The woman lying on the ground had a straight body, dressed in bright red clothing, with her hands properly placed on her abdomen. Strangely, the woman’s face wore a ox-demon mask. The mask was lifelike with rich colors, and the ox-demon features painted on it were even more ferocious and terrifying. Through the mask’s enormous eye sockets, one could see the deceased’s bloodshot eyeballs, as if they were staring at people.

Hair-raising!

A chill ran down one’s back!

And that ox-demon mask…

Ji Yunshu seemed to have seen it somewhere before!

After she entered, she didn’t immediately touch the corpse but first examined the room. The room was neither large nor small, very clean, with no signs of disturbance. On the left side of the entrance were several large boxes piled together—these should contain their goods. Directly south was a row of windows, currently closed. She pushed open one window and looked outside. Behind the inn was a narrow alley. Being on the second floor, there was some height, but nothing unusual—except she discovered some dark yellow granules at the window corner.

She rubbed them lightly between her fingertips and discovered they were actually sand!

Why would there be sand in this inn?

She didn’t think much of it for now.

She also noticed a cabinet placed beside the bed. A candlestick had fallen on it, the candle already burned out, with white candle wax flowing from the cabinet all the way down to the floor.

Besides this, there were no other abnormalities in the room.

Jingrong and Capital Magistrate didn’t disturb her either, standing silently to the side.

Waiting for her to examine the corpse and solve the case!

After finishing her survey, Ji Yunshu put on gloves she had prepared earlier and walked to the corpse, squatting down to examine it.

As soon as she touched the mask on the deceased’s face, Capital Magistrate hurriedly reminded her, “Official Ji, under that mask…”

His brow furrowed!

As if the face beneath the mask held some “unspeakable” secret.

Ji Yunshu gripped a corner of the mask tightly and slowly lifted it.

Revealing the bloodshot face beneath the mask, its skin and flesh peeled away!

The deceased’s eyes were open, pupils dilated, filled with blood clots!

Ugh!

This wasn’t the most disgusting corpse she had ever seen. Like Miss Li from before, the skin had been peeled off while alive. The only difference was that this face had not only been skinned, but someone had also carved many cuts into it. The cuts weren’t deep but were densely packed, completely fused with the flesh and blood vessels.

What profound hatred this must have been!

To peel off someone’s facial skin and still not be satisfied, but to carve so many cuts into their face.

Truly lamentable!

The several officers around covered their mouths and began retching the moment the mask was lifted. Capital Magistrate was naturally no exception. He forcefully suppressed the churning nausea in his stomach, pinching his nose and furrowing his brow, yet still standing there properly.

But Jingrong was already accustomed to this. His bright eyes watched curiously, waiting for Ji Yunshu’s examination results.

However—

Ji Yunshu wasn’t frightened, but she was shocked.

Because the deceased was none other than the beautiful woman she had seen on the street yesterday!

They say beautiful women have unfortunate fates, and it had proven true for her.

Regrettable as it was, the examination was still pressing.

She sighed lightly, placed the mask in her hand to the side, gripped the deceased’s cheeks, forcing her mouth open, then used her finger to probe inside. When she pulled it out, her white glove was stained with some congealed blood—no other objects. Then she lightly hooked the deceased’s jaw and lifted it up, revealing a dark red cut on the neck. The wound’s skin and flesh were turned outward, with blood scabs inside. She felt it with her hand, her eyes narrowing—she roughly knew what the murder weapon was!

Looking down, she directly pulled open the deceased’s chest clothing and pressed several times heavily on the sternum—no abnormalities!

Only then did she close the deceased’s clothing!

Examining further down, the deceased’s hands placed on her abdomen had fingers interlaced, tightly gripped together without the slightest looseness. She tried to separate them but discovered that between those hands was full of white candle wax, already dried. Without using force, it would be very difficult to separate them.

Strange!

This was the word that immediately came to her mind.

She used considerable force before finally managing to separate the deceased’s hands.

Full of white wax!

After cleaning it all off, there was nothing in the deceased’s palms. Who knew why the murderer had done this?

Although the woman’s hands were very pale, the joints were slightly protruding, not slender, not delicate—one could say quite unattractive, even covered with calluses. After all, she was a businesswoman, so such hands were fairly ordinary.

But—

Ji Yunshu’s brow furrowed slightly, feeling even more strange in her heart.

She continued examining.

After that, she also discovered fine sand particles on the deceased’s hair, clothing, and even shoes.

The same as those found on the windowsill!

Strange!

She removed her gloves, her expression grave.

Jingrong glanced at the corpse and asked her, “What did you find?”

She was silent for a moment before saying, “The deceased died yesterday at the first watch of the zi hour. The fatal injury is on the neck—someone used a very sharp, thin, curved short knife to cut the artery with one stroke, then she died from excessive blood loss. The murderer probably had some deep hatred with her, or perhaps she did something to enrage the murderer, so after she died, they still peeled off her facial skin. Not satisfied with this, they also used that short knife to carve so many cuts on her face. Moreover, this is not the first crime scene.”

Capital Magistrate asked, “How can you tell?”

“Because there are no bloodstains around here! The deceased’s clothing, hair, and hands are also this clean. Clearly, the deceased died somewhere else. After death, the murderer cleaned the bloodstains from her body, changed her into clean clothes, and then moved her into this room.”

Eh!

Isn’t that so!

Capital Magistrate suddenly understood and immediately ordered, “Someone, go search everywhere in the inn to see if there are bloodstains anywhere?”

Several officers prepared to go.

But Ji Yunshu stopped them, saying, “I discovered many fine sand particles on the windowsill and on the deceased’s body. If it’s as I suspect, then it’s very likely left by the murderer, or rather… the deceased was killed by the murderer in a place with sand. Go investigate where nearby has sand. You must carefully investigate and inquire in the surrounding area.”

“Yes.”

The officers left.

Ji Yunshu turned and instructed Capital Magistrate, “I want to see the inn waiter who kept watch last night and the deceased’s assistants.”

“This official will have them brought up immediately.”

Soon, the inn’s manager, the night-watch waiter, and two of Jiao Shiniang’s assistants came upstairs.

The manager and waiter were terrified, standing at the doorway not daring to enter, trembling.

When the two assistants saw Jiao Shiniang’s appearance, they were both shocked and frightened, swallowing hard.

Ji Yunshu walked before the waiter and asked him sternly, “You were on watch duty yesterday at the zi hour?”

“Yes.”