Chapter 992: Autopsy Complete, Signature and Seal

“Who exactly is this targeting?” Mu Yiguan asked again.

“Naturally, it’s targeting the Ministry of Justice, targeting our Minister Sun.” Chen Guanlou spoke with conviction.

No one knew which deity Sun Daoning had offended, but the opponent was coming with full force, clearly holding enough evidence. The Ma Liu case was the breakthrough.

The Dalisi had obtained the Emperor’s verbal order—clearly, within the palace struggle, Xie Changling’s side had made necessary concessions, letting Sun Daoning face the storm alone.

Now he wasn’t sure: was this conflict part of a factional struggle, or was it aimed solely at Sun Daoning?

If it were factional, the firepower wouldn’t stop here—there would surely be a greater storm coming.

“Then what do we…”

“Stick to what we agreed. Mu Yiguan, you’re the Tianlao medical officer; you normally only handle prisoners in the Jia and Yi wards. Prisoners in the Bing ward are usually managed by your apprentices or medic attendants and jailers. You’ve never seen Ma Liu, don’t know who he is, don’t understand the Ma Liu case—that’s only natural. Nothing to feel guilty about. Mu Qingshan, you’re the private secretary; you never enter the prison cells, only handle paperwork. Not knowing is equally natural…”

Mu Qingshan nodded hesitantly.

In truth, he had entered the Bing ward and seen the fake Ma Liu.

But this involved Tianlao, and everyone’s future—he knew perfectly well what to say and what not to say. Besides, he had seen the fake Ma Liu and failed to recognize him—that itself was dereliction of duty.

Time passed second by second, question after question.

Chen Guanlou whispered to Xu Fugui, “What did you say?”

“I said exactly what we agreed on.”

“Did Senior Ji make things difficult for you?”

Xu Fugui wiped sweat from his forehead, nodding frantically. “Senior Ji threatened me, said I’d lose my head. I told him: the corpse of Ma Liu is in the morgue—whether I lose my head or not, we must wait until after the autopsy to draw conclusions. We Tianlao staff follow rules strictly; we aren’t afraid of inspection.”

“Good!” Chen Guanlou nodded approvingly. “Pass this test, and you remain jailer of the Bing ward. Fail, and you know what fate awaits you.”

Xu Fugui suddenly shuddered. “My lord, I didn’t say a single word out of line.”

Chen Guanlou nodded, acknowledging him.

Jailers went in one by one, came out one by one.

Finally, Senior Ji personally led the coroner to the morgue to examine the corpse.

The most critical moment had arrived.

All tricks like substituting one thing for another collapsed before a corpse. As for cause of death, Chen Guanlou was even more confident—the coroner flipping the body over couldn’t possibly uncover the true cause.

Veterans of the underworld always bore many distinguishing marks.

Aside from birthmarks, just the various scars—large and small—even if the corpse had partially decayed, at least ten could still be matched. These couldn’t be faked! Real scars versus fake ones were obvious—the coroner couldn’t possibly misidentify such basic details.

After nearly an hour of examination, the Dalisi coroner could only nod and confirm: “The corpse matches the records in the dossier for Ma Liu.”

Meaning: the corpse matched the dossier’s description—but whether the dossier described the real Ma Liu, that was unguaranteed.

Damn!

This Dalisi coroner was quite clever!

With brains like that, why be a coroner? Just go take the provincial exams.

Senior Ji held a handkerchief to his nose, circling the corpse twice. “Are you certain?”

“Certain! And the degree of decay, combined with deep burial underground, matches the date of death.”

“Cause of death?”

“Without exception, it should be cardiac arrest.”

“Cardiac arrest? Such a robust body, and he had heart trouble?”

“Cardiac arrest can also be triggered by fright or shock. Observing the remaining skin surface, there are no signs of torture—so he was frightened inside the prison.”

“What kind of scene could frighten a notorious bandit?”

“The interrogation room!” The coroner answered without hesitation. “These underworld types have never seen official methods. Anyone who walks into a prison interrogation room gets half-dead with fear—some even die outright.”

“No torture needed?” Senior Ji asked curiously.

“No torture needed—just letting the prisoner watch an interrogation is enough to scare some to death. Getting sick from fright is common.” The coroner added, “If you’re curious, my lord, you could visit the interrogation room another day.”

Senior Ji said nothing—he rarely set foot in such filthy places. His job didn’t require him to personally interrogate prisoners.

He frowned, clearly dissatisfied with this outcome.

The coroner stood aside, having completed his task, saying as little as possible to avoid provoking his superior’s displeasure.

“So it’s real?” Senior Ji was clearly surprised, even startled—this contradicted the intelligence he’d received.

The intelligence source was genuine.

Yet on the other hand, Tianlao couldn’t have suddenly found a corpse matching the dossier—how to explain the time of death?

No such perfect forgery existed.

Unless… this corpse was the real Ma Liu. Ma Liu died last month.

Why would that be?

Did the Six Gates Bureau take Ma Liu’s money, then turn around and secretly kill him?

No!

Impossible!

The Six Gates Bureau would never do this.

Could it be…

Senior Ji slowly turned his head, glancing at Chen Guanlou standing in the courtyard.

Chen Guanlou sensed the gaze, looked up. “Senior Ji, do you have something to say?”

“When someone dies, you just bury them deep?”

“Of course not. Everything follows procedure. We discovered the death at night, reported it to the Ministry of Justice at dawn. A day later, the Ministry sent someone to examine the corpse and confirm Ma Liu had no family, then assigned laborers to drag him outside the city for deep burial. By our count, he was buried two days after death. Is there a problem?”

Chen Guanlou wore an expression of innocent curiosity.

Senior Ji slowly shook his head.

Chen Guanlou pressed on: “The corpse here is Ma Liu’s—have you confirmed this? If confirmed, please sign and seal this document, so Dalisi won’t come back later causing trouble.”

“You think Dalisi is causing trouble?” Senior Ji retorted irritably.

Chen Guanlou smiled faintly. “What else? Has the Ministry of Justice ever investigated Dalisi ’s territory? Or reopened a closed case? No, right? Everyone knows: each side guards their own gate, don’t overstep. You broke the rules—what else is this if not causing trouble? Sign it, Senior Ji!”

He gestured with his hand; Mu Qingshan hurriedly handed over the document.

Mu Qingshan had cotton balls stuffed in his nostrils—he looked absurd.

Despite all efforts to remove the stench, the place remained unbearable.

Senior Ji stood inside the morgue, yet his expression never changed, merely covering his nose with a handkerchief—truly formidable.

“Senior Ji, the autopsy is complete. If you have no further questions, please sign.” Chen Guanlou urged.

Senior Ji stood beneath the eaves, clearly unwilling.

The two sides faced off; the atmosphere grew tense.