Chapter 404: Chapter 258 Opium
After they shifted their position, they could see everything inside the tent. Ran Yan wore a mask and kept her head lowered; their expressions were largely obscured, but even from a distance, they could sense her practiced movents. The two armored military officers were imnsely curious; what kind of severed limbs and remnants hadn’t they seen on the battlefield? Unable to restrain themselves further, and with a shared desire to look, they exchanged a glance and walked over together.
Ran Yan had just opened up the abdon, her first target being the stomach. With luck, the stomach contents would tell her where the deceased had been in the two hours before their death.
The recent cold weather ant that if there were contents in the stomach, they wouldn’t rot. In the autopsy of a thousand-year-old female corpse, Lady Xin Chui, 138 half-ford but full lon seeds that still looked quite fresh were found in her stomach. And considering the degree of decay of this corpse, things seed relatively optimistic.
The stomach was entirely separated from the body and placed on a bamboo board that had been prepared beforehand.
As soon as the two military officers arrived, they were greeted by this scene and were so surprised they stood with their mouths agape. To kill a person was easy, but to remove an organ so completely without causing any other damage to the body seed utterly inconceivable!
“You cut it open,” Ran Yan said to Liu Qingsong. She looked at the plump stomach, feeling certain it would yield so clues.
Liu Qingsong nodded, chose an appropriate knife, and gently sliced open the stomach.
His hand was quite fast, but in an instant, a foul stench perated the air. Even Liu Qingsong, with his mask on, nearly retched from the sll.
Sang Chen had already turned pale, nearly losing consciousness, while even the normally stoic Xiao Song couldn’t help but frown. Only Ran Yan continued, as if no one else was there, to thodically separate each of the body’s organs. This was to keep the corpse clean, for if the stomach full of contents had been cut open directly inside the abdominal cavity, it would have spilled everywhere, easily contaminating other parts and greatly complicating further observation.
In later ages, these parts would typically be stored individually in containers filled with formalin, emitting a sll that was a mix of chemicals and salted at.
Liu Qingsong couldn’t bear to look at the stomach contents for a long ti. His passion for the field of forensic science was fiery, but he lacked the experience of injecting sulfuric acid into laboratory mice since university. Although he wasn’t frightened, any normal person would feel nauseated.
“Lungs congested and edematous, myocardial rupture,” Ran Yan said cautiously as she placed the lungs on a clean bamboo board. “Have you noticed a particular sll in the stomach contents?”
“Ugh…” The sound of Sang Chen vomiting was the only response.
Liu Qingsong held his breath for a long ti before saying, “There is… a uniquely foul… stench…”
Ran Yan frowned but soon realized he was not a professional autopsy officer and said nothing more. She used a small knife to gently prod the dark substance in the stomach, affirming, “It’s opium! Also known as ‘ah-furong’.”
Xiao Song imdiately added, “Does that an this person died from ingesting ‘ah-furong’?”
One of the military officers held his breath for a long ti; upon hearing this, he chid in. “I’ve also heard that consuming ‘ah-furong’ can be lethal.”
In the Tang Dynasty, much like in the Wei Jin Period with the use of ‘wushi-san’, it was predominantly the elites who indulged in ‘ah-furong’. Unlike during the Qing Dynasty, when opium flooded in, opium was not produced in the Great Tang; it ca from barbarian lands, so it was rare and extrely expensive, beyond what ordinary people could afford.
The Tang people also recognized that using such substances could cause irreparable harm to the human body, and thus the noble families all forbade their younger mbers from touching it, and the Court also explicitly banned it. Consequently, several dens for addicts erged in Chang’an City.
“So he went to Qidian to smoke opium and died accidentally, and the other addicts, fearing trouble, dumped his body?” Liu Qingsong’s energy had recovered by now, and his imagination kicked in as he began to speculate.
Ran Yan was about to add sothing when she heard Xiao Song’s deep voice say, “That’s a possibility, but not entirely correct. People who use opium beco thinner and more emaciated, but this corpse’s limbs still look healthy, suggesting he might have only recently co into contact with the drug, probably not for more than a year.”
“Exactly,” Ran Yan continued, “His cardiac rupture and pulmonary edema are obvious signs of acute poisoning, most likely caused by an overdose of opium. Moreover, ordinary people do not swallow it, and such a large quantity in his stomach must be quite valuable. Those addicts wouldn’t waste it like that.”
There were two possibilities, one was that soone intentionally murdered him, using this thod to kill Yu Lang due to so special psychological reason; the other was, as Liu Qingsong had said, that the addicts, after getting high and losing their minds, might have accidentally swallowed the opium like Yu Lang, and after his death, they dumped the body.
“This ans we still have no leads!” Liu Qingsong sighed.
“We do!”
“We do!”
Ran Yan and Xiao Song said in unison.
Liu Qingsong looked at the two of them in surprise and then asked with a smile, “What lead?”
Ran Yan bent down to tidy up the corpse, while Xiao Song walked over to the fainted Sang Chen, took the record book from his hand, and began to write in it himself. He used a clear and straightforward narration, devoid of any professional jargon, making it understandable to the layman.
“What is the lead already!” Liu Qingsong’s burning gossip fever and intense curiosity were torturing him rcilessly at that mont.
“Sang Suiyuan, do you know?” Liu Qingsong shook the semi-conscious Sang Chen vigorously.
After tidying up everything, Ran Yan turned and said, “If needed, a second autopsy can be conducted.”
The current cause of death was determined to be acute poisoning from swallowing too much opium. A detailed examination had been done on the external appearance and the chest and abdominal area, but they had not yet examined the skull, limbs, neck, and other places. Not every autopsy required dissecting every inch of the body inside out; forensic doctors needed to have their clear line of thought and objectives. Unless they faced a cause of death with absolutely no clues, a forensic doctor would not opt to ticulously inspect every inch of a body upon encountering it.
“You go back to the city with Liu Qingsong and rest; the carriage is ready, and there are guards to accompany you,” Xiao Song said. There were only six or seven days left. In normal circumstances, he could have comfortably sat in the Governnt Office and waited for reports from below. There was no need to take such a hands-on approach.
Ran Yan knew that she wouldn’t be much help with what was to co, so she followed his suggestion and got on the carriage to return to the city.
“Ran Yan, what is the lead?” Liu Qingsong wasn’t in the sa carriage as Ran Yan but couldn’t let it go and stuck to the window, shouting to the carriage opposite, “Miss Ran, Autopsy Officer Ran, just give a straight answer!”
“I’m pretty straightforward,” Ran Yan said indifferently.
“You’ve gone bad.” Liu Qingsong howled in pain, “It’s all Jiulang’s fault, that guy full of mischief! He’s corrupted our honest, kind, and beautiful Ran Shiqi!”(
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