The First Criminal Judge of the Zhenguan Era

Chapter 35 Seven Days!

"real!?"

Before Du Gou could say anything, Cheng Chumo's loud voice rang out from the side.

"Master Liu, do you really know when the remains of Prince Xi were stolen?"

Cheng Chumo's voice was loud enough to be heard three miles away.

In an instant, everyone's gaze fell upon Liu Shuyi.

Liu Shuyi glanced at Cheng Chumo and said, "Speak louder, so the thieves can hear you too."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Chumo's dark face flushed red, a rare occurrence for him. He awkwardly shrank his neck and said, "I was just too excited."

He lowered his voice, but couldn't help asking, "What exactly happened? How did you suddenly know when the thief made his move?"

Du Gou and Zhao Feng both looked at Liu Shuyi with the same puzzled expression.

Liu Shuyi didn't hide anything and said directly, "The coffin nail told me."

"Coffin nails?" The group was taken aback.

Wang Kun, who was specifically tasked with checking the coffin nails for Liu Shuyi, looked utterly bewildered: "What did it tell you? I don't know anything about it?"

Liu Shuyi smiled and said, "It told me two things."

"The first thing I needed help with was from Vice Minister Wang."

Wang Kun frowned: "The help I gave you... you mean the sinking of these coffin nails?"

Liu Shuyi nodded.

He looked at Du Gou and the others and said, "Just now, Vice Minister Wang checked the coffin nails for me. According to Vice Minister Wang's judgment, it can be confirmed that these coffin nails were all secretly pulled out. However, the person who pulled out the coffin nails was very careful to put them back in their original positions. Therefore, we laymen did not find anything unusual at all."

Du Gou had just gone out and knew nothing about this.

Upon hearing this, he immediately understood Liu Shuyi's meaning: "So, the thieves secretly opened the coffin lid by pulling out the coffin nails and stole the remains of Prince Xi?"

Cheng Chumo frowned at this moment: "Didn't Steward Liu say that the coffin lid was intact when we were in the tomb, so the thieves couldn't have stolen the remains? Now he's saying that the remains were stolen by opening the coffin lid. Doesn't this contradict our previous judgment?"

"Different."

Liu Shuyi was pleased that Cheng Chumo had thought of this conflict.

Unfortunately, Cheng Chumo's mind wasn't particularly sharp.

He explained, "Although both are cases of the coffin lid being opened, the significance of opening it in the tomb chamber is completely different from opening it elsewhere."

"If the thief opened the coffin lid in the tomb and stole the remains, then there is no reason for the thief to spend the time and effort to carefully nail the coffin back in."

“Everyone can look at the coffin nails. Where the coffin nails contact the coffin lid, apart from the nail heads sinking slightly and being lower than the coffin lid, there are no signs of collision around the coffin lid… This not only requires extremely high skill, but also requires enough care and enough time to carefully hammer it.”

"At that time, the tomb chamber had collapsed, and the imperial guards would come to inspect it at any time. After stealing the remains, the thieves had to escape immediately to avoid being caught by the court. How could they possibly waste time doing something that would not benefit them at all?"

"That's why I said in the tomb that the coffin lid had not been opened, and that the thief could not have stolen the body through the small crack on the side, thus concluding that the body was not lost in the tomb."

Cheng Chumo scratched his head, thought for a while, and then nodded in understanding: "So that's how it is."

"But it's different in other places!"

Liu Shuyi smiled and continued, "We have confirmed that the remains were stolen before they were sent to the tomb. So, if the thieves wanted to keep the secret of stealing the remains of the Prince of Xi, they had to make sure that no one would notice."

"Therefore, they would carefully put the coffin nails back in after stealing the remains."

Cheng Chumo finally understood. He said, "This thief is truly cunning. He even restored the nails completely. Who would have thought that these seemingly flawless coffin nails had been pulled out before?"

Liu Shuyi nodded: "Yes, the thief was very careful and skilled, so it was indeed difficult for ordinary people to detect him. Fortunately..."

He looked at Wang Kun and smiled, “With the help of Vice Minister Wang, whose skills are several times better than that thief’s, the thief can fool our eyes, but he can’t fool Vice Minister Wang who has decades of experience.”

Wang Kun felt a little embarrassed after being praised like that by Liu Shuyi.

The burly man rubbed his hands together and said, "I'm not as powerful as you say."

Liu Shuyi smiled and said, "Vice Minister Wang just told me that humility is good, but excessive humility is hypocrisy..."

Wang Kun's expression froze.

I never expected that the words I had just sent to Liu Shuyi would be sent back to me at this moment...

Helpless, he could only grit his teeth and accept the assessment that he was very impressive, just like Liu Shuyi.

Du Gou ignored the exchange between the two and, recalling Liu Shuyi's words, said, "But this only proves how the thief stole the corpse, not where he did it, right?"

"Yes."

Liu Shuyi nodded: "If that's all, it's indeed of limited help, but luckily, the coffin nails also told me a second thing."

Wang Kun suddenly remembered the question Liu Shuyi had just asked him, a question he hadn't been able to answer.

"you said……"

He looked at Liu Shuyi: "Did you ask me about when the coffin nails were pulled out?"

When were the coffin nails removed?

Cheng Chumo was taken aback: "You can even figure that out?"

"No!" Wang Kun shook his head immediately.

“But…” he changed the subject again: “Manager Liu said he could.”

"What? Manager Liu can figure that out?"

Hearing Wang Kun's words, Du Gou and the others all looked at Liu Shuyi with surprise.

Liu Shuyi didn't keep them in suspense and said, "I can't determine the exact time, but I can estimate the approximate time."

“How… how do we assess this?” Wang Kun stared intently at Liu Shuyi.

Even a highly skilled master craftsman like him couldn't be certain of something, so he didn't know how Liu Shuyi could possibly be certain.

Liu Shuyi's gaze fell on the slightly sunken coffin nails on the black coffin lid, and he asked, "Does Minister Wang know about the oxidation and rusting of copper nails?"

"Huh?" Wang Kun was a little confused: "I understand rusting, but what is oxidation?"

Liu Shuyi said, "Oxidation can be considered as something that happens before rusting."

"Under normal circumstances, when copper nails are exposed to air, they will first oxidize and darken, and then green patina will appear."

“Let’s look at the nail heads of these copper nails. The nail heads are exposed. Logically speaking, more than a year has passed since the burial of Prince Xi in the ninth year of the Wude era. In such a long time, even if the nail heads do not rust, they should be severely oxidized.”

"But the nail head in front of us is still bright, with almost no obvious signs of darkening..."

He looked at the highly skilled Wang Kun and said, "Minister Wang, do you think this is normal?"

“This…” Wang Kun’s eyes flickered a few times, and he said, “Of course it’s not normal! When Prince Xi died in the ninth year of Wude, the court was unable to prepare a suitable tomb for him, so he was buried temporarily. Everything was not satisfactory. Under such circumstances, the copper nails should have developed patina after more than a year!”

"Oh yeah, how come I didn't think of that just now!"

He became more and more agitated as he spoke, even pacing back and forth, walking around the coffin.

Suddenly, he clapped his hands and said, "I understand!"

He looked at Liu Shuyi and said, "It's a thief! After pulling out the copper nail, the thief hammered it again, which removed the patina from the nail head! And each hammering was like polishing, which is why the nail head is so smooth and shiny!"

Liu Shuyi smiled and nodded, saying, "And now, the nail head is still very bright... How long ago did you think it was hammered, Minister Wang? Or in other words, how long did it take for it to show signs of darkening?"

"This……"

Wang Kun's eyes kept flashing with a thoughtful look. He paced back and forth again, muttering something to himself as he walked.

To Cheng Chumo, Wang Kun seemed to be chanting sutras with a monk.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks. He whirled around to look at Liu Shuyi: "Very short! Very short!"

"The coffin of the Prince of Xi was placed in the tomb for a month, after which the tomb collapsed, and the coffin came into direct contact with the ice and snow outside. Although the copper nails would rust and darken much more slowly in the cold, they could not withstand direct contact with the damp ice and snow."

"But even in this situation, the fact that it hasn't darkened only means that it was in its best condition when it was delivered to the tomb!"

"If we're still in that makeshift tomb, which can't isolate the air, we won't last long; it will quickly darken and rust!"

Listening to Wang Kun's words, Liu Shuyi said, "So, can I understand it this way... that the time when the copper nails were hammered was very short, at most one or two months before they were moved out of the temporary tomb?"

Wang Kun frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "I think one or two months is too much, but I dare not say exactly how long it will take. After all, the darkening and rusting of copper nails is related to many factors, and I can only estimate a rough range."

“That’s enough!” Liu Shuyi said.

"enough?"

Cheng Chumo couldn't help but say, "That's still quite a long time, isn't it? After the coffin of Prince Xi was moved out of the previous tomb, it was placed in the Taichang Temple for seven days, where high monks chanted sutras and prayed for blessings, before it was moved to the current mausoleum. If you calculate it like that, it would be more than sixty days, plus two months and seven days!"

Zhao Feng nodded repeatedly. Although it was already very impressive that Manager Liu could shorten the time to more than sixty days, their time was limited, and more than sixty days was still too long for them.

Finding out what happened during those sixty-odd days is by no means an easy task.

But Liu Shuyi said, "I didn't say the range was more than sixty days."

"What? Not sixty-odd days? Then it's..."

"Those seven days when it was placed in the Imperial Academy!"

"Those seven days at the Court of Imperial Sacrifices!?"

Cheng Chumo almost cried out in surprise again. He stared at Liu Shuyi with wide eyes and couldn't help but say, "How is this possible? When the coffin of Prince Xi was in the Taichang Temple, it was guarded day and night, and there were high monks chanting sutras almost every day... People came and went for those seven days, and there was almost no break in the flow of people. How could the thieves have made their move at that time?"

Du Gou also frowned slightly, his eyes equally filled with confusion.

Liu Shuyi said, "I don't know exactly how he did it yet, but I'm certain it happened during those seven days! As for the reason..."

He strode directly to the right front of the coffin and immediately squatted down.

"Come and take a look."

As he spoke, he raised his finger and pointed to the spot where the coffin nail heads met the coffin lid, saying, "What do you see?"

Upon seeing this, Du Gou and the others quickly gathered around and examined it closely.

"What's wrong?" Cheng Chumo blinked his big eyes several times and said, "Isn't it just that the nail head sank into the coffin lid? Didn't you just say that?"

"It seems to have something on it..."

Zhao Feng suddenly said, "Look at the edge of the nail head, there seems to be a little bit of blue, but it's very faint. I don't know if I'm seeing things."

"Something blue?"

Cheng Chumo listened to Zhao Feng's words and moved his eyes even closer: "Huh? It seems there really is a little bit."

He then looked at the other coffin nails and said, "Only this coffin nail has it. Is something stuck to it?"

Listening to what the others were saying, Wang Kun also observed carefully for a while, and stroked his chin, saying, "Master Liu, what kind of eyes do you have? I just looked at every single coffin nail and didn't find it at all."

Liu Shuyi laughed and said, "As an official in charge of criminal justice, I pay more attention to details. It's normal that Vice Minister Wang didn't notice it."

"I see..." Wang Kun nodded.

Du Gou gave Liu Shuyi a deep look. How could it be this reason?

As a prison official myself, I have met many other prison officials, but none of them, including myself, are as discerning as Liu Shuyi.

Knowing both the principles of earthquakes and the skills of copper patina craftsmen… he suddenly felt that Liu Shuyi was like a mysterious, bottomless pit, who could seem to produce knowledge he didn’t know whenever needed.

He took a deep breath and asked, "What is this? What does it represent?"

"What?"

Liu Shuyi looked at Du Gou and smiled, "Du Sicheng should know, after all, we just came into contact with it in the last case."

I just handled the previous case...

Blue...

Suddenly, Du Gou understood.

His eyes widened. "Incense ash!?"

"Incense ash?" Cheng Chumo was taken aback. He quickly raised his hand, wiped it, and said, "It's very fine, just like nothing at all. It really looks like incense ash."

"But what can incense ash represent?"

Liu Shuyi said, "Don't rush..."

As he spoke, he looked at Wang Kun and said, "Minister Wang, can you pull out this coffin nail?"

Although Wang Kun didn't know what Liu Shuyi was planning, his appetite had already been whetted. Upon hearing this, he immediately said, "Okay!"

He picked up the tools and easily pulled out the coffin nails with almost no effort.

"Here you go!" Wang Kun handed the coffin nails to Liu Shuyi.

But Liu Shuyi shook his head: "The important thing is not the coffin nails, but the part where the nail heads just press down on the coffin lid."

As he spoke, he leaned closer to look, and when he noticed some blue marks on the obviously pressed-down area, he chuckled: "Just as I expected."

Cheng Chumo still didn't understand: "Isn't this the same as a nail head covered in incense ash? What's the difference? Why do you have to pull it out to check?"

"Different."

Liu Shuyi shook his head: "There was incense ash on the nail head. It's possible that after the nail was nailed on, the incense ash fell onto it..."

"But the ash beneath the nail head can only mean one thing..."

He glanced at the group and said slowly, "That's... incense ash, it fell on the coffin before the nails were driven in!"

"Before the coffin nails were driven in..."

Du Gou's pupils suddenly contracted: "So that's how it is! No wonder you said it was during those seven days at the Court of Imperial Sacrifices!"

Cheng Chumo scratched his head: "Du Sicheng, you two need to explain yourselves clearly!"

He was still completely baffled.

Liu Shuyi laughed and said, "General Cheng might as well think about it: under what circumstances would the copper nails on the coffin hold the incense ash underneath, or under what circumstances would the incense ash float on top of the coffin?"

Cheng Chumo frowned and began to think.

Liu Shuyi guided, “General Cheng can take a look at the coffin nail that Vice Minister Wang just pulled out. There is some copper rust under the nail head, which means that the coffin nail has rusted over the past year or so.”

"And the incense ash was on top of the copper rust, not inside it, which means that the incense ash was definitely not on it when the Prince of Xi was buried."

"Then the only time it could have landed on the coffin lid was when the thief pulled out the copper nail and then hammered it back in."

"If the thief pulled out the coffin nails in the previous tomb chamber, then the incense ash would not be there. After all, the tomb chamber is sealed, and the sacrifice can only be carried out outside the tomb chamber. No one is allowed to enter the tomb chamber. Under such circumstances, neither incense ash nor paper ash could be found in the tomb chamber!"

"But those seven days at the Court of Imperial Sacrifices were different!"

He looked at Cheng Chumo and said, "Before the Prince of Xi's coffin is reburied, it must be kept at the Taichang Temple for seven days, during which high monks will chant sutras. During those seven days, the incense must not be interrupted. Even a slight gust of wind could blow the incense ash onto the coffin behind the incense burner!"

"Therefore, after ruling out the tomb chamber as an impossible option that can be confirmed by evidence, even if you say how many people came and went from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, even if you say how impossible it is..."

"it……"

Liu Shuyi looked around at everyone, and under their subconsciously tense gazes, he slowly said, "It is still the truth!"

(End of this chapter)