Murong Ci briefly explained the matter, and Shen Zhiyan immediately guessed His Highness' intentions, "Your Highness wants to go to the mass grave."
Qin Ruo thought that His Highness was only here to discuss with Shen Zhiyan, but she didn't expect it to be like this. She hurriedly said: "Your Highness, it's late at night, it's not good to go to the mass grave."
Murong Ci ignored her, and said happily: "Let's go find those two corpses."
With new clues and breakthroughs, of course we have to investigate. Shen Zhiyan is too late to be happy, how could he refuse
It’s just that His Royal Highness’s precious body, how can you go to a dirty, evil place like a mass grave? If you bump into some evil spirits, what should you do
"Don't persuade me, I've made up my mind." Murong Ci resolutely said.
"Your Highness" Qin Ruo wanted to persuade her again, but was interrupted by Shen Zhiyan.
"Don't worry, I will protect His Highness." Shen Zhiyan knew very well that His Highness always said what he said.
"Qin Ruo, Ruyi is alone in the East Palace, so I don't feel at ease. After you go back, you pretend to be sleeping in this palace. What you did in the past, you will do tonight, you know?" Murong Ci ordered, patted Qin Ruo on the shoulder, "You Ride back."
Qin Ruo hesitated to speak, but with Shen Zhiyan accompanying His Highness, nothing should happen.
Shen Zhiyan went back to change his clothes, took an exquisitely shaped rosewood box, and then galloped towards the mass grave.
The mass grave was ten miles away from the north gate. The palace servants dragged the corpse out of the palace, and then pulled it to the mass grave with a bullock cart, and threw it away. At this time, the northern city gate has been closed, but he has the token of Dali Temple, and there is no delay in investigating the murder case, and the road is unimpeded.
The dark blue night is spread out like a top-quality brocade, and a few sparse stars emit bright light, and the bright moon is bright, covering the summer night with a hazy tulle.
The barking of dogs came from afar, and the chirping of birds added to the silence.
Arriving at the mass grave, Murong Ci and Shen Zhiyan tied the horse to a tree.
There are a few trees nearby, with luxuriant branches and leaves in summer, and the rustling sound is like the sigh of ghosts when the night wind passes by.
Looking at the past, the uneven mass graves under the night look like a tomb that has been silent for thousands of years. It is eerie and eerie, shrouded in blue light mist, which is creepy. Two crows suddenly fluttered into the air, quacking.
Shen Zhiyan is a bold man, he lives with dead bodies, cemeteries, mass graves and so on are like his home, he is a little excited and full of energy. Because he felt that the two people who died in Chunwu Courtyard might be the breakthrough of what happened in the past few days.
Murong Ci has always prided himself on being bold and careful, but it was the first time he saw a scene full of corpses, and he still felt numb and hesitant to move forward.
The air was filled with the strong stench of corpses, the smell of death, the smell of hell.
He opened the small box and took out two cloth towels, "This is my special one. Soak it in the exclusive and secret medicine for three days and three nights. It will be fine if you dig a grave for an autopsy or disembowel the corpse. You wear it too, Your Highness."
She took it and smelled a smell of ginger vinegar, "Why does it smell like ginger vinegar?"
"My secret recipe contains ginger vinegar and several medicinal materials."
With that said, Shen Zhiyan covered his mouth and nose with a cloth towel, and put on his thin gloves, "Your Highness, you stay here and wait for me."
Now that you have come, let's go all out, Murong Ci said: "I will look for it with you, it will be faster."
"Then be careful, Your Highness."
He picked up a relatively thick branch and handed it to her, "Remember, Your Highness, don't touch it with your hands."
She nodded and saw him walking towards the mass grave familiarly.
Fortunately, there is moonlight tonight, and the moonlight is pouring down like mercury, but it is not beautiful at all, what illuminates are the glistening white bones and the rotting, disgusting bones.
She poked this way and that with the branch, almost fainting from the stench of corpses.
"ah"
Hearing His Highness's exclamation, Shen Zhiyan ran over reflexively, and asked in panic, "Your Highness, what's wrong?"
To be honest, when he heard His Highness's cry, he was really frightened away.
Murong Ci grinned his teeth, and was about to cry in fright, "It seems that something caught Bengong's foot, is it a ghost's hand?"
He bent down to look, shook his head and smiled, "Don't be afraid, Your Highness, it's just a grass root."
She breathed a sigh of relief, but suddenly felt embarrassed again, "Isn't this Gong too timid?"
"It's the first time Your Highness has come to this kind of place. Naturally, some of the first time I went to dig a grave, I was also scared out of my wits."
He comforted thoughtfully and smiled.
The streamer of moonlight flows on his elegant and delicate eyebrows, like a flower blooming quietly, with unparalleled elegance.
Such an elegant and handsome man, with a beautiful appearance, actually has a mysterious infatuation for examining corpses, which can be called a community of contradictions.
Murong Ci was not so scared anymore, and the two continued to search.
"Zhiyan, there are two sacks here." She exclaimed happily, "This sack has the royal mark, this is it."
"I'll open it and have a look." Shen Zhiyan quickly cut open the sack, and it turned out to be two corpses.
Then, he dragged the two bodies to a flat place and let the bodies lie flat.
She squatted aside and stared at those two faces, "I don't know them. I don't know if they are palace ladies or concubines who have been demoted to ordinary people."
He started the autopsy, starting from the head. "The deceased was about forty years old. Judging from the spots on the corpse, he should have been dead for about four days without any injuries. The fatal injury was a three-inch wound on the neck. The face of the deceased The body and the whole body are frighteningly white because the blood has been drained."
"This is the same," Murong Ci asked another corpse.
"The same fatal injury." Shen Zhiyan inspected the limbs of the corpse, and continued, "The wounds on the necks of the two deceased were thin and long, which shows that the murderer was skillful in committing the crime, and killed him with a single knife."
"Hey, the thumb and index finger of this hand are tightly squeezed, which is a bit weird." She saw the hands curled up at her feet, obeying his orders, and did not touch them.
"Let me see." He raised that hand, facing the milky white moonlight.
The shape of that hand curled up was weird, especially the thumb and index finger, as if it was pinching something.
He looked at it carefully, gently pinched something, and then put down his hand, "It's a piece of hair."
Murong Ci raised his eyebrows in surprise, "The deceased is still pinching this hair after being dead for so long, maybe this hair belonged to the murderer, and the deceased got it from the murderer when he was dying."
"Although there are discoveries, a single hair does not seem to be of any use."
Shen Zhiyan was extremely disappointed, put this hair in a silk handkerchief, and then wrapped it up.
Then he inspected it carefully again, but found nothing but the fatal wound and the hair.
The pine wind blows, and the crows cry shrilly.
They rode back to the city, Shen Zhiyan sent His Highness outside the gate of the East Palace, Murong Ci watched him leave, then turned the horse's head and galloped in another direction.
Back in the East Palace, after bathing and changing, when she was about to be ugly, she lay down, maybe she was tired, and fell asleep in a while.
On the second day, she slept until almost noon before getting up.
After the meal, she took out the hair and found that it was mostly silver.
The murderer of the two unnamed dead women, then, was an elderly man, or grizzled.
"Your Highness, where did this hair come from?" His Highness stared at the tiny hair all the time, becoming curious.
"Naturally, it's the result of two hours of hard work with Mr. Shen last night." Qin Ruo speculated shrewdly, "Your Highness, this hair was found from the corpse."
"Qin Ruo, accompany me to Chunwu Courtyard." Murong Ci put away that hair, ordered Ruyi to put it away, and then walked outside.
Qin Ruo hurriedly followed, and persuaded: "The place of Chunwu Courtyard is full of filth and filth. Your Highness is rich and precious, so don't go there. The servant just goes there."
Murong Ci raised his slender eyebrows, "I've been to the mass graves, and there is no other place I can't go to."
Shen Zhiyan said that to investigate a murder case, you must do it yourself, and you can only trust your own eyes, because even if it is the same murder scene, everyone sees it differently, and some even have a world of difference.
If you see what no one else sees, that's often the key to solving a murder.
Walking around in the palace, if the place to go is far away, the prince will have to sit on the shoulder. But she likes to walk on foot by herself, often being carried by others, she will become more and more lazy, and will lose the unique joy of walking. As a prince, she likes to do things by herself.
Chunwu Courtyard is a large courtyard, and there are many simple houses in it. Compared with the splendor and majesty of other palaces, the difference is heaven and hell.
Murong Ci stood ten feet in front of Chunwu Courtyard, looking at the thick and mottled door with peeling vermilion paint.
Qin Ruo's voice was faint, "Stepping into this threshold is to enter another world, heaven and hell, light and darkness."
Mu Qingci strode in, and the summer breeze came blowing in, mixed with the pungent musty and decaying smell, so strong that it enveloped people and almost suffocated them.
Qin Ruo waved vigorously with her sleeve, but she couldn't shake it off at all, as if the air here was so dirty and dirty.
In desperation, she took out a silk handkerchief and handed it to His Royal Highness to cover his mouth and nose.
"No need."
Murong Ci walked in slowly, facing a hall with an open horizontal direction, but it was in disrepair for a long time, full of mottled traces of wind and rain erosion, years of corrosion, and full of spider webs. Yet this hall is a sanctuary for those within, a place where they meet every day.
The porch was full of people, all of whom seemed to be enjoying the shade.
Those old or young women were wearing dirty old clothes, with unkempt faces, and the mud on their faces could probably be rubbed off for several layers, covering up their original faces. Some had pimples all over their faces and hands, and they were sick; some scratched and got lice all over them;
Qin Ruo felt her stomach churning violently, she frowned and said, "Your Highness, why don't you go out first."
Murong Ci's face turned pale, and his internal organs were overwhelmed, as if a stream of acid wanted to rush out. However, she held back.
Here, it is hell.
The people here can be said to no longer exist in this world. They have no hope, no light, no future; they live with lice and flies all day long, without food and clothing, like walking corpses; they have only darkness, sickness, and endless despair; they are forgotten by the world, and even a speck of dust is lost Rather, even a word like humble is a luxury when used on them.
Their eyes are hollow, their faces are scarred, and their tattered clothes are like shrouds, about to wrap them in the abyss of darkness.