Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
It was drizzling in Qinshan, and the woodlands were dewy. The rain made the air foggy, and there were clouds enveloped around the entire mountain valley. It looked like something out of a fairytale.
But on the empty land down in the valley of the mountain, it was all muddy. It was a piece of mountain flatland about two to three kilometers in circumference, which formed an isosceles triangle. The Ming Dynasty’s ancient tomb before their eyes was located right in the center of the triangle.
Zhao Yu was walking down with another six or seven people from a bus. They were all in raincoats, and were walking on the muddy ground towards the entrance of the ancient tomb.
The air was cold and damp. Accompanied with the view before their eyes, which was a grave that had just been unearthed, it made them feel heavy-hearted and uneasy.
The people accompanying Zhao Yu were experts from criminal investigation units from each branch in Qinshan.
It had been reported that after revealing the crime scene, the archaeologists that had been working there had vacated the scene, leaving it untouched. When Zhao Yu walked along the dark aisle leading to the coffin chamber of the ancient tomb, the investigators in white were already gathering evidence in the chamber.
Regarding investigating a case in the ancient tomb, Zhao Yu had been sent in an interesting manner. Because the location of the ancient tomb was under the control of Qinshan Yunyang County, it was supposed to be managed by the Yunyang County police station.
But although Yunyang County had a large domain, the organization system was incomplete due to its location in the deep mountain. The Yunyang Police Station was not capable of managing the case. In addition, the case was unusually odd, and would definitely be difficult to solve.
As a result, the criminal investigation unit in the Qinshan Municipal Bureau decided to have a joint investigation for the first time in their history. A joint investigation meant that a select few experienced criminal investigation experts from each branch in Qinshan would be assisting the Yunyang Police Station to solve the case!
Interestingly, they selected a few staff members, but the municipal bureau did not assign any team leaders, and let everyone display whatever they excelled in. This meant that the joint investigation was inevitably full of strongly competitive atmosphere!
Everyone wanted to be the first to solve the case, so every branch that had been selected by the municipal bureau sent their best police detectives, and gave the best investigation resources from behind the scenes. In short, it was not just a couple people who were trying to solve the case; each selected branch that was involved was in an unprecedented competition.
Due to their recent outstanding performance, Rongyang was of course the first to be selected by the municipal bureau. As the most popular police detective, Zhao Yu was entrusted by Bureau Chief Luan to represent the Rongyang Branch to join the investigation!
It was supposedly a joint investigation, but in reality it was a competition organized by the municipal bureau!
Although there was no exact reward for solving the case, no branch was stupid; they all understood that it would be a great opportunity to be in the limelight. Whoever solved the case first would be in the municipal bureau’s favor, and would stand out as the best of the Qinshan police, so to speak.
Because of the competition, the seven elite police detectives from different branches that came to the coffin chamber did not speak to each other, but harboured selfish motives, vainly hoping they would win the competition!
Then, a police officer from Yunyang led all the police detectives to the front of the coffin in the middle of the chamber.
The police officer began explaining to everyone, “The ancient tomb was discovered half a month ago and was reported to the Qinshan Archeology Department. After getting approval from the higher ups, the archeology department carried out an excavation operation of the ancient tomb. They uncovered the tomb entrance and got into the coffin chamber today.
“According to the monument inscription on the tomb entrance, the archeologists certified that the owner of the ancient tomb belonged to Qiu Cheng, Qiu Zixu of the Luya Prefecture in the last years of the Ming Dynasty.
“But…” The face of the police officer changed as he said, “As you can see, the coffin chamber was visited by grave robbers, and there aren’t many valuable cultural relics left! But the coffin didn’t look like it was damaged. So the archeologists decided to open the coffin to take a look, just to see whether if there was anything valuable. But when the archeologists opened the coffin…” The police officer pointed at the inside of the coffin and said, “It was quite the scene… Tsk tsk… Truly puzzling…”
The coffin was open. Before the police officer had even given the briefing, everyone had already seen the situation inside. Who would have guessed that it was not a skeleton of a man from the past, or any dazzling burial objects, but a modern-looking person that was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt with black slacks!
Although he looked like someone you could find on the street, he must have been dead for quite some time. The corpse was rotten and it was ferocious looking. A vital wound on the top of his head was clearly visible as well.
Looking at the scene, the police detectives found it unbelievable. A proper ancient coffin with an everyday person lying in it; what kind of situation was this?
“That’s interesting…” An old police detective in his fifties on the right side of Zhao Yu said. “I’ve been in criminal investigation for half of my life and I have never come across such a strange incident! A modern corpse in a coffin from the Ming Dynasty, very interesting!”
“Mm…” The Yunyang police officer pointed at the corpse and explained, “Before your arrival, the archaeologists had looked and said that there should be a ancient corpse below this corpse, but someone messed with it…”
“The deceased is a male!” The other detective in glasses on the left side of Zhao Yu said as he scribbled on his notebook. “They were between fifty-five to sixty, one hundred and seventy meters tall, wearing a blue shirt…”
“From what I see,” another older police detective suddenly said, “it wouldn’t be difficult. The grave robbers quarrelled over an uneven distribution of the spoils and fought to the death; it’s nothing new. After killing the person, they thought it would be fitting to put the person in the coffin, so they did. Grave robbers always do as they wish, without considering the consequences…”
“Police officer,” another detective with sideburns that looked to be in his forties said, “How many robber entrances did you find that lead to this coffin chamber?”
“Only one!” Next to the group of police detectives, there was someone from the archeology personnel that was familiar with the coffin chamber. On behalf of the Yunyang police officer, the person replied, “The entrance looked quite new, so it should have been dug quite recently! Police officers, on behalf of the Qinshan Cultural Relics Bureau, I beg you—the grave robbers took a large number of cultural relics. Please arrest them and retrieve them!”
“The owner of the tomb was Qiu Cheng. Although he was only a prefect, due to the special location of Qinshan in ancient times, it was actually a strategic point that linked north and south. Qiu Cheng was an influential commander of border. There must be precious cultural relics in his tomb!”
Mm…
The police detectives nodded. Although it was very odd to find a modern person’s corpse in the ancient coffin, everyone thought that they could reveal the truth if they could arrest the grave robbers!
But looking at the secret room that was in disorder and the corpse that was lying in the coffin, Zhao Yu smelled something different.
Hm… That’s not right?!
Zhao Yu was beginning to think that finding the person behind the Tomb Murder case might not be as simple as they thought!