Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Chen Shao looked back and saw Li Tianliu digging with him, so he felt relieved and focused on watching the yamen runners packing up the bodies.

The yamen runners wanted to pile up the bodies, wrap them with straw mats, and then tie them up with ropes, so that they would be easier to lift and transport.

Chen Shao stopped them.

She asked them to place only two bodies flat on one straw mat, then cover them with another mat, and then put them on the cart and pull them back.

As a forensic doctor, she respects every dead person, but her respect is often not reflected in her regard for the corpse, but in finding the murderer and clearing their name.

Now, what she had to do was to make all the people in Hongyuan County remember their deaths, the more shocking the better!

Ding Lisheng did not understand her intention. Looking at the shocking wounds on the corpse, he unknowingly hunched over and asked tremblingly, "How did they..."

"Why are they doing this, Lord Ding should ask himself. Lord Ding is a judicial officer, but why is there such a filthy place right under his nose?" Chen Shao looked at him.

Ding Lisheng knelt on the ground, kowtowed and cried out: "Your Excellency, I have been an official in Hongyuan County for many years, but nothing like this has ever happened to me before."

"According to what you said," Chen Shao sneered, "is it still my fault?"

"I dare not." Ding Lisheng quickly begged for mercy.

Chen Shao snorted coldly and did not ask him to get up. He ordered the yamen runners who were carrying the body out to call in Zhao Lin who was guarding Madam Gao outside the door and ordered him, "Go to the side yard and watch over them. Tell them to deal with the body in the same way as here."

After Zhao Lin left, Chen Shao watched until the last body was loaded onto the cart before he went to watch the other courtyards. The yamen runners made three trips to the seven courtyards before bringing all the bodies back to the prefectural government.

It’s already the end of the Xu hour.

The sky was so dark that it seemed to be dyed with thick ink. Away from the light of the torches, it was almost pitch dark.

Fu Jiu and Li Tianliu were still digging flowers.

They had dug up more than a dozen bushes of flowers and also unearthed more than a dozen piles of bones.

After Chen Shao told them, he returned to the prefect's mansion first. He arranged the remaining woman in the east wing of Chengfeng Courtyard, checked her body again, and confirmed that her pulse was more stable than before in Changlefang. He then arranged six Yulin guards to guard her safety outside the wing.

Afterwards, Chen Shao went to the square in front of the lobby.

The bodies that were brought back were temporarily placed here.

It was already the end of June, and the corpse had begun to smell bad after a day of tossing and turning.

There were one hundred and twenty-four bodies in total.

If it is not dealt with quickly, the corpse will start to rot in the next two days and it will easily breed a plague.

Ding Lisheng, Hu Qinglu, Zhao Lin, Lei Dehou and others stood behind her tremblingly, looking at all the corpses with fear.

With her standing in front, no one dared to cover their nose or hide somewhere else.

One hundred and twenty-four bodies. Except on the battlefield, Chen Shao had never seen so many bodies in any "accident". Not to mention, these people were most likely killed by her. Walking slowly among the corpses along the rows of straw mats, trying his best to remember the appearance of each corpse, Chen Shao asked: "Is there an ice cellar in Hongyuan County?"

Ding Lisheng seemed to have anticipated what she was going to do. He shuddered before answering, "Yes."

Chen Shao asked: "How many are there, where are they, and who are using them?"

Ding Lisheng answered stiffly, "There are two, both in the Funiu Mountain on the outskirts of the city. Both are where the government and some noble families in the county store their ice."

"Go tell the nobles who have ice storage that I'm using the ice cellar." Chen Shao ordered calmly. Threat? Well, she wanted to see how far they could threaten her!

Ding Lisheng hesitated and said, "Then, those noble families and gentry will probably not agree."

Chen Shao looked at him coldly, "I'm not asking you to discuss it with them, but to inform them that I want to requisition the ice cellar. Whether they agree or not will not affect the result, do you understand?"

Ding Lisheng gritted his teeth and said repeatedly: "I understand."

Chen Shao said: "Now that you understand, let's go!"

After Ding Lisheng left quickly, Chen Shao looked at Zhao Lin again, "There is no time to lose. Arrange for people to send these bodies to the ice cellar and seal them up. Remember to seal them up. After all, they will have to keep them sealed up until the murderer is brought to justice."

Zhao Lin glanced at Ding Lisheng's back, who had already walked away, and gritted his teeth and agreed. When he was about to make arrangements, Chen Shao stopped him again and threw him a palm-sized porcelain bottle, "To prevent the plague, give one pill to each of the yamen runners who carry the corpse, and tell them to eat it."

Zhao Lin held the porcelain bottle and said yes.

The yamen runners were waiting not far away. Zhao Lin called everyone together and first explained Chen Shao's intention of giving them pills. Then he poured out the pills and distributed them one by one. After taking the pills, the yamen runners started to get busy again.

Watching the bodies being loaded onto carts one by one and then transported to the icehouse on the outskirts of the city, Chen Shao deliberately followed them in a horse-drawn carriage. They threatened her in such an inhumane way, and she really didn't have the ability to uproot them immediately, but she could always collect some interest in advance.

After all the bodies were transported to the ice cellar, Chen Shao instructed Zhao Lin again: "Leave them like this for tonight. Tomorrow you go order a coffin for each person and bury them all."

Zhao Lin lowered his head and nodded in agreement.

After locking the ice cellar tightly, Chen Shao collected the keys and handed them to Zhao Lin: "Keep an eye on the bodies inside. If anything goes wrong with any of the bodies, I'll hold you responsible!"

Zhao Lin's expression changed again and again before he respectfully said yes again.

After returning to the prefect's mansion, Chen Shao went to the east wing to see the injured woman again.

The injured woman was still unconscious, and Chan Yi was wiping her body. Her face had been wiped clean, and she was a very pretty girl, about 21 or 22 years old.

"She just woke up once, so she's very alert." Chan Yi took the dirty water out and handed it to the Yulin Guard at the door, and brought in another basin of clean water. While wiping, she said, "I comforted her with a few kind words and gave her two tranquilizer pills, and she fell asleep again."

The woman was so dirty that she had to change the basin of water every time she wrung the handkerchief twice.

Chen Shao helped to bring water twice, and when Chan Yi wanted to undress her and wipe her, he left. Although she was also a woman, she was a man in front of others, so she had to avoid suspicion to avoid giving people a chance to talk about her.

Fu Jiu and Li Tianliu haven't come back yet.

Chen Shao thought for a moment and called a Yulin guard to call them back.

As soon as Fu Jiu returned to Chengfeng Courtyard, he started shouting, "There are bones under every bunch of flowers in that garden. We have already dug out twenty piles. I counted and there are at least forty or fifty bunches of flowers left to be dug."

As he spoke, he saw a light in the east wing and instinctively turned around and walked over.