Records of the Cattle and Horses of Chang'an

The Wannian County Coroner suddenly spoke up: "Mr. Cui, in my humble opinion, these body parts must have been skinned alive."

"Are you talking about reconciliation?" Cui Bianxu moved closer and looked at the body part in his hand. It was a grayish-white body part with red spots on it.

"Young Master, please look. Most of the body parts are like the one I have in my hand. They are neatly cut and have knife marks. Although the color has turned white, the blood spots on them are still there."

Ding Yuan nodded in agreement. "Skinning alive preserves the skin's color, toughness, and elasticity. Often, the person being skinned alive can't stand the pain and faints, but as long as we're quick enough, we can finish skinning the person before they bleed to death."

The coroner of Chang'an County added: "This method of killing is extremely cruel. The person being skinned alive will suffer immense pain and struggle before dying."

Ding Yuan listened carefully to every word the coroners said. His experience was not as good as those of the experienced coroners who had seen many corpses.

"If skinning starts from the top of the head, the person will die from massive blood loss in a very short time. If you start from the back or buttocks, the person can be kept intact."

The Wannian County Coroner nodded. "But any of these methods requires first administering drugs to the deceased, rendering them unable to move while they still have some sense. Then, with decisive and decisive techniques, the skin can be completely peeled off while the deceased is still alive."

Cui Bianxu's left eyebrow twitched as he listened. He strained his brain to continue thinking, muttering to himself, "If that's the case, what did the murderer do with the skin? And what did he do with the fat?"

He immediately thought of some miscellaneous books he had read before, which mentioned that by painting on living people with special pigments, then skinning them alive and treating them with secret medicines, the resulting human skin scrolls would remain lifelike and last for thousands of years without fading.

The best material for making this kind of human skin scroll is the skin of a beautiful young woman, which is delicate, white, elastic and shiny.

He was just thinking about the problem of fat when Wang Leisheng hurriedly ran in from outside with a lunch box in his hand, his head and shoulders covered with a layer of white snow.

"Why did you take so long?" His thoughts were interrupted and his brows subconsciously frowned.

Wang Leisheng thought he was dissatisfied with his slowness, and regardless of the brutality of the morgue, he quickly defended himself, "Young Master, you don't know, we're on holiday, and the chef from the Dali Temple is also on holiday. He happened to go back to his hometown in Jinzhou for the New Year, so I had to go out to buy it, which is why it was delayed."

As he spoke, he wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead. He did it on purpose because he didn't want to come back too early and stay in a place with so many corpses.

Ding Yuan immediately went out to wash his hands. When he came back, he took the lunch box with a stiff face, walked to the small table in the corner and took out the contents.

The remaining four people also ran out to wash their hands. It was finally time to eat. The treatment at the Dali Temple was too bad!

Plate after plate of food was brought out, quickly filling up the small table. It must be said that Wang Leisheng was quite generous in order to spend more time outside. Although the food was not expensive, there were many varieties.

Flower-folded amanita phallus, crystal dragon and phoenix cake, yokan, pork belly, sashimi, fried shrimp, golden milk pastry, winter ling porridge...

After washing their hands, the dispatch personnel from the two counties immediately changed their previous ideas - the food in the Dali Temple was indeed good, worthy of being a superior government office!

Seeing them pick up their chopsticks, the five of them gathered around the small table, ready to eat, Wang Leisheng gasped: "Is this how you all eat? Right here?"

Ding Yuan raised his eyelids and looked at him, then stretched out his leg and kicked the frame of the small table two inches to the side as a sign of respect.

"okay."

Seeing that he was about to say something irrelevant again, Cui Bianxu stood up and interrupted him: "Follow me to Pingkangfang."

Without a head or a complete body, not even a complete piece of evidence, there is no way for someone to identify the body. Without even knowing the identity of the body, the case cannot be investigated further from this end.

This matter has not yet spread in Chang'an City. The people only know that a rich fool threw meat into the gutter, and they don't know that it is human flesh. Now they can only use the excuse of the dancer's disappearance case to go to Pingkangfang to see if there are any clues.

Upon hearing this, Wang Leisheng glanced again at the coroner team gathered over there for dinner, grinned, and quickly retracted his head to follow: "Shaoqing, wait for me. I'll go get the horse right away!"

The two men rode their horses through the city of Chang'an late at night. Every street and every market was filled with a dazzling array of colorful lanterns. Occasionally, they could see yamen runners and Jinwu Guards fishing in the drains, but there were no more people watching the fun.

If it was just someone who was bored and wasted money and threw away the pork, they certainly wouldn't have gossiped about it until late at night and watched the fun outside in the snow.

Cui Bianxu also met Wang Mingqian, who was patrolling the streets with his men. The two did not speak this time, but nodded from a distance as a greeting. This case was really too horrifying. If the murderer could not be caught as soon as possible, the people in the city would be in panic. The murderer's methods were so cruel that he cut people like slaughtering chickens and dogs. As long as the murderer was not caught, there would be a possibility that someone would be tortured to death in this way.

Even someone as sharp-tongued as Cui Bianxu no longer had the same thoughts as before.

Pingkangfang

"Shao Qing, the four dancers belong to four different brothels: Qichun Tower, Luoshui Tower, Changle Pavilion, and Qiuxiang Pavilion. I wonder which one you would like to visit first?"

Wang Leisheng spoke of the brothels in Pingkangfang in a manner so familiar that Cui Bianxu couldn't help but cast a subtle glance at him - wasn't it said that after finishing his shift, his wife would miss him if he returned home a little late?

Forget it, this is not the time to pursue the matter. I'll just let him work overtime in the future.

Cui Bianxu only knew Jinfenmeng in Pingkangfang, so he said, "The nearest one."

Since you have to go there anyway, just check each house according to distance.

"Hey! The nearest one is Luoshui Tower, Shaoqing, come this way." Without even thinking, Wang Leisheng pulled the reins and headed towards a small path.

"You may not have heard of this, Young Master. This Luoshui Tower in Pingkangfang was originally just a small brothel. Not only were the ladies there beautiful, but their dancing, singing, and musicality were all mediocre."

Wang Leisheng introduced the situation of Luoshui Tower to him: "Until the missing dancer named Qiu Niang came on stage, her green waist dance was like chasing the moon and sweeping the clouds. In one night, this originally inconspicuous Luoshui Tower was flooded with guests..."

At the end, thinking of Qiu Niang, who was probably dead, he couldn't help but reveal a sad expression: "What a pity for such a beautiful woman..."

Cui Bianxu only nodded after hearing this, but was actually surprised: "As far as I know, Jinfenmeng is the most famous in Pingkangfang. This time, the ten dancers..."

"Yes, how could it be otherwise?"

Wang Leisheng shook his big head like a proud bear: "Of course! Jinfenmeng has two dancers selected this time. Even the dancers who played the music and sang along are from Jinfenmeng."