It’s often said that a doctor is worth half a coroner. So with Zhang, the coroner who had just arrived from the county office, added to the mix, there was a full one and a half coroners on the scene.
And yet, these one and a half coroners could only stare helplessly at the skeleton in the pit.
It was truly just a skeleton.
All the flesh had been devoured by rats, not even a scrap remained. In fact, the bones were covered in tooth marks. If not for their hardness, even these wouldn’t have been left behind.
Sighed Zhang, “After all these years in this profession, this is the first time I’ve seen something like this.”
At this level of gnawing, one could no longer feel nauseated—it had become a strangely beautiful sight.
What an excellent skeleton!
In the past, coroners like them couldn’t even dream of acquiring such a complete one!
Yuanpei asked, “Can you determine the identity?”
Zhang and Ma Bing, standing by the pit, turned to glare at him, “You sure have a lot of faith in us!”
There was only a tuft of hair and a skeleton, not even a scrap of clothing—what exactly were they supposed to identify?
Xie Yu patted Yuanpei’s shoulder, “Go play somewhere else.”
Then he asked Zhang, “Shall we retrieve it?”
Out of fear of damaging evidence, they had only used shovels to expose the skeleton, and specially went to the village to buy feather dusters and rags to clean the dirt off the bones.
But since nothing could be determined, there was no need to leave it buried any longer.
Zhang pushed himself up with his legs, his eyes never leaving the skeleton.
After a while, he hesitantly turned to Xie Yu, a slight blush on his face, “Sir, if this unfortunately becomes a cold case, would you consider…?”
Xie Yu narrowed his eyes.
Zhang’s expression felt oddly familiar—reminded him of someone?
Ah, yes—Yu the butcher, who had secretly fed cats not long ago.
It was that look of longing for something cherished, yet hesitating to claim it outright.
Zhang nervously rubbed his hands, his face filled with yearning. He took a step forward, and the old man’s face flushed an unnatural red, “Would it be okay?”
Xie Yu’s mouth twitched slightly, barely resisting the urge to step back, “Fine.”
If it indeed became a cold case, preserving this skeleton, which could be crucial evidence, would inevitably become a problem. It was fortunate someone had volunteered.
Zhang’s eyes suddenly sparkled with an unusual light, like a dying old man experiencing a moment of clarity before passing.
“But,” Xie Yu immediately emphasized, “our priority must be solving the case. We must not let personal desires compromise the rules.”
Zhang was a capable man, and such a peculiar little quirk could be tolerated, but there were lines that must not be crossed.
Zhang nodded solemnly.
Then, almost immediately, he sprang from his spot, turned around, and without hesitation, jumped into the pit. He raised his hands high and shouted at the bailiffs preparing to retrieve the skeleton, “Don’t touch anything! Leave it to me, I’ll do it myself!”
Xie Yu: “…”
Everyone else: “…”
This was the normally introverted and shy Zhang?
Trembling hands, almost reverently, Zhang scooped the bones out of the pit. When someone tried to help, he hissed like a cat protecting its food.
In the end, only Ma Bing, as a fellow practitioner of medicine, was allowed to assist.
“What an amazing skeleton,” Zhang couldn’t help but praise with each bone he lifted, “Have you ever seen such a complete one before?”
Ma Bing: “…”
At first, she hadn’t thought much of it, but after hearing Zhang repeat it over a hundred times, it felt as if her mind had been forcibly washed, leaving only one phrase echoing in her head:
“What an amazing skeleton!”
So much so that when she looked at the skeleton again, she actually found it somewhat handsome.
Objectively speaking, purely from a coroner’s perspective, this was indeed a rare and excellent skeleton.
With this, they would have a reference for future cases.
“1, 2, 3…199.” Zhang counted repeatedly, looking at the skeleton’s obviously missing small section of hand, clearly disappointed.
“Cursed rats!” He pointed at the rat holes and cursed loudly.
With such a missing piece, who knew how much was lost!
Ma Bing comforted him, “It’s not entirely fruitless. At least now we know a man has at least 199 bones.”
The rats had not been so patient when eating the flesh. The finger bones were delicate and easily detached. Presumably, the rats had bitten through them, swallowing skin, meat, and bone together, then excreted them who knows where.
Thinking about it, Zhang realized that was probably the case.
Still unwilling to give up, he stared into the pit for a long time, suddenly as if noticing something, and dove in again, grabbing something and pinching it hard, then…
“Did you find bones?” Ma Bing squatted by the pit, eagerly asking.
For a moment, she felt as if Zhang hadn’t jumped into a dirt pit, but into an ice hole, as the excitement and eagerness on his face instantly vanished.
He threw the object away, his face blank, repeatedly wiping his hands, sobbing, “Rat droppings.”
Ma Bing: “…Hahahaha!”
Beside her, Xie Yu also couldn’t help but laugh.
“Sir, we’ve searched enough,” Yuanpei said, carrying a shovel, “The men have combed through the entire area and found no second body—well, skeleton. We checked the rat holes too, and this place has the most.”
His robe was tucked into his waist, his shoes and trousers covered in mud—he had clearly done his best.
Xie Yu nodded, “Count and return the tools to the villagers. If any are damaged, report it.”
Yuanpei obeyed and soon returned with news—several shovels had chips from hitting stones and tree roots.
Xie Yu took out a ten-tael silver note, “Let the village elder distribute compensation as appropriate.”
Yuanpei laughed as he accepted it, “This is way too much.”
A shovel, handle and all, cost no more than four or five cents of silver at most. Five damaged ones—replacing them all wouldn’t even use up the note.
Xie Yu lifted his chin, “Take the old ones back to the county office. Let the village elder distribute the money per person, either giving them cash to buy new ones or replacing them collectively. If there’s extra, consider it compensation for the disturbance.”
He didn’t have any smaller denomination notes anyway.
Besides, while a shovel might seem trivial to them, to farmers, farming tools were their lifeline—they cherished them dearly.
They had only borrowed them for one night and damaged them, so the villagers must be heartbroken—they definitely needed compensation.
But if only those who had damages were compensated, others without would surely feel resentful:
After working so hard for a night, even if their tools weren’t damaged, there was still wear and tear. If you compensate them with new ones, why not give us even a single copper coin?
It’s not the scarcity that’s the problem, but the inequality. This applied to great matters as well as small village affairs.
Yuanpei understood and smiled, “Sir, you’re so meticulous. Alright, I’ll go right away.”
Yesterday, when borrowing the tools, some families had been reluctant. Now receiving silver, they would surely be overjoyed!
In the future, whenever the county office needed help, they would rush to assist!
Meanwhile, Zhang and Ma Bing had almost finished packing up. Xie Yu approached and asked, “Any findings?”
Ma Bing casually wiped her face with her hand, leaving two streaks of mud on her sweaty cheeks, “The killer was very careful. The body was stripped of all clothes before burial, not even a hairpin or a cloth strip remained.”
The sun had risen high, its orange-red light shining into her eyes, bright and clear.
Looking at her, Xie Yu couldn’t help but recall the cats he had seen last night—equally lively yet wild, and a smile crept onto his face.
“The victim was already dead before being buried, with no signs of struggle, so both the pit and the skeleton are quite neat,” Ma Bing continued. But seeing the man in front of her with a curved smile and twinkling eyes, she instinctively paused, “What’s wrong?”
Xie Yu took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and handed it to her, “Wipe your face.”
Only then did Ma Bing remember she had been busy all night, repeatedly climbing in and out of the pit with Zhang to retrieve bones, countless times wiping sweat—she must look terrible.
“Thank you.” She reached out to take it, but seeing her own hands, now unrecognizable under the dirt, contrasting with the pristine white handkerchief, she became even more obvious.
To be honest, her hands were hardly cleaner than the mud pit.
Coincidentally, a drop of sweat rolled from her eyelashes into her eye, stinging painfully. Ma Bing made a sound and instinctively raised her hand to rub it, but the next moment, a pine-scented fragrance reached her nose.
“Don’t move.” He said softly, one hand gently pressing her arm.
Ma Bing immediately froze.
She didn’t know why, but her mind suddenly went blank, all clues and skeletons swept away by the crisp, pine fragrance after snow.
Xie Yu was clearly a novice at this act of wiping someone’s face, awkward and clumsy, but his movements were extremely gentle, like polishing a priceless antique, carefully caressing the girl’s skin.
The sweat-mixed mud streaks were wiped away, revealing the smooth, tender, and plump skin underneath, glowing with a pearly luster under the sunlight.
Xie Yu was far from calm on the inside.
He even felt a bit regretful, a bit flustered—how had he impulsively done such a thing?
But… it didn’t feel too bad.
He had always been a man of thoroughness—once he started something, he would see it through to the end, and do it well.
He could feel her body’s tension, even the double row of thick, black eyelashes trembling slightly, her eyes rolling restlessly beneath.
He felt a bit apologetic, and a bit amused.
Hard to believe you can be so obedient too.
Her features seemed a bit more defined than the average Han girl, her face open and bold. If he had to describe her, she was like an autumn wind from the frontier, crisp and resounding.
She was born to be free, not confined to any place, not forced to do things she didn’t want to do…
“Sorry.”
Xie Yu took a reluctant yet decisive step back, looking at the now clean face of the girl, finally satisfied.
Ma Bing felt the situation was getting a bit out of hand.
She didn’t know what to say.
She was angry, angry at his recklessness.
Do you act so casually with other girls, helping them with such intimate gestures?
But, besides that, he hadn’t done anything else. He had even stepped back immediately after finishing.
Ma Bing had little experience interacting with peers, and no one had ever taught her what normal behavior should be like.
She didn’t understand, really didn’t.
All she knew was that her heart was pounding wildly, an indescribable emotion spreading wildly inside her, as if all her blood had rushed to her neck and head, making her dizzy and swollen.
Xie Yu watched helplessly as the color spread from her neck upward, like a layer of morning glow on her skin, and suddenly felt a bit delighted.
Perhaps, she wasn’t entirely indifferent.
That delight made him feel elated, giving meaning to all his hidden efforts in the past few days.
“Oh my aching arms and legs,” Zhang suddenly shouted from the pit, “Who can give me a hand?”
After climbing up and down so many times, he couldn’t climb anymore.
Ma Bing snapped back to reality and was about to go help, but was suddenly grabbed.
Her face felt hot again, “Wha—what are you doing?”
When shyness and embarrassment appeared on a naturally bold and free-spirited girl, it was undoubtedly the most captivating sight.
Xie Yu’s lips curved into a faint smile, his eyes unusually soft, “Don’t go.”
Perhaps even the ripples of spring sunlight on a lake couldn’t be so gentle.
His gaze had changed slightly—it seemed gentler, yet deeper inside, something softer had emerged.
Ma Bing felt a bit uneasy, avoiding his eyes for the first time, something she had never done before.
“You’re not going to save him?” she asked, a bit flustered.
Xie Yu let go of her hand, standing properly by her side, lightly saying, “His hands…”
He shamelessly played a little trick:
From this position, they were slightly closer than usual. It seemed that just slightly lowering his head, he could reach her hair.
Caught up in her thoughts, Ma Bing completely failed to notice this subtle change, instead recalling something prompted by his words:
Zhang had just touched…
Uh…
At this moment, the fragile camaraderie among colleagues seemed even more fragile.
Ma Bing immediately shouted to Ade, who was nearby, “Ade! Ade! Come pull Zhang out of there!”
Unaware of the trap, Ade happily ran over, “Coming!”
Later, everyone gathered and carefully transferred the skeleton onto an ox cart. Zhang was tense throughout, as if his own eyes had been gouged out.
“Be careful, be careful!”
“Ahhh, it’s falling, it’s falling!”
Annoyed by Zhang’s constant shouting, Xie Yu and Ma Bing walked several steps away to talk.
“Generally, when someone kills and dumps a body, they wouldn’t strip it so thoroughly. The killer’s effort to clean the body must mean they wanted to hide the victim’s identity as much as possible,” Xie Yu said, “It’s highly likely the victim was local.”
The most common and effective ways to identify a body were clothing and personal belongings. By doing this, the killer had indeed been very effective:
Now, apart from this skeleton, they had absolutely no clues.
“I’ve seen the records Yuanpei brought back,” Ma Bing said, “In the past six months, seven people have been reported missing in nearby villages and towns, three of whom are roughly the right age.”
Based on her and Zhang’s joint estimation, the victim was a man aged between eighteen and forty, with the fatal injury likely being a skull fracture from being hit hard on the back of the head.
He had no fractures during his lifetime, nor any obvious congenital illnesses.
His skeleton was of medium to large size, typical of someone from the north. Given this build, even if he was thin, he must have weighed at least 140 to 150 catties when alive.
The skeleton was intact, indicating the body wasn’t dismembered after death. To secretly bury such a heavy, whole body would be extremely difficult, so the killer couldn’t have transported it too far.
“Can we narrow down the age more specifically?” Xie Yu asked.
Too broad.
Ma Bing shook her head, “With nothing else to go on, we’ve done our best.”
They could only determine he was at least eighteen because Zhang had encountered an eighteen-year-old corpse before. Narrowing it down further risked misleading the investigation.
For an unidentified corpse, every word from a coroner was crucial. No one could afford to take that responsibility.
Xie Yu paced a few steps, standing near the pit where the body was found, looking into the distance, “This complicates things.”
This location was precisely at the intersection of several villages—a no-man’s-land where any of them could be suspected.
Ma Bing understood what he meant.
Although three of the missing persons roughly fit, the victim might not even be among the missing!
In those days, many people traveled far to visit relatives or conduct business, often staying away for months or even years without returning home.
The nearby villages had over ten thousand households, and among men of this age group, there were at least twenty or thirty thousand. With only this little clue, solving this case would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
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