There is a god in the sky

Chapter 122 The Strange Case of Fuchunju 20

Shen Lan discovered that things were always more likely to happen late at night.

She hasn't had a good night's sleep since she came to Tanzhou.

In the middle of the night, the yamen suddenly became lively. When Sui Feng knocked on the door, Shen Lan refused to get up.

Xuan'er ran to open the door and asked, "Brother Suifeng, what happened?"

"Another person has died. The lord must go there immediately. Should we ask Miss Shen if she is going?"

Shen Lan, still covered by the blanket, replied, "Miss Shen is not going!"

Sui Feng was relieved to hear the voice; given how serious Miss Shen was, it was impossible for her not to go.

He instructed Xuan'er, "It's windy at night, make sure the girl wears more clothes."

Xuan'er closed the door and turned around to see that Shen Lan had already sat up. Although her eyes were closed, she was getting dressed in the dark.

She felt sorry for Shen Lan, "Girl, why don't we change careers? Being a coroner is really not a job for humans."

Shen Lan was fully awake upon hearing this.

Actually, she was already used to it.

In her previous life, she worked more night shifts. Anyway, there weren't cases every day, so once the case was solved, she could sleep as long as she wanted.

She got dressed, washed her face with cold water, then wrapped herself in a cloak, picked up her suitcase, and went out.

She instructed Xuan'er, "You continue sleeping, and don't open the door for anyone, understand?"

Xuan'er nodded obediently and stuffed a bag of the pastries she had made earlier into her hands.

Shen Lan felt greatly comforted, patted her head, and went out to work.

Xiao Ji and the others were still waiting for her in the courtyard.

I thought I would have to wait for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, but I didn't expect Shen Lan to come out so quickly.

He was a little embarrassed.

"I've disturbed Miss Shen's sleep again."

Shen Lan yawned and said insincerely, "I'm fine. I took a nap this afternoon, so I feel energetic now."

Xiao Ji smiled and walked and talked with her.

Sui Feng consciously took the box from Shen Lan's hands.

"A constable from the yamen just came to report that someone has died at Fuchun Residence again."

The two fell silent. Had their previous guess been wrong?

They thought the other perpetrators wouldn't commit any more crimes, but their assumptions were overturned so quickly.

"This person must be insane," Shen Lan remarked.

"If such a madman is not caught soon, many more people will be killed."

"His targeting of people from Fuchun Residence further demonstrates that this person has a close relationship with the young prince."

Both Officer Ma and Aunt Mu are dead, and both committed suicide. Therefore, the person behind this must be of a higher status than them.

This greatly narrowed down the range of suspects.

Fuchun Residence was also brightly lit.

The young prince had stayed up for several nights, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a trapped wild beast.

He's really bold; despite getting into trouble one after another, he still dares to stay here.

"Where is the body?" Xiao Ji asked, stepping past the young prince.

He didn't have a good impression of this young prince at the moment.

The housekeeper of Fuchunju led them there.

"Lord Xiao, the one who died this time was Chef Niu from the kitchen; he drowned."

Xiao Ji paused, surprised, and asked, "Drowned? No blood? Who was the first to discover the body?"

"He was a night patrol guard; he died in the lotus pond."

Shen Lan said in a low voice, "This doesn't sound like the original killer's style."

The steward overheard this and explained, "The young prince said that it's possible that because Constable Ma died, the real culprit couldn't find the executioner, so he resorted to this method of killing."

Anyway, someone's dead. If it wasn't a murderer, why would someone die out of nowhere?

Deaths aren't actually that rare, but the timing is suspicious; anyone else would be suspicious.

"Go over and have a look."

When they arrived at the scene, the body had already been retrieved and was lying on the ground covered with a white sheet.

Shen Lan glanced at the lotus pond and asked, "Is the water in this pond deep?"

There are indeed quite a few ponds in Fuchun Residence, large and small. At night, the surroundings are dim, and there is no railing along the edge of the ponds.

"It's not very deep, about up to an adult's belly, but there's mud in the pool, so it's hard to climb out once you sink in."

Shen Lan took the toolbox and squatted down to examine the body.

The deceased was a man in his thirties, slightly overweight, with a mustache, and completely soaked.

Shen Lan first examined his nasal cavity and oral cavity, and said to Xiao Ji, "He drowned."

Looking at his hands and feet, they were covered in mud, which meant that, as the butler had said, he had sunk into the mud.

"How often are we patrolled here at night?" she asked the housekeeper.

“Nowadays, Fuchun Residence is heavily guarded, and someone will definitely pass by every quarter of an hour in any of the places.”

A quarter of an hour, but it doesn't take a quarter of an hour to drown someone.

But if you just get stuck in the mud, you can't die in a short time; it's not a swamp.

Shen Lan took off his coat and searched his belongings. His valuables were still there; it wasn't a robbery.

After taking off her clothes, she smelled a faint scent of alcohol.

To verify, she leaned close to the corpse's mouth and nose and smelled it. "He drank alcohol before he died, and quite a lot of it."

"Yes, yes, Chef Niu loves wine. He drinks every day after finishing his work."

Where does he live? Is this a necessary route?

Although the steward was puzzled as to why it was always the female coroner who was asking the questions, Lord Xiao did not stop him, so he answered honestly.

He lived outside the mansion and would leave around 7 PM every day.

He usually uses the side gate, but recently, due to an incident at the mansion, all the other gates have been locked, leaving only the main gate open.

This is the shortest route from the kitchen to the house.

After examining Xiao Ji, Shen Lan said, "The time of death was around 3:45 PM. He drowned. There were no injuries on his body. The preliminary judgment is that it was not a homicide."

Xiao Ji walked around the edge of the pool and found not only messy footprints but also a slide.

He put his feet on it, slid down the footprints, and soon stood in the water.

He didn't move, letting his feet sink deeper into the ground.

I silently counted to ten in my mind, and then started pulling my feet.

When using three-tenths of the force, the feet cannot be pulled out at all; when using five-tenths of the force, the body begins to sway.

If someone is drunk, they certainly won't be able to exert their full strength when they fall into this pool.

He staggered back to shore with all his might, his lower body soaked and his legs covered in mud.

Shen Lan circled around him, nodded, and said, "It seems that after the deceased slid down, his feet sank in first, and then he probably fell into the water while struggling, with his back facing down."

The more he struggled, the deeper he sank, and in his panic, he drowned.

She turned to the housekeeper and asked, "Can Chef Niu swim?"

"I don't know, you'll have to ask his family."

Chef Niu's family also arrived, but they were not allowed to enter the mansion and were asked to wait outside.

I learned from them that Chef Niu can't cook.

He was on the heavier side, so he would sink faster than Xiao Ji if he fell into the lotus pond. In addition, he was not agile, so the probability of him drowning was extremely high.

Xiao Ji told the young prince the result, but the latter did not believe it.

"Although he may have drowned, how can we prove that it was not murder? Perhaps someone pushed him in."

Shen Lan explained, "If someone pushed him into the water, he would have entered the water head-on, with his hands landing before his feet, and his mouth and nose would have been filled with mud and sand, which is inconsistent with the autopsy."

The young prince was already half convinced, but he still said angrily, "Why should whatever you say be the truth? Does my judgment become a miscarriage of justice?"