“Miss, why do you keep bending her toe joints?” In Jing Zhi’s eyes, the scene was unsettling enough that under ordinary circumstances she would have dropped everything and fled long ago. The only reason she was still here was partly that she didn’t dare leave, and partly that, watching her young mistress, she found she could sense a strange flicker of fascination — the fear she’d felt before was somehow diminished.
“As I suspected — rigor mortis has already fully set in the toe joints,” Yan Qing murmured to herself, then looked up to find both maids staring at her with bewildered expressions.
“You’ve probably heard it said before that when a person dies, they grow cold and stiff. What is commonly described as growing cold and stiff is more precisely called algor mortis and rigor mortis. Algor mortis occurs because the body’s metabolism ceases, heat is no longer generated, and the corpse’s temperature drops continuously. The formation of rigor mortis involves more complex factors, but it generally follows a predictable pattern.”
Jing Zhi listened blankly until Murong nudged her to hurry with her notes.
“Try pressing her lower jaw and her fingers,” Yan Qing said, looking calmly toward Jing Zhi.
At that, Jing Zhi went pale and instinctively stepped back. It was the bolder Murong who stepped forward, grasped Cui Nong’s fingers and tried to bend them, then attempted to move the lower jaw — only to shake her head in the end. “The mouth won’t open at all. The finger joints are extremely rigid.”
“That is rigor mortis, and at full maximum rigidity,” Yan Qing said, eyes cast downward. “After death, stiffness begins developing within half an hour to two hours. It reaches peak intensity around twelve hours in, particularly in the toe joints. After thirty hours, it gradually softens and eventually returns to normal.”
“I understand!” Jing Zhi exclaimed excitedly. “Since it’s at maximum rigidity right now, it means Cui Nong has been dead for approximately twelve hours.”
Yan Qing gave an approving nod. “Rigor mortis in a body submerged in water develops slightly more slowly. More precisely, her time of death was over twelve hours ago and within twenty-four hours. Now, both of you — think about whether there are any obvious inconsistencies in this case.”
Faced with the sudden question their mistress had thrown at them, both maids immediately fell into deep thought. In the end, Jing Zhi spoke first. “The testimony — Xiao Yue’s testimony.”
“Right.” Murong picked up where she left off. “Xiao Yue said she heard someone fall into the well at two in the morning. It’s now seven-thirty. From two in the morning to seven-thirty is only five and a half hours. If Xiao Yue isn’t lying, then the time of death doesn’t line up with the rigor mortis.”
Yan Qing smiled with satisfaction. It seemed both her maids were remarkably bright girls, able to quickly piece together the unfamiliar technical terminology she’d been using.
“Xiao Yue was not lying. The sound she heard at two in the morning was indeed the sound of something falling into the well — but it was not Cui Nong jumping in on her own. It was the killer disposing of the body. Dead people cannot throw themselves into wells.” Yan Qing turned her wheelchair and continued her explanation. “Based on the rigor mortis and the degree of corneal clouding, death occurred between twelve and twenty-four hours ago. Liu Shao mentioned that yesterday evening, people still saw Cui Nong crying and making a scene in her room. Therefore, Cui Nong’s precise time of death was between seven and nine o’clock yesterday evening.”
Both Murong and Jing Zhi looked at Yan Qing with undisguised admiration.
“Murong, I’ll need you to break the rigor mortis in her lower jaw. I need to examine her oral cavity.”
—