Concubine Lin dismissed all the palace maids and only kept the maid who grew up with her and came into the palace as a dowry to help pour some tea.
She asked, "Does Lord Li have any ideas?"
Li Qingcha put his right hand between his lips as if thinking.
"Rather than a train of thought, it's more like... um... a guess? Well... it doesn't seem quite right to call it a guess. Let's start with the cause of death of that corpse."
The Seventh Prince was stunned.
"Can you really tell the cause of death from the bones? Are you serious?"
Concubine Lin glared at the Seventh Prince fiercely, then turned to Li Qingcha with a friendly expression.
"Please enlighten me, Lord Li."
Li Qingcha smiled,
"Although I can't compare to a coroner, I live in the Imperial Observatory, where there are many doctors. Shouldn't I ask?"
This is for the Seventh Prince to hear.
The Seventh Prince showed an expression that said "I knew it".
Seeing them like this, Concubine Lin felt relieved.
Perhaps what Huang'er said was right. The two of them really had a brotherly relationship of covering up for each other, and this relationship was very strong.
She coughed lightly, signaling Li Qingcha to get back to the topic.
Li Qingcha was slightly embarrassed.
"I asked Senior Brother Xu... um... that is, the chief disciple of the Supervisor, Xu Weishen. He thought that the most likely cause of death was excessive blood loss. To be more precise, his own ribs pierced his heart and lungs, causing excessive blood loss."
This judgment is very rigorous in its style of scholarship.
For example, if someone is chopped, the forensic doctor will say that there are XX wounds on the body and the direct cause of death is hemorrhagic shock. However, out of simple cognition, ordinary people are more likely to accept two simple words:
Hacked.
The Seventh Prince scratched his head.
"I don't quite understand what you mean, 'being stabbed in the heart and lungs by one's own ribs'? That's too difficult a move..."
Li Qingcha also thought so before.
However, Xu Weishen gave her many examples, using facts to prove that a variety of traumas could cause this situation.
Moreover, in the palace...
"It's possible that he was beaten to death."
Li Qingcha turned to Concubine Lin.
Concubine Lin looked a little unhappy as if she had thought of something.
She nodded slowly.
"I have heard that when a minister is caned in court, he is wrapped in a thick layer of white cloth, like a dumpling, and then the buttocks with the most flesh are spanked. Is this true?"
Li Qingcha and the Seventh Prince looked at each other and said nothing.
Since Concubine Lin has already spoken, there is no need for the two to urge her any further, otherwise it will easily backfire.
I saw Concubine Lin closed her eyes.
"Yes, it's less likely that someone will die this way."
She turned to Li Qingcha,
"Master Li, do you know how the execution is carried out in the palace? They tie people to a bench and beat them with a stick. After the beating, they throw them aside. Whether they can survive depends on God's will."
Concubine Lin looked extremely distressed.
Seeing her like this, Li Qingcha couldn't help but sigh.
No wonder when I first met the Seventh Prince, he seemed like a dandy boy, stupid... ahem... pure as a blank sheet of paper.
It turns out that his mother is just like this, "not of this world".
Like mother like son.
In fact, it is not uncommon for people to be beaten to death or disabled by sticking in court. Applying hidden force to the joints between the pelvis and the leg bones, and tying a few layers of white cloth outside, is useless.
Therefore, it has nothing to do with the harem or the outer court, the key is still the person who carries out the punishment.
Li Qingcha asked Concubine Lin: "Madam, where do you think the corpse might have come from?"
Concubine Lin shook her head.
"Does Lord Li have any hints?"
"First, I think he is most likely not a eunuch, that is, a man from outside the palace. Second, he disappeared more than four years ago. These two points should narrow down the scope a lot."
"Well……"
Concubine Lin fell into deep thought.
For a long time, she still had a puzzled expression.
"A man entering the palace but not leaving... this possibility is too low. You know, the harem is a restricted area and ordinary people are not allowed to enter at will. Not to mention the imperial city, even the backyards of ordinary noble families are unlikely to have such a situation."
Li Qingcha thought about it and added,
"Another point is that although the corpse belongs to a man, it shows some female characteristics. The angle of the pubic bone is very strange. It is narrow at the top and slightly wider at the bottom, and even one leg is higher than the other. Xu Weishen and I both think that this means that the deceased had a very special job before his death, which required the asymmetrical use of his legs, such as a medicine pounder in a pharmacy, or he needed to stretch his legs for a long time, such as a martial artist who failed to enter the rank, a martial artist in a theater troupe, or else..."
The voice has not fallen,
"and many more!"
Concubine Lin interrupted Li Qingcha,
"Master Li mentioned the opera troupe just now?"
"Correct."
"I may know what's going on. It's the Xun family."
The Seventh Prince also showed an expression of sudden enlightenment.
"Mother, I also remember that the servant who sang opera and couldn't distinguish between the sharp and round tones read 'qing' as 'qing' and 'qian' as 'qian'. As a result, he violated a taboo and was punished by the empress dowager... um..."
The Seventh Prince shut up.
Li Qingcha listened carefully from the side.
No wonder the emperor called a halt.
It turns out that if we continue investigating like this, we will eventually find the person behind his mother's case.
The troupe entered the palace only during the Chinese New Year, when the entire imperial city was decorated with lanterns and people from all over the world were reunited with their families. The empress dowager killed someone at that moment, which was totally inconsistent with her image as the mother of the country.
The person who framed her was indeed quite clever, as he actually used the Queen Mother's mistake as a shield.
Li Qingcha also knew that this topic could not be discussed in depth.
She pretended to be confused.
"'Qing' is pronounced as 'Qing' and 'Qian' is pronounced as 'Qian'. Is there any problem with this? Aren't the pronunciations the same?"
Concubine Lin laughed.
"Master Li is good at writing lyrics but doesn't understand opera?"
"Please enlighten me, Madam."
"The so-called 'inability to distinguish between sharp and round tones' refers to the problem of round tones and sharp tones. It is not obvious in normal speech, but it can be heard when singing opera. In the north, round tones are more common, and sharp tones are less common. Once they become a habit, people may not realize it."
Concubine Lin didn't believe that Li Qingcha really didn't know, and thought she was trying to avoid the topic from the Queen Mother.
Li Qingcha also had this intention.
Both sides deliberately avoided the topic and never talked about the White Bone Case again.
Chapter 412: Some things we may never get answers to
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Li Qingcha left Zhongcui Palace after not staying there for long.
She went straight to the Meridian Palace,
The palace maids were all familiar with her and said Sirou had not come back yet, so they asked her to wait in the palace.
As a result, it was already noon when we waited.
Sirou entered the room and found Li Qingcha there, so she ordered someone to bring lunch for two people and dismissed everyone.
They ate and talked.
Li Qingcha briefly explained his speculation and the information he had learned from Concubine Lin.
After hearing this, Her Royal Highness the Princess seemed to have no appetite.
She took a few bites and then put down her chopsticks.
"Empress Dowager... Speaking of which, almost everyone in the palace knows about the Xun Clan incident, but no one thinks it's the Empress Dowager herself. The person who framed her has managed to escape unscathed."
"..."
"..."
The two were silent.
Suddenly, Sirou spoke expressionlessly,
"Chen Wujiu is dead."
Li Qingcha: ???
I didn’t expect the first one to be such explosive news.
Although it was expected that Chen Wujiu would be silenced, it was indeed somewhat unexpected that he died so quickly.
She asked, "How did he die?"
Sirou bit her lip.
"After being detained, Chen Wujiu kept muttering to himself that he felt ashamed of the emperor's cultivation and the ancestors of the Chen family. Suddenly, he slammed into the pillar."
"Tsk..."
"It is said that the back of his head was smashed into pieces, and he died in a single scene."
It was the back of the head that was broken when it hit the pillar?
This is exactly the same as being shot dozens of times in the back but ruling out homicide.
The emperor was straightforward and didn't even bother to pretend.
Si Rou said, "When I first heard about Chen Wujiu's suicide, I felt strange and didn't understand why he didn't reveal the mastermind behind it. But after listening to you about the Xun Clan, I knew the reason. At that time, it was Chen Wujiu who helped to deal with the body. This time, someone must have falsely conveyed the Queen Mother's order and asked Chen Wujiu to help cover it up. He didn't think much about it, and ended up being used as a pawn."
This speculation is very reasonable.
Most people wouldn't think that helping the Queen Mother would bring trouble.
Li Qingcha glanced at Sirou and saw that she looked distracted, so he asked, "Is there any other news?"
Sirou said "hmm" lightly.
She couldn't help but sigh.
"Will all these political schemes end up like this? Will the Emperor also..."
This sentence has no beginning or end.
But Li Qingcha could understand.
She didn't know how to comfort him, so she could only walk around the table and hug him from behind.
"Don't worry, I will protect you."
This hug made Sirou feel much better.
Call ~
