After hearing Ji Yinshu’s entire speech,

Magistrate Zhuo was rendered speechless on the spot!

Everyone in the court hall was stunned.

What this bone, what that bone—a whole pile of “scholarly knowledge” had been spoken.

Although everyone still harbored doubts in their hearts, that scholar spoke so coherently that it didn’t seem like nonsense.

Magistrate Zhuo was dazed for quite a while, then opened his trembling lips and said: “What you’ve said… is merely your one-sided statement. How can this official believe you?”

Ha!

Ji Yinshu really wanted to give him an eye roll.

But she still maintained her patience and said: “If Your Honor doesn’t believe it, you can certainly find several coroners to re-examine and compare, and you’ll know. Any experienced coroner can verify what I just said.”

To dare say such words showed she was extremely confident in what she had just stated.

The next moment, Magistrate Zhuo swallowed and rolled his eyes, saying: “Even if what you said is true, previously the birthmark on the finger dug up from the yellow earth determined the deceased was Wang Jun. If this set of skeletal remains was pieced together from one man and one woman’s skeletons, then who is that woman? Why would the murderer confuse the facts? What’s the reason? What’s the motive for killing?”

A series of questions bombarded toward Ji Yinshu.

Ji Yinshu said: “Your Honor asks so many questions at once that I cannot answer them all immediately, but what I can tell Your Honor is that generally, skeletal remains that have just been stripped of flesh and skin would appear pale grayish-white, or the bones would have a blood-red color. But looking at this female’s wrist bones and clavicle, the bone color leans toward bluish-gray, and although there’s blood on them, the bones are not blood-red in color.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that set of female skeletal remains was buried in the ground for at least two years.”

“Uh!”

Everyone was astonished.

Buried in the ground for two years?

Magistrate Zhuo’s jaw nearly dropped. He asked: “Really?”

“Your Honor can have someone verify it and you’ll know.”

“Then… who exactly is this woman?”

This was the question everyone present was curious about.

Besides Wang Jun, who was this female?

Ji Yinshu rose from the ground, folded the handkerchief in her hand, tucked it into her sleeve, and said: “I need several days to determine the identity of the female deceased. As for the identity of the male deceased, we also cannot judge it to be Wang Jun based on just one finger—that also requires time to confirm.”

Magistrate Zhuo continued asking: “What method do you have to determine this? These are already a pile of white bones.”

Facing the doubt, Ji Yinshu replied indifferently with two words: “Bone drawing!”

Bone drawing?

This term was truly novel.

The Huyi people listened in bewilderment.

Before Magistrate Zhuo could open his mouth to say anything more—

At this moment—

Li Cheng, who had been watching the excitement, clapped his hands and called out: “Splendid, truly splendid!”

The voice sounded quite abrupt in the court hall.

He walked up to Ji Yinshu and said: “Young master, what do you do? How do you understand human bones so well?”

Ji Yinshu glanced at him, lowered her eyes, and modestly responded: “I was merely a bone specialist physician for several years.”

“A physician? This heir apparent most admires physicians who heal the dying and rescue the injured, and I admire you even more.”

“The heir apparent overpraised me.”

“Not overpraising, not overpraising.” Li Cheng smiled, “You just said you can use the bone drawing method to determine whose skeletal remains these are? So this bone drawing… what exactly is it?”

Explaining this would involve great learning.

It simply couldn’t be explained clearly in a moment!

Ji Yinshu organized her words and told him concisely: “It means drawing out the deceased’s appearance in life based on the structure and size of a set of skeletal remains.”

“There’s such a skill in this world?” Li Cheng was like a little fanboy.

Ji Yinshu told him: “The world is vast, and nothing is too strange.”

“Good! Since you have the ability to investigate who the deceased are, then this case is entrusted to you, and it will also serve to clear your name and your companions’ names.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Magistrate Zhuo hurried forward to advise: “Young Master Cheng, this person is not from the yamen and absolutely cannot be given this case!”

Li Cheng immediately glared at him: “Magistrate Zhuo, you also heard that this set of skeletal remains indeed has problems, but you ignored them and were about to order the case closed. This shows you, as a magistrate, are not as good as someone who isn’t from the yamen. If this case were left to you, wouldn’t it become a miscarriage of justice?”

“Young Master Cheng…”

“Enough, don’t waste your breath in front of this heir apparent. In any case, this heir apparent has already decided to entrust this case to this young master. Whatever she needs, you just cooperate accordingly. This heir apparent will stay in Yiwu for this period and plans to personally oversee the trial until the case is concluded. If you dare play any dirty tricks, this heir apparent will skin you alive.”

Uh!

Magistrate Zhuo was terrified.

Speechless.

He could only agree!

As for Song Zhi, he was temporarily fine for now, but since he was still the biggest suspect at present, he could only be detained in prison until the case was investigated thoroughly.

Before being taken away, he bowed to Ji Yinshu.

As an expression of gratitude.

To investigate the case as quickly as possible, Ji Yinshu had Magistrate Zhuo bring her the documents related to this case to review, and instructed Magistrate Zhuo to first investigate Wang Jun’s situation.

Magistrate Zhuo complied with everything.

He was also puzzled in his heart—how could this young master be so familiar with the yamen’s case investigation procedures, even more capable than him, a county magistrate?

Could this person be an official?

On the other side, Li Cheng, being someone who loved making friends, pulled at Jingrong and asked: “You’re people from Dalin, what are you doing in Huyi?”

Jingrong’s expression was cool: “Commerce!”

“What business?”

“Silk.”

“Silk is good!” Li Cheng said.

Jingrong felt this person was indeed harmless.

And Li Cheng, unable to stop himself for a while, began telling Jingrong about his own glorious exploits.

Because Jingrong had to wait for Ji Yinshu to finish reading those documents, he could only sit and listen to Li Cheng “babble nonsense” with him, talking about heaven and earth.

…

A certain tavern.

News of what happened at the yamen quickly spread.

People in the tavern discussed it among themselves.

“Have you heard? Just now at the yamen, a major incident occurred!” said a man with a full beard.

This statement immediately aroused everyone’s intense curiosity, and they all gathered around.

What the Yiwu common people loved most was chatting about interesting matters over tea and after meals. Whenever even the tiniest incident occurred, it would immediately spread until that interesting matter lost its novelty.

Everyone asked: “What major incident?”

The bearded man drank a sip of tea, then grabbed a peanut and tossed it into his mouth before telling everyone, “Haven’t you heard about it?”

“What exactly is it?”

“Just tell us!”

“Hurry up.”

Everyone urged him on relentlessly.

The bearded man squinted his eyes, cleared his throat, and then said: “Do you know about the murder case discovered at the Zhao Family Troupe’s theater?”

“We know!”

“Then do you know what’s suspicious about those white bones?”

“Suspicious? We don’t know.”

The bearded man said: “I heard that those aren’t the skeletal remains of one person at all.”