Undercurrent

Tianjinwei is a place at the convergence of the nine rivers, there are all kinds of people, traders and pawns in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, all walks of people gathered here. In every corner of the city, countless strange legends and cases emerge in an endless stream. This book selects six anecdotal cases from Tianjin Wei folklore and interprets them. Taking the story of the traditional forensic doctor Bai Jiu (male protagonist) and the overseas forensic doctor Song Yi (female protagonist) as clues, a series of detective anecdotes that happened in Tianjin Wei, including mysterious folklore and exquisite murder layout, as well as a fierce collision of Chinese and Western autopsy methods... The first case: Crossing the Dragon Lantern. Tianjin Wei is the place where the Haihe River enters the sea, and there are rumors among the people: "e;hanging red robes, crossing dragon lanterns, people go to sea, ghosts resurrecting"e;. On the Lantern Festival night, fisherman Chen Mancang found a female corpse at the mouth of the Heihe River. Her body was swollen with blisters from the river. Her pale face had a pair of red pupils. A large hole was drilled on her forehead, and the lamp holder of the lantern was embedded. With the lights on, it flows upstream from the sea into the river... Cao Minde, the director of the Tianjin Police Department, led a team to conduct an autopsy. Song Yi, a female forensic doctor who returned from overseas, found that the deceased was a male, about 40 years old. The cause of death was a severe blow to the back of the head. From the shape of the collapsed back of the brain, it can be roughly inferred that it was caused by a murder weapon such as a hammer. After autopsy, it was found that no toxic substances were found in the stomach and intestines of the deceased, and no alcoholic liquid remained. It can be seen that the deceased was killed in a sober state. Because it was midsummer, in order to prevent the corpse from rotting, it could only be transported to the ice cellar of Beigu Dragon King Temple for storage. Although the host of temple Baijiu inherited the works of the Qing Dynasty and was proficient in the method of autopsy, he usually made a living by pretending to be a ghost. There was a dragon lantern incident in Tianjin. In panic, the fishermen invited Bai Jiu to do the funeral. Song Yi came to the Dragon King Temple for an autopsy, which led to conflict with Bai Jiu. The second head of the chamber of commerce asked Bai Jiu to bury Nie Baochen, forcing Bai Jiu to use his tricks to conjure Nie Baochen's soul, otherwise he would tell Bai Jiu's appearance at the scene of Nie Baochen's murder and take Bai Jiu to death. Bai Jiu knew that the murderer was in the mourning crowd...