103 Motives and Speculations - 32.5 (1/2)

Feeling a chill run down his spine, Ying Xiao Dan saw the cold sneer on Princess Leifeng's face disappear quickly like ice melting and Fan Zhu Xia's usual languid smile replaced it as if the expression he saw before was nothing more but a trick of the eye.

Seeing that he was still staring at her with a dazed expression, Fan Zhu Xia decided to no longer pay heed to his thought and only gave him a small reminder before focusing on the task at hand.

”Pay attention...” Fan Zhu Xia reminded briskly while her eyes were already glued on to the dead body while her hands fluttered about as she checked the cause of death.

As soon as Ying Xiao Dan heard the words, he got a hold of himself and quickly paid attention. On the other hand, noticing this, Fan Zhu Xia also started explaining what she was doing.

”Right now, I'm looking for any distinguishing features or marks on their bodies... I've heard that some organizations has those on their members...”

”... Also check all of his limbs to see if there's any...”

”... Now help me turn the body over so we can check his back...”

”No marks? Hmm, let's get a sample of his blood...” Fan Zhu Xia murmured, bringing out a porcelain bottle from her space and reaching for one of the smaller knives.

Curious, Ying Xiao Dan asked, ”What's the blood for? Couldn't we just use the needles to check for poison?”

”We could, but getting a sample now will make it more convenient for me to compare with the others should there be different poisons on each body. This is also much more safer to do.”

After collecting enough blood to fill at least half the bottle, Fan Zhu Xia handed it to Ying Xiao Dan before fluidly stitching up the slit she made on the dead man's wrist to stop the bleeding while any stray drops of blood was taken in by the table made of Lifeblood Jade.

”You put that over there for now on one of the unoccupied shelves. I've prepared some ink and paper there, do label the bottle as well.”

”How should I label it, Princess?”

”According to which one we handle first so just numbering each bottle later should be fine.”

With a nod, Ying Xiao Dan quickly labeled it and also did the same to the folded clothes on the table before returning to watch what Fan Zhu Xia was doing.

They spent the next two like this with Ying Xiao Dan learning quite a lot from watching and assisting Fan Zhu Xia. Although it was quite tiring despite the breaks they took in between, to Ying Xiao Dan, all of it was worth it.

Earlier he had thought that collecting blood was already quite novel, Fan Zhu Xia then proceeded to stun him when she started cutting the body open and examining the insides of the corpse.

At first, Ying Xiao Dan thought that it was unnecessary but then when Fan Zhu Xia started explaining things, his thoughts were once more refreshed.

Along the way, Fan Zhu Xia also showed him the different effects of poisons on a body. Initially, they thought that only a small number of them were poisoned but as it turns out, aside from the bodies with varying signs of poisoning such as purplish blue lips, stiff blue-black tongues and darkened fingernail or blackened veins and burst arteries, several of the others who committed suicide in a different way also had a more subtle yet deadlier poisons inside their bodies.