Chapter 140: Wenxin Pavilion Falling Incident (Part 1)
The fall occurred in a three-story restaurant called Wenxin Pavilion.
When Sun Shaozong and his men rushed to the scene of the fall, they saw a corpse lying on its back on the ground, with the back of its head hitting the stone pier on which the flagpole was inserted. It was a typical death by sheer force.
Seeing that someone had died, and the victim was a newly-appointed scholar, Sun Shaozong immediately ordered, "Zhou Da, take your men to seal the front and back doors of this restaurant. No one is allowed to enter or leave without my order!"
"Lin Delu, go find out which room the deceased fell from, and then protect the scene!"
Zhou Da and Lin Delu took the order and left. Sun Shaozong then walked to the body, squatted down and examined it carefully.
The deceased was a young man of about 25 years old, of medium height, slightly plump, with fair and shiny skin. There were some slight calluses on his right hand, which should be the result of long-term writing - it seems that he was a pampered person in his daily life.
The deceased had a strong smell of alcohol on his body, as if he had drunk a lot of alcohol before falling from the building - but for the time being, we cannot rule out the possibility that the murderer was deliberately creating confusion.
The deceased's expression was relatively peaceful, his muscles were relaxed, and his hands were naturally spread out, without the common grasping posture of people who fall - preliminary analysis shows that he was unconscious or in a confused state when he fell.
There were no other wounds on the deceased's body, but the back of his head had been severely deformed due to the violent impact, which was enough to cover up the signs of secondary injury - so it was impossible to determine whether he had been attacked before falling from the building.
"Dong Weng."
Cheng Rixing looked at him curiously for a while and couldn't help but comment: "It looks like he accidentally fell down after drinking too much - five years ago, a newly-appointed Jinshi accidentally drowned after getting drunk in the Spring Examination."
“It’s possible.”
As Sun Shaozong spoke, he carefully turned the corpse over.
A lot of brain matter that had been blocked in the cranial cavity suddenly poured out, white and greasy, causing a burst of exclamations of horror from the people around. Cheng Rixing even jumped far away like a rabbit.
Sun Shaozong turned a blind eye and continued to examine the head and neck carefully.
Suddenly, his eyes stopped at the lower back of the deceased, and after a while he lowered his head and put his nose close to it.
Before he could smell anything, he heard someone in the crowd screaming, "He...he's eating that guy's brain!"
The onlookers were immediately in an uproar, and some of the timid and cowardly ones tried to slip away immediately.
Damn~
What kind of look is this?!
Sun Shaozong raised his head speechlessly, and was about to explain a few words, but Cheng Rixing had already put his hands on his hips and shouted, "My master is Sun Tongpan, the 'Divine Judge' of Shuntian Prefecture. He is currently investigating a case. Which unruly person dares to speak nonsense here?!"
When they heard that it was the "divine judge" Sun Tongpan who was in person, the crowd was in an uproar again.
But this time no one was willing to leave. They all looked at Sun Shaozong with burning eyes, wanting to see how this famous "divine judge" master solved the case.
Several people inside hurriedly dragged the white-bearded old man in front of Cheng Rixing.
The old man was already terrified. Without waiting for anyone to testify, he kowtowed and begged, "Sir, please spare my life, sir, please spare my life. I was really wrong and didn't mean to slander you, sir!"
Cheng Rixing glared at him, ready to attack him, but he heard Sun Shaozong say, "Forget it, considering his old age, let's spare him this time."
As he spoke, he leaned over and sniffed the lower back of the corpse, then pulled up the dead man's clothes and observed him from several different angles in the sunlight.
After confirming his guess, he immediately stood up and said, "Let's go upstairs and take a look."
As soon as the voice fell, someone asked in a flurry:
"Sir, was Brother Su Nian murdered by someone?"
"Mr. Tongpan, is the murderer trying to kill for money or revenge?!"
"Sir, you have been looking for a long time just now. What did you find out?"
"Yes, sir, what clues did you find?"
It turned out that during this short period of time, many people gathered around to watch the fun, including the scholars and candidates from the provincial government who lived nearby.
These people were proud of their achievements and were not as afraid of the government as ordinary people. Therefore, when they saw Sun Shaozong finish examining the corpse and prepare to go upstairs, they all started asking questions.
In theory, everything found at the crime scene should be kept confidential.
However, considering that there are a large number of scholars and juren gathered nearby, if we keep concealing the truth, who knows what rumors might spread, which cause panic among the people, which would be bad.
Besides, after the Lu Ming Banquet tomorrow, there will be many people here who will become his "disciples", so it is necessary to leave an unfathomable impression in advance.
Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong said solemnly: "Many of you will enter the officialdom in the future, and will inevitably be involved in criminal cases. Well, I will make an exception today and explain the key points a little bit."
Everyone was overjoyed when they heard this, and they pricked up their ears and held their breath.
Sun Shaozong pointed at the corpse and said, "This person reeks of alcohol. It seems that he fell from a building after being drunk and died."
"But after a preliminary observation, we can find that his muscles are very relaxed and his palms are naturally spread out, without any signs of grasping."
At this point, seeing that everyone around him was confused, he had to explain: "When a person is under high stress, the skin and flesh will automatically tighten and harden. A person who falls is just like a drowning person, and will always struggle to grab something."
Finally someone suddenly realized and shouted, "Your Excellency means that he wasn't nervous at all when he fell, and he didn't struggle at all?!"
“That’s right!”
Sun Shaozong first confirmed the man's statement, and then added: "To be precise, he should have been unconscious when he fell - of course, if he was drunk, there is a certain chance that he would be in a similar state."
"But after I turned the body over, I found a small trail of wet marks on his lower back, and I confirmed that they were traces ."
At this time, someone asked in confusion: "Sir, what is a dragging wet mark?"
"Well..."
Sun Shaozong pondered for a moment, then gave an analogy: "When you wipe something with a wet rag, it always leaves a wet mark like a thread. This mark is the so-called 'drag'."
"On the contrary, if there is a puddle of water on the ground, cover it with a clean cloth, press it down and drag it hard, the same mark will appear on the clean cloth."
"If this mark appeared on the front of the chest, it could be caused by the deceased's carelessness, but now it is on the lower back!"
"Therefore, I infer that the deceased was most likely dragged to the window by someone after he was unconscious or dead , and then pushed down with force!"
