Bone Painting Coroner

Chapter 92 - The Inhumane Woman

A conjecture took form within Jing Rong's mind, but he did not dare to accept it.

Ji Yunshu clenched on Ah Yu's little hands, her expression solemn. Due to the sensitive nature of the case, her intuition told her that the truth was far from simple. Not to mention the words that Madame Jiang left before... Imperceptibly, she always felt something was wrong from those words.

After she lay back Ah Yu's hands, she turned to the jailer and instructed him, "Go the yamen immediately and notify Lord Liu to bring the knife that Yu Sao used to commit her crime. In addition, bring me some black ink and flour."

The jailer was bewildered, "Teacher, what are you going to do?"

"Hurry and go!"

"But... what about the corpse? We still have to send it to the memorial hall."

Ji Yunshu fiercely glared at him, "I told you to hurry and do as you are ordered, why are you being so wordy for?" Aiyah!

The jailer shivered from fear and hurriedly bent down to signify that he accepted the order and ran away. Ji Yunshu sighed while looking at the lifeless Ah Yu. Her heart was extremely heavy. None of her expressions was missed by Jing Rong.

He asked her, "Are you suspecting that Ah Yu is the real murderer?"

Ji Yunshu shook her head, "I am not certain. I hope that my guess is wrong."

Jing Rong analysed the situation, "Two years ago, she was only six years old. How can a six-year-old child kill a man in his forties?" This kind of misgiving should be put aside. However...

Ji Yunshu squinted her eyes, "Your Highness, did you forget? When Lord Jiang was pushed by Li Zhao, he sprained his ankle. He shouldn't be able to get up easily and since Ah Yu was only six years old, there was no need for Lord Jiang to guard himself against her which gave her the opportunity to kill him."

She immediately added, "But all of this is only my conjecture. It is but a possibility."

Jing Rong nodded and stopped asking questions.

Not long after, Magistrate Liu arrived, looking worn out in his official uniform, but when he saw Jing Rong, he greeted him while shivering like usual, "Your Highness, this is the prison. For you to be here, I'm afraid that your precious and noble body..."

Jing Rong raised his hand to interrupt him, "The case is more urgent. There's no need to attend to me."

"Y-y-yes..." The Magistrate rose and walked over to Ji Yunshu.

He waved at a runner who stepped forward to give her the things that she had asked for, "Are there new elements pertaining the case? Didn't you already examine the knife?"

The Magistrate was puzzled.

Ji Yunshu did not plan to discuss long with him. She put on her gloves and took the knife and burned the wooden handle using the flame of the oil lamp. Then, she instructed a runner, "Add the flour to the black ink and stir it until the texture is uniform."

"Yes, sir." The runner did as told and after he was done mixing, he gave it to Ji Yunshu.

Ji Yunshu dipped the handle with the flour and ink mixture. After about fifteen minutes, she pulled out the handle. The handle was now black and sticky. Once again, she cooked the handle above the flame. Meanwhile, everyone was looking at her with bewilderment on their faces.

What was Teacher Ji doing? Eight pairs of eyes were observing the knife in her hand. As everyone continued to stare, the black flour paste started to peel off by itself under the high temperature of the flame. Finally, only several distinctive marks were left on the handle.