Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 50 Bone Examination
Old Zheng was both excited and nervous at the moment. He had only heard of examining bones, but had never had the chance to try it himself. Now that the opportunity was right in front of him, how could he not be excited?
But he was not sure what he could see, and was afraid that he would waste the opportunity that Jia Chuan and others had fought for, so he couldn't help feeling a little nervous.

Jia Chuan did not stand by, he stood outside the field with the villagers. His past experience told him that if you go among the people, they will give you surprises.

"The Ma family's daughter's family is like that. Logically speaking, even if the Sun family is poorer, it is better for her to stay there than her mother's family. How could she commit suicide the next day?" Jia Chuan muttered as he watched the people busy in the field.

"Otherwise, the Ma family would come to make trouble because they think the Sun family is bullying them." The person standing next to Jia Chuan whispered.

"The Sun family couldn't figure it out either. What they said at the time was... that the girl from the Ma family was not a virgin. When the Sun family found out, the girl from the Ma family had no face to live. But think about this, does the girl from the Ma family have to wait until the wedding night to feel ashamed? Shouldn't it have ended before she got married? Sun Wang is poor, but he's not stupid." Another person also said in a low voice.

Jia Chuan frowned and asked, "The Sun family is so poor, why did the Ma family marry their daughter to them? Even if they don't like this girl, shouldn't they try to get a bigger betrothal gift?"

"Oh, how can their family do business at a loss? Haven't you seen the girl from the Ma family? She's been exhausted by her parents for so many years. She's so young, but she can't even stand up straight. Who would have a good life if they had to work so hard and not have enough food to eat? Who doesn't marry a daughter-in-law for the sake of being able to bear children and work? The Ma family knows it well."

Dong Yuanyuan's face flashed through Jia Chuan's mind. He shook his head and asked, "So, before the Ma family's daughter married into the family, the Sun family knew that she was not in good health?"

"Of course we know, we all know, but Sun Wang's family is poor, and they can only offer a small amount of betrothal gifts. Who would be willing to marry their daughter to them?"

Jia Chuan asked again, "Did you all go to the wedding?"

"We're all from the same village, how can we not go?"

"Did you have a wedding night?" Jia Chuan asked.

The man next to him laughed and said, "If they coughed, they'd be afraid the house would collapse. Who would dare to make a fuss? They left after dinner, but their relatives stayed longer."

Jia Chuan raised his chin towards his fourth uncle and second uncle who were standing not far behind him and asked, "Have they been staying at Sun Wang's house?"

"Actually, you can't blame them for being ruthless. Sun Wang's father was in poor health and couldn't have another one after Sun Wang. A family of three can't even farm three acres of land. What kind of relatives can help them all the time? No one's food comes from the wind. It's okay to help them for a year or two, but if it takes too long, I'll hide."

Jia Chuan asked again, "When Sun Wang got married...did he also borrow a lot from his relatives?"

"Of course, otherwise they wouldn't be able to come up with a small betrothal gift. It's all for the sake of incense..."

"Then why did Sun Wang marry the current woman so soon?" Jia Chuan was puzzled.

"Haven't you seen how sick he is? Both of them are not in good health, and the child's mother doesn't have enough milk... The villagers say it's the Ma family girl who's causing trouble, and you also say that the Ma family girl is resentful. I think Sun Wangben shouldn't get married. The family can't even make ends meet. Even if the baby is born healthy, it may not be raised."

"Did Sun Wang also borrow money from relatives when he remarried?" Jia Chuan asked.

"They should be. I think they haven't been able to move around since then. After they had children, they had to borrow from the villagers. Alas, we just felt sorry for them and gave them food. But this is not a long-term solution. They need to have the strength to farm and support the family. Look at Sun Wang's physique..."

Jia Chuan nodded. There was nothing wrong with this man's idea, and there was nothing wrong with Lijia's idea either. They just looked at the problem from different angles. Lijia could see that the death of the girl from the Ma family was strange, but this man only saw that Sun Wang's family was too poor to survive, and that he would die sooner or later.

Jia Chuan thought about it, then turned and walked towards his fourth uncle and second uncle.

When the two men saw Jia Chuan walking towards them, they subconsciously took two steps back.

Jia Chuan said with a smile: "What are you afraid of? I'm not a girl from the Ma family."

After saying this, the two of them turned visibly pale.

Jia Chuan still had a smile on his face. He turned around and called out, "Captain Gao, come here."

Gao Yuntian was worried that he couldn't find a chance to leave that area, so he ran over without asking.

"You chat with Fourth Uncle, and I'll chat with Second Uncle." Jia Chuan said while winking at Gao Yuntian. He hoped that Gao Yuntian's mind could be at home at this moment.

It doesn’t matter whether Gao Yuntian’s brain is working or not. The main thing is that he doesn’t want to go back to the grave now. Not to mention asking him to talk, he would be willing to fight with someone.

But Fourth Uncle and Second Uncle were unwilling and wanted to resist, so Gao Yuntian simply picked up Fourth Uncle and left.

Jia Chuan couldn't help but sigh at the arbitrariness and tyranny of law enforcement in this era. It would be okay if it happened to someone like Gao Yuntian, but if... Jia Chuan shook his head.

After all, the second uncle was quite old, and he was so scared that he trembled a little when he saw his fourth brother being taken away like that.

The villagers turned around and looked curiously. Apparently, the image Jia Chuan had previously established among the villagers had made them forget what the work clothes on him represented. Before Jia Chuan started to falsify a confession, the villagers slowly gathered around him, wanting to see what fun was going on.

It is true that kind people are often bullied!
Jia Chuan frowned, looked at the approaching villagers with a sullen face, and asked seriously, "Who among you wants to keep him company? Come back to the county government office with us and stay for a few days?"

The villager walking in front immediately stopped, turned around and continued to pay attention to the constables, and the others also turned around.

Jia Chuan turned his head to look at the trembling Second Master and asked with a pleasant face, "Were you there on the day Sun Wang married the daughter of the Ma family?"

The second uncle opened his mouth, stretched his head and missed Jia Chuan, looking at his fourth brother who was thrown onto the ridge of the field not far away, his breathing became noticeably rapid.

"I'm asking you!" Jia Chuan said sternly with a gloomy face.

He found that if he didn't treat them well, they would really take advantage of him.

"What? Oh, my nephew is getting married, so of course I have to go."

"They're having their wedding night and you didn't leave?"

"Gone, left before daybreak."

"Your wedding night is almost dawn?"

"No, she's gone anyway. What the hell? They say the dead are the greatest. She's already buried, so why are you bothering her? Could it be..."

"Can you guess why? Have you seen that Taoist priest? He can talk to the dead. He can tell them about any grievances or injustices they suffered in their lifetime. We just need him to see the corpse, so here we are."

The second uncle's face froze instantly, and beads of sweat dripped down his temples.

"Wipe it off. Someone who doesn't know you might think you just got pulled out of the water. Are you feeling so guilty?"

"No, no, no, it's too hot."

"It was you who suggested challenging the Ma family to a duel back then, wasn't it?"

"Ah? No, it was the Ma family who came to make trouble first. They say a married girl is like spilled water." The second uncle wiped the sweat off his face and said, "Since I'm married, what does my life or death have to do with them?"

"It's said that the girl from the Ma family had already lost her virginity before she married in. Was that your idea or... was it you who did it originally?"

"What do you mean I did it?! You, don't slander me. I didn't know her before. We are of different generations. Don't slander me!" The second uncle was a little anxious.

"If it's not you, then who is it? Tell me someone's name, and I won't ask you any more questions."

"I don't know who it is." The second uncle pleaded. "Oh... so it really is true."

At this time, a constable shouted loudly: "It's been dug up. There's no coffin, only a straw mat wrapped around it. Old Zheng... No, Taoist Zheng is about to perform a ritual. Anyone outside should stay away. If an evil spirit comes, you won't even have time to cry!"

The villagers quickly rushed back, and no one dared to stand in the shade under the tree.

Jia Chuan shook his head as he watched. He shouted, "Captain Gao, I'm leaving Second Master to you. Watch over those two brothers and don't let them leave. If they don't, tie them up. I'll go help Taoist Zheng."

Gao Yuntian came over here, carrying his fourth uncle. The second uncle turned around and tried to run, but Jia Chuan reacted quickly, grabbed him, and asked:
"Can you guess why I chose you to stay with me? You're old now, and I can't control you anymore! I advise you to tell me everything you know as soon as possible, otherwise you might never see your family again. Besides, I really don't understand why you're still handing yourself over to me? You're hiding at home, how can I suspect you?"

At this time, Gao Yuntian had already walked over with his fourth uncle. Jia Chuan let go of the second uncle and said to Gao Yuntian, "Keep an eye on them. The death of the Ma family girl is closely related to them. You have nothing to do anyway, so why not ask them?"

After saying that, Jia Chuan walked towards Old Zheng.

……

When Old Zheng saw the bones in the pit, all the complicated emotions in his heart disappeared. He dressed himself and ordered, "Dig a pit five feet long, three feet wide, and two feet deep nearby. Ask the villagers for some charcoal, put it in the pit, and light it until it turns red."

The detectives didn't say anything more and started digging.

When Lijia saw that there was nothing for him to do, he stood far away with the villagers.

Jia Chuan came over and put on his clothes. This was specially prepared for him by Old Zheng. Then he squatted beside Old Zheng and asked, "Do you want to steam the bones and examine the injury?"

Old Zheng frowned and looked at Jia Chuan and asked, "Who told you that?"

Jia Chuan couldn't say he had watched some costume dramas, so he shrugged and said, "I guessed."

Old Zheng snorted and said, "What the man in the dream taught me wasn't entirely correct."

"You don't need to steam the bones?"

Old Zheng said, "Go find some clean water."

"Your father taught you the things from the 'Xiyuan Jilu', right?"

Old Zheng said nothing. Jia Chuan stood up and shouted to the crowd, "Bring a basin of clean water!"

After shouting, he looked back and saw that Old Zheng had already gone down to the grave to clean the straw mat wrapped around the bones.

Old Zheng shook his head as he cleaned. Jia Chuan asked, "What's wrong?"

"The sun is not shining enough. I wonder if we can see it after it's all finished..."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Jia Chuan was a little annoyed.

"I thought you could dig the grave right away without a few words, but you'd wait till this hour and even ask me to pretend to be a Taoist priest. If we had started this morning, we should have been able to inspect it by now. I brought my red umbrella..."

"You still have an umbrella? Where did you hide it?"

"It's not for keeping out the rain. My dad said it didn't need to be too big, so he made one himself. I haven't used it in decades, so I don't know if it's any good."

Just as Jia Chuan was about to look for his umbrella in Old Zheng's treasure chest, Old Zheng stopped him and said, "Help me clean the straw mat quickly. Clean water will be here soon and I need to wash the bones."

……

Not long after, a fire started in the pit dug by the constable nearby. Jia Chuan helped Old Zheng gently wipe the bones. The water in several nearby pottery jars had turned murky. Old Zheng then produced a folded, worn mat from his treasure chest and smoothed it out, saying, "The bones haven't fallen apart yet. Let's work together to bring them up and wipe them again."

Jia Chuan did as he was told.

The pit next to it was burning red. Old Zheng asked the constable to take out the firewood. Jia Chuan watched Old Zheng pour several bottles from the treasure box into the red-hot pit one after another. The pungent smell of wine and vinegar made Jia Chuan cough a few times.

"Hurry up, we need to put the bones in."

……

Finally, the corpse was placed in the red-hot pit. Jia Chuan asked Old Zheng, "What next?"

"After an hour or two, when the ground has cooled, we can move the remains out..." Old Zheng looked up at the sun and sighed, "I wonder if the sunset will be any use."

Jia Chuan tilted his head and combined the knowledge from his previous life to make a brief summary.

When a person is beaten while alive, blood seeps into the bone marrow and there will be blood present. Old Zheng's operation should be to force the blood out of the bones, and then use the red oil umbrella to check the wound. This red oil umbrella... Jia Chuan looked at the sun at around three o'clock in the afternoon. Could it be that the red oil umbrella can absorb some of the sunlight?

This is similar to the fluorescent reaction used to detect bloodstains in criminal investigation in the previous life.

Sure enough, when the sun was about to set, the corpse was moved out of the pit, and Old Zheng took out a small red umbrella from the treasure chest.

Jia Chuan felt sorry for Xiuzhen. If he put the umbrella over her head on a rainy day, it would only barely protect her from getting wet.

Old Zheng covered part of the corpse with an umbrella, moving it slowly, mumbling, "...If there are traces of blows on the bones, there will be red lines, which are subtle. Where the bones are broken, there will be blood stains on both ends. If you hold the bones up to the sun and see the red, it means they were beaten before death. If there is no blood on the bones and there are damage and fractures, it means they were beaten after death."

Jia Chuan could understand these words individually, but when they were put together, he needed to think carefully. Fortunately, the appearance of the bones in front of him made him quickly understand what Old Zheng meant.

All I could see were red halos scattered across the skeleton's limbs, and a bloody halo on the hyoid bone in the neck...

"The sunlight is a little poor, otherwise we can see it more clearly." said Old Zheng.

"That's not bad. At least we know what the girl from the Ma family suffered before she died."

"She was strangled to death."

"Yes, she was beaten and strangled. Who would treat her like this?" Jia Chuan seemed to be muttering to himself.

"Could it be that... that guy named Sun Wang raped me during the wedding night?"

"Why would you do this to your own wife? Besides, Sun Wang doesn't seem to be that impatient. We can find out by asking him. But what you did, can it be used as evidence?"

"Whether it can be used as evidence or not is beyond my control. You already know the 'Washing Away Injustices'. If it doesn't work, then I can't do anything about it. But I still have to say what needs to be said. Call Gao Zhong here and have the other detectives take a look. Having more witnesses will also be helpful."

……

(End of this chapter)