Chapter 992

"Who exactly are they coming for?" Medical Official Mu asked again.

"Naturally, they are coming for the Ministry of Justice, for our Minister Sun." Chen Guanlou said with a resounding voice.

He didn't know which deity Sun Daoning had specifically offended, but the other party came aggressively, clearly possessing enough material in their hands. The Ma Liu case was the breakthrough point.

The Court of Judicial Review could obtain the Emperor's oral decree; it was very clear that in the struggles within the palace, Xie Changling's side had made the necessary concessions, letting Sun Daoning face the storm himself.

Now what he wasn't sure about was whether this disaster was factional strife or just targeting Sun Daoning alone?

If it were factional strife, the firepower would definitely not stop here; there must be a bigger storm behind it.

"Then we..."

"Just follow what we discussed before. Medical Official Mu, you are the Heavenly Prison's medical official, usually only responsible for the prisoners in the A-grade and B-grade prisons. The prisoners in the C-grade prison are usually handled by disciples, grand-disciples, or medicine-boy prison guards. It is natural that you haven't seen Ma Liu, don't know this person, and don't understand the Ma Liu case. There is nothing to feel guilty about. Mu Qingshan, you are a private secretary, you don't go down to the prison cells, you only handle paperwork. It is equally natural that you don't know..."

Mu Qingshan nodded hesitantly.

In fact, he had been down to the C-grade prison and had seen the previous fake Ma Liu.

But it concerned the Heavenly Prison and everyone's future, so he naturally knew what should be said and what should not. Besides, he had seen the fake Ma Liu but hadn't seen through him, which in itself was a dereliction of duty.

Time passed second by second, and the questioning went on one after another.

Chen Guanlou asked Xu Fugui in a low voice, "What did you say?"

"Just according to the story we discussed before."

"Did Official Ji make things difficult for you?"

Xu Fugui wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and nodded repeatedly, "Official Ji threatened me, talking about losing my head. I just said, Ma Liu's corpse is right there in the mortuary; whether I lose my head or not will have to wait until after the autopsy to reach a conclusion. We people of the Heavenly Prison do things by the rules and are not afraid of investigation."

"Not bad!" Chen Guanlou nodded with satisfaction, "If you get through this hurdle, you are still the prison clerk of the C-grade prison. If you don't get through, you know what your end will be."

Xu Fugui shuddered suddenly, "My lord, rest assured, I didn't say a single wrong word."

Chen Guanlou nodded, considering it an acknowledgment.

The prison guards went in one after another and came out one after another.

Finally, Official Ji personally took the coroner to the mortuary to examine the corpse.

Finally, it reached the most critical step.

Any substitution of a fake for the real one would be vulnerable in front of the corpse. As for the cause of death, Chen Guanlou was even more confident. Even if the coroner turned the corpse over, it would be impossible to find the true cause of death.

People who have been in the underworld for years have many characteristics on their bodies.

Not counting the birthmark, just the various scars of different sizes—even if the corpse had decayed partially, more than a dozen could still be matched. These could not be faked! Real scars and fake scars are clear at a glance; the coroner couldn't possibly misidentify such basic recognition.

After tossing about for nearly an hour, the Court of Judicial Review's coroner could only nod and confirm, "The corpse indeed matches the Ma Liu recorded in the case files."

The implication was that the corpse only matched the case file records. As for whether the case files recorded the real Ma Liu, he couldn't guarantee.

Damn!

The Court of Judicial Review's coroner was quite articulate!

With this brain, why be a coroner? He should just go take the scholar exam.

Official Ji held a handkerchief, covering his mouth and nose, and circled the corpse twice, "Are you sure?"

"Sure! And the degree of decay of the corpse, plus it being buried deep underground, matches the date of death."

"And the cause of death?"

"If nothing unexpected happened, it should be palpitations!"

"Palpitations? With such a sturdy body, would he have the problem of palpitations?"

"The problem of palpitations could also be caused by being frightened or stimulated. Observing the surface of the corpse's remaining skin, there was no torture, so it must have been frightened while in prison."

"A major bandit, what kind of scene could frighten him?"

"The interrogation room!" The coroner gave the answer without even thinking, "These underworld figures, where have they seen the methods of the government? Anyone who takes a trip to the prison's interrogation room would be scared half to death, and some even get scared to death directly."

"Without even using torture?" Official Ji asked curiously.

"Without using torture, just letting the prisoner watch the execution is enough to scare some timid ones to death. It is also common for them to be scared into having problems." The coroner said, "If my lord is curious, you can go visit the interrogation room another day."

Official Ji was noncommittal; he rarely set foot in such filthy places. His work also did not require him to personally interrogate prisoners.

He frowned, clearly dissatisfied with this result.

The coroner stood to the side; his work was done, so he tried to speak as little as possible to avoid attracting the dissatisfaction of his superiors.

"It's actually true?" Official Ji was clearly very surprised, even a bit stunned. This did not match the intelligence he had previously grasped.

The source of the intelligence was authentic.

But on the other hand, it was impossible for the Heavenly Prison to temporarily find a corpse that matched the case files to fill the quota, and how would they explain the time of death?

There was no such perfect forgery.

Unless, the corpse in front of him was the real Ma Liu. Ma Liu had indeed died last month.

Why would it be like this?

Did the Six Shanmen take Ma Liu's money, and then, playing the villain, secretly kill Ma Liu?

No!

Absolutely impossible!

The Six Shanmen couldn't have done that.

Could it be...

Official Ji slowly turned his head and looked at Chen Guanlou, who was standing in the courtyard.

Chen Guanlou noticed the other party's gaze and looked up, "Does Official Ji have something to say?"

"When the person died, you took him away for deep burial?"

"Of course not. Everything was done according to procedure. We discovered the person died at night and reported it to the Ministry of Justice as soon as the day broke. A day later, the Ministry of Justice sent someone to examine the corpse and cross out the name, and after confirming Ma Liu had no family, they arranged for laborers to drag the person outside the city for deep burial. Counting it up, the person was buried two days after dying. Is there a problem?"

Chen Guanlou looked curious.

Official Ji shook his head slowly.

Chen Guanlou continued to ask: "The corpse of Ma Liu is lying inside; have you confirmed this point? If confirmed, please sign and stamp this document, so that the Court of Judicial Review won't come looking for trouble again in the future."

"Do you think the Court of Judicial Review is looking for trouble?" Official Ji asked back with dissatisfaction.

Chen Guanlou smiled faintly, "Otherwise? Has the Ministry of Justice ever gone to your Court of Judicial Review's territory to investigate a case, and a case that has already been closed at that? No. Everyone knows to guard their own doors well and not overstep boundaries. You broke the rules; if that's not looking for trouble, what is? Sign it, Official Ji!"

He raised his hand to signal, and Mu Qingshan hurriedly handed over the document.

Mu Qingshan's nostrils were plugged with cotton balls, and he looked quite comical.

Although various methods were taken to deodorize, the place still stank to high heaven, making it difficult to adapt.

Official Ji stood inside the mortuary, yet his expression never changed, only using a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose; he was indeed impressive.

"Official Ji, the autopsy is over; if there are no questions, please sign." Chen Guanlou urged.

Official Ji stood under the eaves, clearly very unwilling.

The two sides confronted each other, and for a moment, the atmosphere became tense.