These words—are they calling this prince a pig?

Jingrong turned the thought over in his mind before finally understanding, so angry he saw stars. Fortunately, he was in an excellent mood today!

He simply lay in bed for a while before leisurely getting up.

After the two had finished breakfast, Lu Jiang suddenly arrived and whispered a few words in Jingrong’s ear. Jingrong nodded, his expression becoming grave.

“What’s wrong?” Ji Yinshu asked.

Jingrong replied, “Old General Li has already entered the capital.”

Old General Li?

Ji Yinshu was somewhat surprised.

She leaned forward slightly.

“Didn’t they say Old General Li wouldn’t enter the capital? He didn’t even come to Shui Qing’s funeral before. Why this time? For His Majesty’s birthday celebration?”

Jingrong shook his head. “It should be about the Linjing Case. If the events from those years truly involved him, then his choice to enter the capital at this time must be for the Linjing Case.”

“If that’s really the case, then there’s definitely more to this than meets the eye.”

“So this prince must patiently wait for news from Minister Qin’s side.”

“Minister Qin?” Ji Yinshu looked at him curiously.

Jingrong nodded and explained, “Minister Qin will first go meet Old General Li to probe him with some words. If there are no results, this prince will go personally. That old eccentric—this prince doesn’t believe he can’t be handled.”

So domineering!

Ji Yinshu glanced at him sideways, truly wanting to smack him with a frying pan.

Naturally, Jingrong caught her look. He slightly raised his chin and said with arrogant confidence, “This prince can even handle a little vixen like you—what else could possibly be beyond this prince’s capabilities?”

“…”

Ji Yinshu was always left speechless by his words.

She simply returned to the room and began fiddling with that skull, also placing the already molded clay figure alongside it.

She focused intently on her research.

Jingrong seemed quite idle, not leaving for quite some time. Instead, he asked curiously, “It’s already been three or four days. Are these skeletal portraits really that difficult to draw?”

“Mm!”

“What’s so difficult about it?”

Ji Yinshu explained, “The fire fourteen years ago burned for a full day and night, so during the process of the bodies charring, the bones also underwent certain changes. If there was violent struggling before death, then the distance between the deceased’s zygomatic prominence and mandible would have opened to a certain degree, which would affect the accuracy of reconstructing the nose and lips. If they died of suffocation from thick smoke and were then burned by the great fire, then the deceased’s parietal bone and cheekbones would also have changed to some degree. This would affect the distance between the eyebrows and eyes as well as the size of the forehead, greatly impacting the reconstruction accuracy. So all of this needs to be considered. I’m temporarily using clay to mold facial features according to this skull’s shape, then based on the degree of bone scorching and the changes between bones, I’ll modify it repeatedly before finally settling on the result.”

She explained it all in one breath!

Jingrong was left dumbfounded.

This woman—was she certain she wasn’t a monster?

He couldn’t help shaking his head, the corner of his eye crinkling slightly as he exclaimed in admiration, “Our future child will surely be extraordinarily intelligent.”

“What nonsense are you talking!” Ji Yinshu’s head ached.

But Jingrong said seriously, “However, this prince thinks it would be better to have a son. If we had a daughter who spent every day dealing with corpses like you do, how terrible would that be? Mm, a son would be better—he could follow this prince to practice swordsmanship and study literature and such. Not bad.”

“Who said anything about having a son?”

“Of course you would give birth—this prince can’t give birth.”

Such impeccable logic.

Yet Ji Yinshu’s teeth began to itch. Get lost, would you?

She swore she most wanted a daughter. If she had a son like Jingrong, born with girl-charming skills, how terrible would that be?

Jingrong seemed unable to rest unless he teased her for a moment, bantering back and forth a few more times before finally giving up.

Fortunately, His Majesty’s birthday celebration was approaching, and he needed to prepare gifts, so he left after sitting for a while.

Before leaving, he didn’t forget to pull Ji Yinshu’s delicate hand and instruct her, “Stay here obediently. Father Emperor’s grand birthday is approaching, so these next few days, nothing can go wrong. This prince will also be quite busy, but will come see you from time to time.”

“Mm.” She nodded in agreement.

After seeing off that great Buddha, she began drawing the portrait…

At the General’s Manor!

Ji Muqing stood in the room with her hands on her hips, directing the maids.

“Place things carefully, gently, over there. If you break anything, you couldn’t afford to compensate even if you tried.”

This oddball!

She had brought over a dozen jade vases all the way from Jinjiang, each one exquisite.

The poor little maids spent the entire morning moving and carrying them.

Wasn’t she just coming to the capital to be selected as Crown Princess?

It felt like the entire Ji household had moved here.

Crash—

Ji Muqing had just finished giving instructions when a jade vase fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.

That little maid was so frightened she broke out in cold sweat, quickly kneeling down and prostrating herself on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly.

“Eldest Miss, this servant didn’t do it on purpose, truly didn’t do it on purpose. I beg Eldest Miss to spare my life.”

Looking at the shattered jade vase on the ground, Ji Muqing turned livid with rage and stepped forward, raising her hand.

A slap landed!

Hitting heavily on that maid’s face.

“Vile wretch, do you know how expensive this jade vase is?”

“This servant didn’t do it on purpose, truly didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Not on purpose? Today I must teach you a proper lesson.”

With that, she grabbed the maid’s hair with one hand and raised her other hand to strike.

The next moment—

“Stop!”

Ji Wanxin’s voice came from inside. She was seen hurrying over, quickly pulling Ji Muqing away while persuading her, “Elder Sister, it’s just a vase. Why get so angry?”

“This is a top-grade glass vase. These maids couldn’t afford to compensate for it in their entire lifetimes.”

“You don’t mean to beat this maid to death before you’ll give up, do you?”

But Ji Muqing sneered and raised an eyebrow, flinging Ji Wanxin’s hand away and looking at the maid, saying, “She’s just a servant. You can buy one with a bit of silver. So what if she’s beaten to death? They’re all bought with money anyway. In life she’s a slave of the Ji family, and in death she’ll be a ghost of the Ji family.”

These words sounded truly horrifying!

Ji Wanxin coughed a few times and walked over to the trembling little maid, helping her up.

She comforted softly, “Don’t be afraid. Go outside first.”

“Second Miss…”

“It’s all right.” Ji Wanxin patted the back of her hand and also signaled to the other maids in the room, “All of you go outside as well.”

“Yes!”

The roomful of maids hurriedly left.

Ji Muqing watched, crossing her arms. She coldly mocked, “I truly don’t understand how you can be so kindhearted. They’re just lowly maids—yet you pity them so?”

Ji Wanxin’s expression was calm as she lowered her head and coughed a few times.

“Servants are people too. They also have parents. Can’t you be more magnanimous?”

“Magnanimous? Ji Wanxin, are you lecturing me?” Ji Muqing’s face immediately darkened.

She was somewhat angry!

Ji Wanxin said gently, “Just a reminder!”

Slap—

A palm landed on Ji Wanxin’s fair cheek.