The corners of the quarry manager's mouth twitched slightly, and he looked a little panicked.
Although his expression disappeared in a flash, this micro-expression was still captured by Zhao Xun.
He knew there must be something fishy in this.
"This gentleman is joking. We are here to cut mountains and quarry rocks. There will be no murder cases."
Zhao Xun said in a deep voice: "Liu Neng worked in your quarry, right? He died in your quarry five days ago. You won't deny this, right?"
Upon hearing the words "Liu Neng", the quarry manager's face instinctively twitched, but he quickly concealed his panic expression.
"Liu Neng, he did work in our quarry. He hanged himself a few days ago."
Zhao Xun glanced at Liang Younian, the governor on the side. This statement was consistent with the official version.
But Liang Younian had almost come to an end with Zhao Xun. Zhao Xun was already convinced that there was something hidden in this case, so how could he possibly listen to the words of the manager of the quarry?
Now he just needs to know the whole process of Liu Neng's murder.
"Whether he committed suicide by hanging himself will be known after an examination. Where is Liu Neng's body?"
The quarry manager forced himself to smile and said: "Are you kidding again? How can this body not be buried forever? It would stink even in late winter. Liu Neng's body had been buried long ago in a thin-skinned coffin.
You are still a member of everyone. Look at this..."
Zhao Xun smiled coldly when he heard this: "Buried? Well, I want to open the coffin and conduct an autopsy."
"Ah this..."
The quarry manager obviously did not expect that Zhao Xun would be so persistent, and he was obviously prepared.
He was a little confused for a moment and didn't know what to do.
"My lord, the dead are the most important. Since Liu Neng has been buried, we really shouldn't disturb him anymore."
"Liu Neng's death is unclear. The owner of his suffering has been brought before me. If I can't live up to this official robe, I will."
Zhao Xun is a very principled person. Once he has made up his mind, he will not change his mind easily.
Maybe he can't help everyone, or he can't help everyone, but at least he has to take care of the things he encounters and sees, and he has to respect his conscience.
Perhaps conscience is not important to people of this era, but it is important to Zhao Xun.
This is the principle, this is the conduct.
The quarry manager looked bitter and didn't know how to deal with it.
He looked at Governor Liang, but Governor Liang subconsciously turned his head away and did not make any substantial eye contact with him.
"Okay, I will take you to visit Liu Neng's tomb."
The quarry manager really had no choice but to nod in agreement.
After Liu Neng's case was concluded, his body was hastily buried in a sandy field overgrown with grass at the foot of the quarry mountain.
When Zhao Xun was brought there, he saw several lonely graves.
Liu Neng's tomb is located in the innermost part.
He strode closer and saw a tomb plaque made of wooden boards, which read the tomb of Liu Neng, a quarry worker.
Obviously the tomb is new.
Zhao Xun turned around without hesitation and ordered in a deep voice: "dig the grave, open the coffin and conduct an autopsy."
He was an imperial envoy, so Governor Liang naturally did not dare to respond and quickly ordered left and right to move.
More than a dozen people dug enthusiastically for a long time and finally dug out the coffin.
When the coffin lid was opened, everyone was moving back, fearing that they would be exposed to bad luck.
Only Zhao Xun stood there motionless.
They are all people who crawled out of the coffin, so there is nothing to be afraid of.
It was late winter, and Liu Neng's body did not rot much.
Zhao Xun saw the strangulation marks on the neck of his body at a glance.
At first glance, this is indeed a hanging.
But Zhao Xun knew that there was probably something fishy about this.
"Take out the body."
Since Zhao Xun decided to investigate to the end, he naturally had to take responsibility for this case and had to start from every detail.
Although the government officials in Hanzhou City were very reluctant, they still held their breath and took out Liu Neng's body and laid it flat on the ground.
Zhao Xun walked forward without hesitation and squatted down.
When he was in Chang'an City, he experienced many major cases and handled many corpses for examination. Now he no longer has any taboos.
Although the experience cannot be considered rich, it is indeed quite a lot.
He first carefully examined Liu Neng's whole body and found that there were no obvious wounds. This proved that Liu Neng at least did not die from trauma.
As for poisoning...
Zhao Xun thought it was unlikely.
If Liu Neng really died of poisoning, even if the body did not show any symptoms at the time, it would have turned black and discolored after a few days.
But now Liu Neng's body is well preserved. There is nothing too weird about the color of the body's skin except for being slightly dark and having some corpse spots on it.
Zhao Xun felt that there was no need for dissection.
Instead of dying from trauma or poisoning, what other way could there be?
Died by poison?
Zhao Xun feels that this possibility is really not very high.
First of all, Liu Neng is just an ordinary quarry worker. Who would bewitch him?
Secondly, Hanzhou is located in a remote area and is far from a big city like Chang'an. It is extremely difficult to find a witch and Gu master.
But after excluding all these possibilities, it can basically be concluded that Liu Neng really died of suffocation.
Could it be that there is something wrong with Zhao Xun's judgment?
wrong...
There is another detail that Zhao Xun did not notice before.
He leaned over and carefully examined Liu Neng's neck.
He found that the scars on Liu Neng's neck were a little strange.
For a person who hanged himself, the rope marks only reached behind the left and right ears, and were dark purple in color. The eyes were closed, the mouth was open with teeth exposed, the tongue was hanging out, and the hands were clenched.
But the eyes of Liu Neng's corpse were open, and his palms were stretched. The marks on his throat and neck were very shallow, and his tongue was not sticking out.
Obviously, he was strangled and then disguised as hanging himself!
Fortunately, it had only been five days since Liu Neng's death. If it had been longer, even if Zhao Xun opened the coffin for an autopsy, most of the body would have rotted away.
At that time, there was really no evidence of death.
"You are so brave, how dare you commit murder! Why don't you take it seriously?"
He scolded him so harshly that the quarry manager was so frightened that he fell to his knees with a plop.
"My lord, have mercy on me, my lord, have mercy on me!"
"The villain is just following orders. It's all arranged by the boss. It's all arranged by the boss."
Although Zhao Xun had already had psychological expectations beforehand, it was still difficult to accept the truth for a while.
"I order you to tell the truth in detail. If you conceal even a word, you will be severely punished."
The quarry manager knew that it was difficult to hide the truth, so he told the whole truth like beans poured out of a bamboo tube.
What a rich and ruthless family! They are so evil-hearted.
If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears or seen Zhao Xun with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.