"Who is he?" Zhong Li asked, voicing her doubt.
A constable busy at the scene approached with a small notebook, "His name is Yuan Shang, from the Liu family troupe at Huanxi Tower."
Huanxi Tower, as it truly was.
Hearing this, Zhong Li narrowed her eyes, recalling the "Nanping Tune" she had read. She asked, "Who did he play in Nanping Tune?"
The young constable shook his head. He was merely a commoner; Huanxi Tower was a place frequented by noble lords. Naturally, he wouldn't know.
"Wang Ding," a voice sounded from behind Zhong Li.
Everyone turned to see Lu Wuxie appear at the doorway, seemingly very tired. His eyes were half-closed, and dark circles under them suggested he had been up all night without rest.
Zhong Li glanced at him and said, "Thank you," before turning back to her work.
Lu Wuxie did not disturb her. He had Lin Jin bring a chair and sat in the small courtyard outside the study, simply waiting.
"Help me!" Now that she knew the identity of the deceased, Zhong Li's next step was to determine the cause of death. She moved a chair and instructed the constables nearby, "Help me!"
The constables understood and quickly moved a table.
Zhong Li placed the chair on the table and stood on it. Finding the ceiling beam still out of reach, she casually looped a rope handed to her by a constable around a beam not far away. Using the pulling force of the rope and the pillars inside the room, she peered at the dust on the beam where the man had hanged himself.
Then, she took a small stick handed to her by another constable and tapped the rope that held the man a few times.
When she felt the rope's resilience was not as good as she expected, she already had a clearer conclusion in mind.
She jumped down from the chair, looked at the deceased man's hands, thought for a moment, and said, "Everyone, help me. He can be brought down now."
Upon hearing this, everyone got busy.
The constables from Dali Temple were not as lax as those in Anping County. In a blink, the man's body was carried and placed before Zhong Li.
Zhong Li crouched beside the body, examining the knot on the deceased's neck and his neck itself. She then opened his mouth and inspected it. Looking up at everyone in the room and the courtyard, she said, "As I suspected, Yuan Shang was murdered and then hung here."
As she spoke, all eyes turned to Lu Wuxie.
Lu Wuxie, however, seemed not to hear, basking in the sun as if dozing.
Some constables new to Dali Temple, curious about Zhong Li, the female coroner personally appointed by the Emperor with a golden scalpel, couldn't help but ask, "Miss Zhong, on what basis do you say that?"
Zhong Li began to examine Yuan Shang's body externally and replied, "Just now, I climbed onto the ceiling beam and found that the dust marks caused by the noose were only in one place, unlike the messy marks left by a normal person hanging themselves. This already indicates that Yuan Shang's hanging is suspicious.
Afterwards, I tapped the tightness of Yuan Shang's rope. Considering Yuan Shang's height and weight, the rope was not as taut as one would expect for a normally hanged person. Looking at Yuan Shang's arms, although they hung by his sides like those of a hanged person, upon closer inspection, they were slightly bent. And the most important point is the neck."
As she spoke, her gloved hand gently moved Yuan Shang's neck. Two seemingly overlapping ligature marks were clearly visible on the neck, one of which went behind his ear.
"This strongly suggests that Yuan Shang was strangled, not that he hanged himself as we see."
"Then who killed him?" As Zhong Li's words fell, someone voiced this question.
Almost simultaneously, all gazes returned to Lu Wuxie.
Zhong Li, without looking up, knew what they were thinking. She was busy searching Yuan Shang's outer clothing and casually said, "The killer of Yuan Shang is important, but more importantly, how did a performer from Huanxi Tower end up in Prince Xian's mansion?"
As soon as she finished speaking, the attention of those around her indeed shifted away from Lu Wuxie, and they began to discuss and speculate among themselves.
"Could he have sneaked in himself?" a constable wondered.
Zhong Li glanced at him, her gaze falling on Steward Zhu not far away. "Steward Zhu, has Prince Xian's mansion ever been burgled?"
When asked this, Steward Zhu seemed slow to react, but then his eyes darted as he replied, "In the ten years since I've been in Prince Xian's mansion, there has been no talk of burglary."
Upon hearing this, Zhong Li turned her gaze to the household staff, her meaning obvious: unless someone within the mansion let Yuan Shang in, he couldn't have sneaked in.
"Then could it be..." another constable began, his gaze falling on Lu Wuxie, who was sleeping with his face covered by a fan. The implied meaning was clear to everyone.
Zhong Li let out a cold laugh. "If you were the Heir Apparent, would you place the person you wanted to kill in your own study and then wait for the Dali Temple to investigate the next day?"
"This... then someone framed him?" the constable continued to speculate.
This time, Zhong Li did not reply, but instead began to examine the items on Yuan Shang one by one. His purse contained some loose silver, the jade pendant at his waist was not worth much, and the only thing worth noting was a small black box.
The box was about the size of a palm. When opened, it contained combs for men's makeup, several face patches, and the only noticeable items were a few golden floral adornments mixed among them.
"These floral adornments are quite unique," Zhong Li remarked involuntarily as she examined a golden one in her palm.
Lan Heng walked over, took the floral adornment and the box from her, and observed them for a moment. "Based on their style, these golden floral adornments are typically worn by women when they get married."
"Why would Yuan Shang be carrying this at such a late hour? And why is he wearing stage costumes?" Zhong Li wondered.
Lan Heng thought for a moment, then turned to Xing'er and asked, "Did any of our lords summon anyone from Huanxi Tower to perform opera at the mansion yesterday?"
"No," Xing'er replied immediately.
Zhong Li glanced at Xing'er and set the box aside to continue her examination. When she reached the man's lower body, her movements paused.
Lan Heng noticed her action and quickly asked, "What is it? Did you find something?"
Zhong Li swept her gaze over everyone and lifted Yuan Shang's robe.
The next moment, Xing'er's scream echoed through the study.
It turned out that Yuan Shang's lower body was completely unclothed, and his 'thing' was openly 'hanging' outside.
Lan Heng, seeing this, even as a man who had seen many corpses, couldn't help but show a hint of embarrassment on his face.
Zhong Li, however, remained composed. She glanced at the scene, then at Yuan Shang's robe, and said, "He needs to be taken back to Dali Temple for further examination of his scrotum. But if I'm not mistaken, the deceased had sexual intercourse before his death."
Lan Heng didn't quite understand the latter part of Zhong Li's statement, but he could somewhat grasp that Yuan Shang had been intimate with someone before his death.
Since the body was discovered in Prince Xian's mansion, Dali Temple had sealed off the entire area. Now was a good time to find clues.
"Someone!" Lan Heng stood up and called out.
"Sir." Xu Qing quickly walked to his side.
"Go search the rooms of everyone in Prince Xian's mansion, especially the women's."
"Yes!" Xu Qing bowed.
"Wait." Just as Xu Qing was about to leave, Zhong Li suddenly called out to stop him.
Xu Qing turned back to look at Zhong Li, showing a hint of impatience. He never liked this woman. After all, before she arrived, he was the second-in-command at Dali Temple besides Lan Heng. Now, with a female coroner parachuted in by the Emperor, her official rank was not as high as his, but with the golden scalpel in her hand, she could order people around without issue.
"Excuse me, Sir Xu, please check if any personnel in Prince Xian's mansion are suddenly missing," Zhong Li reminded him.
Xu Qing sneered, "Miss Zhong, does Dali Temple need you to remind it how to conduct its investigation?"
With that, he turned and walked out of the study.