Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
Because of the frowning eyes, Shangguan Yangyus’s two triangular eyes looked even uglier. He gently rubbed the sparse beard under his jaw, looking at Lin Ling with an abomination, and said, “Indeed, you have brought back the return document from the Military Ministry and Imperial Center Administration also proved your identity. So the government won’t punish you for your leaving the barrack privately. However, you should be aware that the case has already ended for a long time. If the coffin is to be reexamined for your unproved words, isn’t it too rash?”
Those words showed that the conversation between the two sides did not go well previously in the yamen of Chang’an Local Government, let alone a pleasant dialogue. After a moment of silence, Lin Ling said softly, “Dear prefectural magistrate, if Chang’an Local Government insists in not re-examinating the coffin, I have to invite someone of the Military Ministry.”
“You’re using Military Ministry to threaten me?” Shangguan Yangyu had always been a coward official. But now he had the opportunity to be the leader of the local government in Chang’an and was unwilling to lose face in front of his subordinates. So he sneered and reminded the opposite. “The censor is buried in the tomb. Even if the case is changed, it’s also the capital’s security problem. If the government doesn’t say anything, even the Military Ministry is not justified to intervene it. Do you need me to go to the Royal Government arguing with your general?”
Lin Ling thought about the military adviser’s suggestions before the departure and looked at the prefectural magistrate of Chang’an City. He suddenly understood something and said with a smile, “Your Grace, I just found something doubtful. So I informed Chang’an Local Government. Since you’re willing to come to the cemetery, you must naturally want to investigate the case. But I just don’t know what you need me to pay attention to. Please say it bluntly.”
Shangguan Yangyu became slightly happy. After gently rubbing the beard and thinking for a moment, he said emotionlessly, “If any case has something doubtful, whether the censor’s or ordinary people’s, the government is on behalf of his Majesty to manage the jurisdiction of Chang’an City and naturally has to seriously deal with it. But you have to be clear, this matter has nothing to do with the Military Ministry or General Xia Hou.”
Lin Ling understood the implicit meaning in the prefectural magistrate’s words. After a moment of pondering, he lowered the voice to ask, “I’ve returned to Chang’an for other business. But accidentally I discovered… something wrong with the censor’s remains in the tomb?”
“That’s it.” Shangguan Yangyu glanced at him indifferently and said, “And you have to remember that regardless of the later outcome of opening the coffin, you can only secretly investigate it before finding the suspicious culprit. Especially don’t let the wife of Censor Mansion know it.”
An officer who listened to these words said embarrassedly, “Your Grace, if you want to open the coffin to have an autopsy, you’d better inform the Censor Mansion. Otherwise, it’ll be very hard for us to be in the right if we later start a lawsuit.”
Shangguan Yangyu listened to the subordinate’s advice but did not answer, still quietly watching Lin Ling. The meaning of his reaction was very clear. The opposite must bear the responsibility of ignoring the Censor Mansion to open the coffin.
Neither in the name of the Military Ministry or General Xia Hou, if it did not go well later, one also had to bear the responsibility. Lin Ling’s face showed a bitter smile. He thought that Chang’an city’s officials, whether the Book officials he has dealt with the other day or the prefectural magistrate who lowered the status to come on his own today, were all so cunning.
If under other circumstances, Lin Ling was certainly unwilling to bear the responsibility. Without the protection of Military Ministry and the general, even if he was a Psyche Master in Seethrough state, he would get in trouble when facing the anger of the Censor Mansion. However, ordered by the general, he was very sure there was something wrong with the remains in the tomb. So after a moment of silence, he watched the officer Shangguan Yangyu and nodded to say, “As you wish.”
“Very good.” Shangguan Yangyu looked calm but began to feel the rising anxiety inside the heart. This Psyche Master from the northeastern border army dared to bear such a heavy responsibility, which showed that he was very sure about the situation in the tomb. Therefore, there seemed to be some conspiracies hidden in the censor Zhang Yiqi’s death.
The coroner official held all kinds of tools waiting beside the censor’s tomb. Until at noon in the spring, with the most positive Qi in a day, the cemetery workers shouted loudly and transferred a clean tomb that was swept by the family yesterday into a noisy site under the command of Chang’an Local Government officials.
The tomb was opened from the back, with a black coffin lying peacefully in the damp grave. The workers put the wooden racks above the tomb and tied seven ropes. They shouted together and spent a long time to hang the heavy coffin up.
As the coffin was opened, Shangguan Yangyu quickly covered his nose with a handkerchief, only to find nothing smelly after a moment. He frowned and looked inside at a distance from the crowd. He saw the coronery who was stooping his body to have a careful autopsy and vaguely saw something that might be the bones or funeral objects.
After a moment, the coroner went outside the crowd and bowed to Shangguan Yangyu with a respect. Then he uncovered the oil-soaked mask on the nose and mouth. And the sound was made accompanied by a rich mint smell.
“Your Grace, I didn’t find anything doubtful.”
“Ah?” Upon hearing this, Shangguan Yangyu glanced at Lin Ling who kept silent beside. His eyes did not show anger or disappointment after being fooled by others, but showed the sense of questioning, for he clearly knew it was certainly not so simple.
Lin Ling looked at the coroner and asked, “Have you checked the censor’s head?”
“Of course I did.” The coroner did not know his identity, so he answered it very bluntly.
After a long time of silence, Lin Ling looked at Shangguan Yangyu and said, “There is a hard object stuck in the censor’s skull. I’m not sure it’s an iron nail or something else.”
Shangguan Yangyu sneered at him and thought his subordinate would never covet the first credit. As long as he delayed for a few minutes, someone really still could not hold anymore. He indifferently said with slight ridicule, “I heard that it was extremely inauspicious for a Psyche Master to check the remains of the deceased with Psyche Power. You have kept silent on it before. So I can understand you.”
Lin Ling looked a bit pale and said with a self-deprecated bitter smile, “In order to maintain the dignity of the Tang’s law and keep justice for the government officials, at this crucial moment I have to ignore some rules for the time being.”
“Good point.” Shangguan Yangyu slightly lifted the jaw and indifferently said, “So if there is any discovery, you’d better say it in advance. Don’t waste our time and efforts.”
Lin Ling calmly accepted it and then no longer hid anything. He directly led Shangguan Yangyu and the coroner to the black coffin, and raised his arm to point at the remains covered by the cloth. He said, “It should be indented in the scalp. So we can’t see it with naked eyes. If you remove all the fur and scalp, you can find the problem.”
Respect was also needed for the deceased if a coroner official opened the coffin and examined the corpse. The coroner seldom opened the belly or disemboweled, not to mention a Tang censor lying in the coffin now. When the coroner heard that he needed to peel off the entire scalp, he could not help but embarrassedly saw the prefectural magistrate and rubbed the hands to ask, “Your Grace?”
“Just do it.” Shangguan Yangyu indifferently said, “If you can’t find any problems, someone will naturally take the initiative to plead guilty to the imperial court. The Censor Mansion wouldn’t be angry with a nobody like you.”
Lin Ling silently stood next to the coffin and shook his head with a bitter smile. He thought at this time the man actually did not forget to repeat and stress it like a rustic villain rather than the prefectural magistrate of Chang’an City with a high status.
At this time Chang’an Local Government’s clerks and runners circled around the coffin and drove the curious cemetery workers away. They looked at the coroner’s movements and could not help but guess what was under the scalp.
The remains of the censor in the coffin have long been decayed, and the cloth strand clinging to the hair has already been lost. The scattered thin hair adhered to the scalp. The coroner carefully removed the fur and the mud-like scalp below. Then he sprinkled water on the slightly yellowish white skull and wiped it with cloth for a few times.
A very small wound appeared on the top of the skull, on which there was stained blood or coagulation of carrion. With the cloth wipe and water rinse, it became clearer and clearer so as to see the thing inside the wound.
The officers and the local government runners around the coffin all held their breath. Shangguan Yangyu kept furrowing the brows. With the coroner moving the hawkbill with his hand, people became tenser and stiffer.
Just like extracting a rusted knife from a bone, the horrifying sound came from inside the coffin. With full sweat on the forehead, the coroner prevented the skull from being ripped off by pressing it with one hand and slowly pulled out that thing with the other hand. He finally took out the hard object hidden in the censor’s skull.
It was a very long iron nail. Maybe it has been soaked in the blood or corpse water for too long, which has been covered with rust, but the front was still extremely sharp.
Watching the nail in the coroner ‘s hands, the crowd next to the coffin all gulped, as if seeing that one day last year, the censor’s skull was stuck by a cold iron nail. They could not help but feel shocked and kept shaking the head. Someone even subconsciously shrank the neck.
Lin Ling has always been quiet beside, for only he had basically been able to determine what would be seen in advance at this moment. He looked at the prefectural magistrate of Chang’an City who wore an extremely awkward expression and said calmly, “Your Grace, here is the doubt. Next, it’s Chang’an Local Government’s business to investigate it. I’ll no longer participate in it.”
Shangguan Yangyu silently stared at the rusted nail for a long time. Suddenly he looked up at the man and coldly said, “My investigation naturally doesn’t need your participation. But I must remind you that when time is mature, I’ll naturally report the matter to the Penalty Ministry and write a paper to his Majesty. If I hear some rumors outside before the real culprit is found, don’t blame me for involving the general.”
Lin Ling greeted a bow with hands folded in front, and then got away from the cemetery.
…
…
Ning Que did not know the censor Zhang Yiqi’s coffin has been reopened and reexamined by Chang’an Local Government, and the iron nail he stuck in the brain has also been found. So he did not know that when he had just embarked on the revenge road for less than a year, the heavy haze has been overshadowed his way.
He still felt it was brilliantly bright on his way ahead, for in another two days it was the opening day of the Second floor of the Academy, exactly the time when he was determined to take a chance.
This day, the spring was warm and the scenery was beautiful. In order to cheer up the six people like Xie Chengyun in the course of magic skills to Second floor, the other Academy students went to an elegant and expensive feast. Among them, there was Ning Que dragged by Situ Yilan.
