Chapter 744 - Smoking Bones with Mugwort
Translator: Iris, Editor:Aruthea
However, Jing Yi and his team were already there. To be precise, they had not left the Ministry of Justice at all. They had been in the examination room for the whole night. Even the ministers were at a loss. But since Jing Yi was there first, as long as they said they needed more time, Jing Rong and his team would have to wait outside.
“Prince Rong, why don’t you wait for a little longer? I will head inside and check.” A minister said to them. Jing Rong nodded as they all waited right outside the examination room. The minister whipped around immediately and went into the examination room.
In the examination room, Jing Yi leaned back and lounged in his horseshoe chair while Wen Shisan examined the body of the traveling merchant and the seven sets of skeletons with gloved hands.
“Prince Yi, Prince Rong and his men are waiting outside.” The minister said.
“Let him wait.”
“But…”
“But what? This prince has yet to finish his investigation.”
Jing Yi’s words rendered the minister speechless. He dabbed at the nervous sweat on his forehead. Between Prince Yi and Prince Rong’s demands, he was truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. All he could do was sigh and convey Prince Yi’s words to Prince Rong.“Prince Yi said they still need more time, perhaps your highness could…”
Jing Rong cut him off before he could finish his sentence. “No need, I will wait for him right here, until he comes out of that room.” He stayed in the same spot, and just calmly called for Lang Po and whispered to him. Lang Po nodded and left.
What are the two of them planning? Ji Yunshu tugged at Jing Rong’s sleeve and asked, “What are you going to do?”
He smirked, “What else? I’m going to force them out.” What theatrics!
Time ticked by. Wen Shisan had finished examining the body and the skeletons yesterday. He slipped off his gloves and turned to Jing Yi, who remained seated in his armchair. ‘Your Highness, I have finished the examination. I will explain the findings I gleaned from the skeletons in detail once we head back.”
Jing Yi stood up and glanced at the closed door, “Shisan, why don’t you look through those skeletons again? Take your time, there’s no need to hurry.”
“But I have already checked through everything that is needed.”
“Keep checking!”
Wen Shisan understood what he meant. As long as they remained in the examination room, Jing Rong and Ji Yunshu could not come in.
However, he asked, “Does Your Highness not trust me?”
“What do you mean?”
“If Your Highness really trusts me, then there is no need to worry about Teacher Ji.”
Jing Yi laughed, “Of course I trust you, Shisan. But… I want Prince Rong to learn what happens to those who work against me. It’s time he learned the futility of his efforts.”
How cunning of him! That sinister chuckle made Wen Shisan shiver for a moment. He may be prideful and his own views on dignity, but he was still working for the prince. All he could do was obey and continue his examination.
Right then, white smoke began to billow into the examination room, there was even an orange, fire-like glow from outside. Someone in the room yelled, “There’s a fire, Your Highness!”
“We should leave, Your Highness.”
“How did this happen?” Jing Yi covered his nose and he questioned with knitted brows. Before they could make sense of what transpired, he was pulled out of the examination room by his bodyguards. Fits of coughing soon followed.
Only after all of Jing Yi’s team cleared out of the room did they realise that something was amiss. Jing Yi recovered from his coughing and noticed Jing Rong had been standing outside. He turned around to see that the smoke that had filled the examination room was slowly but surely dissipating.
At the same moment, Ji Yunshu looked inside the examination room. On the tables were seven perfectly assembled sets of skeletons. She glanced at Wen Shisan and thought, unexpectedly it seemed that his assembling skills had improved over the years.
Jing Rong walked up to his brother, “I thought there was a fire inside, but it turned out to be a simple misunderstanding. I was just about to rush in and put out the fire with my men.”
“You did this on purpose, Jing Rong.” Jing Yi growled between gritted teeth.
But Jing Rong laughed, “So what if I did that on purpose? All of your men are out here now, which means it’s my turn to head in and conduct our investigation.”
“You…” Jing Yi was so angry, his face turned red. “Fine, count yourself lucky.” He never thought that he could be tricked by Jing Rong!
Just as Jing Rong and his team were about to walk into the examination room…
“Wait,” Jing Yi stopped them, “I forgot something, let me just grab that before we go,” then he signalled to his two bodyguards.
His bodyguards had been by his side for many years, they could tell what their prince wanted them to do at a single glance. Picking up something was just an excuse; their prince wanted them…
In a flash, the cloth underneath the skeleton was yanked off, the bones clattered onto the ground. They even poured ink all over the scattered bones and kicked them around, leaving the room in a complete mess. The two bodyguards rushed out of the room and said sheepishly, “Sorry, Your Highness, we didn’t mean it. The smoke made it really hard to find things.”
Jing Yi played his part and chastised them, “Sheesh, you two are so clumsy! How are they going to work in such a mess? You even damaged the bones!”
“Forgive us, your highness.”
Jing Yi turned to his brother and apologised, “I’m sorry, they really didn’t mean to do that. I would give them a good scolding later, but…”
He glanced at Ji Yunshu, “I’m sure Teacher Ji would find a way.” With that, he scoffed and left with a satisfied smile.
Wen Shisan followed him out, but he stopped as he passed by Ji Yunshu and whispered, “I wonder how you would treat bones drenched in ink?” He let out an eerie chuckle and left with the elder prince.
Jing Rong scanned at the wreckage in the examination room with a worried look, he turned back to Ji Yunshu, “Is there a way?”
She pondered, then told Lang Po, “Fetch me some dried mugwort.” They immediately got to work without asking any other questions.
After a short while, they managed to gather a lot of dried mugwort from the various apothecaries in town. Then, as instructed, they fetched a large piece of cloth and tied each corner of the fabric to four large stands. They then carefully laid the bones that had been covered in ink on it and spread the mugwort underneath the cloth.
“Light it.”
The dried mugwort burned and smoke rose from the flames. Everyone watched on in confusion. Jing Rong asked her, “What would this do?”
She explained, “Dried mugwort has the same properties as pine ash, which means it can remove toxins. So by smoking the bones with mugwort, we can remove the ink on the bones without damaging them.” [1]
“I see.”
The smoke engulfed the bones on the cloth and filled the air, but it did not sting their senses. “It smells so nice!” said someone. Indeed, it was a very pleasing fragrance.
Soon the mugwort burned out. Ji Yunshu ordered someone to fetch some muslin and gently wiped away the ink on the bones. It worked just like she explained, the bones were cleaned of ink in a single wipe. Normally in archaeology, when they find any bones that had been damaged, or were stained, they would normally smoke it with mugwort and clean the surface of the bones.
Finally, they carefully carried the bones back into the examination room for Ji Yunshu to reassemble. Luckily, the bones were not excessively broken. It took Ji Yunshu about two hours to piece together all seven sets of skeletons based on the length of the bones and the cross-section of the broken pieces. She turned her attention to the body and found that one of the sides had been sprayed with black rhizome.
This… should be Wen Shisan’s work.
[1] Mugwort is also used for moxibustion in TCM, but i'm pretty sure this way of smoking bones is pure fiction.