There is a god in the sky

Chapter 400 Murder and Arson

The new emperor ascended the throne, and the whole country celebrated.

The first thing the second prince did after ascending the throne was to announce a general amnesty.

The princess's funeral had already been held in a grand and lavish manner.

As for King Zheng, some say he is ill, while others say he is insane.

Although Shen Lan did not sympathize with him, she was not entirely unmoved when she thought of the ship that sank at the ferry and the people who died.

Perhaps the thing she should get used to most in this world is the dead.

"Something terrible has happened! Someone has set fires and killed people in the south of the city. Many of the patrolling officers have been killed. The Imperial Guards have arrived, but we don't know if they can hold them off."

Shen Lan is going to the yamen today.

The Criminal Investigation Department had a backlog of cases, and the entire department was busy solving them. She had finished her work, but she still went over every day to check on things, hoping to be of some help.

She just didn't expect to encounter a group of thugs killing people on the street.

"Save me...help me..."

Shen Lan heard the cries for help from a great distance.

The pedestrians on the street had all fled, and a few minor constables were hiding in a corner, too afraid to come out.

Shen Lan saw thick smoke billowing from afar; it seemed these traitors had not only killed but also set fires.

This phenomenon often occurs when the second prince has just ascended the throne.

Sometimes it's troublemaking students who incite a group of idlers to vandalize, loot, and burn.

Sometimes, behind this was a powerful clan that, dissatisfied with the new emperor's hiring of refugees, looted shops.

But most of them were those who had previously attached themselves to the Crown Prince and the Prince of Zheng, and having no other way out, they simply dragged others down with them.

The government is exhausted from dealing with these conflicts every day.

The southern part of the city was where ordinary people gathered.

Previously, most perpetrators wouldn't choose this place to cause trouble; a few civilians would be killed or injured, but the government wouldn't care at all.

But today was different. This group was extremely cruel, and Shen Lan watched helplessly as a woman's head was chopped off.

She quickened her pace and rescued a little boy from a scarred man.

The boy was so frightened that he trembled uncontrollably and clung tightly to Shen Lan's arm, calling for his mother.

Shen Lan covered his eyes, pulling his gaze away from the decapitated corpse.

The scarred man, having lost his spoils, looked Shen Lan up and down.

"Where did this little girl come from? Aren't you afraid of dying?"

Shen Lan retorted, "Is there any point in killing someone to vent your anger?"

The scarred man laughed wickedly, "This is the first time someone has asked me if killing people is fun. How interesting. Have you ever killed anyone? Want to try?"

"Why would I kill these ordinary people for no reason? You just kill whoever you're dissatisfied with, you cowards who only bully the weak!"

The scarred man looked rather grim after being scolded.

Shen Lan saw the streets engulfed in flames, a wave of heat sweeping over her, accompanied by screams of agony.

None of the corpses on the street were intact.

This is purely a way of venting anger!

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a living hell.

"You all deserve to die." Shen Lan put down the boy in her arms and pushed him aside.

"you wanna die!"

The scarred man raised his large knife and said with a wicked smile, "You're as beautiful as a flower. I'll chop you into eight pieces in a bit. It'll be quite a sight."

"Under the emperor's very nose, you act so arrogantly, don't you even leave yourselves a way out?"

"Haha, right under the emperor's nose? Which emperor? That lucky guy sitting on the throne now? Does he deserve it?"

"He doesn't deserve you?"

Before Shen Lan could finish speaking, she moved first, flashing behind the scarred man.

She had just observed the group; there were dozens of people in total, and she definitely couldn't handle them all by herself.

However, the others did not come to help her when they saw her, clearly believing that the scarred man was confident of victory.

The Imperial Guards will be here soon; she can escape unscathed as long as she kills this scarred man.

Realizing the danger, the other person quickly turned around, and a flash of cold light appeared before his eyes as a dagger stabbed towards him.

He calmly raised his knife to defend himself, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a dagger thrusting from below.

He hurriedly changed position to defend himself, but unexpectedly, he felt a pain in the back of his head and his body fell straight forward.

Shen Lan saw a troop of Imperial Guards galloping towards them; the arrow she had just received was shot by their leader.

The rebels prepared to flee as soon as they saw the Imperial Guards.

Shen Lan scooped up the little boy from the roadside and moved him to a corner to avoid being accidentally injured by the cavalry.

The Imperial Guards arrived in an instant.

Shen Lan recognized the leader; he was a soldier who had previously followed Zhang Xinghui.

"Coroner Shen?" The man clearly remembered Shen Lan.

Shen Lan nodded to him and pleaded, "General, could you please save the person first?"

The other party refused her, saying, "We are only responsible for killing the enemy; rescuing people will be handled by the Jingzhao Prefecture."

Shen Lan watched them walk away helplessly.

The thugs vanished in the blink of an eye, clearly having planned their escape route beforehand. The Imperial Guards pursued them, leaving the mess behind.

Shen Lan put the boy in a corner and told him not to run around, then ran off to rescue people.

Most people stayed at home, afraid to come out, but the fire forced them to come out.

If you come out, you might be killed; if you don't come out, you'll be burned to death. It's a choice with no other option.

Shen Lan entered several households but didn't find any survivors. It wasn't until the fifth household that she heard a sound coming from the rice jar and found a child crying so hard he was almost suffocating.

After that, she found a few more survivors, mostly children.

Eighty percent of those who die at their own doorsteps are parents who hope to save their children from danger with their own lives.

The sound of a gong rang out in the street; it was rung by the boy Shen Lan had rescued earlier.

He knocked on the door from one end of the street to the other, shouting, "The bad guy got away! Everyone come out quickly!"

People gradually emerged from the fire, some still on fire.

By the time the government officials arrived, the fire had already engulfed all the houses on the street.

There was no need to fight the fire, as a few buckets of water wouldn't be enough to extinguish it. So the officials were only responsible for creating a firebreak to prevent the fire from spreading.

Most of the houses in the south of the city are messy and crowded, and many are shacks that could catch fire at the slightest spark.

After the fire died down on its own, the officials went to collect the bodies, but few could bear the direct impact of seeing the mangled corpses.

Later, the government's coroner arrived and pieced the body back together one by one.

Shen Lan stayed at the scene until late at night, finally managing to stitch up the last body.

She was a young girl, and the pain she endured before her death was too horrific for her to even imagine.

These thugs brutally murdered civilians; calling them beasts is no exaggeration.

"Coroner Shen, go back and rest. You've been busy for ten hours."

Coroner Xiao Ji also came to help, and besides him, coroners from various government offices in the capital also came.

This industry is already suffering from a severe talent shortage; there are hardly any in the entire capital city.

Shen Lan's work ethic and suturing skills earned her high praise from the other coroners.

"Coroners are such a strange bunch. They dare to handle such horrific corpses. Aren't they afraid at all?"

The officials hiding in the distance were all very curious.

“I know that,” said Liu, the coroner. “Some of the corpses were so ugly that he was afraid of them and would have nightmares for several nights in a row.”

"I don't think so. At least Shen, the coroner, doesn't look scared. I saw her picking up the body parts before with a blank expression, just like picking up pork."

"Ugh... Stop talking..."

I can't even imagine what that scene would look like.

"But you know what, if it weren't for her, Coroner Liu wouldn't even have been able to piece together the body."

“Even if you could piece it all together, you wouldn’t be able to sew it up. I just saw one of my neighbors, and he looked perfectly normal after he put on his funeral clothes.”

At midnight, a carriage arrived, accompanied by a large, dark mass of officials and guards.

Shen Lan was already preparing to leave, but when she saw Xiao Ji accompanying the emperor, she took the initiative to go and greet him.

Before they could get close, the Imperial Guards stopped them.

"No unauthorized personnel allowed near here, get out of the way!"

"Don't be rude. Let Coroner Shen come over and speak with him." The emperor spoke, and naturally no one dared to stop him.

Shen Lan did not get too close, but bowed to the emperor from a distance of five steps.

"See the Emperor."

Shen Lan came here because she wanted to know what kind of resettlement those who survived alone would receive.