The Tang Dynasty’s Female Forensic Doctor - Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Ran Yan’s fine features were mostly covered by the mask, only her eyes were exposed . Those deep and dark eyes, the earnestness in them when looking at the terrifying corpse, spirit and vigour bursting through its serene darkness . If this was seen by those who did not know how to appreciate it, they would definitely feel horrified . However, Xiao Song merely looked on passively, a trace of smile hovering on his lips .  

“The dissection showed that the blood was fluid, its colour dark red . Each internal organ leaked blood into the surrounding tissue —  there are blood spots under the membranes around the organs . ” Ran Yan examined swiftly . She placed the focus of the dissection on the lungs and upper respiratory tract, “There is residue blood in the respiratory tracts . It is probably due to the lack of oxygen when hanging, the deceased unconsciously inhaled the blood from her facial wounds when trying to breathe . ”

Ran Yan carefully inspected the five viscera and six bowels and did not discover any injuries caused by external force . The dissection ended . Ran Yan’s gaze stopped at Cui Mei’s fair and delicate hands . She was still wearing that jade bracelet, her fingernails painted with red polish were all neatly trimmed and short . Ran Yan guessed that she had probably trimmed them to the same length after one fingernail broke .

“The deceased did not experience any fights, resistance or struggle before she died . The surface and internal organs of her body does not have any injuries caused by external forces . I judge that she died due to suicide by hanging . As for the wounds on her face, the incisions are orderly, the skin and flesh turned outwards and there are slight signs of inflammation – the wounds are inflicted before death . If she was already dead, the incisions might be orderly, but the skin and flesh would not turn outwards and there definitely would not be any inflammation…” Ran Yan straightened up and concluded her analysis .  

Xiao Song suddenly interrupted her, “What is inflammation?”

Ran Yan looked at him quietly, trying hard to organise in her mind terms that people in ancient times would understand . After two breaths only did she explain, “Inflammation is commonly known as swelling[1] . It is the result of irritation of the skin after injury caused by the infection of pathogens[2] . This causes the wound to become red, swollen, hot and painful . ”

“What are pathogens?” Xiao Song asked again .  

Ran Yan clenched her fists, really wanting to punch that smiling yet not really smiling face . Clearly the explanation was understandable, but he just had to grab hold of a random unfamiliar term . Ran Yan felt that he was not humbly asking for guidance, but was deliberately nit-picking .  

“This gentleman, I still have one more corpse to examine . If you have any questions, we can discuss it in detail later . ” Ran Yan said flatly .  

Xiao Song sensed her anger and the smile on his face became brighter . Accompanied with the imposing manner settled in his bones, no matter how one looked at it, one would feel that behind this smile contained something that normal people would not be able to bear .  

However, Ran Yan had no time for civilities, her dark eyes containing a heavy deathly gaze . When associated with her calmness while dissecting previously, it momentarily made one feel cold air from the soles of their feet .  

“Seventeenth Miss, come over to look at the corpse . ” Liu Pinrang quickly interrupted the confrontation between the two . He knew that with Xiao Song’s status, even the Ran clan could not afford to offend him . Since he (LPR) had obtained benefits from Ran Yan, naturally he would take care of her .  

Ran Yan withdrew her gaze and turned to follow Liu Pinrang to the neighbouring wooden table . This corpse had already started to ** . When she was 5 feet away from it, she could clearly smell a rotting scent .  

Ran Yan pulled away the white cloth . Aside from Feng Sanxun and Ran Yan, everyone else took in a cold breath in . Even Xiao Song who had remained calm all this while, involuntarily had a slight change in expression .  

Yin Miao-miao’s maidservant, Fan Chun had already been dead for over 3 days . Starting from this time period, the changes that would happen would only be more and more disgusting and frightening . Ran Yan sighed and said slowly, “Regardless of beauty, they are all the same after death . In the end, they would all become big, black fatties filled with gas . No matter how good looking they are… they still wouldn’t become a prettier looking big, black fatty . ”

The tips of Xiao Song’s brows raised imperceptibly, while his complexion returned to normal .  

How did Fan Chun die?

Ran Yan bowed her head and carefully observed the state of the corpse . Blood frothed out from her mouth and nose . This was a normal response after 3 days of death . A hint of white marks adhering to the skin near the nose drew Ran Yan’s attention . She started and turned to ask Feng Sanxun, “She was drowned to death by someone?” 

“That’s correct . ” Just now, Ran Yan had overthrown his judgment on Cui Mei’s cause of death . Feng Sanxun was determined to perform well this time, in order to avoid Liu Pinrang and others thinking that he was no longer usable anymore . “The colour of livor mortis on the corpse is pale . Moreover, it appeared slowly . The skin is pale and wrinkled up . Light red coloured mould-like foam spilled out around the nose and mouth, but it seemed to have been wiped away by someone . When this old man examined (the corpse), I saw that the mould shaped foam at the nose end emerged afterwards . The corpse’s fists were tightly clenched, but there are no water plants or sand in her hands . I believe that she did not drown to death in a river or pond . ” 

Ran Yan nodded, “If we want to know where she drowned, we will know after dissection . ”

Ran Yan tidied up her gloves, undid the deceased’s clothes, and immediately began dissecting from the neck to the abdomen . If Fan Chun really was drowned alive, then her respiratory tract, thoracic cavity, heart and stomach would have reactions of different degrees, especially the respiratory tract and the stomach . In cases like Fan Chun’s, where it was basically confirmed that she had drowned, but the place where she drowned was unknown, then one can look at her respiratory tract and stomach . Perhaps, they would be able to discover some residue left behind .  

As everyone knows, when a person is drowning, in the first moments, they would hold their breath . Then, they would grasp around for something to save their life . When they cannot hold their breath any longer, they will choke on the water and be forced to swallow large amounts of water into their stomach .  

There were many signs of struggle on Fan Chun’s body . Her neck was bruised and scratched . The wound on her forehead was obviously created after death .  

Ran Yan dissected while explaining to Feng Sanxun about the oedema in the lungs, the “marbled appearance[3]” of the lungs, as well as the changes to the heart of the drowned .  

As expected, when she dissected open the respiratory tract, she discovered some things . Ran Yan carefully used tweezers to pick up something stuck to the windpipe . A yellowing and rotting flower petal . From its shape and veins, one could vaguely make out that it was a flower petal . As for what kind of flower, she could not confirm for now .  

With this discovery, Ran Yan carefully inspected the respiratory tract and the lungs again . In a place near to the lungs, she discovered two pieces, one of them was better preserved . The fine and long petal resembled chrysanthemum petals a little, but it was summer now, chrysanthemums flowers were not blooming yet . Carefully observing this petal, Ran Yan suddenly thought of the honeysuckle flowers growing in her own courtyard .  

“It looks like honeysuckle flowers?” Ran Yan placed the flower petals on a clean cloth, allowing everyone present to identify it . Whereas she started to dissect the stomach .  

The stomach was bloated with water . After cutting it open, one could immediately see many flower petals, many were still perfectly preserved, they even emitted a fragrance that made one feel like vomiting when mixed with the rotting smell .  

“It’s jasmine . ” Xiao Song that had remained quiet all the while suddenly spoke, “Other than honeysuckle, there’s also jasmine . Perhaps there are others . ”

Ran Yan carefully picked out the flower petals in the stomach, placing each and every one of them on the white cloth .  

Among them, an oval shaped flower petal the size of a fingernail was the most numerous . Its colour had long become unrecognisable . Based on the ** fragrance emitted when dissecting the stomach, this must be a very fragrant flower, blooming the heaviest in the 6th and 7th months . It was most likely a flower that matched this description .  

In that case, why would there be flower petals in the corpse?

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T/N: The ** in the text is how it was written in the raws . I assume it represents the word "rot/rotting" . Not sure why they censored it though . .  

Thank you so much to everyone who commented saying that they appreciate my translations T_T it means a lot . Also the forensic parts of this novel are my favourite parts too! :) 

I'm really sorry that my translations have been slowing down so much but I'm afraid that I've been really busy this semester and don't expect the workload to lighten any time soon >~< 

P . S . I know this is meant to be a serious and dark chapter . . but RY saying big, black fatty made me laugh :P 

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[1]炎症俗称发炎: the author uses two different words that both mean inflammation but I couldn’t find a good replacement in English so I just used the word “swelling” instead .

[2]病原: pathogens might seem like an very complicated and modern word and you might be wondering why RY would use this term – but in Chinese, the word “pathogen” literally means “disease-origin”, so it kinda makes sense on its own even if you don’t know what pathogens are .  

[3]溺死斑: literally drowned death spots/stripes/patches . I looked it up on Wikipedia and realised it referred to the marbled appearance of the lungs after drowning . See Wikipedia link for more on the forensics behind drowning .