times.

The middle-aged man remained calm and asked with a smile, "If Qing'er was your biological daughter, would you still make such a fuss?"

"Don't worry about my old relatives. Hand them over first, and we can talk about other things later."

"Give it to you? Humph, Qing'er, do you still have a chance to survive? My family can't afford the betrothal gift you want, so won't that delay your ability to make money?"

"You stinky thief, stop talking nonsense! Has Liu Haier come back after reporting to the police?" The old woman turned her head and glanced at the people around her.

Gao Yuntian strode into the yard and asked, "Who reported this to the authorities?"

The middle-aged man panicked and couldn't help but point at the old woman and curse, "What a rotten heart you have! You really won't leave Qing'er any chance of survival!"

"Your nephew slept with my daughter. That's adultery!"

Gao Yuntian looked at the woman with his nose turned up and asked, "When did you, a woman, become the head of the county government? You said it was adultery, so it's adultery? The so-called crime of adultery is a form of lynching. If the government finds out, anyone who commits lynching will be punished! The Ming Dynasty law states: Anyone who commits adultery will be punished with eighty strokes of the cane. If the couple is married, ninety strokes of the cane. If the couple commits adultery, one hundred strokes of the cane. If the couple commits rapist, they will be strangled."

Jia Chuan didn't understand the first part, but he raised his eyebrows when he heard the last part. He didn't expect that rape was punishable by death in the Ming Dynasty. But then he thought, is this crime so easy to convict?
"Are you engaged to her daughter?" Gao Yuntian asked loudly to the scholar hiding behind the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man said hurriedly: "They have already secretly decided to spend their lives together. It is because the stepmother wants to use her daughter as a cash cow that the wedding date has not been set yet..."

"I can't just listen to your story. Where is that woman now?"

"They hid in the backyard. They didn't do anything shameful. It's just that this woman is too cruel. She often beats Qing'er until she's covered in bruises. Qing'er just came to my house to take shelter. If she continues to beat her, I'm afraid she'll be dead..."

The middle-aged man led the way as he spoke, and Gao Yuntian followed behind with a ruthless pace.

The old woman wanted to follow, but was stopped by a constable who said, "Don't go yet. If you stay, we won't be able to hear the truth."

The old woman immediately became anxious: "What are you talking about? She is my daughter..." "Forget it, your donkey is probably living better than her." Jia Chuan couldn't help but interjected, then took a few quick steps to catch up with Gao Yuntian.

Old Zheng didn't follow, nor did Dong Shuben and Shunzi. They had no interest in this matter at the moment. They just thought that if they had known it would be like this, they should have stayed in the official residence to catch up on their sleep.

Old Zheng was watching the old woman spinning in circles with a smile on his face. Just as he was about to make a sarcastic remark, he heard a panicked cry coming from the backyard. Startled, Old Zheng muttered, "No way!" and quickly ran towards the backyard.

The old woman also ran to the backyard, followed by Dong Shuben and Shunzi who had reacted. Dong Shuben only ran two steps, then turned around and ran to the gate of the yard, cleared the onlookers out of the yard, and then closed the gate and bolted it.

……

In a room in the backyard, a woman in coarse cloth was hanging in the air...

When Gao Yuntian saw Old Zheng running over, he immediately complained, "Who told you not to follow?"

When Old Zheng saw the woman, he took a deep breath and said, "Put her down first."

Who stepped forward? Gao Yuntian looked around, pointed at Jia Chuan and said, "You and Old Zheng, put the dead man down together."

Jia Chuan asked, "Are you afraid?"

"I am the captain of the police..."

"At this moment, I am no different from a pig head. I am afraid, so why should I not admit it? It's okay, I'm not afraid!"

Jia Chuan and Old Zheng entered the house, and the uncle and nephew, who had fallen to the ground in fear, saw the old woman rushing to the backyard. The scholar, who didn't know where he got the strength from, stood up, rushed forward, pushed the old woman hard, and roared, "In the end, you forced her to death!"

Gao Yuntian originally wanted to argue with Jia Chuan, but he didn't expect this to happen suddenly. He quickly ordered people to pull the two apart.

The old woman was also frightened, but her mind was different from others. She didn't mind the death, but the loss of the money she was about to receive. After she made all the calculations in her mind, she rushed towards the scholar like a mad wild boar, shouting, "She died in your house, I will fight you to the death!"

If someone who didn't know the situation saw this, they would think that the stepmother was extremely sad and wanted to seek justice for her dead stepdaughter.

Gao Yuntian was tall and mighty, towering over the old woman by a head. He reached out and stopped her, pushing her to the ground. Gao Yuntian scolded her, "You didn't beat her to death before because you didn't want her to die in your own home? If you bully her like this, she'll die sooner or later! Who can you blame?"

The old woman was so shocked by Gao Yuntian's aura that she didn't dare to speak for a moment.

Inside the house, Old Zheng placed his wooden box on the table and lifted up the stool that the deceased had fallen on. Just as he was about to step on it, Jia Chuan stopped him and asked, "How do you think she got up there?"

Old Zheng pointed to the stool in front of him, and then realized that there was still some distance between the stool and the deceased's feet. Old Zheng tried to stand on tiptoe to feel it, but it should not be enough.

Jia Chuan pointed at the dead man's feet, and Old Zheng nodded.

At this moment, the woman on the ground suddenly came to her senses and screamed hysterically, "Damn you! Give my daughter back to me!"

Gao Yuntian shouted, "Shut up! If we're talking about guilt, you won't be able to escape!"

These words made Jia Chuan feel a little better. He looked around. The room was not big and very simple. Apart from a wooden bed, there was only a round table and two wooden stools. There was not even a basin stand or a cabinet. There was only a thin mattress on the bed, no quilt. Jia Chuan walked forward and patted the mattress, and dust immediately rose.

It can be seen that no one lives here on weekdays.

Jia Chuan walked to the door and shouted, "Senior High School! Come in."

Gao Yuntian was furious and rushed into the house, but was immediately frightened by the corpse still hanging in the air and retreated again in just two seconds.

"Why haven't you taken the deceased down yet?!" Gao Yuntian stood sideways at the door and asked.

"Take a look first, or I'll put the body down and tell you, but you'll start shouting and saying you don't believe it."

"What are you looking at?"

"Look along my hand."

Gao Yuntian obediently turned his head to look at Jia Chuan's hand.

Jia Chuan raised his hand high, pointing directly at the dead man's face. After a moment's pause, he slowly lowered his hand to the dead man's feet and the stool.

Gao Yuntian was so frightened by the purple face and bulging eyes of the deceased that his mouth opened wide. Then he looked down at the ground following Jia Chuan's falling hand. He was completely unable to react and wondered what was the point of looking at this?
"See? There's a large gap between the deceased's toes and the stool. She couldn't have hanged herself. And you have to remember what her feet looked like."

After Jia Chuan finished speaking, he stepped on a stool and Old Zheng supported him, and the two of them worked together to put the deceased on the ground.

Gao Yuntian took a deep breath, took two steps back, and seemed to be lost in thought.

Old Zheng opened the box. Jia Chuan looked over and saw that the box was divided into many compartments. Old Zheng proudly introduced the items: there were tweezers, silver needles, scissors, hooks and other metal objects, cloth bags, gloves, bamboo racks, large clips, charcoal, vinegar, white wine, lees, pens, ink, coveralls, etc.

"What's in this bottle?" Jia Chuan asked, pointing to a bottle at the bottom.

"Wood ash. When I went to the Inspection Office that day, I saw so many corpses. Luckily, we were in the mountains and forests, so there was a constant breeze. Otherwise, I would have had to hold wood ash in my mouth to ward off the poison from the corpses."

Jia Chuan said "oh" and thought to himself that he had learned something new.

Gao Yuntian came to his senses at this moment and scolded, "Did you two come here to exchange experiences? Hurry up and perform the autopsy!"

Old Zheng handed the gloves to Jia Chuan, meaning: You come!
"Captain Gao, remember what I say."

Jia Chuan unceremoniously took out the pens, ink, and papers from the box and placed them on the table. Then he and Old Zheng dressed up and began to perform the autopsy.

"First, perform an external examination of the body. Note: The deceased's face is cyanotic and swollen, with punctate hemorrhages on the face and eyes. The lips and nails are cyanotic, and there is drooling. There are pinch marks and strangulation marks on the neck..."

"What does this mean?" Gao Yuntianren had just arrived at the door and had not yet entered the house to pick up the pen, but he could hear something was wrong.

Jia Chuan ignored Gao Yuntian and continued, "There are no livor mortis at the ends of the limbs, and the cause of death was not dangling feet. There are livor mortis on the back..."

Old Zheng followed Jia Chuan as he turned over the corpse. He happened to look up and saw Gao Yuntian still standing there, not taking any notes at all. He sighed and said, "Let me take notes. Captain Gao has a lot of knowledge waiting for the imperial examination, and it must not be used here."

(End of this chapter)