February is like Peach Blossom

Looking at the corpse, I came to the conclusion: "There were a total of four people who died in this homicide case."

The people present were a little surprised. Huang Xiaotao looked at me with puzzlement in her eyes.

Luo Weiwei was after all a forensic examiner. She was the first to react, asking, "Are you suggesting that she was pregnant?"

I pointed at the uterus exposed outside the corpse's body, "Isn't this obvious?"

Wearing a mask, I couldn't see Luo Weiwei's expression clearly, but from her eyes I could tell she had a very disdainful look, "Obvious? I think you're just talking nonsense. You haven't even done an autopsy yet you're jumping to conclusions. Forensics is scientific. Science doesn't rely on guessing."

"Miss Luo, how reliant are you on instruments? The Washing Injustice Collection records: 'One month pregnant is like white dew; two months like peach blossoms; three months the sexes separate.' Judging from the peach blossom petal shape on the uterus, the deceased was already two months pregnant." I said.

Luo Weiwei frowned and muttered, "I don't believe that Washing Injustice Collection nonsense. It's just a novel read by commoners."

I smiled. Novels read by commoners? This forensic examiner really knew how to put labels on me. Just then, I said, "What tests do you want to do? Go ahead."

Luo Weiwei glared at me, immediately took out a cotton swab, collected some secretions from the uterus, and took them to the forensics department for testing.

She had just left when Wang Dali came in with three coats, asking, "Why did that hot forensic examiner storm off... Whoa!"

When he caught sight of the ghastly corpse on the iron bed, he was so frightened that he cried out and quickly turned his head away.

"Wimp!" Huang Xiaotao said disdainfully.

I asked Wang Dali to help put coats on us. Instantly I felt much warmer. Not daring to look at the corpse again, Wang Dali looked elsewhere, saying, "Yang Zi, do you need anything else? I'll go buy it now."

"Go get me a medicinal herb called Wooden Butterfly, then buy a bottle of linseed oil or olive oil, and two stainless steel pots, one big and one small." I instructed.

"You're cooking?" Wang Dali was a little puzzled.

I laughed and scolded, "Idiot, don't say things like that in front of a corpse, okay? Be careful something comes looking for you at night when you're sleeping."

Wang Dali shivered in fear. Putting his palms together, he quickly said "sorry" to the deceased several times, then asked me, "What is this Wooden Butterfly thing? Do drugstores sell it? I don't know where there's a Chinese medicine shop around here."

"Wooden Butterfly is also called Jade Butterfly and Thousand-layer Paper. You don't need to go to a Chinese medicine shop. Just go to the health tea section in the supermarket. Help me get four liang, get the best quality ones." I instructed.

"No need to tell me that. I'm going." Wang Dali hurried off.

"Wait!" I called out to him. Then I lifted up the white sheets covering the second and third corpses to check them briefly. As expected, the male victim's head and body were separated, with multiple knife wounds on his body. A long section of intestines spilled from his abdomen. His palms were rigidly clenched, as if he had tightly gripped a knife before his death. I moved his arms around a few times to prepare for the inspection to come.

The situation of the elderly female victim was not as terrible. The glass fragments on her body had been cleaned up, leaving just some cuts and stab wounds, none too deep. Both eye sockets were damaged, congealed with blackish-red blood, looking like two deep black holes.

I placed my palm under the corpse and felt around, finding that the fatal injuries were a broken spine and shattered occipital bone.

I said to Wang Dali, "Also buy some elastic waistbands used for pants, a sturdy wooden stick, some large sewing needles, a magnet, and some heavy duty adhesive hooks."

"Got it!"

Wang Dali acknowledged and left.

I returned to the first corpse. Huang Xiaotao tilted her head, studying the deceased's uterus, and said, "Song Yang, how did you see that she was pregnant? What's the scientific basis behind this 'two months like peach blossoms'?"

"Count how many petals this peach blossom has." I pointed out.

"Five petals." Huang Xiaotao replied.

"What color?"

"Pink."

"Is there a faint stem behind it?"

Huang Xiaotao looked closely, "There really is!"

I explained to her that the peach blossom shape emerging on the uterus was actually an embryo in its initial form. The five petals were precisely its four limbs and head. That 'stem' was the umbilical cord.

Huang Xiaotao suddenly understood, lamenting, "How cruel, a two month old fetus, just like that went to the netherworld with its mother."

I sighed, "Yes!"

Luckily it was only two months. At this time the fetus could not yet be considered a person. It would truly count as one corpse two lives if it happened at 'five months when tendons and bones form.'

Moreover, that kind of death left very strong resentment in the deceased. After the autopsy, the coroner would have to repeatedly fumigate themselves with mugwort leaves, otherwise they could bring out the resentment of the unborn child.

If there was a pregnant woman in the family, she would definitely be affected, giving birth to a freakish infant!

These freakish infants often had four hands and four feet or two heads. This was not a conjoined twin but rather what medicine called a chimera, two bodies fused together, as if another infant had forcefully hitched a ride to be reborn.

Many of the taboos passed down from ancestors had profound meanings behind them. Although they gradually became meaningless rituals, grandfather taught me to never simply view them as feudal superstitions, otherwise I would surely suffer calamity. I generally adhered firmly to such taboos.

I called for Wang Yuanchao to pass me the Listening Bones from his bag.

I used the Listening Bones one by one to listen to the bone sounds of the deceased and determined the time of death to be around forty hours ago. Although the death report stated it very clearly, I still had to go through the necessary procedures in case anything was missed.

Just then, Luo Weiwei walked in holding a report. I asked her, "Are the test results out?"

She mumbled haltingly, "I admit I was wrong this time. The deceased was indeed two months pregnant." The onlooking police uttered whispers, their gaze towards me becoming somewhat different than before.

Wrong? How laughable.

I said, "Then let me make another guess. The order of death was: the husband killed the mother, then the wife, and finally the husband committed suicide!"

Luo Weiwei snorted, "Advisor Song, are you joking? The husband was usually very filial. How could he possibly kill his mother, even if he was in an altered mental state at the time."

I retorted, "Miss Luo, did you buy your forensic examiner credentials? Do you need to consider the familial relations of the deceased when doing an autopsy?"

Luo Weiwei's eyes turned somewhat awkward. She said shrilly, "Unfounded accusations. Prove it to me if you can!"

I said to Wang Yuanchao, "Uncle Wang, help me get an ultraviolet lamp from forensics."

Wang Yuanchao acknowledged and left. I picked up the deceased husband's left hand and gently squeezed the fingertips. Tiny objects immediately emerged from them. Of course I could see them clearly with my eyesight, but the others could not.

Wang Yuanchao brought an ultraviolet lamp over. Huang Xiaotao joked, "How novel, now even you are using advanced instruments?"

I laughed, "Combining Chinese and Western methods!"

Coroner work was also an ancient science. It would adapt to the actual conditions of each era. Take this UV lamp for example. Ancient people also used UV for autopsies, but with the technology back then, getting UV was difficult. The corpse had to be moved under the sun, then special medicated gauze used to filter the sunlight.

Having this device now made things much more convenient. Why would I forgo what was near to seek the far?

I shone the UV lamp on the deceased's fingers. The UV lamp could make tiny objects clearly visible, like hairs and dander. After seeing clearly, Luo Weiwei suddenly stared wide-eyed, beads of cold sweat emerging on her forehead.

I smiled coldly at her, "See what's on the deceased's fingers!"