Bone Painting Coroner

“General!” Yuchi Lin cried out.

Su Ziluo nodded. “How are things at the imperial palace?”

“It went according to plan. Great Lin’s emperor responded by relieving Liang Wen of command on the border and selecting a tributary princess to tie our countries in marriage.”

Su Ziluo nodded again.

Yuchi Lin raised an eyebrow confusion written on his face. “General, Great Lin’s emperor is a paranoid man. I fear my speech today will not win his trust.”

“I want him to be suspicious!”

“Ah? Why?”

Su Ziluo put his hands on his two wheels and moved forward, a mysterious smile on his face. His slender fingers lightly pressed on a handle. A crisp sound rang out.

“Our king gave us our orders. We have to retake the two cities we lost to Great Lin five years ago by any means necessary. My army of 30,000 has been raiding their borders for several months in order to be granted entrance to their capital. The marriage proposal is nothing but a diversion. We must now stop at nothing in order to accomplish our task.”

“Yes, General!” said Yuchi Lin in a deep voice. “Great Lin’s emperor didn’t seem like a philanthropist. It might be a challenge to obtain the two cities without a fight.”

‘It’s true there are many ravenous wolves in the world and an emperor is part of the pack.’

Su Ziluo wasn’t anxious about resolving this problem. He looked outside. “It’s getting late. Go, we’ll discuss things later.”

“Yes.” Yuchi Lin saluted and left.

Alone inside the room, Su Ziluo moved his wheelchair to the carved wooden window. Outside, the early spring moon was particularly round. A solitary satellite hanging in the dark sky, pouring its light through the window. A sight beautiful to behold! Su Ziluo raised his eyes and gazed at it. His face glowed in the orange of the candle’s light. His whole being was filled with grief and distressed. After a long moment, he took out the tassel in his sleeve. His fingertips gently stroked the pearl on it until it was smooth.

————-

“Ziluo, the final battle is approaching. This tassel is a memento of your mother. Now, I hand it to you. You must remember that if something happens to me, and I cannot survive, you absolutely must live on!”

“Father!” Su Ziluo shouted.

————–

He had a flashback of that moment five years ago before the grand battle at Cangshui. The fire of war, the smoke and the sounds of bugle horn filled the sky. The raging sounds of bodies colliding in confrontation and the deafening noise of weapons claiming lives had overwhelmed his ears. Mountains of armors created from countless corpses littered the ground; within a kilometer, blood had formed rivers.

He had etched the faces of all the Great Lin generals besieging them into his mind. He remembered their armor, muddy from blood, had count every meter separating them, and carved it into his memory, the sword that ruthlessly trust into Marshal Su.

“FATHER!” At the time, he had bellowed until his voice broke.

As for the sword’s owner, he was none other than Ji Li.

“Ji Li, one day, I will bury you with my father!”

——————

Meanwhile, Ji Yunshu and Jing Rong had returned to the Rong estate. At first, she had wanted to go to her courtyard directly, but Jing Rong dragged her stubbornly to his instead. He had the servants bring some midnight snacks.

“I presume you haven’t eaten anything at Concubine Xiao’s residence.”

‘He’s considerate.’ Ji Yunshu had no objection since her empty stomach was screaming. She would have just a few snacks.

“You still haven’t told me how you knew General Yuchi wasn’t the real Qujiang general who routed our troops on the border?”

Ji Yunshu glanced at him. She took a deep breath and explained, “He appeared quite tough. I presumed he was a valiant general on the front lines. However, when I looked at the pre-eminence at the back of his skull and his shoulders connecting to that slightly bent neck, it tells me he might have suffered an impact to the back of his head during a battle. In addition, his right hand had a deformation. I can determine his head injury happened at the same time as his right hand’s. These injuries could be consequential. First, the impact on the brain could cause a person to become an idiot. Second, if he didn’t become an idiot, he would still have less flexible thinking. How can someone like that pressure an army of 100,000 with only 30,000? The real Qujiang general is someone else!”

Her explanations made a lot of sense! Jing Rong could only admire her wits. After half a day observing the man, his reasons to suspect the other wasn’t as clear as her, and more intuitive. Her cold analyze accurately pinpoint the crucial points at a glance.

“So much intelligence, but, unfortunately…”

“Unfortunately what?”

“Unfortunately, you are a woman.”

Ji Yunshu stared at him coldly. “Male or female, you ancient people are really sexist and have a pedantic way of thinking!”

‘Ancient people? Sexism?’

Jing Rong was amused and his mouth curled up a bit. He asked with curiosity, “Your words are always so strange and odd. I have to think your words through several times before I can figure it out. If we are to live together, I am sure I will spend all day guessing the meaning of your words.”

‘Live together?’ Ji Yunshu stilled in the middle of picking up a pastry. She faced him and unceremoniously doused him with cold words. “Who would want to live with you?”

“What? Now you want to refuse to acknowledge the fact?”

“Ah?”

Jing Rong became serious. “We have kissed and we slept together. In the future, you are bound to marry to me.”

‘Shameless!’ Ji Yunshu’s hand trembled, the pastry fell back onto the plate. She felt suffocated and unable to reason with him.

“I’m sorry to say I don’t recall anything your Highness spoke of,” she stressed.

“You forgot?” Jing Rong’s lips curled into a smile. “It doesn’t matter. I will still take responsibility for you.”

‘What a shameless rotten rogue! Forget it! Forget it!’ She was disinclined to answer.

But Jing Rong had thick skin and obstinately stuck around her. “Why don’t you say something?”

“My mouth hurts; I don’t want to talk.” Ji Yunshu’s words didn’t allow any retort which left Jing Rong with a sour face.

Unhappy, he approached her a bit and whined, “Fine, if your mouth hurts and you don’t want to talk, then I’ll talk instead.”

“…”

“You just need to listen. This concerns something very important.”

‘What could be so important?’ Ji Yunshu’s expression remained tepid and she stayed silent, which made it hard for her companion to determine if she was interested or not.

In truth, she was.

Jing Rong cleared his throat and asked solemnly. “I presume you know about Miss Kong Yu?”

Ji Yunshu nodded.

“Kong Yu and I grew up together; we have a good relationship. Although she said she wanted to be my consort, matters of the heart are not under our control. In my heart, she is only a big sister. I absolutely have no interest in her as a woman. However, it was my fault for being ambiguous and I didn’t make it clear soon enough, now she is too involved. I do not want this. You understand what I mean?”

He was very nervous. ‘Do my words sound strange?’

Ji Yunshu squinted, studying him. Her brows creased. “Is this so important?” ‘You are joking with me!’

Jing Rong felt like he was hit by a club but wasn’t angry or anxious. He had a composed expression and spoke preachingly, “I want to clarify these things with you because I want you to understand only you are in my heart, there is no space for another woman.” His confession was extremely blatant. He didn’t want Ji Yunshu to second-guess him, so he had no choice but make it crystal clear.

Unfortunately, Ji Yunshu had heard his confessions so many times that she was starting to get immune to it. However, she was flustered and unsure of herself, and his words disturbed her heart, throwing it into a maelstrom of emotions. She immediately moved away. Her hands held her sleeves tightly. “Who you have in your heart has nothing to do with me. I also…”

Her words were interrupted by a strong pull which dragged her up and forced her to turn around. She landed in Jing Rong’s forceful embrace. She sat snuggly on his laps, their position became ambiguous.

“Let me go!” Ji Yunshu pushed on his chest with anger rising. However, her strength was too feeble and she remained tightly lock in his arms.

“Calm down. If you make too much noise, the people outside will come in. It will be hard to explain this.”

‘F*ck you! This situation is already hard to explain!’  Ji Yunshu ferociously glared at him. She didn’t know if her cheeks were flushed from fury or her rampant heartbeat. “Your Highness shouldn’t forget the saying – Heroes die under the hands of beauty,” she said, cold-eyed.