Bone Painting Coroner

She used the same method as before, applying some camphor oil to the bones then wrapping the whole skeleton with vinegar-soaked paper. Just like a mummy!

After around the time it took to burn half a stick of incense, the white paper wrapped around the bones turned red in five places: the zygomatic bone, the clavicle, the ulna, the sternum, and lastly, the back of the head.

How did the white paper turn red? As they were not officials from the Jinjiang yamen, naturally they did not know what it meant. The crowd could only stare on uncomprehendingly with blankly, unable to make out the head or tail eyes. Ji Yunshu explained as she removed the paper, piece by piece. "The technique I just used shows if the deceased had been injured just before death. When paper soaked in white vinegar is applied to bones covered in camphor oil, the places where the deceased had been injured will discolour the paper. If the paper turned green, it indicates that the five wounds were made long before their death; but if it turned red, it is evidence that there was an altercation with someone before the deceased was pushed down the well." So that was what happened!

She then asked Teacher Yu, "Teacher, was there anyone who went missing from the Academy a year ago?"

Although Teacher Yu was old, his memory was still impressively sharp. He tapped his fingers against each other as he thought, looking like a fortune-teller calculating fortunes, and shook his head. "No, the students of the Academy are all present. I believe the person in the well must not be from my Mingshan Academy."

"Then, is it an outsider?"

"That can’t be right either. The Academy has long maintained the rule forbidding visitors; why would there be an outsider? And even if he were in the Academy, why would he die in that abandoned well?"

Ji Yunshu pondered the question as she looked at the complete skeleton pieced together in front of her. She remained silent for a long while.

Teacher Yu then asked, "Teacher Ji, do you have any findings?"

"We must first clarify the identity of the deceased."

"How can we do that when he’s already a pile of bones?"

She pursed her lips. "Bone painting!"

Bone painting? People started whispering to each other.

She continued, "In bone painting, the most difficult cases are those who died in a fire over two years ago, while the easiest are bodies that were soaked in water for a year. However, there isn’t much time and I can only draw an approximation of their features. All of you can then take a look and see if you recognise the deceased." As she finished speaking, she bade someone to retrieve a set of stationery. She then smoothed out the paper, picked up the brush, and started drawing.

The audience watched curiously with bated breath as Ji Yunshu used her fingers to measure the length and width of the skull, then draw each small segment of bone on the paper, one by one. The many disjointed segments slowly came together as a whole under her rapid and fluid brushstrokes.

Soon after, the outline of a person materialised on the paper; although there were no details, the main features could be distinguished. Ji Yunshu picked up the piece of paper when the ink dried and passed it to Teacher Yu. "There’s not much time, so it’s not very accurate. But there’s at least a 30% resemblance. Please take a look; do you recognise this person?"

Teacher Yu took the portrait and squinted at it. The wrinkles in his forehead deepened in concentration. He shook his head after a while. "There is no such person at the Academy...but these features seem a little familiar. I just can’t recall from where."

He then passed the portrait to his students. "Come, take a look. Do you recognise this person? My eyes are going blind and I can’t see clearly."

The students crowded around the portrait. "This person isn’t from our Academy. I’ve never seen him before."

"I don’t recognise him."

But there were also people that said, "He looks rather familiar..."

"His eyes look familiar!"

A flurry of comments and opinions rang out. In the ruckus, someone exclaimed, "It’s Guo He!"

Ah! A name!

Guo He? Everyone hurried to take a closer look at the revelation. "That’s right, it’s Guo He. The portrait is of Guo He!"

Someone passed the portrait back to Teacher Yu. "Teacher, take a look. This person is Guo He."

Teacher Yu pulled the drawing towards himself for a closer examination. He clicked his tongue and nodded. "That’s right, it’s Guo He."

Ji Yunshu immediately asked, "Who is Guo He?"

"He is one of my students but he left the Academy a year ago; how could he have fallen down the well and become this pile of bones?"

"Could you tell me more about him?"

Teacher Yu sighed. "This boy, he is one of the most stubborn and playful students I’ve ever encountered in my many decades of teaching. He often turns the Academy upside down with his headache-inducing antics, but he is also extremely intelligent. His academic achievements were very good but he just had to be so mischievous. I’ve punished him many times but never had the heart to chase him out in light of his kind base nature."

Once, I caught him secretly drinking wine in the Academy and punished him harshly. After that, he departed the Academy, leaving nothing but a letter behind. There was no news from him after that. I remember that day clearly - it was June the 13th last year - one year ago from today."

Guo He was one of the most intelligent people in the entire academy. If others could read ten lines at a glance, he could read twenty; with that glance, he would also have memorised every single word he had read. If he had not left the Academy, he would undoubtedly have ranked in the top three in the examinations this year. As a result, Teacher Yu developed a serious illness and was bedridden for two weeks after Guo He left.

Everyone was clear how much Teacher Yu treasured Guo He. But...

Heartbroken, Teacher Yu shook his head and pushed the portrait away. "How could he be dead?" I won’t accept this!

Someone raised their doubts. "How could this painting possibly depict the deceased as they were before they died? This here, is clearly just a pile of bones - how could it be possible for anyone to draw the appearance of a person as they were when they were alive from a pile of bones? Moreover, the drawing only resembles Guo He and might not truly be him."

His suspicions were not unreasonable.

Five years ago, when Ji Yunshu first entered the yamen and drew the deceased’s features from its rotting corpse, everyone was similarly shocked and suspicious. When the deceased’s mother arrived to identify the body, she recognised the bracelet on the wrist of the corpse as one that her daughter habitually wore. The girl in the portrait drawn from the corpse looked exactly like her daughter. With that as proof, everyone deeply revered the newly arrived Ji Yunshu.

From that first day, Ji Yunshu already had a fanclub. And her number one fan was none other than the magistrate Liu Qingping!

At this moment, she said calmly, "This portrait was created in a hurry and is naturally not precise. Regardless, there is at least a 30% resemblance. Since you could recognise the person called Guo He, then there is no mistake, the deceased must be him."

"A bunch of nonsense!"

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