"More than that..." Jing Yi seemed to have prepared this long ago, drowsily pushing himself up from the table while yawning as he replied, "Before the corpse examination, she didn't light any Chinese honey locust and atractylodes smoke, didn't hold ginger or scallions in her mouth, and didn't use any incense. Fortunately, she wore gloves and steamed vinegar before leaving, otherwise Old Man Ye would have scolded you awake with his ranting..."
Xiao Jin Yu felt a dull headache coming on. "Has Master Ye been here?"
"He came long ago. If I hadn't casually mentioned how you got the injuries on your face, making him use up all his scolding words on me alone, he would have definitely waited here until you woke up."
"Thanks to you..."
"But before he left, he told me to inform you that if you pull such a stunt again..."
"He'll make me spend the rest of my life bedridden... I know."
Over the years, Ye Qian Qiu had said this to him no less than twenty or thirty times, yet he could still manage to get himself out of bed - though it was indeed a tremendous struggle.
Gritting through the pain, Xiao Jin Yu exerted immense effort to finally sit up on the bed after much struggling. Jing Yi simply stood by watching. As long as Xiao Jin Yu didn't fall off the bed, even if everyone in the Royal Mansion lent him their courage, he wouldn't dare offer a helping hand.
He really didn't want to risk angering this person who had finally regained consciousness into passing out again in the middle of the night.
Only after Xiao Jin Yu had settled himself did Jing Yi approach and hand over several pages. "These are the complete records of her three examinations."
Xiao Jin Yu took them and began reading carefully from the first page, word by word. Jing Yi frowned slightly and said, "Wu Jiang and I discussed it and decided to temporarily accommodate her in the Royal Mansion, in the Six Strategies Yard, next to Wu Jiang's room."
A sharp pain shot through his lower back, causing the pages in Xiao Jin Yu's hand to tremble slightly. He looked up from the text, staring in astonishment at Jing Yi's serious expression by the bedside. "Was she intentional about it?"
Jing Yi shook his head. "The problem is that even I can't figure out whether she did it deliberately or accidentally. She's either extremely naive or exceptionally good at pretending."
Xiao Jin Yu was momentarily stunned, then gently shook his head. "Very few people know about this matter to begin with..."
"The number of cases you've adjudicated equals the number of enemies you've made. Being cautious never hurts."
Xiao Jin Yu didn't respond to this comment, silently returning his gaze to the corpse manifest on the first page. The further he read, the tighter his frown became. "Which case does this deceased belong to?"
"Several veteran coroners selected it from the unclaimed bodies in the Ministry of Justice Morgue."
"How long has it been stored at the Ministry of Justice?"
"Probably around ten days to half a month..."
Jing Yi immediately regretted this vague answer the moment it left his lips. Watching Xiao Jin Yu's expression instantly turn colder, he hurriedly added, "My mistake, my mistake, my mistake... Don't look at me like that! I can barely handle matters at the Court of Judicial Review, how would I know about things at the Ministry of Justice?"
With a cold expression, Xiao Jin Yu handed the corpse manifest back to Jing Yi. "This manifest has been in your possession for no less than five hours, and you didn't notice anything?"
Jing Yi made a pained expression, shaking the manifest he'd received. "It's not like you don't know how I became Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. With the limited skills I developed since childhood just to avoid my father, only you insisted I was suitable for official work - causing my father to excitedly shove me into this dreadful position... I can still manage reading living people's words, detecting lies, and observing expressions, but when it comes to matters of the dead..."Xiao Jin Yu shot a glare over, and Jing Yi immediately fell silent, swiftly finding the nearest corner to crouch down in, raising the corpse manifest overhead with both hands. His fox-like eyes, renowned among the young maidens of the capital, were filled with resentment as he stared at Xiao Jin Yu.
"Come here!"
"Yes."
Jing Yi held up the corpse manifest, lowered his head, and stood back by the bedside, awaiting judgment and punishment. Instead, he heard a cold and seemingly unrelated question.
"Have you found that person you were clamoring to find three months ago?"
Jing Yi froze in surprise, then jolted, "swishing" the corpse manifest back before his eyes. Even though he couldn't understand it, he scanned it from top to bottom, still unable to make sense of it. His eyes widened as he looked at Xiao Jin Yu. "Are you saying this is that person surnamed Lian?"
Xiao Jin Yu didn't answer, his gaze having just returned to the remaining pages in his hands when he heard a "bang" from the window. When he looked up again, he was the only one left in the room.
Only one floor up, and he jumped out the window...
A cold wind blew in through the wide-open window, scattering the last remnants of Xiao Jin Yu's drowsiness.
Xiao Jin Yu folded the few pages in his hand into his robe, changed his clothes, and, leaning on the crutch by the bed, settled himself into the wheelchair. He left One Heart Garden and headed in the direction of Three Thoughts Pavilion.
At this hour, Three Thoughts Pavilion would surely be filled not only with stacks of archival scrolls awaiting sorting but also a table covered in petition letters.
He had been unconscious for most of the day, and half the officials in the capital's government offices were probably on the verge of collapsing along with him.
During such busy seasons, Xiao Jin Yu rarely returned to One Heart Garden, because getting from One Heart Garden to Three Thoughts Pavilion required crossing the entire Royal Mansion. Some of the narrower paths were impassable for a wheelchair, and detouring meant going around the entire rear courtyard—and he was never one to waste energy unnecessarily.
Before he had even pushed his wheelchair a third of the way, Xiao Jin Yu had to stop. Exhaustion was secondary; what was unbearable was the pain in his waist and back, growing stronger with each wave, and his arms were so stiff and numb that they barely responded to his commands.
He remembered Ye Qian Qiu saying that this condition would be especially troublesome in winter, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad.
Xiao Jin Yu had initially thought to rest where he was, waiting for the worst of it to pass. But sitting there in the deep winter cold, buffeted by the chilling wind, not only did the earlier stiffness and pain fail to subside, but his entire body grew numb from the cold.
He found it almost amusing where he had ended up stopping—of all places, the most desolate northeastern corner of the Royal Mansion at night. In his current state, even if he shouted for help, it was unlikely anyone would hear him.
Xiao Jin Yu simply leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
He knew his own body well. In less than half an hour, he would lose all sensation. At worst, he'd wake up to a scolding from Ye Qian Qiu.
No sooner had he closed his eyes than he heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching. Before he could even open his eyes, a clear, bright voice reached his ears.
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