Bone Painting Coroner

‘Right, this is impossible.’ This ta.s.sel was given to her by Ji Pei. The ta.s.sel was indeed one half of a pair, and supposedly would be held together by a thread. Ji Pei had cut that thread so that he could give her one half of it while keeping the other one. But Ji Pei is dead; so how could there be another ta.s.sel that is identical to hers?

Seeing how certain Ji Yunshu was, he also gave her a sincere reply, “There’s no need for me to lie to you. I really saw a ta.s.sel that is identical to yours. Or perhaps, did you steal it from him? Yet, this possibility is even more impossible. That identical ta.s.sel was already in that man’s possession before I left for the central plains. Besides, he had never traveled to the central plains before.”

In a split of a second, her woman intuition was alarmed. Ji Yunshu’s expression heavily frowned. She carefully questioned him. “That man… what is his name?”

“Su Ziluo.”

“Su Ziluo?” Ji Yunshu softly repeated the name. Disappointment could be heard in her tone. Perhaps, she was too hopeful. ‘How could he possibly be Ji Pei? Ji Pei was dead! Maybe it is only a coincidence that the ta.s.sel looks identical?’

“So? Do you know him?” asked Li s.h.i.+yan.

Ji Yunshu shook her head. “No, I don’t.” As she replied to Li s.h.i.+yan, she recovered the ta.s.sel dangling on Li s.h.i.+yan’s fingers.

“I guess both of you are brought by fate. I mean one person lives in the central plains while the other resides in Qujiang, but you wear identical ta.s.sels.” He paused a moment as his eyes arched into crescent while looking at Ji Yunshu. Then, he continued. “Why aren’t you the least surprised?”

“Why should I be surprised?”

“I’m not from the central plains. Isn’t that something that you should surprise you?”

Ji Yunshu wiped the pearl decorating her ta.s.sel before putting it back in her sleeve. Then, she lifted her eyes and looked at Li s.h.i.+yan. She indifferently stated, “When I saw you for the first time, I already knew you weren’t from the central plains. I did have my doubts about you being a person from Qujiang though.”

“You knew?” Li s.h.i.+yan’s curiosity was piqued as the corners of his mouth curled into a smile. “How did you guess? Or was there something written on my face?”

“None of such. Although your attire is a style that belongs to the central plains, the silver b.u.t.ton on the crest of your hair crown and your boots completely give you away since central plains people won’t wear those items.”

When Li s.h.i.+yan heard her explanations, one of his hand touched his hair crown where the extravagant silver b.u.t.ton was. Then, he lowered his gaze to look at his boots. He obviously didn’t notice those trivial details at all. Inhabitants of the central plains wouldn’t use such flashy b.u.t.tons to knot their haircrest. As for the boots, Li s.h.i.+yan wore thin sole boots, very unlike the thick soles commonly seen in the central plains.

“Shu’er, you are really clever.” He praised her while beaming a smile at her.

“I am Ji Yunshu. Young Master Li should call me Miss Ji.”

“Shu’er sounds more pleasant to the ears.”

“I’m not used to being referred as such.”

“But Young Master Wei called you Shu’er.” Li s.h.i.+yan refuted.

Ji Yunshu lowered her eyes. “This is different.”

‘Different? Why it is different when it comes to me?’ Li s.h.i.+yan squinted his eyes and asked her. “Don’t tell me that idiot is your future husband, right?”

“He is not an idiot.” Ji Yunshu’s tone became severe as she glared at him. Now that she got her ta.s.sel back, she had no intention to continue chatting with him. She got up and stated, “Young Master Li, I am very grateful for what you did on Liang mountain. If there’s an opportunity, I will return the favor. I still have matters to attend to, so I will take my leave first.”

Li s.h.i.+yan hurriedly got up when he realized her intention of leaving. “I don’t need you to return the favor. I just want to eat a meal with you. You should not have eaten yet, right?”

“Thank you very much for your regards, but right now the missing girls case takes priority and I have to decline.”

“It won’t take much of your time.” He wants to reach out to Ji Yunshu, but she retreated with a gloomy expression. “I hope that Young Master Li would understand.” She pa.s.sed by him and was about to go downstairs but stopped after two steps. She gave him a side glance before warning him. “I believe that you know that the Great Lin and Qujiang are currently on the verge of a war. The relations between the two countries are very tense. If Prince Rong was to learn that you are from Qujiang, it’s inevitable that misunderstandings might be created. At that time, you might be forced to return to your country and maybe blood might flow once again.”

Li s.h.i.+yan froze in shock. He didn’t think about that point. In his mind, he simply wanted to take advantage of the unrest at the borders to escape from his old man. His father might not even know he had sneaked into the Great Lin empire.

If his father were to know he was here, he would have been tied up and dragged back to Qujiang. While he was contemplating the problem, Xiao Lu, who was next to him, poked at him. “Young Master, Miss Ji has left.”

“What?” Li s.h.i.+yan snapped out of his train of thoughts, but he saw no shadow of Ji Yunshu. He heavily sighed and glared at Xiao Lu. After a moment, he asked in a mocking tone. “Didn’t Shu’er say earlier that if Prince Rong knew about our ident.i.ties, blood might flow?”

Xiao Lu mechanically nodded, “Miss Ji did say that.”

Li s.h.i.+yan softly chuckled. “Regardless of anything, I am the heir of Kang Ding Marquis. Before beating a dog, he still has to look at his owner.”

“Young Master, if you say it like that… doesn’t that make it sound like you’re a dog?”

“What did you say?!”

“This lowly one said that…”

Paf!

Without any surprise, Xiao Lu’s head received another fierce blow from Li s.h.i.+yan.

“You dare to say that I am a dog?! Are you tired of living?”

“I didn’t say it, but you were…” However, he didn’t dare to complete his sentence with “the one who said it.” Instead, he retreated back in fear of getting hit again.

But in his fury, Li s.h.i.+yan ferociously grabbed him.

………………….

At this moment, Ji Yunshu had long descended the stairs. Her attention was suddenly grabbed by the piercing voice of a woman. She turned in the direction of the voice and saw a woman in pink clothes. She exuded a n.o.ble aura and seemed to be a daughter from a wealthy household judging from the silver and gold accessories she wore. She was sitting in a small booth, fuming with anger. At the height of her emotions, she swept all the dishes off the table which loudly broke on the floor.

“Can’t your restaurant hire someone to sing? And of all people to send, you sent that kind of person to entertain me?” She then pointed at Mei Xiang’er who was standing on the stage.

Mei Xiang’er lowered her head while leaning closer to the old man.

The old man pulled her hand in comfort while looking at her with distress. Following that, he nervously glanced a few times at the furious young miss.

The restaurant manager arrived in haste and offered his apology. “Young miss, we are very sorry. If you don’t like this song, I’ll make her sing something else more to your liking.”

“There is no need for that. Such vulgar singing has ruined my mood. And look at that red scar on her neck. How disgusting! Is your restaurant so broke that you have to stoop to letting such an ugly person sing? I came here to eat, but how can I still be in the mood to eat with such a disgusting sight?!”