Chapter 31: A Corpse

  After listening to Hualang's words, Bao Zheng picked up the teacup and drank all the tea in it, saying: "You wait here, I'll go see Zhang Gonggong now."

  After finishing speaking, Bao Zheng left. Seeing his urgent appearance made Hua Lang feel a bit strange. In his imagination, Bao Zheng should be a very steady and calm person who is not surprised by things. However, through half a day of interaction, he felt that this Bao Zheng was also very calm but also had a strong sense of justice and sometimes could not help but get angry.

  Perhaps this kind of Bao Zheng is the real and true Bao Zheng.

  After Bao Gong left, Wen Meng's cheeks were still red and slightly hot. She was even too shy to look at Hua Lang, but when she realized she was a female hero, she suddenly didn't care anymore. Heroes of the rivers and lakes, who cares about those words?

  Before long, Bao Gong walked in from outside with a very good expression. After he told Zhang Gonggong the words that Hualang had entrusted to him, Zhang Gonggong immediately hesitated. The safety of the emperor was paramount, and if the selected girl caused any unexpected harm to the emperor, he could not bear it. After thinking about this, and also hearing that Wen Meng was no longer a virgin, he completely dispelled this idea.

  Seeing Bao Gong so excited, Hua Lang knew that things had been done, and he hurriedly got up to bow his hands to Bao Gong: "Brother Bao's great kindness, we will never forget."

  Bao Zheng was delighted to see Hua Lang and Wen Meng together, saying: "I'm doing this for my sworn sister. From now on, you must take good care of my sworn sister. If she suffers even a little grievance, I won't forgive you."

  This was naturally a joke, but at this time, it made people feel warm in their hearts. Hua Lang even joked: "Bao brother, Warm Dream's father has already said this once, how dare I bully her? You don't know how formidable her father is..."

  After saying this, everyone's mood improved a lot. Just as Hua Lang and Wen Meng were about to bid farewell, a catcher rushed in to report that they had gone to the small path on the east side of the city according to Bao Gong's instructions and searched carefully there. As a result, they really found a corpse in that place.

  After hearing the news, Bao Gong and Hualang were shocked. It seemed that their speculation was correct. The silver in the hands of those two scoundrels was not picked up, but was obtained by killing people.

  At this time, the catcher hurriedly said: "The subordinate has already sent someone to protect the scene. Is the adult going to take a look?"

  Bao Zheng nodded: "Of course I'll go!"

  Bao Zheng was going to check out the scene of the body, and Hua Lang, being a detective, had a kind of curious occupational disease, also hurriedly followed.

  It was still very hot, and the sun was scorching. They left the city gate of Tianchang County and followed the catcher to where the body was located. The body was about three miles away from the city gate, in a secluded area with many trees, making their journey arduous.

  After arriving there, several catchers had already surrounded the scene. After Bao Gong and others came forward, a catcher hurriedly explained: "The body was buried by someone. Looking at the soil, it should have been buried yesterday."

  After the catcher finished speaking, everyone cast their eyes on the corpse. It was a male corpse, but at this time, the corpse emitted a stench of rot and maggots were crawling out of his nose and eyes, which made people feel sick to death. Several catchers couldn't bear such a disgusting scene and had gone to vomit many times.

  Wen Meng was seeing this disgusting scene for the first time and dry-retched several times before recovering, but Hua Lang had seen too many corpses in his past life and now felt nothing.

  Bao Zheng stood in front of the corpse, for a moment he didn't know what to do. He was a scholar and good at judging cases, but examining corpses was not his expertise. He glanced at the nearby catcher and asked: "Is there a coroner coming?"

  The catcher hesitated for a moment and then hastily replied, "In the past when handling cases, Lord Zhou had never used an executioner, so there was no executioner in the county yamen."

  Bao Zheng is in trouble, there is no coroner, how can he determine that the corpse was killed by someone?

  Just as Bao Gong was at a loss for what to do, Hua Lang stepped forward and said: "Brother Bao, I am well-versed in the art of autopsy, why not let me play the role of coroner for you?"

  Hua Lang said so, Bao Gong was suddenly delighted, but at this time, Wen Meng asked strangely: "Can you autopsy?"

  Hualang nodded and smiled slightly: "Your husband knows a lot of things, I'll let you see them later."

  As they spoke, the flower boy came to the side of the corpse. He first had someone remove the deceased's clothes and then used water to wash away the flies on the body before squatting down to carefully examine it.

  Everyone saw Huā Láng examining the corpse non-stop and thought it was too unbelievable. Isn't Huā Láng a scholar, how can he also examine corpses?

  After a long while, Hua Lang stood up, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and bowed to Bao Gong: "The deceased has fair skin, no calluses on his hands, and is well-dressed, suggesting that he comes from a wealthy family. There is only one knife wound on his back, indicating that he was suddenly attacked and killed. The deceased had no valuables on him."

  After listening to Hualang's analysis, Bao Zheng's dark face slightly changed, and he said: "From the scene, it should be for wealth, and it is very likely that those two big men we met today killed this person. Go back and interrogate those two people severely."

  Bao Gong said nothing wrong, but Hua Lang raised a question: "From the degree of decay of the deceased's body, the deceased should have been dead for at least three days. If the murderer was indeed those two scoundrels, how could they stay in Tianchang County for so long?"

  This was something Bao Gong did not expect. He glanced at Hua Lang and asked: "What does Brother Hua think we should do now?"

  Hualang smiled faintly: "It's necessary to interrogate those two scoundrels, even if they're not the murderers, they must know something. After that, we need to investigate the identity of the deceased. Once we know who the deceased is, perhaps we can find some clues."

  Bao Zheng thought that Hualang's words were reasonable, so he immediately ordered the two bailiffs to carry the corpse back to the county government office. Later, he also sent several catchers to Tianchang County to draw a portrait of the deceased and asked someone to go to the county government office to identify the body.

  Before the runners did these things, Hua Lang specially reminded them to tell all the people in the county that the magistrate of Chang County had been replaced today, so as not to be afraid and dare not come to the county government to provide clues.

  Those yamen runners saw that Hualang was on familiar terms with the county magistrate, addressing him as "brother" and "younger brother", and also saw that he could examine corpses, so they no longer dared to regard him as a bookish scholar. They carried out Hualang's orders without fail, not daring to be even slightly slow.