Nameless at the End of the Rankings

Shen Chi is the daughter of a coroner.

A coroner is a functionary, not an official. Whatever they discover only counts once someone else signs their name to it.

Her father examined corpses for thirty years, but his name never once appeared on an examination report. Three years ago, he made a mistake examining a body. The person died, and his name was nailed to the report.

Three years later, wild dogs dug up a body buried too shallowly. One look at the knot around its ankle told her this person had not died of illness.

Judge Cui Shen asked how she knew.

She said, "There's a fracture in the bone. It wasn't caused by a fall. The bone was twisted."

Cui Shen was silent for a long time, then said, "Your father's report from three years ago said the same thing."

All she had wanted was to bury this body and go home to do the laundry. Someone would not let her bury it.

Burying a body before the three examinations were complete was against regulations. That was all she wanted.

But when she opened the copy her father had left behind, she found two kinds of ink on the report. The person who altered it had changed the conclusion, but not the description of the injuries. He knew the format, but not how to examine a corpse.

Cui Shen said, "Getting it right doesn't count."

Then she would make the truth count from now on.