When Xu Chu came in, her legs were already weak, and when she stumbled inside, she became more and more weak. It was only with tenacity that she did not fall.

Now she is really isolated. In the capital, the high-ranking people she is most familiar with are Xiao Qinglang and Xiao Mingzhu. And Xiao Qinglang is now in prison, and Mingzhu was taken back to the palace by King Qi last night and is not allowed to go out.

At the beginning, she had thought of finding flowers through the relationship between flowers and diseases, but she didn't expect that this morning she would change the normal situation of flowers and want to beat Xiao Qinglang into the abyss without hesitation.

However, what Xu Chu didn't expect the most was that when she tried her best to clear Xiao Qinglang's name, he confessed without warning.

Therefore, even if her mind is dizzy and blank now, she must not fall. Because she knows that once she falls, she will miss an opportunity.

Now there are not many officials in the DPRK who can speak for Xiao Qinglang, but there are more who want to fall into the ground, if those people know that Xiao Qinglang has confessed, then their attack will definitely be enough to extinguish.

The so-called public mouth is gold, and the bones are destroyed. As soon as the news of Xiao Qinglang's confession spreads, his former merits and righteousness will instantly become a joke and a conversation among the people in the market after dinner.

For the people, it is nothing more than emotion. But for those who have been intimidated by Xiao Qinglang's ruthless methods, as well as those families who have declined because of Xiao Qinglang's exposure of crimes, it is impossible to stop here.

As soon as the emperor looked up, he saw Xu Chu's haggard and tired face. It's just that now he can't relent, but he can't let her go back to rest, because now he doesn't believe anyone, and no one dares to believe it.

He is the emperor, but anything that endangers the society of the country must be suppressed without sparing any effort. And his third brother made it clear that what he and Xu Chu found in their hands was enough to shock the royal family.

However, he couldn't watch the third brother who had been entrusted with the important task die out. Therefore, he wants the truth, but he also wants to limit the number of people who know the inside story to a controllable range. And this candidate, except for Xu Chu, who has investigated the case with his third brother, he doesn't think about it.

"The minister knocks to see the emperor."

The emperor's eyes flickered for a moment, motioned for her to get up, and then ordered, "Show Lord Xu a seat." ”

Although Liu Deming was surprised in his heart, he didn't show it at all, he glanced at Xu Chu's arm and saw that it had really been rebandaged, but the blood stains on his sleeves were still very conspicuous. Come to think of it, the emperor is also worried about Lord Xu's body, after all, the emperor has been worried about King Jing'an's marriage for several years, and now that the prince has finally brought back his sweetheart, he can finally make the emperor a little more tolerant.

Xu Chu is not hypocritical, she is indeed a little dizzy now, even if she has already taken the pills sent by Imperial Doctor Zhao when she came in, and the bleeding has stopped, it is difficult to match her running and tiring for days. Moreover, when she just learned that Xiao Qinglang confessed her guilt, although she tried her best to stay calm, she would inevitably be shocked by the wind and waves in her heart, and such violent fluctuations in emotions were naturally easy to make people dizzy.

After she sat down, she first read the confession letter handed over by Liu Deming, frowned and said: "The prince said that after he was drunk, he did something wrong to Liu Yun, and then he was broken by the third prince and then killed people?" ”

In this confession, all the details are closely related to the scene, and even the blood dripping from his body and bed are very clearly confessed.

After the third prince found out what he had done, he grabbed the third prince's arm and stabbed him to death before he could react to his reputation. And the ring mark on the arm of the third prince is the jade wrench finger that he has never often carried. ”

"Stabbed three times in a row, the knife went to the bone, and in the end he wanted to fake the scene of the third prince insulting Yan Liu's family, so he was fine. The liquid was applied to the body of the three princes, and then the bodies of the three princes were hidden under the bed. However, before he could leave, he was broken by the palace maid......"

The more Xu Chu looked at it, the colder her heart became, she should have known that if he confessed with an iron heart, he would never leave a flaw in his confession.

She could even imagine that Xiao Qinglang told all the stories as if she was sure that no one would be able to expose them.

After a long time, Xu Chucai slowly raised his eyes and said with a serious expression: "Just looking at the testimony, it can be said that it is seamless. Whether it is the motive or the details of the crime, it is all right, but it is because it is too right that it is difficult to do. ”

The Emperor nodded, "In the past, I have personally instructed several heinous cases, but I have never seen anyone so eager to let the case be closed. Moreover, being able to narrate the whole case so completely is not at all like a case of impulse and drunkenness. ”

Xu Chu pondered for a moment, frowned and said, "Indeed, if it is generally an unpremeditated murder, it is impossible to be so complete in the confession. No matter what kind of psychology he is, as long as he has emotional ups and downs in his heart, it is impossible to explain the scene so clearly, or even with ease. ”

In addition, the prince said that he wore a wrench yesterday, but the minister had not seen it. Moreover, according to the experience of the ministers, if the third prince was wearing clothes and was grabbed by the prince's arm, it was not enough to leave such obvious traces. ”

The emperor bowed his head and said in a condensed voice: "This matter is for someone to investigate, but because the traces of the ring are not obvious, you should know that the clues are slim." ”

Xu Chu nodded, and subconsciously rubbed his dizzy head again. Not only does she know, but because she knows it too well, she doesn't want people to track it down from this side, after all, she has limited people to use now.

She closed Xiao Qinglang's confession and continued: "However, such speculation is not enough as evidence to prove the innocence of the prince. ”

Not only can it not be proven, but it may also become the fuse for someone with a heart to attack Xiao Qinglang again. After all, not everyone can be cold-blooded enough to kill someone and confess their crimes so calmly.

The emperor remembered that Xiao Qinglang had just not entered, and he couldn't help but sigh and said: "The haste of this bureau, although it is clever, cannot withstand detailed investigation. But the bad is the bad in the confession of sin...... And when the Queen Mother came to the court with a thousand autumn banquets, I could not investigate the case with great fanfare, but I could not shield him, otherwise the decree to reorganize the law and the three law divisions after I ascended the throne would become a waste of paper. And the Great Zhou Dynasty will also become a joke in the eyes of the barbarians! ”

He knew the importance of the law in the peaceful and prosperous era, so he would reuse Xiao Qinglang, and even severely punish many royal relatives and nobles who committed crimes for the correct law.

And Xiao Qinglang's matter really embarrassed him. Even if he could suppress it temporarily, it couldn't be for too long. But now in the capital, all forces have gathered, and all ethnic groups in northern and southern Xinjiang have envoys to enter Beijing, if they know that something happened to the most powerful person in charge of the prison in the Great Zhou Dynasty, then the consequences are not as simple as shaking Tianwei.

Once the forces of Da Zhou who resented Xiao Qinglang and wanted to get rid of Xiao Qinglang joined forces, it would be an internal trouble. Since those people dare to ignore the law, they naturally don't have much of a big picture, let alone care about the prestige of the Great Zhou. They will only look for an opportunity, taking the opportunity of congratulatory from all directions, to put pressure on the emperor, and then execute Xiao Qinglang. And the barbarians that Xiao Qinglang had shocked will be ready to make trouble in the Great Zhou again.

This situation is what the emperor does not want to see.

Therefore, although the game laid out by that man is not exquisite, it is really clever. The time and place were favorable, and that person took it into account, so that the emperor wanted to track it down, but he was also restrained everywhere.

Xu Chu's expression was solemn, and after a while, he got up and knelt down and pleaded: "I also hope that the emperor's quasi-ministers will examine the corpses of the three princes." ”

When the emperor heard this, his face was solemn and he did not speak for a long time.

But Xu Chu knew that his silence probably meant that he was shaken. In other words, in his heart, he also agreed with letting her perform an autopsy.

"Do you know what you will face after the autopsy by your means?"

Whether she will dissect the corpses of the three princes or not, she will become a thorn in the side of many officials led by Rong Guohou. If she really dissected the prince's body in order to solve the case, then in the future, she and Concubine De and Concubine De's mother family would have an inextricable grudge.

If the clan relatives want to care, then she will not only have the crime of humiliating the corpse......

Her past will be dug up again because of this, and even Xiao Qinglang's identity and reputation that Xiao Qinglang deliberately elevated for her will no longer exist.

The emperor frowned, and his tone was unprecedentedly cold, "If it is really as Xuan Zhi expected, then in the end, you may not only face criticism, but also face obliteration!" Have you figured it out? ”

Xu Chu knelt on the ground, kowtowed deeply, his eyes were firm and said without hesitation: "The minister has thought about it." ”

For a moment, the emperor suddenly remembered the scene when Xiao Qinglang begged him for marriage. At that time, he also asked him sharply if he had thought about it, and Xiao Qinglang also answered without hesitation.

He glanced at Xu Chu deeply, and suddenly felt that only such a woman could be worthy of his third brother. is not for fame and fortune, and can pull him without hesitation when he is in danger.

There are all kinds of troubles in the world, especially the royal family, and such sincere feelings are very precious.

Even though he is the emperor and has been friendly with the queen since childhood, it is difficult to be full of only each other. Because he is the emperor, he wants to open up branches for the royal family, and she is the queen and wants to be the mother of the world......

Thinking like this, the emperor waved his hand and said, "You should prepare, and in a quarter of an hour, I will personally go to supervise your autopsy!" ”

As soon as Xu Chu heard this, a light flashed in his eyes, and the heart that had been hanging finally landed, followed by the most solemn kneeling bow since the crossing.

"Your Majesty, the ministers don't need to prepare, they can check at will."

This time, without the emperor opening his mouth again, Liu Deming on the side kindly stepped forward and reminded: "Your Excellency, let's go and clean up your body briefly, and let someone send you clean clothes later, so that your adult can be more refreshing when doing things." ”

Xu Chu was stunned for a moment, then looked down at himself, he really looked embarrassed. Before, she was so engrossed in her quest that she didn't notice that she was covered in mud and smudges. Now, as soon as I relaxed, the faint smell of stench and blood continued to come to my face.

For a moment, she was a little embarrassed, and her pale complexion was also dyed a little red due to embarrassment.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, ......"

Because of Liu Deming's arrangement, she did not delay any time in changing her clothes. It's just that when the palace maid wanted to smoke incense, she stopped her. After all, her trip was not an elegant thing, the autopsy was rigorous, and the miscellaneous smell on the side could easily affect some of her judgments.

Xu Chu's clothes were not prepared a long time ago, but there were already female officials like Aunt Chu in the inner court, so it was not difficult to find a suitable women's clothes for her.

And Xu Chu didn't care if the clothes were worn by someone, let alone the dark red and black clothes, which were worn by the corpse maids in the palace and were regarded as a symbol of bad luck by the palace people. Now she just wants to examine the corpse of the third prince as soon as possible and implement the conjecture in her heart.

Because, as long as her guess may be accurate, it can directly overturn all the charges of Xiao Qinglang. Even his confession, and the evidence pointing to him, is meaningless.

The emperor is also a man of action, and since he has made a decision, he will never give Concubine De and the Queen Mother a chance to stop him. Therefore, when the news came out in the palace, he had already personally taken Xu Chu to the Lanzhi Palace.

Liu Deming waited beside the emperor, and when he saw the emperor's head, he said, "Lord Xu, Cao Xianguan, let's start." ”

Because this autopsy can be regarded as a fight, it is natural to have someone who knows how to perform an autopsy to accompany Xu Chu to conduct an autopsy, which can be more convincing. And Xu Chu trusted Cao Xianguan, so the emperor simply did not change people.

The room was faintly filled with the stench of corpses, and the smell of decay, although faint, was particularly obvious. Even if the room was full of light, it could not offset the gloom and gloom that the smell bred.

This was the first time Xu Chu had personally touched the corpse of the third prince, and the corpse was slightly soft and had no sense of stiffness. The closer he got to the corpse, the more clearly Xu Chu could ask about the smell of corruption.

She carefully turned over the body of the third prince and found that there were also white marks on his buttocks and waist. But looking at the outfit on the third prince's body, she knew that this was not the trace left by the belt.

After she carefully checked the three princes' bodies, she looked up at the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, the minister suspects that the time of death of the three princes is different, so the emperor needs to witness the autopsy of the minister." ”

The emperor's brows moved slightly, and finally said in a cold voice: "Test! ”

When Xu Chu heard this, he got up and opened the toolbox that Inspector Cao had brought before.

The corpse had begun to decompose, especially on the bases of its limbs. But Xu Chu didn't show the slightest expression of shock because of this, as if she had seen this situation a thousand times, so there was no need to be surprised at all.

"Normally, after death, there will be a decay in the body, the putrefactive gas hydrogen sulfide in the intestines and the hemoglobin in the blood to form sulfide hemoglobin, or with the iron that is free from the hemoglobin to form iron sulfide, which appears green through the skin. Because the ileocecal feces are liquid, bacteria are easy to multiply, and the decay is more early and more, so the corpse green first appears in the right lower abdomen, right hypochondrium and groin. However, the appearance of corpses should be at least six hours later, and in early winter, at the end of the day. If the third prince really died at the time that the prince said, there should not be such a dense corruption stain at this time. ”

"Corruption is accelerating, and the environment needs to cooperate. The first is that the weather is hot, and the second is that the corpse is frozen after death without corpse spots, and then placed in a room temperature environment, it will accelerate the decay ......"

Xu Chu said as he pointed to the marks on the corpse with his hand and said: "In addition, the color of the corpse has changed to black and yellow, which is also the most obvious manifestation of the frozen corpse after being placed at room temperature. ”

After she finished speaking, she continued to look down at the corpses of her men. Because she already had a guess in her heart, her goal was accurate, and she directly reached out and gently rubbed the deceased's head a few times.

Subsequently, she took the autopsy knife, carefully shaved off the hair of the third prince's anterior cranial fossa, and said after looking at it carefully: "The epidermis of the deceased's skull is not damaged, but I have just touched the deceased's anterior cranial fossa and there is an obvious fracture. ”

After speaking, she didn't look at the emperor's expression, and directly used the autopsy knife to cut the flesh and head of the third prince. She wanted to slow down, but she was afraid that the emperor would temporarily stop her, after all, no one knew how the emperor would react when he saw her dissecting his son's corpse with his own hands.

However, although the emperor's face was already blue, his eyes that looked at Xu Chu's movements did not make any waves. He stared closely at the autopsy knife in Xu Chu's hand, and his heart was full of feelings, if it was an ordinary time, maybe he would have appreciated her because of Xu Chu's concentration and solemnity. But now, that corpse is his son, and it is really difficult for him to be distracted by Xu Chu's performance.

Xu Chu didn't care, originally her autopsy was not for her own fame and future.

There was silence in the room, except for the sound of Xu Chu's autopsy knife gently peeling off the flesh and skin, and the almost inaudible sound of breathing.

"Frozen corpses sometimes form postmortem skull fractures. The principle is similar to that of a burned corpse, because the cranial cavity is a relatively closed and fixed bony structure, so after the corpse is frozen, the tissue in the cranial cavity increases in size due to freezing, so that the bone weak anterior cranial fossa is squeezed by the swollen brain tissue and fractures. After she finished speaking, she glanced at the emperor with a gloomy face and the inspector Cao who looked like he had benefited a lot, thought about it and simply explained, "It's like a piece of clothing, which is usually just right, but when the owner suddenly doubles in weight, and then forcibly puts it on, the clothes will inevitably be torn." ”

When Inspector Cao heard this, he hurriedly took this to heart, and then carefully examined the skull at the fracture that was peeled off by Xu Chu.

"In fact, it is not difficult to tell whether it is a skull fracture caused by trauma or a postmortem skull fracture caused by freezing. The most straightforward way to distinguish is the skull fracture caused by trauma, most of which have subscalp hematoma, fissure, or accompanied by subdural hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and brain tissue contusion, which means that life reactions are more obvious. Fractures caused by freezing, on the other hand, have almost no life reactions, that is, they have no abnormal appearance. ”

At this time, although Xu Chu was not obsessed with teaching Cao Inspector the knowledge of autopsy, he also knew that if the explanation was not clear, the emperor was very likely to question it. Therefore, it is not so much that she told the inspector Cao, but that she explained it to the emperor.

"Will there be any surprises?" Inspector Cao asked, "My lord said that sometimes in most cases, the trauma will leave traces, so is it possible that a different situation may occur?" ”

Xu Chu nodded, "It's indeed possible, such as hitting the deceased's head with a soft object." However, in either case, it is reliable to distinguish whether it is a prenatal injury or a postmortem injury. ”

It's just that in the current situation, they are not in a position to steam their bones. If you want to steam the bones of the three princes for autopsy, you must start the stove, and Concubine De will definitely get the news at that time......

But even if she can't steam the bones, or even test the bones with ink, she has a way.

Thinking of this, Xu Chu took a deep breath and continued to separate the skull of the third prince from the flesh and skin.

"If the corpse is frozen, the tissue swelling will not only cause a skull fracture, but also compress the foramen magnum, forming a similar situation as a foramen magnum." After she finished speaking, she carefully turned sideways, so that both the emperor and Cao Xianguan could see where their fingers were pointing, "That's it." ”

Although it is possible that the foramen magnum hernia formed before her death, if she adds fractures and other conditions, her conjecture can be basically inferred.

After careful inspection, the inspector Cao on the side nodded to confirm her statement. And the document next to him also recorded what Xu Chu said very quickly.

He has been a clerk for many years, and he has recorded countless autopsy lists, but this is the first time he has heard of this statement. But think about it, every time Lord Xu performs an autopsy, he will always be able to say some test methods that ordinary people don't know. In the beginning, the examiners of the Three Law Divisions would also look through ancient books and compare them with the autopsy sheets attached to various similar case files. Later, they found out that the methods that Master Xu said could be compared with reality, and over time, the inspectors and servants of the Three Law Divisions rarely questioned her.

And the various yamen of the Great Zhou Dynasty probably had the same thoughts, and they were unwilling to be pressed on the head by a woman at the beginning, so every time the autopsy list recorded by Lord Xu was transmitted, there would always be countless people who consulted various books to refute her. Even some doctors were alarmed.

But it turns out that all the corpses that have been examined by Lord Xu have never gone wrong. It is precisely because of this that a highly qualified person like Inspector Cao has great respect for Lord Xu.

"Your Majesty, if the corpse of the third prince is really frozen, the body's reaction is almost stagnant, so the time of death examined last night cannot be counted."

The emperor's eyebrows gradually tightened, and the hands on the armrests were clenched, causing the green tendons on the back of his hands to burst out, and after a long time, he asked in a dumb voice, "Maybe the exact time can be deduced?" ”

Xu Chu was stunned for a moment, pursed his lips, and finally set his eyes on the abdomen of the third prince. In fact, she really didn't have 100% certainty, after all, in the case of blind examination, the time of death was guessed, and it was a corpse that was frozen and then thawed, and it was impossible to guess from experience that it would be as accurate as examining a fresh corpse.