Ch. 28 - Case of Naked Corpse in Yunshui Lane [Part 1]

When Sun Shaozong hurried out of Jia's residence, he saw three Yamen servicemen in their official green uniforms standing under the right wall of the gate.

Seeing that Sun Shaozong was large and strong, which was 70% to 80% similar to the rumors, the leader of the Yamen guard hurried forward and gave a deep salute, and carefully asked, "Hello My Lord, may I ask if you are the newly appointed Assistant Prefectural Magistrate Master Sun?"

Sun Shaozong looked at him up and down a few times. He saw that the guard leader was in his early thirties. His horse-like face was full of anxiety, and his eyes were even more wandering. He didn't dare to look at himself, so he became more and more sure that there must be something strange about it.

Then he frowned and said, "The transfer order I received was to take over the position after the New Year. How can you come to me before the New Year?"

As soon as the horse-like face guard leader heard this, he knew it was the right person. Without hurrying to reply, he called two of his colleagues first. The three people lined up respectfully and said, "Greetings, Magistrate."

"Come on, don't make these insincere procedures."

Sun Shaozong waved his hand and hurriedly asked them again, "According to the Imperial edict, I haven't officially taken over the position yet. Even if there was a big case, it shouldn't be on my head."

The leader of the guard with the horse-like face smiled and said, "Master, I don't want to disturb your purity, but I have gotten orders from the Governor of the Department saying that this sudden homicide case before the New Year is unlucky. It must be solved as soon as possible so as not to make people panic. So he appointed you to take charge of this case."

As he said this, he glanced at Sun Shaozong's face and saw that he was not anxious or panicked at all, but his eyes were burning like eagles. He didn't dare to peek any longer. He hurriedly continued, "The Governor of the Department said that you have solved a great mystery case in the Kingdom of Qian Xiang in just half a day. A mere case of murder isn’t going to be hard for you. Please ensure that you close the case before New Year's Eve."

In addition to the Minister of the Prefecture of the third grade and the Prefecture Chief of the fourth grade, the next highest-ranking official in the Central Judicial Office belonged to the Governor of the Department of the fifth grade, and ”The Governor of the Department” who was in charge of the criminal litigation, was the direct superior of the Prefecture Magistrate, and naturally had the right to assign tasks to Sun Shaozong.

But it was the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month. It was less than three days before the deadline for closing the case. They couldn’t wait for Sun Shaozong to take over the position. Obviously, the other party's purpose was not to solve the case, but to take the opportunity to give Sun Shaozong a warning!

"The Governor of the Department is really good at praising people."

Sun Shaozong snorted and asked, "So, this should be a mystery case without any clue?"

The leader, who had a horse-like face, suddenly became half an inch shorter, but he didn't dare to comment, so he pretended not to hear and told the details of the case.

It was this morning that someone found a bulging sack in the alley on the West Street of Yunshui Lane. He thought he had found some treasure, but when he opened it, it turned out to be a naked man's body!

The man's body didn't even have a piece of cloth covering him. His face was scratched by sharp weapons. In addition, the nearby traces were covered by snow. There was no useful clue at all.

However, the Yamen guards had no choice but to carry out a carpet-like investigation. Sadly, due to the Chinese New Year, the families within a few miles were together, and they did not find any of the owners missing.

As a result, the case was at an impasse.

But now was the time for all to celebrate. If this case couldn’t be solved, he would inevitably be blamed from the top.

Therefore, the Governor of the Department had a plan in mind, he assigned the case to Sun Shaozong and planned to kill two birds with one stone. He not only relieved himself of his responsibility but also deflated Sun Shaozong's spirit and his ability to solve strange cases!

"What's good about seeing a man's corpse? Is there a case of a naked woman's corpse?"

Sun Shaozong was analyzing the case here, but he heard someone complaining behind him. It turned out that it was Jia Lian who had cleaned up and hurried to the front of the house.

What on earth did this dude take for a major human life case?

Sun Shaozong looked back at him reluctantly and gave him a blank look. However, he discovered that Jia Lian was accompanied by five powerful servants in addition to three regular young servants. Obviously, he wanted to see the excitement but was afraid of danger.

He was too lazy to respond to Jia Lian. Sun Shaozong asked the Yamen runner again, "Where is the body now? Is it still on the scene?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

The horse-like face leader nodded as if he were pounding garlic, "I have specially arranged for several brothers to guard there, just waiting for the master to find out the truth!"

—Dividing Line—

Yunshui Lane was located in the southeast part of the outer city. Although the location was not very good, it was much stronger than the slums in the south. Most of the people living here were from rich families or distant relatives of established rich families.

Although Jia Lian was full of interest on his way to the crime scene, he really came to the scene of the crime. Catching sight of the badly mutilated face of the corpse, his enthusiasm suddenly went off. He covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and refused to lean forward for half a step.

The scene of the crime was in a secluded alley, only half a foot wide but three or four hundred meters long and extending in all directions. Even during the day, it appeared a little dark due to the mottled walls that surrounded it on both sides.

The body was leaning against the wall in a slanting position in the middle of the alley, with a bloody face. The upper body was naked, but the lower body was curled up in a gunny bag.

According to the leader with a horse-like face, the body had already been taken out, but it was only to prevent passers-by from getting their eyes dirty that half of it was put on again.

Before Sun Shaozong came to the corpse, he carefully looked at the wound on the corpse's face and found that the vertical and horizontal gullies looked frightening, but in fact, they were not very deep. It only scratched a layer of flesh and did not hurt the skull.

According to the analysis of the amount of bleeding from the wound, it should not be the cause of death but what happened after death.

After looking at the wound on his face, he reached his hand out and touched the top of the corpse to make sure that there was no damage under his dry and split hair. Then he asked the horse-like face leader for a piece of coarse cloth to wrap evidence in, wrapped it in his hand, and pinched open the mouth of the corpse.

He found that there was some dark purple blood plasma in his mouth, and the upper and lower rows of teeth were still complete and clean, at least much better than those of people of the same age.

After checking his mouth, Sun Shaozong searched carefully and found several pinch marks under his armpits and shoulders.

Seeing that his lower body was in the sack, he ordered, "Get him out. Remember to be careful not to damage the traces on the surface of the body."

The horse-like face leader of the Yamen guard quickly waved, and several Yamen guards rushed up and took the body out of the sack.

While they were getting the corpse out, the horse-faced leader came up and smiled, "Master, there is no wound in the lower body. If I guessed right, he would have been poisoned..."

"Eh?!"

Before he finished, Sun Shaozong made a sound, grabbed the saber from his waist, squatted down, and carefully fiddled with the object between the crotch of the corpse with the scabbard. His face was full of excitement as if he had found something rare and unique.

The horse-like face leader tightened up his private part and secretly thought in his heart, Does this new Assistant Prefecture Magistrate Sun have any weird hobbies?!

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