Zhu Yu, guided by the old constable, arrived at the room where the corpses were stored, and according to her agreement with He Min, she didn’t let Lu Qing and the others in. She pushed the door open and stepped inside alone.

"Master... do you really not need help in there?" Rune was a bit uneasy. Although he knew their lady had remarkable courage, facing He Min’s daughter’s corpse alone wouldn’t scare her at all.

But he also heard the old constable’s words earlier; there were two hunters inside whose bodies had been mauled by wild animals in a mess. Having others around could be encouraging, but their lady going in alone with two unrecognizable corpses was an entirely different matter.

"It’s all right," Lu Qing shook his head calmly and sat down on a stone bench nearby. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The structure of the corpse room had its own logic; all the shaded areas were reserved for rooms where the bodies were kept, while the sunniest spot was the courtyard.

Fortunately, the autumn air was thick now, with a chill settling in, and sitting under the sun felt rather comfortable.

Lu Qing invited the old constable to sit with him in the courtyard under the sunlight, engaging in casual conversation.

Zhu Yu, on the other hand, was far from leisure, busy examining the corpse of He Family’s daughter to find any clues.

This room was especially cold, and Zhu Yu, dressed in thin garments, soon felt the chill seeping in layer by layer.

She cautiously removed the clothing of He Family’s daughter, seeing her whole body with skin that appeared pale and thin, indicating a severe deficiency in blood and energy, as if she had been exhausted to death.

Zhu Yu peeled back the woman’s lower eyelid, checked her lips, nails, and other places, finding them all turning blue and pale, and there were no obvious post-mortem lividity marks on the corpse. This clearly showed a state of sufficient blood loss.

Yet, Zhu Yu thoroughly examined He Family’s daughter’s body and didn’t find any external trauma that could have caused excessive bleeding. There were no signs of the body being cleaned, nor any residual blood around the seven orifices.

Zhu Yu took out her tools, deftly slicing open the chest and abdomen of the female corpse, surprisingly finding her organs intact, with no internal injuries causing excessive blood loss.

From the organ morphology, this person died of organ failure due to severe anemia.

It was no wonder the previous forensic doctor questioned He Min, suspecting his daughter had starved to death.

Zhu Yu used the finest stitches to sew back the incision, looking at the gaunt pale corpse with furrowed brows.

In this world, even water doesn’t vanish into thin air; when dried by the sun, it turns into vapor and gathers in the clouds, forming rain to fall again.

So, the blood in He Family’s daughter’s body could not simply disappear without a trace.

It wasn’t drained through external wounds, nor was it accumulated in the abdomen due to internal injuries, so how did this blood disappear?

Images of the bright red she saw on the third floor of the Headdress and Shoes Workshop emerged in Zhu Yu’s mind.

In Jin Country, there was no tradition that brides must wear red wedding dresses, so red dresses held no special meaning.

In daily life, those noble women who prided themselves on high taste actually didn’t have a particular liking for such overly bright and passionate colors, deeming them somewhat vulgar and not particularly presentable.

According to He Min, that magical fabric, which claimed to enhance the complexion and beauty of unmarried women for better marriages, was undeniably priced high.

But such "magical" fabric had to be dyed in colors that even wealthy noble women who secretly longed for high marriages could easily afford, yet disliked, so was Gu Lingyun not aware of her female customers’ preferences despite running the fabric and clothing business for so long?

Zhu Yu didn’t think so.

In her view, Gu Lingyun clearly understood the tastes of truly affluent female customers; otherwise, she wouldn’t precisely launch each time the fabrics that noble women in the Capital flocked to, allowing them to swiftly catch up with the dressing trends led by favored concubines in the palace.

Thus, the so-called Red Jade Fragrance was dyed bright red either because of some purpose requiring it to be vividly red, otherwise leaving some flaw exposed; or intentionally, with the goal of having those self-assumed elegant and detached noble women dislike it, even if they secretly yearned for beauty and a good marriage, they wouldn’t openly display such thoughts on their clothing for all to see.

After all, if something happens to common folks’ daughters, it can be solved with money.

If something happened to noble women, the Headdress and Shoes Workshop wouldn’t have such confidence.

Of course, it’s also possible that the previous two possibilities coexist.

The immediate task still is to figure out how He Family’s daughter’s blood was lost.

Since the corpse room can’t stop the decay altogether, the preservation of the female corpse to this extent apart from the cold and dryness also relates to her own gaunt, bloodless condition.

Even so, from today’s situation, it won’t last much longer.

Zhu Yu contemplated, using a piece of white cloth to cover the corpse temporarily, and went to open the door ajar, speaking to the talisman outside: "Please fetch me some pot-black ash, the blacker and finer the better, and additionally prepare a basin of clear water and a cloth towel, and bring them together."

The talisman heard this, didn’t ask for the reason, and immediately responded, pulling the old constable to find pot-black ash.

"How’s it going?" Lu Qing, living up to his promise, didn’t step closer but asked from the courtyard.

"Indeed, she died of blood loss leading to organ failure, but I haven’t found out how the blood escaped her body," Zhu Yu replied.

Lu Qing shook his head: "I meant, is it uncomfortable inside? If you’re not feeling well, come out and rest a bit.

If the other two corpses, mauled by wild beasts, are too scary, I can blindfold myself and accompany you inside."

His words brought a smile to Zhu Yu’s face, her eyes turning into crescents.

"No need to worry, if those three really sat up, I’d be spared some trouble," she joked with a laugh.