Chapter 33: Revealing One’s Talents

Ran Yan coldly glanced at him, “Let go of me.”

Since he was young, Qin Musheng lived like a prince, everything went according to his wishes, the thing he could not bear the most was being treated unjustly, right at this moment he was just anxious to find an ally, any intention of taking advantage was secondary. Through Ran Yan’s reminder, he let go in embarrassment.

Even though Ran Yan did not give him face, but he had always had boundless tolerance and magnanimity towards beautiful women.

“Nephew[1] Qin, you said that you saw a servant, did you see her features clearly?” A middle-aged man in his forties parted the crowd, and walk in front of Qin Musheng. The facial features of the person that arrived was lean and thin, with a clean and tidy beard on his lower jaw, wearing a wide-sleeved robe, looked like quite a strong character, Ran Yan recognised that he was the head of the Yin family, Yin Wenshu.

Qin Musheng recollected briefly, shook his head and said, “I only saw the back of the person flash by, and did not see their looks.”

“Oh? Then at that moment who was together with Nephew Qin?” Yin Wenshu asked.

“After obtaining the poems the ladies sent over, we split up to search, there was no one with me.” Qin Musheng’s complexion was at one moment pale, and the next moment flushed red, he was filled with hate and resentment. He knew that he had been set up by someone.

Anyone with some brain knew clearly, that the person was not killed by Qin Musheng, but right now there was no one to serve as a witness for him, if he wanted to get free from this matter it was not that easy.

Ran Yan carefully inspected the female corpse, even though this scene seemed like it happened in that way, but in her eyes, there were flaws everywhere, without needing to examine the body she could refute the story of “Qin Musheng caused the servant to die due to lustful intentions”. The thing only was, did she need to say it out?

She was not willing to marry Qin Musheng, but now they were are already at the first step of engagement[2], if something really happened to Qin Musheng, Madam Gao definitely would find a way to prevent the Ran family from breaking the engagement, it was fine if Qin Musheng died, but if he did not die, then this terrible mess would fall on her in the end, and she would not be able to shake free of it, at that time could she not care about it?

Regarding the future, Ran Yan could not help thinking about it in excess.

Even though investigative inference had started to become prevalent in the Han dynasty, but with the passage of many dynasties, it had never been developed, and remained in a comparatively weak state, most of the coroners merely examined the body only, sometimes they were unable to determine many of the causes of death. If Qin Musheng really received the death sentence, then he would ostensibly be Ran Yan’s first man[3], on this matter, Ran Yan really rejected it.

Furthermore, as a forensic doctor who communicated with the dead and was responsible for finding out the true circumstances of death, she could not turn a blind eye to such an obvious ploy to shift the blame.

“I believe that Fourth Master Qin did not kill this person.” After thorough analysis, Ran Yan decided to speak about a portion of the suspicious points, after all she was not examining and dissecting the cadaver, it would not be seen as something horrifying.

Once Ran Yan’s clear and cold voice rang out, all the noise and chatter stop for a moment.

The crowd looked at her with complicated gazes, some were taking joy in another’s misfortune, some were pitying, some where admiring, but everyone thought that she was supporting Qin Musheng from the stance of a fiancé, almost none felt that Ran Yan really found any flaws, even Qin Musheng himself also felt that way.

“I heard that Qin Musheng had lustful intentions and caused this maidservant to take her life.” When Ran Yan was analysing the details of the case, she would discard all personal feelings, as if she did not have a single strand of humanity, “Firstly, I invite everyone to look at the scene, the corridor is extremely narrow, moreover there are decorations such as flower pots displayed here, below the steps is the lawn, the deceased’s clothing are in disorder, her appearance in a mess, bloodstains on her face, with one look you can tell that there was a violent struggle, I would like to ask, in such a small corridor, how could there be such a substantial struggle without leaving behind a single trace?”

The crowd were startled, and looked at the surroundings, sure enough, the flower pots displayed on the corridor were undamaged, even the flowers were unharmed. On the lawn beneath the steps, there were no signs of being stepped on.

“Of course, the deceased could have rushed out from within the house, and ran into the pillar, another possibility is that she was chased from outside into the courtyard, then seeing that she had no path of retreat, she took her own life.” Ran Yan parted the crowd and slowly walked towards the corpse.

Yin Wenshu was astonished by Ran Yan’s calmness, but hearing that her words contradicted themselves, he furrowed his brows and said, “Since that is the case, then why do you believe that Nephew Qin did not cause this maidservant to die?”

The whole body of this corpse lay across the corridor, only her arm lay on the steps, moreover her head extended out from the steps, and was suspended in mid-air, Ran Yan’s pupils contracted slightly, thus used her fingers to feel for the pulse at the deceased’s neck, when her hand came into contact it was freezing, the temperature of the corpse was lower than even the room temperature. It was obvious and easy to see, that this maidservant not only had died for a long time, but she probably had been placed in a cold place to prevent her body from decaying.

The noble married women and young ladies at the scene saw that Ran Yan actually extended her hand to touch the dead corpse, their hearts trembled excessively in fear, and felt a lot of revulsion.

Ran Yan straightened her body up, pointed at the bloodstain on the pillar, deliberated for a while, and said, “Because I noticed that the bloodstain on the pillar is on the lateral side, it was absolutely not created from these two directions.”

When a person loses their head out of fear, and wished for death wholeheartedly, most people would just directly bang their head onto the pillar once they saw it, would they have thought that the force of impact from this direction would not be enough to cause their death, and then proceed to choose a suitable distance and angle?

What’s more, if they crashed their head into the pillar from the two directions that Ran Yan indicated, the force of impact would be bigger. Moreover, normally when banging into a pillar, because of the force of impact, the person’s body would rebound at different degree, their head and the pillar would not be like this now, directly facing the pillar!

If they had hugged the pillar and banged their head to death, even if you do not talk about whether a weak and delicate woman would have strength to cause death by banging their head on the pillar, the body’s position was completely wrong.

As of the time of death of the corpse, Ran Yan believed that even if she did not mention it, the coroner would also be able to deduce it. The whole body of the corpse was stiff, falling straight and erect at the border between the corridor and the steps, her head and neck were stiffly hung in mid-air, extending towards the steps.

After a person dies, the first phenomenon that would appear on their corpse would not be stiffness, but it would be the relaxation of the muscles of their whole body.

If this place where the deceased was lying prone on the ground was the place that she had breathed out her last breath, then due to the face that after death her muscles would all become relaxed, the corpse’s head and neck that was hanging in mid-air over the stone steps would certainly drop onto the ground from the effect of gravity, and would not be stiffly hanging in mid-air like it was now.

That is to say, in the 10-12 hours after the maidservant’s death, she had been lying on flat ground, rigor mortis[4] had already set in her whole body, indicating that she had been dead for about 10 hours, moreover, it also showed that this was not the primary crime scene.

According to Ran Yan’s speculation, the servant had been struck from the front by someone, using a blunt device like a wooden stick to hit the middle of her head, after striking her once, it might be because the murderer’s strength was not enough, and did not kill the maidservant immediately, caused her to struggle, but because she had been struck on her head, her strength was evidently not a match for the murderer, after a bout of struggle, her head was struck once again, after that she died. Following that she was immediately transferred to a place where the ground was evenly flat and cold, and her posture was constantly maintained, after rigor mortis had set in, the corpse could not bend easily, so in a hurry, the murderer had set up such a scene that was filled with numerous flaws.

To be able to strike the maidservant from the front, it was extremely possible that it was someone that she was familiar with, who was this person?

“Seventeenth Miss!” Yan Fangfei briefly pushed at Ran Yan.

Ran Yan came to herself, the only she realised that so many people were staring at her.

Yin Wenshu coughed once and asked, “Has Seventeenth Miss Ran comprehended something?”

Ran Yan quietly glanced at Yin Wenshu, said after a pause, “No, could it be that the things that I have said, cannot count as suspicious points?”

Although Yin Wenshu was only a scholar, but he was still someone who had experienced major events, but his heart trembled from Ran Yan’s single glance, he was amazed in his heart, and could not help but take a few more looks at Ran Yan.

At this moment, the crowd had different expressions looking at Ran Yan, the women mostly with fear and disgust, whereas the men generally had a kind of mind-set of seeking novelty, normally those ladies who were either bold or gentle, sometimes even when seeing a dead bug they would shake uncontrollably, the madams and ladies presently were all distancing themselves, each of them pale-faced, solely Ran Yan was not only unafraid, even her train of thought was still very clear, she really was daring.

If Ran Yan knew their thoughts, she would probably mock them, those noble women who reside deep in their residences struggled and fought violently in their homes, they knew how to make use of every strength by their side, killing without leaving a trace, although some of the noble women had never personally seen a dead person, but who knew how many lives died in their hands. Compared to Ran Yan, who had not killed a person, but frequently had dealings with dead bodies, who actually was more daring?

In the period of time they waited, Yin Wenshu ushered the crowd to the front hall, men and women each occupied a side room.

Whereas Qin Musheng had been invited to the main hall by Yin Wenshu and a few other elders, to wait for the authorities to arrive.

The Tang dynasty was a dynasty that placed emphasis on the law, thus even those whose status was lowly like a slave, could still only be hit, and cannot be killed based on personal wishes, it was not like before in the Wei and Jin dynasties, where killing a bunch of slaves in your home was not a big matter at all.

After going through the incident that just happened, the madams and ladies were conspicuously distancing themselves from Ran Yan, there were even some that purposely maintained a fixed distance from Yan Fangfei who had befriended her, contrarily it was Qi Yuxiu who looked at them with sparkling eyes, as if she had great interest.

Ran Yan was already long used to it, in the past, when others heard that she was a forensic doctor, most of them had these two types of expressions, only the later was more than the former[5].

“Mother, I feel unwell.” Since Yin Miao-miao had seen the dead corpse, her complexion had remained deathly pale, even after recuperating for so long, her face had not a single trace of colour, instead it looked even worse.

“It’s all my fault, I had rushed there hurriedly, and did not consider all of you young ladies.” Madam Ling blamed herself, turned towards the servant beside Yin Miao-miao and said, “Help Third Miss back to rest.”

“Yes.” The servant replied and helped Yin Miao-miao up.

Madam Ling stood up and said apologetically to the crowd, “Today’s tea party, we should have taken care of each of you properly, who knew that such a tragedy would occur, spoiling everyone’s mood, I[6] represent the Yin residence in extending our apologies to everyone.”

Madam Ling curtsied according to etiquette, a few madams quickly went forward to pull her up, and consoled her softly.

Especially Ran Yan’s stepmother Madam Gao, her words were incomparably pretty and comforting to hear, causing Madam Ling’s constantly tightly knitted brows to unconsciously relax.

After a short while of being consoled slightly, Madam Ling ordered the maidservants and manservants to escort each of the madams and young ladies out. After all, regardless of whether it was serving as witness or some other thing, there were men to take responsibility, if the prefecture office wanted to ask questions, they would naturally send people to each residence.

Wan Lu still had not returned, Ran Yan could only ask a maidservant to lead her to the back garden to search for her.

The fragrance of the flowers drifted about, the hanging vines swaying like green jade, however Ran Yan did not have the inclination to appreciate it, Fourth Master Qin ran into trouble today, even though after thorough investigation, he probably would not be charged with a crime, but it was the Ran residence’s best opportunity to use it as an excuse to break off the engagement, Ran Yan had sixty to seventy percent confidence of convincing her father, but she had to quickly go over to do it.

“Seventeenth Ran, where are you going in such a hurry?” Unexpectedly, a sharp voice that was an octave high travelled over.

Ran Yan slightly furrowed her brows, turned her heard, unsurprisingly she saw Ran Meiyu in the small alley on her right, currently she did not have the time to deal with her, and started to continue walking forward.

How could Ran Meiyu be willing to let her go, with a sudden big stride, she rushed forward, and blocked Ran Yan’s way, spitting with anger she looked at Ran Yan, extending her arms out, “Return my hairpin!”

Ran Yan pursed her lips slightly, her dark eyes already containing a little anger.

Ran Meiyu’s heard secretly trembled, but thinking that Ran Yan could not do anything to her, she became bold again, stretching her hand out to pull at Ran Yan’s clothes, saying disdainfully, “You can’t have sold my hairpin, and bought this tattered thing!”

Ran Yan abruptly grabbed Ran Meiyu’s slender wrist, and jerked her forwards, another hand secretly yet quickly jabbed ruthlessly at the numbing tendon at her joint[7].

Ran Meiyu shouted in surprise, momentarily felt that her whole arm was sorely numb and powerless.

“I am telling you, for the past two years I have not suffered bullying in vain, you better watch yourself!” Ran Yan’s feather-light voice clearly rang in her ear, but Ran Meiyu felt cold seeping in through the soles of her feet.

Ran Yan pushed her towards the bushes by the side of the path, without looking at her further, she led the maidservant and continued heading towards the Banks’ roses canopy.

Ran Yan had a black belt in Taekwando, although her sports ability and her gift in medicinal skills were not equal, starting from Year Three in primary school, she only obtained her black belt after she graduated from her PhD course, and it was completely because she understood the human body like the back of her hand, and knew how to attack the weak points of the human body, then only was she able to muddle past the test with some luck, but towards Ran Meiyu this type of noble lady that lacked the strength to even truss a chicken, she had more enough strength to spare.

T/N: Sorry I know the font is a little wonky in this chapter, but I couldn’t be bothered to correct it… just too tired T_T think I’m falling sick.. I appologise for any mistakes as I didn’t really proof-read it. Let me know if you find any and I’ll try to correct them ASAP.

[1]贤侄: it’s more of an honorific used for a person of the younger generation

[2] 采纳: refers to the first step of marriage custom in china (there are 6 steps in total). this is when the male side proposes marriage to the female side by sending gifts

[3]要是秦慕生真的获罪而死，那就是她冉颜名义上第一个男人: I have no idea what they are trying to say with this sentence. Maybe that if he died, he would be considered as Ran Yan’s first husband in name?

[4] Rigor mortis: stiffening of the body after death

[5] as in more people were fascinated with her than afraid.

[6]妾: concubine / I, your servant (deprecatory self-reference for women)

[7] 关节处的麻筋上: This might refer to your ‘funny bone’ at the elbow where the ulnar nerve runs through – hitting it can cause pain/tingling and sometimes numbness. On the other hand, I found a picture (right side) that seems to show various sites of tendons which cause numbness – not sure how scientific it is though… (the picture on the left says that nerves are like electricity, if it’s path is interrupted it goes numb)