CHAPTER XXVI

Xu Chu put on gloves and slowly approached the corpse of Zhao Xiu'er placed by the officials, she first looked carefully, and saw that the corpse was soft, as if the corpse had disappeared. Immediately, she reached out to check her jaw joint, and seeing that it was still stiff, she had an answer in her heart. Then, she pressed the corpse spots on the deceased's body, but saw that the dark red mark rarely faded. With a little thought in his heart, he continued to check the pupils of the deceased's eyes.

She looked at the corpses under her hands meticulously, her eyes were silent, and she didn't say slowly until she had a certain number in her heart: "Remember, the deceased, Zhao Xiu'er, female, five feet long, the eye membrane is cloudy, the pupils react slightly after compression, the corpse stiffness disappears but the jaw joint is stiff." The corpse spots are located on the occipital, top, back, waist, sides of the buttocks, and the back of the limbs, but there are stripes of dark red corpse spots on the sides of the body, which may subside slightly with pressure and are suspected to be caused by movement. The hour of death of the deceased is between 3 and 6 minutes of the Shen hour. ”

"Miss Xu, Zhao Xiu'er's corpse has disappeared, although there are corpse spots, it has also become a piece, and the old man thinks that she should have been dead for about twelve hours." Wu Laohan has been working for many years, and although he is not one of the best, he is also very familiar with the changes in corpses. If someone usually questioned his judgment, I am afraid that he would be embarrassed and angry, but Xu Chu's last case was extraordinary, even if he was young and a woman, he did not dare to be contemptuous.

Xu Chu nodded, then pointed to Zhao Xiu'er's corpse and said, "Although corpse stiffness can also be used as a standard for judging the time of death, it can also be artificially influenced. Normally, the corpse will not disappear until after twelve hours, but there are exceptions, that is, within two to three hours after the death of the deceased, if the mortis that has already occurred is destroyed by external forces, the mortis will soon reappear, and the situation of the corpse can only be confused for a short time. However, if the zombie is destroyed and the stiff state is eliminated by external force after three hours, six quarters to four hours after death, the zombie will completely disappear and never appear again. The only way is to check the mandibular joint, if it is alive and soft, the zombie is gone, otherwise it is moved or eliminated by external force. After that, Xu Chu pointed to the corpse spots and pupils on Zhao Xiu'er's body and said, "In addition to being careful in the autopsy, the time of death must not be easily determined according to one appearance, but all the circumstances must be taken into account and judged comprehensively, so that it is not easy to make mistakes." ”

When Wu Laohan heard this, he nodded and remembered it as if he had received a treasure, and silently recited it several times in his heart, and then concentrated on Xu Chu's movements again. But she stretched out her hand and took off the clothes of the deceased without hesitation. When everything was ready, he splashed the corpse with the bad vinegar that had been prepared.

Xiao Mingzhu saw the autopsy for the first time, and she was already a little uncomfortable in this gloomy and solemn place, but she was worried that she would disturb Xu Chu if she moved, so she endured it and didn't move. However, right now, seeing that Xu Chu had stripped people of their essence, and even took out the bad vinegar and green onion white, she unconsciously widened her apricot eyes and didn't come back to her senses for a long time. Could it be that Sister Xu is going to cook or sacrifice?

"Xu ......" As soon as she spoke, she saw Xu Chu's serious and silent face, as well as the frowning brow slightly through the mask and the cautious seriousness in his eyes. Somehow, the panic and awkwardness in her heart suddenly became much less. She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and swallowed the surprise that was about to be exported, and she couldn't admit the silent thought in her heart......

Wu Laohan seemed surprised when he saw Xiao Mingzhu, and saw that she was well-dressed and had a noble temperament, so he was afraid that she was a big man again. Thinking that Xu Chu couldn't take care of him at the moment, he was worried that Xu Chu would be blamed for neglecting the nobleman, so he took the initiative to explain in a whisper: "I splashed the corpse with vinegar because some wounds on the corpse may not be conspicuous, and after being washed with vinegar, you can see if there are other scars on its body in about an hour." It's just that usually, I don't always use this method, and I only use the naked eye to examine the scars on the surface of the corpse. ”

Xiao Mingzhu stopped explaining, and the doubts in his heart were dispelled, and he only watched Xu Chu with sparkling eyes.

In front of the corpse, nothing else could interfere with Xu Chu's autopsy, so she didn't notice the difference between Xiao Mingzhu and Xiao Mingzhu.

She examined it carefully, and the deceased was neatly dressed, his face was pale and slightly painful, and his hands were rough and chapped, as if they had been blown by the wind after being soaked in water for a long time. This is a pair of hands that have been working all year round, and compared to the complexion on her face, she really looks like an old woman.

Sure enough, as Wu Laohan said, except for the bruises and bruises behind him, there were no other scars on his body. But she always felt that something was wrong, although Zhao Xiu'er had no injuries on her body, and there were no signs of poisoning, and even when the officials heard the news, the doctors in various medicine halls proved that she was not suffering from a serious disease.

"Uncle Wu, may I ask how the woman who came to sue has anything to do with the deceased? Why didn't the deceased's brother show up? Xu Chu frowned and asked.

Since the murder case of the evil ghost, Wu Laohan, who is a servant, has been extremely convinced of Xu Chu, and when he saw her asking, he hurriedly replied: "After Zhao slaughters pigs on weekdays, his daughter-in-law sells meat in the butcher shop, and he goes to various villages to collect pigs back. It can be said that I usually get up early and are greedy for darkness, and I am not at home all day. That woman is a well-known shrew, and she is kind to Zhao Butcher, but she is notoriously harsh to her sister-in-law Zhao Xiu'er...... Whether it is cold or dog days, Zhao Xiuer has to take care of everyone's eating, drinking, lazing, laundry and cooking, and even the thatched house has to be cleaned up by her unmarried daughter. Not to mention that even if there is water at home during the day, then Zhao Liu will not allow her to wash clothes at home, so she has to rush to the small river on the edge of Yunzhou City......

Saying that, Wu Laohan seemed to think that Zhao Xiu'er was too pitiful, and shook his head and sighed.

"Then Zhao Butcher has no temper?" It's so unreasonable, my sister is being abused like this, why can my brother turn a blind eye?

"Hey, isn't it because Zhao Butcher is useless that he endured it? We didn't know earlier, or later that Zhao Liu was shouting outside that Zhao Butcher was not good, and at that time, there was so much excitement that even the storyteller would arrange a few sentences. "Wu Laohan is a local servant of Yunzhou City, and he is old, so he naturally knows more." If it weren't for the fact that Zhao Liu was also a shrew, and it would be difficult to find her mother-in-law's house if she left, I am afraid that she would have made trouble and divorced at that time. ”

When Xu Chu heard this, his brows couldn't help frowning even tighter. It stands to reason that even if Zhao Butcher is really inhumane or a heavenly eunuch, then Zhao Liu, as a mother-in-law, does not need to expose his ugliness so much. Taking a step back, Rao is Zhao Liu didn't understand that the four or six generals had publicized the ugliness of the family, so it must have been a thought that could not be saved, and how could he not mention anything about harmony later? And how can Zhao Butcher swallow this breath?

Speaking of which, it is also thanks to a distant brother of Zhao Liu's mother's family who is kind-hearted, literate and hyphenated, and has some knowledge, and it took several persuasions to resolve the grudge between the two families. After that, that kid came to Yunzhou City from time to time, one was to visit relatives, and the other was to persuade Zhao Butcher to live a good life with Zhao Liu. Wu Laohan said, as if he suddenly remembered something, and said with emotion, "I heard before that someone originally wanted to match Zhao Xiuer with the latter child, but I don't know why it didn't work out." Zhao Xiu'er, who was embarrassed at that time, also threw a moat ......"

Xu Chu's brows were furrowed tightly, it was too strange, even if he couldn't get married, then Zhao Xiu'er wouldn't have committed suicide by throwing herself into the river. In ancient times, there were many things to do, and the two families would form a good relationship between Qin and Jin, and if they didn't get along, they would only play haha and perfunctory past. What's more, it's just a matchmaking, not a divorce and abandonment after being hired. Since the establishment of the Great Zhou Dynasty, I have never heard of a woman who committed suicide by throwing herself into the river because of the failure of the matchmaking and the humiliation.

"Could it be that the neighbors said something cool behind their backs, so that Zhao Xiuer couldn't think about it?" Without waiting for Xu Chu to ask again, Xiao Mingzhu, who had been making a background board and enduring not to vomit, muttered in a low voice with a white face, "It is said that there are many rights and wrongs in the market, if it weren't for being said to be thin-skinned, who would not think about it so much." ”

"I haven't heard of it, the most pitiful thing in the Zhao family is Zhao Xiu'er, who would laugh at her without opening her eyes."

Others won't, but what if it's your own family?

"Where did Zhao Liu's relatives come from?"

"In that later life, I used to be an apprentice in the county Chinese medicine hall, and I learned pharmacology with the master, and then I often went to Yunzhou City to buy some medicinal materials for the master."

Xu Chu shook his head, and his eyes swept over Zhao Xiu'er's corpse. But what went wrong?

She approached the corpse again, and asked Wu Laohan to help turn the person over and study its scars. Suddenly, inadvertently, she seemed to smell a slightly cold and bitter smell, which was light and mixed with some unknown spices. If Xu Chu hadn't suddenly approached, I am afraid that he would have ignored the past.

Xu Chu quickly checked Zhao Xiu'er's clothes again, since her life at home was extremely difficult, and her sister-in-law was very harsh, how could she have the heart to change into clean and flat clothes when she was seriously ill? Not to mention, it was actually smoked with spices.

It's so unreasonable, she remembered that Zhao Liu's Liu Cuihua had said that Zhao Xiu'er was unwell the day before and couldn't eat and rested on her own. Early the next morning, she went to look for Zhao Xiu'er, only to find that Zhao Xiu'er had lost her breath.

So, how can a person who has lost his breath have the foresight to change his clothes before dying and comb his hair to take care of himself in a physically uncomfortable situation? Thinking like this, Xu Chu's eyes fell on Zhao Xiu'er's feet, just now when she inspected the soles of her feet, she just felt that something was wrong in her heart, but she never thought that since Zhao Xiu'er was resting in the house, how could she dress neatly, and even wear shoes when she slept?

According to common sense, Zhao Liu's family found the corpse, and then beckoned someone to come, and then tore Qin Xiu before he arrived at the yamen, I am afraid that he didn't have much thought to clean up for Zhao Xiu'er.