Original subtitles

[Coroner's Diary]

[Episode 5]

Fuling,

get me some alum,

clear water,

and filter cloth.

Your Highness.

Your Highness.

Excuse me, Miss Qin.

Someone robbed

my coroner's kit just now.

I ran after him for a while, but still lost him.

I was thinking about

turning to constables.

Then I found the coroner's kit right in front of the yamen.

Missing any autopsy tools?

That's the weird part.

I checked carefully.

Nothing was lost.

What's more, the tools are in the exact same place

as before.

Open it and let's see.

[Postmortem Report]

Anything wrong?

Jinyu Bone-setting Ointment,

a precious and priceless medicine

to heal bones and tendons,

only sold in the capital.

And you even know the medicine only sold in the capital?

I'm a physician

curious about special medicines.

In this case,

the thief not only has a bone injury

but also comes from a rich family.

Is it a strong smell?

Yes.

This person probably has nothing to do with the wedding procession.

He didn't know the previous autopsy results,

so he held and checked the report for quite a while,

leaving the smell of the ointment.

Your Highness, you can smell it.

I didn't see anything.

I swear I didn't.

Stand straight and speak.

News from the capital.

Wei Qizhi, the Wei family's eldest legitimate young master,

wasn't injured taming a horse,

but got his right leg broken by Duke of Song

and was locked up at home.

So his half-brother, Wei Yanzhi, sent the bride off instead of him.

The day after the wedding procession

left the capital, Wei Qizhi escaped and has been

missing since then.

That day, the man who pushed the tower

and hurt me seemed crippled.

Would Duke of Song badly injure the Wei family's

legitimate young master?

Unless Wei Qizhi made a horrendous mistake.

If he was Song Rou's lover...

Song Rou would marry another nobleman.

Love turned into hatred; he killed her

out of wrath. That makes sense.

But who was the one playing ghost to scare me?

Wei Qizhi couldn't be so light on his feet.

His leg injury may not be real.

Only by finding him

can we figure out the truth.

You can examine it here.

I'll have Bai Feng protect you.

I'm going to meet Wei Yanzhi

and see what he has to say.

Duke of Song not only

failed to discipline his daughter

but also asked his nephew

to destroy the body and evidence

to deceive His Majesty.

Your actions

have shown a complete disregard for my Yue family,

for His Majesty,

and for the national law!

Please calm down, Your Grace.

I simply couldn't

bear to see Xiaorou be accused

of infidelity after her death.

So I ordered Wei Cheng to burn the body

in case the postmortem report to the Ministry of Justice

would make both our families a laughing stock in the capital.

I

will take all the blame.

Please spare the others in the wedding procession.

I made the decision to burn the body.

It has nothing to do with Vice Commandant Wei.

Wei Cheng!

Song Rou's death

is closely related to the person whom she had an affair with.

You were in such a hurry to destroy the evidence.

Was it to cover up your family's stigma

or to protect the adulterer?

I just...

Please stop covering for the Eldest Young Master, my lord.

Your Highness,

Your Grace,

the person who had an affair with Lady Song Rou

is our Eldest Young Master,

Wei Qizhi.

Is there any solid evidence?

The Eldest Young Master admitted it himself.

Madam found that Lady Song was pregnant,

so Lady Song

had no choice but to confess her affair with the Eldest Young Master.

Duke of Song

was so furious that he broke Young Master Qizhi's leg.

Regardless of your motives,

you committed a severe crime of arson.

You're under arrest.

Take him away.

Go.

Vice Commandant Wei,

did Wei Cheng

tell the truth?

My brother

had been on good terms with Rou since childhood.

So I didn't overthink it.

Not until Duke of Song asked me to send Rou off instead of my brother

did I find out that

he and Rou

had made a terrible mistake.

You and Wei Qizhi lived under the same roof.

How come

you don't know his whereabouts?

Two years ago,

I rode on Duke of Song's coat-tails and joined the Patrol Battalion.

My brother had a big fight with me,

and he's refused to talk to me since then.

So I really have no idea.

Why did you have a big fight?

Because

my father's legitimate wife wanted my brother to marry Rou.

But given the Wei family's average background,

Duke of Song didn't approve of it.

My brother's pride resulted in

the growing distance

between him and the Duke of Song.

He didn't want me to accept the Duke's help, I guess.

Is Wei Qizhi left-handed?

Yes,

he is.

It's said that being born left-handed is a jinx.

So his mother

forced him to use his right hand since he was young.

Few people know about this.

Your Highness, I lied to you

in order to protect my brother.

I

shouldn't have done this.

You...

You almost screwed things up!

I

have let you down, sirs.

Miss Song

passed away in Jingzhou.

Before we catch the murderer,

you'll be grounded

in the Eastern Courtyard.

We've finally got to the bottom of it.

We still need to verify the truth.

The priority now

is to find Song Rou's head

and the murder weapon.

Fuling, silver chopsticks.

My Lady,

the alum indeed removed all the residues.

It looks like some sort of

silk gauze.

Not gauze.

It's paper.

Wei Yanzhi confessed.

What did he say?

He turned in his brother,

Wei Qizhi,

who had long been in love with Song Rou.

And he was born left-handed.

Born left-handed?

Does he usually use his left hand?

Then many people should know that.

He was forced to use his right hand since he was young.

So few people know it

other than those really close to him.

I found this paper scrap from Song Rou's stomach.

Song Rou had been living a luxurious life since birth.

Why would she swallow

such coarse paper?

How important is the content written on it?

Maybe the key is not the content.

Sometimes, to protect

the source of information, the spy in the army

will destroy insignificant intelligence as well.

The source of information?

Different types of paper

can reveal the writers' habits.

Although the handwriting on this

has been dissolved by gastric fluid,

this paper appears unusually durable,

not something ordinary people can purchase.

My Lady, is that sparkling thing

gold powder?

Not as bright as gold powder.

It's orpiment.

Orpiment is often used to make golden lacquer.

Add raw golden lacquer to wood pulp to produce

the dusted-gold paper, also known as "mini scattered-gold paper."

I know that!

I know the dusted-gold paper.

This kind of paper gives off a faint lacquer tree scent.

And it's cheaper than scattered-gold paper.

Ordinary aristocrats who can't afford scattered-gold paper

would write on dusted-gold paper instead.

According to the information from the capital,

the Wei family may be an average household,

but Wei Qizhi

is pretty pretentious and willful.

He likes playing the zither,

so he learnt how to make the zither himself.

He likes horse riding,

so he tried to tame the horse on his own.

He likes porcelain.

So porcelain items are everywhere in his house.

In this case,

this dusted-gold paper suits his temperament.

Right now, this paper scrap

is the only evidence related to the murderer.

The Wei brothers grew up together.

I want to meet Wei Yanzhi for confirmation.

It's said that Wei Yanzhi fell ill

with a high fever after he went back.

The Yue family can't ignore it.

If you want to see him,

you'll have to spend

some time treating him.

Sir,

two buns, please.

Okay.

Two.

Thief! Catch him!

Stop there! Catch the thief!

Catch the thief!

Where did he go?

Thief! Catch the thief!

You got this.

Okay.

Thief, you

wanted to steal the postmortem report?

Thanks to His Highness's brilliant idea,

we caught you, the key figure in the case.

Will you surrender yourself,

or do you want us to take you by force?

Young Master Qizhi,

I...

As if

I had a choice.

Come in, please.

You have a high fever.

There's no need for courtesy.

Thank you, Your Highness.

You're seriously ill,

but why did you open the window?

I wanted

to get some fresh air.

You are taking a turn for the worse.

Is the medicine not right?

Any prescriptions?

It's on the table.

Don't worry, Vice Commandant Wei.

Miss Qin is a miracle-working physician who cured the Grand Princess.

She came all the way here to treat you.

I dare not trouble you, Miss Qin.

Don't worry, Vice Commandant Wei.

It's a physician's duty to treat patients.

Vice Commandant Wei,

please.

Have you taken a bath with cold water recently?

I came back late

on the night of the Autumn Festival.

I had no time to wait for hot water,

so I used well water.

That prescription is correct.

It's just that your long, tiring journey

and constant worries

have taken a toll on your illness.

After all,

I've failed the Yue family

and Rou.

I can't feel at ease.

Is it the famous Chengying Sword?

Sharp eyes, Your Highness.

Can I take it off to have a closer look?

Hold on.

This sword

was given by Duke of Song.

It's as important as my life.

I never dare to play with it.

Please forgive me, Your Highness.

A man of taste appreciates swords.

I won't blame you for it.

Thank you for your magnanimity, Your Highness.

You're indeed our role model.

Vice Commandant Wei,

you can change it to a charcoal basin to warm the room up.

The high stove is producing

excessive scorching heat,

not good for your recovery.

I always feel freezing cold

at night.

I will just

reduce charcoal during the day.

That works too.

You don't need to change the prescription.

A few days of rest will help you recover.

Thank you, Miss Qin.

Thank you, Your Highness.

Get some rest, Vice Commandant Wei.

Take care.

Wei Yanzhi had a stove burning in his room,

but the window was open

with super strong incense.

There must be something off.

Chengying Sword is famous and priceless.

Why would Duke of Song highly value his nephew

born of a concubine?

The burning ashes in the mansion are all here.

It's not winter yet. Only a few

people are burning charcoal.

So they are basically from Wei Yanzhi's room.

Little Wan'er,

what are you and Chi looking for?

It's so dirty.

Let the servants do it.

They can't understand.

Do you have to search them all?

Master,

Wei Qizhi has been arrested and imprisoned.

Did he confess his crime?

Not yet.

But Prefect Huo has tortured him.

Ning'er, keep a close eye on these ashes.

Let no one touch them.

Okay.

Let's go to the prefect's office.

Let's go.

Your Highness,

Miss Qin.

Wei Qizhi only confessed that

he sent the servant, Wu Shu, to steal the postmortem report.

He refused to admit anything else.

They are really stubborn.

Even torture couldn't make them spit out the truth.

Without evidence,

how could you torture them, Prefect Huo?

Besides, I haven't checked his leg injury yet.

Where is he?

Your Highness, the prison is foul and filthy.

Please...

I'll punish you for the arbitrary torture.

Prefect Huo, I'm impressed by your way

of interrogation and torture.

Were you trying to force him to confess by torture?

He said his leg had been broken.

Of course, we should

go for the fatal spot.

So I hit his injured part.

But he

refused to confess.

You broke his injured leg again.

Now we can't tell

whether he was limping before.

Besides, the leg injury is hard to heal.

If he is disabled because of this,

if he's proven innocent later,

how can you make it up to him?

If he had no evil intentions,

why would he follow Song Rou all the way to Jingzhou?

On the wedding day,

he lingered at the Shili Temple.

He stayed there one more day

definitely to remove the traces of murder.

Sir, I'm innocent!

Sir!

Sir!

Take him away.

Let him speak.

Sir, my Young Master

was afraid that Miss Song's secret would be exposed,

causing her to be abused by the Yue family,

so he came here despite his injured leg.

When we arrived in Jingzhou,

we heard about Miss Song's death.

So he ordered me to steal the postmortem report

to figure out

how exactly Miss Song died.

My Young Master and Miss Song didn't have an affair!

In no case would he murder her!

Sirs! We're innocent!

Stop talking nonsense!

Wei Qizhi admitted that he had an affair with Song Rou.

Young Master Qizhi cherished Miss Song as his own sister.

There's no way they had an affair!

No way he killed her!

Does Wei Qizhi write with his left hand?

Yes, so what?

Many people can write with their left hands,

like our Second Young Master!

Why can Wei Yanzhi use his left hand to write?

Young Master Qizhi was plagued by rashes when he was little.

Madam Wei was worried that being left-handed jinxed it.

So she forced him to write with his right hand.

But he was so stubborn

that he refused to change.

To prevent Master Wei from favoring the concubine's son because of it,

she forced Second Young Master to write

with his left hand to destroy him.

But Young Master Qizhi didn't want

Young Master Yanzhi to be implicated,

so he changed to use his right hand.

So Second Young Master

ended up with better left-handed writing

than Young Master Qizhi.

Since when did Wei Qizhi start to use porcelain only?

It's not that Young Master Qizhi likes porcelain items only.

He's just disliked the scent of lacquer since childhood.

Other types of utensils

almost all contain lacquer more or less.

So he uses white-porcelain items for convenience.

I swear with my life that

Young Master Qizhi

is innocent!

Prefect Huo,

please get a physician for Wei Qizhi right now.

I'm on my way.

I didn't kill Rou.

It wasn't me.

I didn't kill her.

I didn't.

Stop searching.

I can arrest him first

and interrogate him in turn.

When he's exhausted,

I'm sure he'll give himself away.

But we need sufficient evidence to convict him.

The testimony can only serve as one of it.

It's not enough to confirm

that person as the murderer.

But this slow investigation might

give the real murderer a chance to escape.

Then our efforts will all be in vain.

It's easy for you to convict someone, Your Highness,

but a wrong conviction will ruin a man's entire life.

Don't let impatience

wreck the fairness of the laws.

Is this also the saying

of Minister Shen Yi who you admire?

Yes.

Thank you for your guidance.

Miss Qin, please continue to gather the evidence.

Leave the arrest work to me.

Thank you, Your Highness.

But I want to ask you for one more favor.

[Jingzhou Prefecture Office]

Wei Qizhi,

since your leg is badly injured,

you can sit down and talk.

Thank you for your kindness, sir.

I can stand.

Wei Qizhi,

tell me

how you

got your leg hurt.

Two months ago, in the capital,

Duke of Song broke my leg.

And yesterday, you...

That's enough.

I'm asking you why Duke of Song

beat you so hard that time.

Because I admitted

my affair

with Miss Song.

So is it true that you had an affair with her?

No.

Then why did you admit it?

Out with it!

Rou's reputation outweighed my life.

She said it was me.

Then I'd admit it.

Wei Qizhi,

it's very likely that

Song Rou was killed by the one she loved.

Can you really bear

to see the murderer get away with it?

That day, Rou came to me, crying

and saying that she had an affair with someone.

After Duke of Song found out,

she blurted out my name out of panic.

Rou, tell me.

I asked her who that man was,

but she cried without saying anything.

In the end,

she even forced me to claim to be her lover by hurting herself.

Who on earth is he?

I can't say it!

If others find out,

his future will be ruined.

I really love him.

A few days later,

Duke of Song showed up with his men,

breaking my leg without giving me a chance to explain.

In view of my previous grudge against Duke of Song

and my promise to Rou to pretend to be her lover,

I admitted it out of anger.

Later, I was recuperating at home.

Yanzhi said that Duke of Song didn't punish Rou.

So I didn't rush to ask her for the whole story.

Until she left the capital for marriage,

the person she was protecting still hadn't shown up.

What a coward.

How is it?

Young Master,

Miss Song was murdered.

She even got beheaded.

I was afraid that person would betray her.

If the Yue family finds out

about her infidelity,

she wouldn't be able to survive.

So I followed her here secretly

to confirm her safety.

I didn't expect to hear this bad news.

What the hell are you doing?

Guards!

Hold him down.

Wei Qizhi suffers from a rare disease.

His contact with the lacquerware will lead to rashes.

At worst, wind evil can infiltrate his organs,

knocking him out.

So it's rumored in the capital that he only uses white-porcelain items.

That's the reason.

Judging from his symptoms just now,

he'd never use the dusted-gold paper

that contains golden lacquer.

Yes.

So the victim swallowed the dusted-gold paper

to protect someone else instead of him.

So,

he's not Miss Song's lover?

Yes.

Now I know who the murderer is.

Bet you do too, Miss Song.

Your Highness, just do it.

I will get the real culprit

with solid evidence.

Vice Commandant Wei,

where are you going in such a hurry?

Take it out and get what's inside.

Yes.

Your eldest brother has been arrested.

If you are innocent,

why are you trying to run away?

I'm not running away.

I just want to go back to the capital and report this to the elders.

What?

Are you going to lock me up in this mansion forever?

Still can't let me touch it?

A man of dignity can be killed, but not humiliated.

Chengying means a lot to me.

No one can touch it.

Did you hear that, Prefect Huo?

Vice Commandant Wei said it himself that

even I

couldn't touch his Chengying Sword.

Yes, I heard it clearly.

Good.

Bring it in!

Wei Yanzhi,

do you know what this is?

This is the glue left by the burnt fat.

Although you broke the skull,

lit the incense,

and opened the window to ventilate,

you forgot to clean the iron tongs.

Silver-frost charcoal wouldn't leave such a stain.

Take the evidence away.

Yes.

Found it, Your Highness.

Give it to Miss Qin.

He really killed Miss Song.

According to the traces on the skull,

the murderer must have stabbed the sword

directly into the victim's occipital bone from behind

and cut off her head to hide the sword mark.

Wei Yanzhi,

the evidence is irrefutable.

Do you have anything else to say?

The murderer dipped the victim's blood,

disguised the wedding sedan as the crime scene,

dressed the victim up in the wedding gown,

and put her in the sedan.

To stop Miss Qin from examining the body,

you played the headless female corpse to scare her.

You also tried to use the ink on the wedding gown

to frame your legitimate brother, Wei Qizhi.

To pin the crime on Wei Qizhi

and get rid of me, the examiner,

you sent your loyal Captain of the Guard, Wei Cheng,

to impersonate Wei Qizhi

and assassinate me at the lantern fair.

When you found that the assassination failed,

and the autopsy was inevitable,

you ordered Wei Cheng to burn the morgue overnight

and attempted to destroy the evidence once again.

Also, you heated up the stove

to burn the victim's head.

Now,

we have the witness and evidence.

You murdered the victim,

Wei Yanzhi.

How ruthless and insane.

We've got solid evidence.

What else do you have to say?

Me? Ruthless and insane?

That woman

was insane!

She had such a great marriage

with a member of the Yue family,

but why did she pester me

and force me to elope with her?

Why?

My elder brother is the legitimate young master!

They broke his leg like it was nothing.

What if it were me?

I would have been dead, I guess.

Sha had no idea

about the consequences of going against the Duke!

Yanzhi.

You're finally here to take me away with you.

Why did you come out in your wedding dress?

If someone witnesses it,

you and I will be done for.

I was anxious to meet you.

Don't worry.

I've sent the Nanny away.

She won't notice.

Do you have my letter

with you?

I was afraid that the Nanny might see it,

so I swallowed it secretly.

Oh, dear...

Why?

It must've been a pain to swallow the dusted-gold paper.

For you,

I'm not afraid of any pain.

Yanzhi,

take me away tonight.

I'd rather die

than let other men touch me.

I won't marry

anyone other than you in my life.

Can we

be together forever?

Don't think like that.

I'll feel bad.

Let's leave tonight.

We'll go far, far away.

Our destination is

wherever you want to go.

If you say yes,

I'll cherish you, love you, and be with you

forever and ever.

Nothing will separate us.

There will be neither the legitimate young lady of Song family

nor the young master's wife of Yue family.

I will only be Mrs. Wei, plainly dressed.

I would go anywhere with you

as a loving couple

forever.

But...

I don't want that.

She gave up the wealthy and luxurious life for you,

yet you killed her for your selfish desire.

How dare you say she didn't care about your feelings?

As a concubine's son, I've been through trials and tribulations,

including those caused

by my legitimate mother, to come this far.

Why should I give up my future and live

a low-profile life for her?

Why should I?

This foolish and hateful woman

tried to ruin my life with love.

She deserved to die.

The woman you said is called Song Rou.

The most foolish thing she did

was to use all her intelligence

to protect you!

If she didn't swallow that paper

you used to lure her into your deadly trap,

you'd have been brought to justice long ago!

You cruelly hurt the woman who loved you deeply.

You're the one who deserves to die!

So what?

As long as I don't love her,

even if she died ten thousand times for me,

it'd only be a mistake.

A mistake!

If Miss Song knows

someone still cares about her,

she'll rest in peace.

Without you,

the person who cares about her wouldn't have survived.

Xu He.

Since the case is closed,

now

let's repair Miss Song's body.

Miss Qin,

I don't understand.

The case is closed.

What's the point of repairing her body?

Normally, we'd return

the body to his or her family.

If no one takes the body,

we'd buy a coffin

and bury the body at the back mountain.

We had to choose the autopsy to prove someone's innocence.

The victim's corpse

revealed the truth to us.

We should restore her dignity.

Miss Qin,

why did you start to call her

Miss Song again just now?

Because from today onwards,

I don't need to see her as evidence anymore.

I can finally send Miss Song off

without feeling bad.

♪ Bleak wind and rain ♪

♪ Sharp crowing ♪

♪ Here I meet you, gentleman ♪

♪ In sheer excitement ♪

♪ Endless wind and rain ♪

♪ Echoing crowing♪

♪ Here I meet you, gentleman ♪

♪ In absolute relief ♪

♪ Gloomy wind and rain ♪

♪ Ever-lasting crowing♪

♪ Here I meet you, gentleman ♪

♪ In pure delight ♪

♪ Endless wind and rain ♪

♪ What a pity ♪

♪ Endless wind and rain ♪

♪ What a pity ♪

Thank you.

You have only half an hour.

Don't forget.

Yes.

What are you doing here?

To laugh at me for your mother?

Yanzhi,

I just want to ask you.

Rou loved you deeply

and was pregnant with your child.

Have you ever had any real feelings for her?

You want to scold me for her?

Even now, you still feel no remorse?

Who are you to scold me?

Because I'm your elder brother!

I don't have an elder brother.

As the Wei family's legitimate young master,

you were born with all the honor

and everyone's love.

What about me?

I'm just a concubine's lowly son

who couldn't even see his own mother before she died.

Your mother made my mother die a miserable death.

Do you think I don't remember?

All these years,

when your mother disciplined you,

I'd suffer double the punishment with you.

I couldn't join the Patrol Battalion

due to your dislike for Duke of Song.

I was the one who liked learning the zither,

but your mother only allowed you to learn it.

Were it not for this,

I wouldn't have turned to Rou to learn the zither,

and things wouldn't have ended up like this!

So you've been holding deep grudges against me.

I'm sorry.

No more hypocritical look of grief.

After all these years of the game of fake brotherhood,

I've had enough.

Now, leave.

No matter what you think,

I have never tried to hurt you.

After we part today,

I hope you can

find peace in your next life.

[Here rests Miss Song, Duke of Song's legitimate daughter]

Poor Miss Song.

Were it not for Grand Princess and Young Master Wei Qizhi,

she wouldn't have had a proper burial.

Young Master Wei Qizhi insisted on burying her in Jingzhou.

Seems like

he's completely disappointed in the Song family.

Maybe because he knows them too well,

he chose to do it this way.

Given Duke of Song's character,

he wouldn't let Miss Song

be buried in their family cemetery.

It'd be better to bury her here.

It's a beautiful place,

guaranteeing a peaceful next life.

Whenever I think about it, I feel terrified.

A woman

got killed

due to her infatuation.

In order to protect the family reputation, her father

just left her body alone like this!

She couldn't even return to her hometown.

Are these men

heartless?

It has nothing to do with gender.

Be it Duke of Song or Wei Yanzhi,

they are selfish people

who care about themselves only.

Seems like as women,

we'd better stay single to protect ourselves.

Master, the case is closed.

Should we go back to the capital now?

Bai Feng,

I think I've made some progress

on the case we're investigating.

You mean new clues about Prince Jin's case?

Nope.

But we got a more powerful sidekick

to investigate this case.

Send a message to the capital

to suspend my entry to the Ministry of War.

I want to be transferred to the Ministry of Justice.