Chapter 24: Analysing the Scene

T/N: I will be referring to Master Han (the deceased young man) as Young Master Han from now on, so that you don’t confuse him with Sixth Master Han (his uncle).

When the loud voice was heard, everyone turned towards the door and looked out. Ran Yan also stopped her hands, lifted her eyes to look out of the door.

The mortuary room door was half open, the light shining through hurt her eyes, she could only see that the person was big and tall, wearing a moon-white wide-sleeved, broad-collared robe, the cuffs concealing blue brocades embroidered with silver cloud patterns.

“Sixth Brother[1].” Assistant Magistrate Han said.

That person slowly walked in, an old man carrying a box followed behind him. As he got further away from the glaring bright light coming from outside, Ran Yan could see his looks clearly, the man was about twenty six or seven years old, his features were sharply defined, his eyes deep and dark, his face fair and clear, but he did not resemble the warmth and gentleness of the Jiangnan people, his wide sleeves swayed lightly, he carried the imposing manner as steady as Mount Tai towards the front of Assistant Magistrate Han.

When he stood together with Assistant Magistrate Han, he was actually taller than his older brother by a head.

“Sixth Master[2].” The old lady saw that he came, excitedly went to greet him, her voice carrying thick grief and trust, “It’s good that you’re back, it’s good that you’re back! Little Shan died unjustly, if it really was Fourth Master Qin that committed murder, you must give him justice!”

Sixth Master Han patted the old lady’s back placating, and said, “Mother, don’t worry, the reason your son came here this time is because of this matter.”

Once Sixth Master Han finished speaking, his gaze rested on Ran Yan, his expression a little confused, but only for a moment before his expression went back to normal, as if there were never any disturbances in his emotions, he indifferently asked, “Where did you find this coroner? She’s actually a young lady?”

From the Han Dynasty onwards, using autopsies as a method to judge cases started to be popularised, the role of a coroner in this is self-evident, but coroners were always rabbles[3], usually they were lower class citizens[4] or slaves, other than performing autopsies, coroners also dealt with collecting corpses to bury, since ancient times there were very little women coroners, let alone such a young girl like Ran Yan.

Assistant Magistrate Han saw that Sang Chen’s complexion was deathly pale, his gaze vacuous, thus replied in his stead, “This is the traveling coroner that Mr Sang invited.”

“Oh.” Sixth Master Han indifferently replied, turned to give an introduction, saying, “This is Suzhou’s famous coroner, Feng Sanxun, in his thirty plus years of performing autopsies he has never made a mistake.”

In an instant, the atmosphere was somewhat awkward, Sang Chen was someone that Assistant Magistrate Han pleaded and begged before he agreed to help write the plaint, while this Feng Sanxun was also a golden signboard, after Sixth Master Han knew that his nephew was murdered, he specially invited him to help. But presently Sang Chen’s mind was completely blank, how could he say any polite platitudes[5].

It was only silent for two breaths, but it felt like it was a lot longer.

Assistant Magistrate Han lightly coughed to break the silence, saying, “Since this is the case, why don’t we let both individuals separately examine once, to guarantee no mistakes. Mr Feng, what do you think?”

In this time, most people would only use the honorific “Mister” to address those who are of good moral standing and reputation or knowledgeable people who are worthy teachers, coroners were lower class people, Assistant Magistrate Han’s words, gave enough respect to Feng Sanxun, and also preserved Sang Chen’s face.

It can be said thus, but who would examine first is also a problem.

“Mr Feng is the senior, let’s allow this young woman to examine first, Mr Feng will supervise from the side, if the young woman cannot produce any results, or Mr Feng has any doubts about the results, then they can examine all over again, how is that?” Sixth Master Han said in a low voice. She did not know what was his reasoning, he actually allowed Ran Yan to examine the cadaver.

Everyone in the Han family accepted this suggestion, as it was a double guarantee, they were more concerned with the result, towards the process they did not care as much.

“Mr Feng, what do you think?” Sixth Master Han asked.

Feng Sanxun hung his head down, serenely said, “That sounds good, I [6] have no objections.”

Even if he said that, but when Feng Sanxun’s gaze subtly drifted across Ran Yan, it carried clear contempt.

Even though everyone noticed it, but they did not feel that there was anything wrong with it, after all, a young little lady, an old coroner who had not made any mistakes in over thirty years of performing autopsies, who was more trustworthy, anyone would probably biasedly trust the later.

“Little lady, please go ahead first!” Sixth Master Han looked at Ran Yan, his face carried traces of curiosity and rumination.

Ran Yan was standing exactly in the shadow of the draperies, and she was also wearing a facemask, so no one could see her expression clearly.

When Sixth Master Han finished saying his words, Ran Yan slightly straightened her sleeves, pulled up her gloves to bind her sleeves, approached the coffin, then started to untie Han Shan’s clothing with lighting fast speed.

Sixth Master Han and Assistant Magistrate Han approached the coffin to observe the process, firstly to ensure the trustworthiness of the process, secondly to be able to prevent the coroner from defiling Han Shan’s remains.

Ran Yan with lightning fast speed took off every single stitch of Han Shan’s clothes, the two men watching felt a little awkward, Sixth Master Han glanced at Ran Yan, saw that her expression was undisturbed, as if the naked man in front of her was like a block of wood.

However, with Han Shan’s current appearance, it was difficult to incite any other intentions.

Ran Yan said with an even voice, “Mr Sang, please record.”

Although her voice was not loud, but there was a sort of coldly oppressive feeling, this type of gravity, even though Sang Chen’s mind was completely blank, he involuntarily obeyed, quickly took out brush and ink from the box at his side, flipped open the book, and prepared to record.

Ran Yan glimpsed his actions at the corner of his eyes, thought in her heart that he was not too terrified, thus started saying, “The deceased is twenty years old, male, height seven feet and three inches[7].”

Sixth Master Han looked at Ran Yan in surprise, because Han Shan was born at the end of the year, and was born after 8 months, was a premature birth, the Han family afraid that outsides would gossip, overstated his age by 2 months to outsiders, which puts his birth just past the new year[8], everyone in Suzhou city knew that Han Shan was twenty-one this year, but he did not imagine that Ran Yan would be able to determine his real age!

“The medial[9] side of the right thigh is swollen, bruising resembling those beaten by a fist, his fingernails are black, the pores on his body faintly bled, his abdomen is bloated, there is a little blood that bled out from his lower body[10], judging from that it is poison from a fruit or metal and stone medication. Besides that, his upper left arm has scars in the form of scratch marks, the posterior side of his right neck has a three-inch wound, the skin and flesh are turned outwards, the incision neat, but it did not harm the Jing meridian[11] or his bones, there is bruising on his left cheek, resembling wounds from being punched with a fist, there is a wide expanse of bruising at the upper abdomen, he has two broken ribs on his right side, at this moment I cannot determine if it injured his internal organs…” After Ran Yan skilfully examined each and every one of the wounds on the cadaver, she glimpsed out of the corner of her eyes that Sang Chen was already pale beyond the norm, almost to the point of vomiting, crouched beside the toolbox and clutching at the record with trembling hands.

Feng Sanxun was a little surprised, after all Ran Yan looked so young, but her examination was even more detailed than an old hand with decades of experience.

The truth of the matter was that, although Ran Yan did not have decades of experience in performing autopsies, but the forensic system in the future was perfect, moreover Ran Yan had a wide reputation, so the cadavers she had examined, might be even more than those undertaken by a coroner in thirty to forty years during ancient times.

Although the remaining people had not seen the state of the corpse, they were able to understand in detail, that middle-aged lady hearing about those wounds, had already cried till she passed out, the old lady’s condition was a little better, but her cheeks were also streaming with tears, her body faintly shaking.

Ran Yan continued to examine the cadaver, not letting even a small aspect escape her scrutiny, when she looked at the lower body, she reached out to flip over Han Shan’s penis.

Sixth Master Han and Assistant Magistrate Han were temporarily dumbstruck, stared directly at Ran Yan, a young little lady, actually did not have any shyness in looking at that place on a man, this, is this even a woman!

Ran Yan paused for a while, and continued, “The reproductive organ of deceased has syphilis ulceration in two places.”

After her examination was complete, Ran Yan straighten her body, faced the two men who had awkward expressions, concluded, “The deceased probably frequents prostitutes, when he was alive he had a sexually transmitted disease in the initial stages. Moreover, there is no doubt that the symptoms are caused by poison when he was alive, eliminating the possibility that poisoned was delivered in his mouth after death, you can focus your investigations on whether Young Master Han had eaten any poisonous fruit or metal or stone poison, the wounds on his body is not sufficient to cause death, but there is one suspicious point, it is the two broken ribs, they are close to the spleen, if the broken ribs pierced the spleen[12] it is also enough to cause death, but…”

Ran Yan reached out to stroke the surface of the broken ribs, “According to my judgement, this two ribs may be broken, but they’re not severely deformed, it should not harm the spleen, if the two of you want to confirm it, I can progress to dissection to investigate.”

After saying that, Ran Yan saw that Sixth Master Han and Assistant Magistrate Han did not snap back to reality after a long time, thus did not continue to ask further, and just turned around to take out the Cangzhu and Chinese honey locust from the medicine box and set it alight on the ground, used it to disinfect, after a short while, the heavy medicinal fragrance gradually dispersed.

It was still Sixth Master Han who reacted first, overflowing with interest he looked at Ran Yan, before turning towards Feng Sanxun to ask, “Mr Feng, what do you think?”

Feng Sanxun also just managed to calm his surprised expression, cupped his hands together and said, “The little lady’s examination was extremely careful, is not inferior in any aspect to mine, the only thing is I have something I am unclear of.”

Feng Sanxun was a humble person, seeing that Ran Yan really had genuine talent and excellent skills, immediately got rid of his disdain.

“Mr Feng, please speak.” Ran Yan said.

Feng Sanxun said, “I don’t know how did Miss determine what type of poison did Young Master Han ingest?”

The present coroners, majority of them were only able to determine if the person died from poisoning, at the most they would be able to differentiate white arsenic poisoning from the rest, other poisons were extremely difficult to differentiate.

Ran Yan went back to the coffin, slightly spread open Han Shan’s thighs, pointed at the swelling at medial aspect of the big thigh and said, “Eating poisonous fruit, metal and stone poisons, the most notable trait is, the pores would bleed slightly, one or two lesions that resemble wounds that were caused by a fist would appear on the corpse. Everyone have a look, the blunt force wounds on Young Master Han’s face and chest have already started to bruise, but this one here is not the same.”

She was able to determine just from this point? Ran Yan saw that the three people in front of the coffin had doubtful expressions, continued her analysis saying, “According to the distribution of wounds on Young Master Han’s body, it can be determined, Young Master Han was not wearing any clothes at the time, Fourth Master Qin rushed into the room, first reached out to grab at Young Master Han, the force he used was not small, that why marks were left on the arm.”

“Immediately following that, Fourth Master Qin used his fists to beat Young Master Han’s face and chest, Young Master Han retaliated, but his strength was no match for him, was pushed down on the ground by Fourth Master Qin’s elbow, that’s why his upper abdomen has a large patch of bruising. I estimate that the poison started acting on Young Master Han at this time.”

“When the two were fighting, they could have accidentally smashed a porcelain piece, when Young Master Han fell to the ground, his neck was accidentally cut by the shards, thus causing a large amount of blood to flow. But this extent of wound, if the bleeding is stopped in time it would not be fatal.”

Ran Yan looked at the dumbstruck Fan Sanxun and said, “During the process, there is very little opportunity for Fourth Master Qin to injure Young Master Han’s thigh, additionally, the wound’s appearance differs from the rest of his punch wounds, therefore I judged that this was a reaction from poison.”

Everyone at the scene startled to a halt by Ran Yan’s immersive analysis, especially Sixth Master Han and Assistant Magistrate Han, they have both seen Fourth Master Qin’s oral confession, it was actually exactly the same as Ran Yan’s analysis!

From the wounds she was able to analyse the situation that happened, as if she personally witnessed it, this kind of ability, not even Feng Sanxun was unable to do, probably not one coroner in the Tang Dynasty would be able to do it.

“How did you know he did not wear clothes at that time?” Sixth Master Han stared directly at Ran Yan, his deep gaze asserting pressure.

“According to common sense, when a normal person beats another person, subconsciously they would grab hold of their lapels, moreover grabbing hold of lapels is more convenient than grabbing their arm, the bruising on Young Master Han’s arm was very deep, this means that, Fourth Master Qin from beginning to end only grabbed hold of his arm, until he pushed him to the ground. Furthermore, even though Young Master Han is wearing clothes now, but there is a lot of dust stuck to his back, if he was wearing clothes at that time, that would not be possible.”

——————————————————————

Author’s Note:
These type of processes such as autopsies, don’t know if everyone like to see, if you have an opinion or suggestion, please leave a message to tell Xiuzi (the author), to help Xiuzi determine the future direction of the story.

On other matters, seeing that Xiuzi’s word count is increasing, shouldn’t Xiuzi be rewarded, give some tickets or something.

_____________________________

T/N: Oh wow, thank you everyone for your lovely comments! I’m glad you’re enjoying this novel just as I am 🙂 I’m still new at this, and so my translations will be slow going, and possibily ridden with mistakes, so please bear with me >.<
tbh honest i’m a little stressed out now cause i didnt mean for many people to be reading this, cause i can’t really commit to regular updates im really sorry! but i’ll do my best!

As I don’t read ahead of my translations, there might be things I have to revise in hindsight, like how I had to change Master Han to Young Master Han.

[1]六弟: specifically, it’s his younger brother who is the 6th son in the family.

[2]郎: actually means young man. But 6th young man sounds weird, so I used Master instead even though it might also sound weird cause the old lady is calling her own son so formally. Any suggestions? If I just use the word “Sixth” would that be better or confusing?

[3] 贱籍: people who do not belong to the farmer or merchant class, usually restricted to specific clans. They cannot study to take the imperial examination and cannot become officials

[4] 贱民: those of a social stratum below ordinary people

[5] 客套话: conventional greeting / polite formula

[6] 老朽: he self-depreciatingly refers to himself as an old senile person.

[7] 七尺三寸: 7 Chinese feet (chi) and 3 Chinese inches (chun): about 2.21m

[8] Traditionally Chinese people don’t celebrate birthdays, your age increases by a year during the new year. So if your birthday falls after the new year you’re seen as a year younger than those whose birthday falls before the new year. (I’m not sure why Han Shan is said to be 20 when he should actually be 22 if he was born before the new year.)

[9] inner aspect (antonym: lateral)

[10] could also be a euphemism for genitals

[11] 经脉: important for blood circulation

[12] the broken ribs are on the right, but the spleen is actually located on the left side of the body… let’s just pretend the broken ribs are on the left.