Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 699 Needle Marks

After confirming that there were no fatal external injuries, the child coroner moved on to a more detailed examination. He gently scraped the corners of the corpse's eyes with the tip of the knife, scraping off layer after layer of white film, and then took a closer look in the candlelight.

After a moment, he said, "The deceased's eyes were blue, and it was indeed an unnatural death."

After a rough examination, the child coroner's brow furrowed so sharply that it could have pinched a fly to death. "How strange! It looks like poisoning, yet not poison at the same time. Father, have the coroners in your county ever used a silver needle to examine the throat?"

Mr. Zhuang has been in charge of the charity cemetery for decades. Although he is not a coroner, he has learned a lot from his surroundings over the years and knows a lot about the methods and purposes of coroners' autopsies.

After scrubbing the deceased's mouth and throat with soapy water, insert a silver hairpin into the throat and seal it for a day and a night. If the silver needle turns black, it means poisoning.

Of course, just because the silver needle doesn’t turn black doesn’t mean you’re not poisoned. Some poisons can’t be detected with a silver needle.

He nodded and said, "I have checked it. The silver needle did not turn black. The coroner Cheng also rubbed the skin of the deceased's abdomen with a copper coin, and there was no silvery-white luster.

They also took the deceased's feces, steamed it, and fed it to the chickens. The chickens were fine. On New Year's Eve, Cheng the coroner killed the chickens, and the whole family ate them, and nothing happened..."

Song Ying opened his mouth in shock, almost causing the ginger slices in his mouth to fall out.

What did she hear?

This coroner Cheng is so bold and unscrupulous. He can even eat a chicken that has eaten the dead person’s feces?

No, this is not edible!

Just because the chicken is fine for the time being doesn’t mean it is completely non-toxic!

What's more, it's the feces of a corpse! A corpse!

As he was speaking, footsteps were heard outside, "Old Wu! Open the door!"

"It's Cheng the coroner." Seeing the farmhand hand the candlestick to Song Ying, he quickly went over to open the door.

As soon as the door opened, the Cheng coroner asked anxiously, "Where is the child coroner from Qingshui County?"

Seeing Zhuangfu move aside, he said, "The autopsy is going on inside."

In fact, he didn't need to say it. There were a lot of people lying in the room. As long as Song Ying and the child coroner were standing, they would see it at a glance.

Coroner Cheng did not come alone. There was a young man following him, carrying a coroner's bag.

Coroner Cheng walked in quickly and said, "Brother Tong, why are you examining the body right now? You guys traveled all day yesterday and must be tired. You should at least take a break."

Song Ying observed Cheng, the extremely bold and unpretentious coroner, with curiosity. He saw that he was wearing an indigo shirt that had been washed to a pale color, with two asymmetrical patches on his elbows.

The most eye-catching thing is the straw rope belt around the waist, which has been worn to the point of frayed edges.

She began to understand. For poor families, it was rare to have access to meat and oil. What was the big deal about chickens that had eaten corpse feces? It wasn't like they were eating the feces directly from the corpse.

"Nothing, the autopsy is more important." The child coroner waved his hand, took off his gloves and set them aside. "I just did a rough examination and was just about to discuss it with you, old man."

Cheng the coroner praised Tong the coroner for his professionalism, and the two of them then exchanged their findings from the autopsy.

Afterwards, the two men unanimously decided to perform a craniotomy. If nothing was found, they would have to wait for a few months until the body was completely decomposed, and then take out the skull, gums, long bones, finger bones, etc. for steaming.

Song Ying was shocked and quickly turned up the candlestick to make it brighter. He looked towards the window and saw that it was already daylight outside. He couldn't help but ask, "Should we open the window? It will be brighter!"

Coroner Cheng looked at Song Ying and said, "Is this your daughter? It's rare to see a girl so enthusiastic about autopsies."

The child coroner didn't answer directly. He just sighed and said vaguely, "No matter how motivated a girl is, we can't let her do this job. We've all been there, and this job is very hard."

This remark deeply resonated with Cheng, "It's fine if you have a daughter, but you can choose not to do it if you have the chance. But a son must inherit his legacy."

The child coroner glanced at the young man beside him and sighed repeatedly.

Song Ying, who was excitedly waiting for the craniotomy, looked at this and that, wanting to urge it but felt it was not appropriate.

Fortunately, the two did not feel too sad and soon continued to talk about the craniotomy.

After listening for a while, Song Ying felt very disappointed.

It turned out that the two of them had no intention of performing a craniotomy right now.

After talking about the corpse, Cheng the coroner took them to the post station to settle down and rest for a day. The craniotomy was officially performed in the afternoon of the next day.

First, a soul-calming ceremony was performed using cinnabar pens, five-colored threads, seven-inch soul-calming nails, etc., and then the skull was opened.

Since Cheng the coroner's son was present, Song Ying directly handed the corpse book to him and asked him to record it.

I took a piece of paper and a pen, intending to take the time to observe carefully after the craniotomy and draw as much as I could.

As the skull opened, Song Ying stretched his neck to take a closer look, only to see a pool of dark red blood gushing out of the skull and dripping down the corpse's ear onto the autopsy table.

Coroner Cheng, who was holding the corpse record, took a step back in fear, but Song Ying stepped forward, wishing he could walk over Coroner Tong and Coroner Cheng to get a closer look.

As a doctor, she had seen many horrific wounds and blood, and had quickly adapted to autopsies. Now she was not afraid at all.

After the blood drained out of the skull and the structure of the brain became clearer, Song Ying quickly began to draw on mulberry paper. He also reminded Cheng Xiao, the young coroner, "Brother Cheng, I've just started learning autopsies and I'm not very familiar with how to remember the body frame. I'm leaving it to you."

Coroner Cheng calmed down and thought to himself: You call this just learning autopsy?

I almost want to put my head close to the corpse. What beginner would do that?

Song Ying was so engrossed in watching and painting that she initially heard a few words from Tong and Cheng coroners during the autopsy, but later on, she completely ignored them and didn't hear anything clearly.

When I drew the general structure I saw and modified the details, I finally noticed what they said: the craniotomy didn't reveal anything.

Coroner Cheng walked around the corpse's head twice. "How strange! Judging from the pupils and face, it's obvious that she's been poisoned. How could they not detect it?"

The child coroner also frowned, looking at the corpse in confusion.

Song Ying glanced at the corpse, but was helpless. If it was a living person, she could feel the pulse and, based on other symptoms, determine whether the person was poisoned and what type of poison it was.

But it was a corpse, one that had been dead for several days and was already rotting, so she couldn't see anything.

As her eyes swept over the dead man's strange face, she uttered a soft "Huh?" "What is that?"

At their wits' end, Tong and Cheng asked almost in unison, "Where?"

Song Ying walked to the other side and pointed above the dead man's grinning mouth, "Here."

The child coroner said disappointedly, "It's a small wound. I think it was caused by a bump somewhere. I checked it and it's very shallow. It's not fatal."

"No, this seems to be left by acupuncture." As he said that, Song Ying took out the cowhide needle bag and pulled out a silver needle.

When she was about to touch the dead man's skin, she realized that this was a corpse, not her patient, and her silver needle could not touch it.

She put the silver needle back into the needle bag with a guilty conscience, "Uh, let me use your silver needle."