Lin Jingjing grasped Jing Wanyu's shoulder: "If Fan Lang were still alive, he would also be one of the top three..."

  Every woman firmly believes that her loved one is unique in this world.

  Jing Wan'er looked at her tear-stained face, "Now you have to take care of yourself. Although the adults will handle this case in the end, can you hold on until then?"

  There's nothing more effective in curing all diseases than giving people hope. Lin Jingjing's expression changed instantly.

  Seeing the woman deeply lower her head, Jing Wanyu knew that her words had taken effect. She slowly left the bedside.

  In the study, Pei Tan was subconsciously putting away the scrolls he had read. The secret door in the wall opened and Jing Wanyu walked out.

  "How is she?" he asked.

  Jing Wantong thought for a moment, "She will find out sooner or later."

  The body was just under the window of the autopsy room, and Pei County had borrowed it by guarding the autopsy room. Moreover, it had already been cremated, this double blow, how could this weak woman bear it.

  Jing Wan'er said coldly: "Because they are ordinary people from the streets, their lives were trampled upon."

  As Lin Jingjing said, Fan Wenjun was indeed a talented person with the potential to be a top scholar, someone who might have had a great future in the imperial court, but his life was cut short before he could achieve anything.

  Pei Tan gazed at Jing Wanyu, the Jing family in Chang'an had a nickname that was looked down upon by others, which was "commoner scholars". Even though Jing Zhe had achieved officialdom through imperial examination and wore an official robe, he still couldn't change the prejudices of those born into nobility.

  Jing Wan'er is now the only one who can feel the pain of Lin Jingjing and Fan Wenjun.

  "Your Honor," the bailiff hastily reported, looking flustered, "the county guards caught someone trying to get close to the autopsy room, but that person... took poison and killed himself."

  Pei Tan looked at the bailiff, poisoned himself to death. It was clear that there was a morgue in Pei County that was as solid as gold, but he still insisted on going his own way. The corpse inside was obviously more important to them than their lives.

  "Has the new coffin arrived?"

  "The yamen runner hastily replied: 'He's here, waiting at the gate.'"

  "Have the corpse of the one who poisoned himself carried into the main hall and let the new coroner examine it."

  Jing Wan'er followed Pei Tan to the main hall, and at a glance, she saw the corpse wearing official uniform, vomiting blood, already stiff.

  Xing Zu led a young man up, who was wearing a gray long-sleeved shirt and had patches on his shoes.

  "Sir, this is Shen Xingwen, a newly appointed executioner from the Ministry of Justice."

  Shen Xingwen, sounds like a scholar's name, doesn't sound like a butcher.

  The young man raised his head at this moment, with a square face, no more than thirty years old. The profession of coffin maker requires extremely high experience, and most are over fifty years old. Moreover, young people do not want to be coffin makers.

  But this Shen Xingwen...

  As they spoke, Shen Xingwen had already tidied up his clothes and knelt down to pay his respects to Pei Tan, "Commoner Shen Xingwen has seen the official."

  Pei Tan looked at him, a prison guard recommended by the Ministry of Justice, who should not have any problems. But Shen Xingwen had never heard of him before.

  "How long have you been a constable?" Pei Tan asked.

  "Replying to Your Honor, it's been exactly half a year as of today."

  A half-year-old rookie... The Ministry of Punishment isn't a place where lives are lost every day, how many real corpses has Shen Xingwen come into contact with?

  Shen Xingwen looked at Pei Tan slowly: "Sir, please rest assured. Although I have been a coroner for a short time, my experience in autopsy is not to be doubted."

  Jing Wan'er couldn't help but glance at Pei Tan, thinking that she wouldn't come up with such a strange idea. In her heart, Pei Tan probably didn't have any confidence either?

  It's just that now it's hard to get off the tiger's back, and if we change to another servant, there won't be enough time.

  "Then you go examine the body first."

  Shen Xingwen nodded again, his grey robe fluttered up with one hand, and he half-knelt down to examine the corpse's complexion.

  A moment later, he saw him tear open the corpse's chest, and there was a bruise on the corpse's chest. The poison was hidden in this person's teeth, so even if Pei County stopped him as quickly as possible, he couldn't keep up with his speed of poisoning himself.

  Shen Xingwen examined the corpse from head to toe, even pinching a strand of hair and holding it in his palm without making a sound.

  Since the corpse was poisoned to death, the autopsy would be just a test of what poison caused the death. Moreover, since this dead person sneaked into the Temple of Great Rites disguised as a yamen runner, he must have left no clues behind.

  But looking at Shen Xingwen, he pinched the corpse's hair and had a thoughtful and frowning expression.

  Jing Wantong looked at this young coroner and found it somewhat interesting, also wanting to know what he could see.

  Soon Shen Xingwen stood up, patted his sleeves and bowed to say: "The corpse has been examined by the little people. This person is probably not the real yamen in the temple."

  …

  The hall was silent for a moment, and unexpectedly, this person had been looking at it for half a day, but only said one sentence.

  There is poison hidden in the teeth of a dead person. It must be someone with ulterior motives disguising themselves as a government official and infiltrating. What does Shen Xingwen want to do by saying such an unnecessary sentence?

  Then Shen Xingwen seemed to feel the silence in the hall, his eyes moved slightly and he said: "This person's sternum was once fractured, although it was later connected, but not treated by a professional doctor, so the bruise did not dissipate. I conservatively estimate that it has been many years."

  The breastbone had been fractured for several years, which was absolutely unbearable for ordinary people, but this person had endured it.

  "Not only the sternum, but also the metacarpals and even the soles of the feet had fracture and re-ossification marks, indicating that the deceased had been subjected to finger pressing torture and had not received any medical treatment."

  "What is hidden in his words?"

  Shen Xingwen shook his head: "The worst kind of arsenic, even if he didn't bite it open, would still slowly kill him if it melted in his mouth over time."

  How can there be people in this world who use chronic poison to kill themselves, and the deceased is also controlled by others.

  Pei Tan fell silent, a driven vanguard, who didn't care about his own life just to scout ahead.

  Shen Xingwen's face was as calm as water: "A small person speaks out of turn, people like this are mostly dead men, raised by various aristocratic families to carry out their masters' tasks. If the task fails, they will be executed and their bones broken. These are just trivial matters, the most important thing is that they can die at any time."

  Jing Wan'er looked at this young servant's casual tone, as if the dirty things in the aristocratic families were nothing out of the ordinary.

  "Let's take the body down."

  Shen Xingwen took a glance at the corpse and said nothing.

  Jing Wan'er sensed something unusual from his expression. When he looked at the corpse, he was looking at the palm of its hand.

  "May I ask if Shen Yu has seen anything else?" she asked leisurely.

  Every executioner has his own specialty, similar to the pugilists in the Rivers and Lakes who all have their own unique skills for self-protection. Shen Xingwen was an executioner recommended by the Ministry of Punishment; even though he is young, it further proves that he has exceptional abilities, which is why he was retained by the Ministry of Punishment.

  Shen Xingwen smiled lightly and said, "The small man has told the adults everything that can be seen from a normal autopsy. As for other things, the small man doesn't know if the adults want to know or not."

  A normal autopsy can reveal the injuries the body has suffered and the fact that it was poisoned with arsenic. Shen Xingwen spoke in a half-revealing, half-concealing manner, as if he wanted to see what Pei Tan thought.

  Pei Tan looked at him, "You were just holding the corpse's hair, what were you looking at?"

  Shen Xingwen indeed smiled, and his square face added a touch of elegance. "Many forensic autopsies only look at the body, but in fact, hair can best reflect a person's life before death. Because the body can be disguised, but hair cannot."

  Jing Wan'er's heart skipped a beat.

  Shen Xingwen continued: "This corpse, with thick hair, but the ends are charred black. If my judgment is correct, this was caused by a special torture device."

  " What torture?" Pei Tan stared at him.

  In the warehouse of the Dalit Temple, many rare and secret torture instruments were stored. However, Pei Tan had never seen this kind that could scorch a person's scalp black before.

  "Tiě mào zi."

  Pai Tan's eyes flickered slightly.

  "This is a torture device that only the Ministry of War has, and it's their responsibility to manufacture weapons for each province. This iron helmet was made by their own people, so outsiders shouldn't have even seen it before."

  No, even Pei Tan doesn't know.

  This young executioner from the Ministry of Justice is not only familiar with the various aristocratic families' practice of raising dead soldiers, but also knows about the "Iron Hats", a type unique to the Ministry of War.

  Pei Tan looked at Shen Xingwen, and just this clue from the Ministry of War could already lead to many things. If Shen Xingwen was instructed by someone and deliberately said these things in front of him, then the person behind him could be said to have planned it very carefully.

  If Shen Xingwen really just saw these by himself, then this achievement can be said to be extremely brilliant.

  Shen Xingwen turned around and looked at the bailiff: "Give me your knife."

  The official looked at him vigilantly and then turned his gaze back to Pei Tan.

  "Give it to him."

  Shen Xingwen smiled and unapologetically pulled out a knife from the waist of the bailiff, then grasped a handful of the deceased's hair and cut it off with a swing of the blade.

  He lifted it up: "Please take a look, sir."

  Even Lian Jingwen saw that the ends of the black hair presented a yellowish color, if Shen Xingwen hadn't carefully combed through the deceased's hair, it would have been impossible to discover.

  Shen Xingwen then brought his head closer to his nose and sniffed, "Indeed, it smells like something's burning."

  Jing Wan'er subconsciously bit her lip.

  Shen Xingwen looked at Pei Tan and said, "The iron hat is not like a branding iron, it's heated to red-hot and pressed onto human skin, the hair follicles are connected to the scalp, the heat of the follicles will extend all the way to the person's skull, making them feel as if they're being roasted by flames on top of their head, far more cruel than a branding iron."

  Just listening to it makes one's scalp feel chilly all over.

  In the past, I heard that people in the palace used torture to avoid being seen and gaining a reputation for cruelty. They used extremely fine silver needles to pierce the body, making the person being tortured unable to express their pain. Now this iron hat is even more ingenious, unless you shave off the deceased's hair, who can see the clues on the scalp?