Chapter 282: Chapter 282: He Brought the Witness!
The butcher came forward, sniffed, and nodded repeatedly, saying with great certainty, "Mmm, yes, this is the medicine!"
Advisor Wang nodded, rose, and went to Lord Han, confirming, "My Lord, there’s no doubt. The deceased was poisoned by drinking the medicine in this jar."
Then he looked at the Sun Clan members, threw the medicine jar on the ground, and said sternly, "Now you have nothing to say, do you?"
Zhao Zhitong couldn’t help but retort, "My Lord, how can a butcher perform an autopsy? What can he possibly see? As the saying goes, ’Different professions are worlds apart’! If his diagnosis is wrong and an innocent person is condemned, how is that different from wantonly taking lives?"
Being questioned like this, the butcher grew rather angry. He slapped his thigh and pointed at Zhao Zhitong, exclaiming, "You impudent child, spouting nonsense! I’ve performed autopsies on countless corpses in our county town, and no one has ever said a butcher can’t do it. Are you looking down on us butchers performing autopsies?"
Zhao Zhitong ignored his outburst and asked in return, "Fine. Let me ask you, did the deceased show any symptoms of constricted pupils?"
The butcher was stunned for a moment. He then went to check the corpse’s eyes and finally shook his head, saying, "No."
Zhao Zhitong asked again, "Let me ask you again, were there any obvious scratch marks on the body? And was the corpse’s spine arched backward like a bow?"
The butcher unconsciously swallowed, went to check the corpse again, and then shook his head once more.
Only then did Zhao Zhitong continue, "The reactions to strychnos seeds poisoning include headache, dizziness, nausea, full-body itching, a slow heart rate, constricted pupils, and overall muscle tension. Subsequently, opisthotonos will occur."
"Since the corpse doesn’t show any of these symptoms, how did you determine she died of strychnos seeds poisoning?"
Zhao Zhitong’s series of questions left the butcher speechless and red-faced with embarrassment.
The one questioning him was clearly just a nine-year-old girl, but at this point, no one treated her as such.
Zhao Zhitong put on gloves, walked to the side of the corpse, and began her examination, continuing, "The deceased’s face shows bruising, cyanosis, and swelling. She has been dead for less than six hours, yet livor mortis has already appeared. It manifested earlier, is more pronounced than usual, and is widely distributed."
"The pupils are dilated, the hands and feet show signs of cramping, and the abdomen appears to have bruising. These are typical characteristics of death by mechanical asphyxia."
The scene was silent; everyone was watching the main hall of the medical clinic. After Zhao Zhitong began the autopsy, Magistrate Han had moved from the doorway to the side of the corpse, watching as she continued her explanation.
When he heard something unfamiliar, he would ask with confusion, "What is death by mechanical asphyxia?"
Zhao Zhitong thought for a moment and explained, "It refers to death caused by suffocation due to physical violence that prevents breathing. Examples include hanging, ligature strangulation, manual strangulation, smothering by covering the mouth and nose, or compressing the chest and abdomen."
Magistrate Han nodded and asked, "What else?"
At this point, San Lengzi’s eldest son, upon hearing Zhao Zhitong’s series of statements, rushed over agitatedly, shouting, "Don’t touch my mother’s corpse! You’re criminals! You killed my mother! Don’t touch my mother’s corpse!"
"Stop him!"
Magistrate Han, by this point, was captivated by Zhao Zhitong’s autopsy demonstration and immediately ordered his men to restrain the furious Tie Dan.
Magistrate Han said, "Young girl, please continue."
Zhao Zhitong nodded. She took a pair of tweezers from her person (in reality, from her space) and extracted a wisp of cotton from the deceased’s nostrils, explaining, "There’s cotton in the deceased’s nostrils. Her fingernails are cracked and have broken cloth threads caught in them. This proves she was smothered to death by someone covering her mouth and nose with a quilt, and she struggled fiercely."
At this, Advisor Wang hurriedly asked, "Then how do you explain the medicine in the deceased’s mouth?"
Zhao Zhitong replied, "If I’m not mistaken, the medicine was poured into her mouth after her death. It only coated her oral cavity and didn’t reach her stomach."
"To confirm this, dissecting the abdomen will make everything clear."
Upon hearing that the corpse needed to be dissected, the deceased’s husband and her two sons became unwilling.
To them, desecrating a corpse was highly disrespectful, as they believed it would prevent the deceased from resting in peace. Most people were unwilling to allow it.
Zhao Zhitong said, "My Lord, as you can see, there might be something unusual about the cause of death."
San Lengzi and his two sons were crouched weeping beside the corpse, crying out for the magistrate to deliver justice for them.
At that moment, Zhao Yue walked in from the entrance. He went straight to San Lengzi and his sons, crouched beside them, and sighed, "Ah, how pitiful. Smothered alive... Look at her purplish face, the signs of suffocation and struggle. The deceased must have suffered terribly before she died."
As he spoke, his gaze swept over the three of them. He keenly observed that the eldest son, Wang Tiedan, stiffened when he heard this description.
Zhao Yue’s eyes shifted, and he suddenly exclaimed, "Hey! Wang Tiedan, what are all those bloody scratches on your shoulder?"
Wang Tiedan abruptly lifted his head from the corpse and instinctively covered his shoulder with his hand. He stammered, "No, no, it’s... it’s just mosquito bites that I scratched..."
Suddenly, it dawned on him that he was wearing clothes. How could his mother possibly have left scratch marks on his covered shoulder? However, it was too late.
Zhao Yue stared at him with an incredulous look, saying, "Wow, I was just bluffing! Why did you panic? Don’t tell me there really are scratch marks?"
Wang Tiezhu’s face turned ashen, and his lips trembled as he glared at Zhao Yue.
Zhao Yue said nonchalantly, "Don’t panic. This doesn’t prove anything... unless, of course, your clothes were torn."
Upon hearing this, Wang Tiezhu faltered again.
Zhao Yue exclaimed in feigned surprise, "Ha, I guessed right again!"
Magistrate Han glanced at Zhao Yue and ordered, "Men, check his clothes!"
Two constables immediately stepped forward and quickly removed Wang Tiezhu’s outer garment.
"My Lord, there are indeed tears on the clothes!"
The constables handed the clothes to the magistrate for inspection.
Zhao Yue blinked and remarked innocently, "Well now, the threads from this torn fabric look just like the ones found under the deceased’s fingernails."
Magistrate Han examined the tears on the clothes, then turned to Wang Tiedan, his voice stern, "Wang Tiedan! What do you have to say for yourself?"
At this point, San Lengzi and Zhu Zi were dumbfounded. They knelt, crying out against the injustice.
San Lengzi cried, "My Lord, that’s impossible! This is his mother! How could a son kill his own mother?"
Wang Tiedan, trembling on the ground, also cried out his innocence, "My Lord, I’m being framed! I don’t even know when my clothes were torn."
"You can’t convict me based on this alone! The medicine, yes, the medicine is the problem! They wanted to kill my mother, so that slip of a girl will definitely cover for her own people. You can’t trust anything she says!"
Just then, a clear, bright voice came from the back of the crowd at the entrance.
"If you don’t believe her, what about others?"
Everyone turned their heads to look and saw an extraordinary young man standing at the door.
It was none other than Qiao Muchen, who had left earlier.
He had returned with witnesses.