Chapter 23: A Fool or Disguising as a Pig to Eat the Tiger?

After sending off Sang Chen, Ran Yan began to prepare the implements she needed tomorrow to examine the cadaver.

Cangzhu[1], Chinese honey locust[2], thick vinegar, knife, needle and thread, gloves, face mask… in the past when she performed autopsies, she had been in situations even more difficult than now, away from those convenient tools, Ran Yan still was able to adapt to it, therefore towards this situation, she did not take it to heart, and did not plan to meddle in other people’s business, it’s fine just to inform Sang Chen of the autopsy results so that he can write the plaint.

The next day, Ran Yan brought Wan Lu with her, after meeting Sang Chen in the east city, she sent Wan Lu to look for a store that could make the needle, whereas she went herself with Sang Chen to the prefecture office’s mortuary.

The prefecture’s government office’s mortuary was actually not in the government office itself, but was separately built in a more remote area as a place to specially store cadavers, similar to a cemetery[3].

Ran Yan specially wore clothes made from hemp, dressed up like a man, after wearing the muslin veil she looked a little out of place.

Compared to Ran Yan’s calmness, Sang Chen was not calm at all, and walked in circles near the mortuary, his hands and legs could not stop shaking, even the expression on his face started to become stiff.

They temporarily stopped at a blind alley, Ran Yan sat on top of a pile of bamboo poles, parted her black muslin veil and saw Sang Chen’s appearance, coldly said, “If you’re afraid, why would you want to look for evidence, isn’t it fine to just carelessly write a plaint for show?”

Sang Chen made effort to school his rigid expression, turned and fixed his gaze on Ran Yan, saying, “How can Miss say that, since they asked me for help, I definitely will do it to the best of my ability, even if I cannot catch the murderer, I still have to list out all of the suspicious points, in order for the authorities to investigate clearly.”

“Do you think Qin Musheng is the murderer?” Ran Yan quite interestedly looked at Sang Chen who was trembling while spouting righteous words, raised her brow and asked.

“This… it was said that Qin Musheng beat Master Han till he bled all over the floor, but the coroner found that Master Han was poisoned, I just feel that the time the poison acted was too coincidental, if no one was trying to frame Qin Musheng, then even though Master Han was poisoned it was not fatal, and it was Qin Musheng that beat him to death, no matter which is the truth, Master Han died unjustly.” When Sang Chen talked about his suspicions, the shaking in his legs actually started to slow down, his focused appearance, made his originally outstanding good looks seem even more attractive.

Ran Yan stared blankly, this Sang Chen, there was not a shadow of ‘dumbness’ to be found!

Sang Chen paused for a while before saying, “When Miss examines the cadaver, it’s best if you can discover if Master Han died from the poison or from being beaten, then when I write the plaint, it will be convincing. However, I hope it was not Fourth Master Qin who killed him, otherwise… Ai!”

If it really was Qin Musheng who beat someone to death, then with the Qin clan’s power, if the Han family wishes for Qin Musheng to be convicted and sent to prison, it really would be very difficult.

Ran Yan recalled her few meetings with Sang Chen, the first time he seemed foolish and dumb, the second time the situation of being drunk with the fragrance of flowers made one bristle with anger[4], the third time was at the primary school, those pure and limpid eyes, as well as his appearance when engrossed in reading to the point where he was unaware of his surroundings, looked like a bookworm who had read till he became dull, no matter which situation it was, it would not give someone cause to imagine that he would have such a side to him: solemn and deeply versed in worldly affairs.

“Miss?” Sang Chen seeing that Ran Yan did not speak for a long while, could not help but voice out to call her attention.

“Relax.” Ran Yan calmly replied with a word, turned and asked, “When can we do the autopsy?”

After Sang Chen said that string of words, the nervousness in his heart was very much relieved, he stuck his head out to look out of the alley before saying, “Wait a little longer, I have an agreement with the Han family, when examining the cadaver, they want to be there.”

Ran Yan expression darkened, with a cold voice said, “You did not tell me yesterday that the Han family wanted to watch it!”

“This… the Han family is eager to take revenge, when the time comes Miss can just cover your face, they should not mind it.” Sang Chen said naively.

They won’t mind? Even this job as a coroner was not common now, if someone suddenly met a female coroner, who would not be surprised!

Ran Yan coldly glared at him, her fingers hidden in her sleeves slightly moved, right now she, unbearably wanted to dissect this dumb fool! Sometimes he was foolish to the point where when someone sells him[5] he would still count the money, sometimes he was not just normal but also extremely astute, Ran Yan wanted to dissect him to see whether the composition this person’s brain was different from normal people.

“How is your progress with the ceramic I wanted?” If Sang Chen said he did not do it, Ran Yan would definitely fling her sleeves and leave immediately.

The prototype[6] is already finished, it’s being dried now, the weather has been sunny these past few days, I estimate that it can be glazed and fired early tomorrow morning, by Zi time[7] it should be completely cooled off.” Sang Chen said it with certainty, as if what he said was a fact.

Ran Yan knew, that confidence came from being a specialist in this field, everything was within his control as if handling a butcher’s cleaver with ease[8]. Even though she did not anticipate this, Ran Yan was very satisfied with this outcome.

“They’re here.” Sang Chen withdrew his head, his whole person suddenly became anxious again, quickly strode towards Ran Yan, his complexion a little pale, and said apologetically to Ran Yan, “Allowing Miss, a woman, to face a corpse, I… I really feel guilty and not at ease.

“Firing after the horse[9].” Ran Yan yet again found another character flaw of Sang Chen’s that made one bristle in anger, coldly threw down those words, picked up the box beside her and got up, saying, “Let’s go.”

“Yes, yes.” Sang Chen nodded, bravely swallowed his saliva, followed Ran Yan out of the blind alley.

There were actually four horse carriages outside the mortuary! Ran Yan slightly paused her steps, even though her manner of dress now did not conform to one gender, but if one is attentive, they still can determine her gender, looking at the ten or more people slowly descending from the four carriages, Ran Yan wished she could abandon Sang Chen’s corpse after killing him, her voice faintly resembled an icy cold pool, “You never told me, there would be so many people!”

Under the intense summer sun, a bead of cold sweat unexpectedly appeared on Sang Chen’s forehead, his handsome face went red, weakly said, “I did not know there would be so many people either.”

Ran Yan turned her head to glare fiercely at him, she deeply felt that she had boarded a pirate ship[10], this person – Sang Chen, was really could not be judged using common sense.

“I am the one who is a poor judge of people, I will lie in the bed I made! You just wait!” Ran Yan said with gritted teeth, her voice lowered, as if bringing a chill wind, making the shaking of Sang Chen’s hands and legs even worse.

“Mr Sang!” Among the crowd that exited the Han family’s carriages, a slightly plump middle-aged man in luxurious clothing caught sight of Sang Chen, quickly came up to greet him earnestly.

“Assistant County Magistrate Han!” Sang Chen immediately cupped his hands in greeting.

Ran Yan heard the form of address Sang Chen used and could not help but look repeatedly at Assistant County Magistrate Han, Jin Ling County’s Assistant Magistrate, the father of the dead victim, wearing a deep green, unembroidered official’s robe, his beard only 3-4 inches[11] long, neatly trimmed, just that the slightly plump face was faintly exhausted and wan, he had the gentle temperament unique to the Jiangnan people.

Assistant County Magistrate Han’s gaze indistinctly swept across Ran Yan’s body, saw that Sang Chen did not have the intension to introduce her, thus did not inquire further, and only said, “My son’s matter this time, I have to trouble Mr Sang.”

“I would not dare, Master Han and I are schoolmates, when such a situation happened, how can I just watch with folded arms.” Sang Chen responded appropriately, walked together with Assistant Magistrate Han to the mortuary.

There were two women among the ten luxuriously dressed people, one was under fifty, the other was about thirty or over. The group of people followed behind Assistant Magistrate Han and Sang Chen, that old lady assessed Ran Yan for a while before following behind them while being supported by the middle-aged lady’s arm. Ran Yan silently carried her box and followed behind.

The mortuary was built in the western outskirts, a distance away from the business district, there was not much foot traffic, therefore even with such a large group, there was no need to worry about causing a commotion.

Just as they stepped into the mortuary, a gust of cold wind blew into their faces, carrying the faint smell of decaying corpses, on a summer day, unexpectedly made people feel cold starting from the soles of their feet.

The mortuary’s bailiffs all looked half-dead, lifted his head to just glance at Assistant Magistrate Han once, opened his mouth to say, “Assistant Magistrate Han, please follow me.”

“Many thanks.” Assistant Magistrate Han’s voice trembled faintly.

A white-haired person sending off a black-haired person, Ran Yan could understand, but from the back she saw Sang Chen’s shaking legs, she did not know why, but her mood suddenly felt better.

The bailiff dug out keys to open the room door, “Assistant Magistrate Han, please enter.”

Assistant Magistrate Han turned and rushed towards the old lady saying, “Mother, please wait outside.”

“No, I want to see Little Shan.” The old lady said with a heavy voice, and was actually the first one to enter the mortuary room.

The others could only silently follow her in, Sang Chen’s complexion went white, but he still looked worriedly at Ran Yan, quietly asked, “You, aren’t you scared?”

“I am scared.” Ran Yan parted her veil, said with an even voice, “It is summer now, I’m afraid that there would be livor mortis[12] throughout the corpse’s body, his appearance changed beyond recognition, that appearance, can be compared to an evil ghost, moreover, can you smell it now? It has begun to smell rotten already.”

Ran Yan seeing that Sang Chen’s handsome face drained of colour, faintly curled up the corners of her lips, now her heart felt comfortable, “You’re the one who requested the autopsy, you’re not planning to remain outside right?”

Within the room, the quiet sobbing of the lady drifted out, Sang Chen tightly pursed his lips, his heart waged battle with man and heaven for a long time but still could not come to a decision.

“Mr Sang, the autopsy can be done now.” Assistant Magistrate Han’s voice travelled from within the room.

When Sang Chen heard the voice, he was so startled he almost fell. Tightly gripping the door frame to support himself, he pulled out a smile that was even uglier than a crying face, said to Ran Yan, “Let’s, let’s go.”

Stepping into the mortuary room, a gust of even colder odour blew into their faces, it did not have a rotting smell, but in a place where corpses are displayed, the odour would always be permeated by the scent of death. The gloomy room was lit by candles, the whole room only contained a single coffin, the windows were stopped up by thick felt, ice basins were placed in all four corners of the room, to slow down the decay of summer corpses.

Sang Chen gritted his teeth, lowered his head and entered, thinking in his heart that since the body is in the coffin, he can just not approach it to look.

Ran Yan followed Sang Chen and walked to the front of the coffin, she placed down the box in her hands, took out the facemask and gloves sewed by Wan Lu last night, and wore them.

In the room, the light was too dim, naturally she could not continue wearing the veil. After Ran Yan wore the mask, she took down her veil.

A head of beautiful hair like a waterfall was revealed, the eyes of the Han family all widened briefly, that delicate body and appearance, her exquisite figure, she was clearly a little woman!

As if unaware of the group’s astonishment, lifted open the cloth covering the corpse, as she was wearing the gloves, she observed the state of the corpse.

Ran Yan took out a blank book and threw it to Sang Chen, flatly said, “Trouble Mr Sang to record for me.”

Sang Chen opened the book with shaking hands, his mind was blank, he did not know what he needed to record, he would just do whatever Ran Yan ordered him to do.

However, just as Ran Yan’s hands reached into the coffin and prepared to examine the cadaver, she heard someone from outside the room say loudly, “Wait!”

T/N: ah really sorry I know I said I would post regularly but I was so busy with exams that I completely forgot about it! And whatever free time I had I spent voting for BTS (kpop boy group) on Billboard awards (they won btw!!!!!) hahah >.< sorry!

[1]苍术: black atractylodes rhizome (herb used in Chinese traditional medicine) link to wikipedia article mainly used for digestive problems so I’m not sure why she needs it to perform an autopsy (might be to boost the immune system through strengthening the spleen?)

[2]皂角 (zào jiá): Gleditsia sinensis (herb used in traditional Chinese medicine) link to wikipedia article it has antibacterial properties and has been used as a detergent in China so I guess she might use this as soap/disinfectant?

[3] 义庄: one of the translations on Google Translate is “cemetery” but I can’t find it on the Chinese dictionary I use. Instead the dictionary and Baidu says it refers to a practice in ancient China where lands/estates were bought and rented out and the proceeds used to support clan members. But that doesn’t make sense here, so I used Google’s translation instead.

[4]第二次陶醉于花香的情形又令人发指: I’m not sure what the author meant to say. It refers to the time in Chapter 9 when she met him while he was smelling a peony, but I’m not sure why she associates that memory with anger? I don’t think she was actually angry that he dug up a wild flower from her flower beds.

[5] Euphemism for being betrayed

[6] 胚: literally means embryo.

[7] 子时: 11pm-1am

[8] 游刃有余: (idom) to do sth skillfully and easily

[9]马后炮: belated action/effort, giving advice in hindsight

[10] 贼船: (figuratively) venture of dubious merit / criminal gang / reactionary faction

[11] 寸: cun – traditional Chinese unit of length (width of thumb at knuckle). Currently standardised to ~1.3 inches (~3.33cm)

[12] 尸斑: hypostasis – discolouration of skin due to pooling of blood following death