Lu Qing initially intended to go inside and take a look first, but after smelling that odor, based on the experience of watching Zhu Yu perform an autopsy earlier, he immediately abandoned his original plan, reached out to open the window a bit wider, then pulled Zhu Yu to stand beside the wall, waiting for the smell inside the room to slowly dissipate while paying attention to the surrounding movements.

The small courtyard was deathly silent, except for the occasional barking of a dog in the distance, there was no other sound.

After a while, Zhu Yu felt that the ventilation in the room was about adequate, then reached out to take out a small paper packet from inside his coat, pinching out two small items and putting them into Lu Qing’s hand.

Lu Qing took it, felt it, two peanut-sized items, narrower at one end and wider at the other, glanced at them under the dim moonlight, unable to make out what they were, but they emitted a refreshing aroma.

This refreshing aroma finally made him remember what these were - one of those good items he had helped Zhu Yu procure earlier, rumored to be made with a beeswax exterior, with mint pounded into a paste and mixed with grease to form a balm.

At the time, it was said that these items, when traveling outdoors, encountering the damp and hot regions full of miasma in the south, only needed to be stuffed into the nose to temporarily resist it, avoiding being poisoned by miasma accidentally.

At the time he thought that since these things could withstand miasma, they should be able to handle corpse odors too, so he bought plenty for Zhu Yu.

Unexpectedly, so soon these small items came in handy.

The two stuffed these items into their nostrils, Lu Qing pulled out a dagger and slid it through the gap in the door, discovering that the door wasn’t locked, just ajar, hurriedly pushed it open, and after they both went in, left it ajar again, then pulled out a flint, letting the flickering flame bring a bit of faint light here.

With this bit of light, Zhu Yu quickly scanned the surroundings.

The room’s furnishings were extremely simple, a battered and uneven table, a narrow wooden bench, and a broken wooden bed, on which lay a roll of a quilt that nearly exposed the cotton wadding.

And beneath that quilt, a vaguely discernible human shape could be seen.

Zhu Yu quickly stepped forward, carefully uncovering the quilt.

Lu Qing’s flint followed suit, shedding a warm yellow patch of light, illuminating the female corpse lying face down on the bed.

Judging from the physique, she indeed resembled Gu Lingyun extremely closely, except she was not wearing the stylish clothes seen earlier at the Headdress and Shoes Workshop, but rather all plain-colored clothing, looking extremely simple at first glance, only up close could the delicate stitching indicate the fabric was something not affordable by those living here.

The woman’s hair was somewhat disheveled, not tied into a bun, just casually draped behind her.

Zhu Yu cautiously turned the corpse face up, and Lu Qing also leaned closer to get a good look at the deceased’s appearance.

For someone usually quite brave, seldom frightened by anything, upon seeing that face he instinctively looked away, before forcing himself to look again.

That face was like a Yaksha, with a bluish-purple hue, blotched, almost unrecognizable from its original skin color, extremely terrifying.

"How did this happen?" Lu Qing frowned, asking Zhu Yu in a low voice, "Could it be some poison, that caused this appearance?"

"No, it’s just that after being murdered, she lay face down for so long, causing blood to congest here, resulting in this appearance." Zhu Yu shook his head with an amused and helpless look.

With the help of the firelight and extensive past autopsy experience, Zhu Yu was able to confirm the deceased’s appearance through the purplish corpse spots without difficulty, quickly recognizing that this was indeed the Gu Lingyun whose whereabouts they’d been inquiring about.

She pressed a few times on the blood congestion on Gu Lingyun’s face, noticing that it wouldn’t disperse: "It seems, when they deliberately spread rumors outside, she was already dead."

"Not poison? Then the cause of death...?" Lu Qing softly asked.

Zhu Yu remained silent, bending over, meticulously feeling down from the top of Gu Lingyun’s skull.

Just as she flipped the corpse earlier, she felt a slight odd texture, as she probed inch by inch, gradually an answer forming internally.

"Clothes are clean, without any stains," she said while cautiously extending her hand beneath Gu Lingyun’s thin clothes, "the chest and abdomen have no noticeable wounds, nor signs of stitching.

I just discovered that her neck bone is broken, and as I continued to probe downward, found not only that, but Gu Lingyun’s entire body has every joint, every bone... broken."

Saying this, she withdrew her hand, pulling Lu Qing by the wrist, letting him bring the flint closer, while she herself squatted by the bedside, examining Gu Lingyun’s terrifying face more closely.

"Suffocated to death." After a while, Zhu Yu drew a conclusion, "The eyeballs slightly protruding, full of red veins, and there are many small blood spots on the face, fitting the appearance of suffocation. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

And her neck bone fracture indeed could cause such a death.

However, though there aren’t any visible traces of external injuries, every single bone being broken, I cannot determine whether her neck was broken first, resulting in suffocation, or she was tortured inch by inch until each joint and bone was shattered, only then having her neck twisted."

"Wanting to make it seem like no traces are visible, but can fracture every joint, every bone... truly an expert." Lu Qing murmured, then asked Zhu Yu in a low voice, "Should we examine?"

"No need." Zhu Yu had already changed her mind, "If not for deducing from the blood congestion on her body, she would still be stiff all over now, but I found her body soft when I moved her, it’s likely the surface won’t reveal the cause of death.

Since the other party intends to create such an effect, the forensic doctor will surely conduct a detailed examination later.

If I examined, no matter how well it’s stitched back, there will ultimately be traces, which will be detected, essentially taking someone else’s blame by force, that’s not acceptable.

Did you notice I didn’t even undo her clothes for inspection?

Turn off the flint, I’ll now restore her corpse to its original state, position it back as before, we don’t need to linger here further."

Lu Qing nodded, extinguishing the flint.

In the dark, Zhu Yu shuffled to restore Gu Lingyun’s corpse, the two tiptoeing out of the room, securing the door and window again, silently climbing over the wall, disappearing into the night.