BLHO Chapter 23
by VolareChapter 23: Autopsy
“Naturally, it’s against the rules,” Li Yuliang said respectfully.
Withered branches in the courtyard swayed with the wind. He glared at Shen Tan with displeasure. “Without an investigation, how can you arbitrarily pronounce a sentence? Why don’t you apologize to General He?”
Shen Tan bit her lip, not saying a word.
Li Yuliang instructed, “First, take the princess’s body back to the Northern Garrison for examination.”
After speaking, he looked at He Yuncheng again. “General He, the princess met with misfortune in the General’s Manor. In any case, the general must cooperate with the investigation. The He family is a meritorious family, so naturally the Northern Garrison is not qualified to interrogate you. However, we must give an explanation to the Empress Dowager. Please come with me to the palace and ask the Empress Dowager to personally hear this case. In this way, can you both put down your concerns?”
No one spoke. Li Yuliang waited for a moment, then bowed and raised his hand. “General He, please.”
His audacity in invoking the Empress Dowager meant that he had already laid the groundwork in the palace. Once before the Empress Dowager, He Yuncheng would likely find himself unable to defend himself.
But there was no choice at present. The incident had already occurred, and the problem had to be resolved. The Empress Dowager would have to be faced sooner or later, so he could only take it one step at a time.
–
As dawn broke, the inner palace of the Imperial Palace was deathly still. Crows flew past the withered branches, occasionally letting out a mournful cry or two.
He Yuncheng followed Li Yuliang into the palace, arriving outside the Cishou Palace, the residence of the Empress Dowager.
“Please ask the general to kneel and wait here. After the coroner from the Northern Garrison has examined the princess’s body, the Empress Dowager will naturally summon the general for an audience.”
Li Yuliang held real power and never placed court officials in his eyes. Although he had the appearance of a servant, he was accustomed to the demeanor of a superior when speaking to others.
Those civil officials who engaged in power struggles feared him, but He Yuncheng only held him in contempt. This man had repeatedly tried to win over the He family, but He Yuncheng had refused him every time. He hadn’t expected that, unable to control them, he would dare to use insidious tricks to harm him.
He Yuncheng lifted the hem of his robe and knelt quietly, too lazy to say another word to him.
Li Yuliang contained a smile. “It’s getting late. This servant still has to serve the Emperor to get up, so I won’t keep you company here. General He, take care.”
–
General’s Manor.
After He Yuncheng was taken away, Lin Shuangxu quickly wrote a letter, briefly describing the sudden situation in the General’s Manor. He sent someone to deliver it to the military camp at full speed, to be handed to Military Advisor Guo Yao.
He instructed Lord Guo to keep the matter a secret and to strictly guard the military camp, not allowing any suspicious people to enter, lest someone seize the opportunity to stir up trouble and disrupt morale.
After giving the instructions, he found another confidential letter from the bookshelf. This was the result of his asking He Yuncheng to investigate Song Jiting.
Li Yuliang’s kept male prostitute, Lin Shuangxu had never imagined that he had such an identity.
He Yuncheng’s casual guess at the time was correct: Song Jiting was the descendant of a disgraced official who had fallen into prostitution due to his father’s involvement.
This background was actually extremely exploitable. A government official’s son with a reputation for integrity, falling into the mire and becoming a eunuch’s paramour, must be in immense pain. If he could be rescued from the depths of suffering, it wouldn’t be too difficult to win him over.
But after finding out his identity, the reason why Lin Shuangxu had hesitated to act was because his father’s crime was, to Lin Shuangxu, something rather special.
Song Jiting’s father, Song Lian, was originally the Minister of Revenue, who had reformed the old dynasty’s tax laws during his tenure, accumulating great achievements. However, he was unlucky. Song Lian had been in close contact with the then First Prince, the current Emperor’s imperial brother – Prince Rui. Later, Prince Rui rebelled and was personally executed by the late Emperor, his body cut in half at the waist and displayed to the public. This incident once became a shocking tragedy, and remains an unsolved mystery to this day –
Originally, Prince Rui was the most favored by the late Emperor. If he hadn’t gone astray, he would have been the undisputed choice to inherit the throne. No one knew why he had raised the flag to rebel and become an enemy of his own father, eventually meeting a tragic end.
And those courtiers who had been close to Prince Rui, although some were not implicated when the incident occurred, after the late Emperor passed away and the Emperor ascended the throne at a young age, the Empress Dowager feared that these officials would be out of control and have rebellious intentions. In secret, she stripped them of their power one by one.
Five years ago, Lord Song Lian was convicted of bribery and imprisoned. Tens of thousands of people in Fengdu City once knelt in the streets to plead for his innocence, but now, as time has passed, the old events have gradually been forgotten, and no one remembers that once benevolent and upright official.
Lord Song’s life was infinitely glorious in the first half, and tragically miserable in the second half. Because he stood on the wrong side, he ultimately met an unjust death. A hero of his time, it was his fate and his luck. It was nothing to be lamented.
Lin Shuangxu put down the confidential letter, sitting quietly for a long time, his thoughts drifting far away.
Those things buried deep in his memory, things he wanted to forget, were repeatedly brought back before his eyes.
It always reminded him who he was, but refused to guide him as to why he should live in this world.
He felt a little out of breath, pushed open the window lattice, and let the wind mess up his hair.
Looking up at the gloomy sky, the severe cold completely sank into his eyes.
–
Northern Garrison.
A place where people are devoured without leaving a trace, where the day is like the dark of night.
The torches in the Imperial Prison crackled and burned, and the criminals being tortured screamed incessantly.
Shen Tan hurried along, passing through it all, to the room at the end of the corridor, where the coroner was performing an autopsy.
“Commander.” The Embroidered Guard at the door saw her coming, bowed, and opened the door for her.
Shen Tan entered the room with a blank expression and hurried steps.
On the way back from the General’s Manor, she had not dared to look at Gu Mengning’s body. This feeling was very unfamiliar, something that had never appeared in her before: a sense of fear.
Why was she afraid to see her body?
In the room, the cold body was placed on a stone bed, and the coroner was carefully examining it. Seeing Shen Tan come in, he hurriedly saluted her, “My Lord.”
Shen Tan stepped forward and neatly took the tools from his hand. “I’ll do it.”
“Yes.”
The coroner stepped aside.
Only when Shen Tan began to move did she realize that her fingers were trembling.
She adjusted her breathing, trying to undo Gu Mengning’s clothes, but her out-of-control hands couldn’t find their former skill.
The coroner noticed the abnormality and cautiously stepped forward, “My Lord, perhaps this subordinate should do it.”
“No need.” Shen Tan closed her eyes, took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and then picked up the scissors again, cutting open Gu Mengning’s clothes.
She immediately saw the red cloud-like marks on her skin.
Not only that, but there were also marks of binding on her wrists, and bruises on her body from being beaten.
Shen Tan’s breathing began to become unstable again. She lowered her head and paused for a while, then continued to examine the body downwards.
In her lower body, she found lacerations.
The injuries were severe, and it was impossible to imagine the brutality she had suffered.
A burst of colic in her stomach, Shen Tan couldn’t hold on any longer. She dropped the tools and went to the side, standing facing the wall.
Seeing this, the coroner quickly took over and continued the examination.
He carefully reported to Shen Tan, “My Lord, it is highly likely that the princess ingested poison before her death, but this was not the cause of death. The ultimate cause of death was strangulation by hanging.”
Shen Tan didn’t turn her head, asking him, “What poison?”
“It is a very potent… aphrodisiac poison.”
“Where did it come from?”
“This, I have never heard of it before.”
“Investigate.”
“Yes.”
The coroner reported the situation and retreated.
Shen Tan stood facing the wall for a while, calming herself down, then turned back to the stone bed, staring at Gu Mengning’s corpse.
It seemed that she had something to say to her, but now, saying anything was futile.
Yesterday, she was still a bright and charming person, asking her if she wanted to steal the bride, as if the world was not chaotic enough.
Shen Tan knew her too well. If she had really stolen the bride at that time, she would not have gone with her at all.
She was just saying it, just liked to tease people. If she really didn’t want to, with her unmanageable nature, no one could force her to marry someone she didn’t love.
Shen Tan raised her hand to cover her with clothes, and tidied her messy hair for her, staring at her face, twisted by suffocation, unable to take her eyes away as if possessed.
For some reason, Shen Tan felt that her vision was a little blurred.
The eyebrows, the lips, were all right, but the more Shen Tan looked at Gu Mengning’s face, the more unfamiliar it became.
She couldn’t help but reach out and carefully caress her cheek.
Gradually, the sorrowful mist in her eyes dissipated, and her brows furrowed tightly.
Her face… the bones beneath the flesh, why were they like this?