"..."
Chen Guangrui's eyelids twitched uncontrollably, reporting a long list like this, are you trying to send me off then and there?
Having completed giving his name and place of origin, Shang Shaoyang was not in the least afraid of the County Magistrate's authority. He took large strides forward, with the constables around him pretending not to see, focusing gazes on the ground.
Advisor Tang Zhou kept his head down, frantically flipping through blank sheets of paper, as if sorting through a grave case.
Upon reaching the public table, Shang Shaoyang laid the cloth-wrapped object he was holding onto the table and proceeded to lift the fabric cover.
When the corpse, less than three feet long, was revealed to everyone, Chen Guangrui's eyes suddenly widened.
The advisor, upon seeing the small corpse about the same age as his daughter, couldn't help but cry out in shock.
"Oh! My lord! What happened to this child to make her end up in such a state?"
Shang Shaoyang circled back below the hall and recounted the circumstances leading to the discovery of the corpse, but he concealed the part about 'Guai Guai' showing the way, merely saying that it was his own little mutt that dug up the body.
Chen Guangrui looked at the little mutt sitting obediently at Shang Shaoyang's feet, panting in the heat, and shook his head helplessly.
This dog cannot be a witness, nor can it be specifically questioned.
Chen Guangrui thought for a moment and immediately summoned the forensic doctor on duty in the morgue for examination.
Wang Lingyuan, now advanced in years, rarely took shifts at night. Currently, the one responsible for guarding the morgue was his second apprentice, Song Tu.
Song Tu saw Xu Qing standing below the hall and was visibly stunned for a moment. With the master uncle present and the case so severe, there was no way to acknowledge any relation.
The two acted as if they did not know each other. Song Tu approached the public table, holding a candle, and within moments confirmed the cause of death.
"The deceased's facial color is cyanotic, with petechial hemorrhages under the optic membrane. Moreover, there are no fatal injuries on the hands or feet. In my humble opinion, the little girl suffocated from nasal and oral obstruction, causing asphyxiation and death."
After stating the cause of death, Song Tu further analyzed: "Logically, when the deceased's breathing was obstructed, there would be signs of struggle, but there were no scratch or self-rescue marks on this body. The reasons for such an occurrence could only be two-fold: first, the deceased might have fallen into a coma before suffocating, second, someone might have held down her limbs and used soft materials like cloth to block the nose and mouth to kill her."
"What puzzles me, though, are the deceased's legs..."
Upon hearing this, Xu Qing immediately stepped forward, handing over a damaged thin wooden box onto the table.
"This box was used to conceal the body; when fully assembled, it measures less than three feet, and yet the girl's body is four to five inches longer."
Xu Qing propped up the side plank of the box that had fallen off, then used his own arm to simulate the girl's corpse, making a gesture of raising her lower legs.
But when the 'lower leg' was raised, it pushed open the box lid. No matter how you tried to place it sideways or diagonally, it wouldn't fit completely into this small box.
Chen Guangrui was no fool; he was silent for a moment before speaking in a somber tone: "You mean to say that the person concealing the body cut off the deceased's lower legs to fit it wholly into the box?"
Xu Qing did not answer directly, but simply cupped his hands in a respectful manner and stepped back down the hall, implying acceptance of the speculation.
Beside the table, Song Tu nodded and said: "If a living person were to suffer a chopping injury, the body would contract, causing the wound to present outwardly jagged edges, while post-mortem chopping would leave a smooth, contracted-less wound. The injuries on this girl do indeed align with the latter case."
At this point, Song Tu suddenly recalled something and said: "A few days ago, an angler caught a human head while fishing at the Tanggu riverbank. The head remained unrotted for several days, and is still in the mortuary, perfectly intact. This girl's corpse, obviously long dead given the stiffness, yet it has not rotted even in such scorching weather..."
"Lend me your head for a moment."