TGCFNM -Chapter 417 Wu Ting’s Autopsy Report

When Su He returned from the government office, he saw two utterly bored loafers in the front hall—one slouched over the table, the other lying in a chair. Just looking at them made him angry.

“Slap—”

Su He slammed the autopsy reports onto the table and stared at them in disbelief. “Still sleeping?”

Wan Sanjin was the first to sit up straight, his face lighting up as he ran over to Su He. “You got them back? Why are there so many?”

Chu Ling slowly propped her chin up and got to her feet, turning to Su He to ask, “Wu Ting’s autopsy reports… are there really this many?”

Su He shook his head. “No, it’s for the entire Wu family.”

Chu Ling straightened up, shocked. “How did you get your hands on these?”

Su He sat down. “When I went to look, I happened to run into Prefect Fang. Under his intense questioning, I explained that we’re investigating a case arranged by Lord Lu… Prefect Fang fell silent for a long time, didn’t say a word, then handed me these and left.”

Chu Ling was a little surprised but quickly set it aside and began examining the Wu family’s autopsy reports one by one.

The one who had previously died, the fake Wu Ting—actually Wu Huan—was listed in the autopsy as strangled. The Wu family claimed that Wu Ting had killed himself out of shame, feeling he could not face his family.

But the person was dead, and dwelling on the reasoning was pointless. The younger generation of the Wu family had indeed perished.

The remaining reports were for the rest of the family.

The Wu family’s collateral branches and servants had left earlier and thus escaped. But those who left later all met their deaths at the hands of mountain bandits.

Back then, the prefect had even led troops to suppress the bandits, but after a long period of commotion, no one was caught. The matter was left unresolved. Looking at it now, Chu Ling felt a chill run through her body.

“These bandits… they were ruthless,” Wan Sanjin exhaled, feeling uneasy.

Chu Ling skimmed through all the autopsy reports, discarding those with mismatched ages before reviewing the remaining ones.

Finally, her gaze landed on one particular report. It listed the deceased as Wu Huan, the Wu family’s adopted daughter. She was around sixteen or seventeen years old by bone age, her face mutilated by the bandits so badly that she was unrecognizable.

“An official coroner wouldn’t mix up the genders, right?” Chu Ling looked at Su He.

Su He nodded confidently. “They wouldn’t get it wrong.”

Chu Ling returned her attention to that report… Wu Huan was already dead—but this report was fake!

Wu Ting might still be alive!

Wu Huan spoke softly, “Brother had a personal maid, about our age, with a body roughly the same as mine.”

Chu Ling understood immediately—another body double.

“This mountain bandit incident is extremely suspicious,” Su He said. “Judging by how they injured people, it looks like a trained group, not ordinary ambushing bandits.”

Wan Sanjin frowned. “But a trained group like that would surely attract attention if they ever appeared in the capital.”

“Maybe they’re specifically kept outside the capital?” Su He hesitated.

“Who would have the resources to maintain a group like that without being noticed? Royalty? Aristocratic families?” Wan Sanjin said, then looked at Chu Ling. “Lord, what do you think?”

“Wu family only provoked the Si family. If the people hired by the Si family disguised themselves as mountain bandits to kill the Wu family, wouldn’t that be highly likely?” Chu Ling asked.

Wan Sanjin nodded. “Very likely. But if it were the Si family, wouldn’t it be too obvious?”

Chu Ling nodded in agreement—it would indeed be far too obvious.

“Master Wan, today we won’t go see Lord Lu. Let’s go directly to Tianxia Zhi and have them investigate the network between Si Yuanqi and Si Yuangang,” Chu Ling said. She needed an opportunity to meet the Si family in person.

Wan Sanjin gave a slight nod, then stood and instructed someone to leave.

Chu Ling gathered all the autopsy reports in one place and began going through them carefully, one by one. “Coroner Su, why did you say these people were well-trained?”

Su He opened several reports. “My lord, look at the wounds. From this knife wound, you can see the blade is relatively short—much shorter than what’s commonly available—so it must have been custom-made. Also, the wounds share similarities, meaning the chopping motions are very similar.”

Chu Ling nodded. “There were so many people in the Wu family. It couldn’t have been just one person. So it must have been a group of well-trained people who did it.”

“There’s something else strange,” Su He said, frowning. “The wounds are similar, but their depths vary. It’s as if some people had more strength, while others had less.”

Chu Ling fell into thought.

“Also, the wound on Wu Huan’s face was clearly made from behind, very carefully, probably intentionally to obscure her identity,” Su He added.

Chu Ling understood the purpose of the wound—it was meant to hide the fact that Wu Ting was still alive. But the varying depth of the wounds, some strong, some weak…

Chu Ling looked at Su He, then at Wan Sanjin, who had returned after giving his instructions, and she thought of Zhang Dong and Xiao Hua… “The five of us practice the same internal martial arts. Even though our weapons differ, if we used the same type of weapon to inflict damage, the wounds would look similar, though the depths might vary.”

Su He understood. “You mean the so-called ‘well-trained group’ isn’t the young, strong adults we imagine, but a mix of strong and weak, male and female?”

Chu Ling nodded.

At that moment, Wan Sanjin came over. “Where would you even find a group like that?”

Chu Ling, however, asked a different question. “Are there no beggars in the capital? Were there none before?”

“Before… maybe there were,” Wan Sanjin said. “When I was a child, there were some refugees, but gradually they disappeared.”

Chu Ling nodded. “Along the way, we’ve seen so many situations. If a place has not a single beggar, it’s either prosperous enough or well-governed… The capital isn’t one of those. Whenever disaster strikes the countryside, the people will flock toward the capital—that’s the only way to survive.”

“You mean that group might be beggars?” Wan Sanjin’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Trained beggars,” Chu Ling clarified. “They can scatter to escape, gather together, roam outside the capital, or sneak back in. There’s no identity more convenient than a beggar’s.”

Wan Sanjin asked, puzzled, “Who would raise a group of beggars, get them to obey, and even train them in martial arts?”

“Raise them from childhood,” Su He said.

Chu Ling’s fingers curled slightly as she silently addressed Wu Huan: Young Master.

The Ghost Scholar’s expression tightened. “You mean that group of beggars… might have been raised by that young master?”

Chu Ling gave the faintest nod. The beggar identity gave them freedom and made them easy to conceal. Moreover, it was a small but significant force—one that would go completely unnoticed.

Using beggars to carry out killings—it’s far too convenient.