Bone Painting Coroner

Chapter 87 - Ah Yu Is Dead

Jing Rong watched with gravity from a seat reserved for him, as the Magistrate ordered to open the doors to the great hall and the runners aligned themselves into two columns. Magistrate Liu smashed the table with his gavel, "Peasant, your name."

Yu Sao refused to answer. She kept her head bowed down and even started humming as she gently tapped Ah Yu's back.

Has she gone mad? thought everyone present with no small wonderment.

Magistrate Liu was provoked by Yu Sao's disregard. He made a gesture to strike his gavel again, but Ji Yunshu stopped him, "Milord, perhaps it would be better to bring Li Zhao forth."

As always, Magistrate Liu heeded Ji Yunshu's advice, so he asked a runner to fetch Li Zhao from his prison cell. Meanwhile, Ji Yunshu approached Yu Sao and knelt down right beside her. She asked her in a soft voice, "Yu Sao, Ah Yu is asleep, I could bring her to a place with a bed, okay?"

Yu Sao continued humming her tune. She moved her eyes and saw Ji Yunshu beside her, "It's you, you came to my home yesterday." She did not seem surprised at all. Instead, she smiled very miserably.

"Can I have a look at Ah Yu?"

Yu Sao continued her tune and rocked Ah Yu gently. Ji Yunshu realised that there was something wrong with her; she looked at Ah Yu and had a wild guess, "Yu Sao, can you let me have a look at Ah Yu for a second? I promise you that I won't hurt her."

"Don't touch my Ah Yu! She's asleep now, she's asleep now. Don't wake her up, stop disturbing her," answered Yu Sao with a smile.

Has she really gone mad?

Ji Yunshu extended her arm carefully and grazed Ah Yu's bare feet without letting Yu Sao notice. She nearly lost the strength in her legs and broke down in tears when she realized what had happened.

"Ah Yu is dead?" Ji Yunshu's observation surprised the crowd, especially Wei Wu and Wang San, who accompanied Yu Sao from Zhao Village, but did not notice anything abnormal about the little girl she carried.

Ji Yunshu finally understood why Yu Sao acted so abnormally. Her heart had probably been extinguished along with Ah Yu, to the point that it seemed like she had lost her sanity. Shock and remorse struck Ji Yunshu. Had she known this would happen, she would definitely have removed Ah Yu from her humid and somber cell the day before.

The sight of Yu Sao murmuring a lullaby while carrying a corpse was an ordeal for Ji Yunshu, each second passing as if a thousand knives stabbed through her heart.

Magistrate Liu was dumbstruck by the turn of events, but he did not forget to verify the veracity of Ji Yunshu's statement. He beckoned a runner and said to him, "Go have a look, is that little girl really dead?"

"Yes, sir."

The runner was about to forcefully remove Ah Yu, but Ji Yunshu signaled him to stop. "Please, leave Ah Yu to her; in her heart, Ah Yu is still alive."

"Teacher Ji?"

"Yu Sao was ready to do anything for her daughter, even if it would end up costing her own life. I don't think that she'll outlive her daughter for very long." This remark was easy to understand, but its gravity was much harder to fully appreciate. Nobody understood why Ji Yunshu was stricken with such an outburst of empathy.

Nobody but Jing Rong, that was. He noticed the glow of tears in her eyes, and the deep sorrow and guilt on her countenance. To his compassion for the fate of the little girl, he added a slice of Ji Yunshu's grief, and both made his heart ache.

Ji Yunshu bit her trembling lips, to the point that it created bloody fissures on the surface of the skin. After a few involuntary spasms, hinting at the tremendous amount of effort required, Ji Yunshu managed to hold in her tears.