Plotting with You: The Forensic Scientist in Ancient Times!-Chapter 227 - 226: Bones

The red-faced old man stopped and threw in a bit of suspense. Before he could continue to describe how grand the Pang Family’s reception for the distinguished guests from Lan Country was, a startled shout suddenly emanated from the crowd excavating the water channel in the distance, sounding as if they were scared.

The people who had been digging upwards from the pit also scrambled to climb out, as if afraid that if they were too slow, something might grab them and pull them back in.

Zhu Yu quickly got up and hurried over there.

The few old men behind her saw this and also got up, retreating several steps further away while observing the situation at the edge of the channel from a safe distance and shaking their heads, murmuring, "These young people are so impulsive, always wanting to get closer to anything exciting! Can’t he see everyone else is trying to stay away?"

Zhu Yu didn’t hear it, and even if she did, she wouldn’t care. She quickly stepped forward, pushing aside the panicked people in front of her, arriving at the edge of the channel.

There was no one left in the channel, only a pile of unexcavated dirt and rocks, and a partially exposed... human skull?

Seeing this, Zhu Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

Lu Qing wasn’t nearby, it was just her and the rune. If some other bizarre thing emerged, the two of them wouldn’t know if they could handle it.

But if it’s human bones, then it’s no big deal for her.

The pit for the water channel was dug deep, and Zhu Yu sat at the edge of the pit, letting herself slide down along the pit wall. Once she stood, only her head was exposed.

By this time the rune had also hurried over, crouching at the edge of the pit and asking, "Second Master, let me come down and help you."

"No need." Zhu Yu waved her hand. "Stay up there first, let me see what’s going on, then we’ll talk.

Even if you want to come down, at the very least, pull me up first, otherwise, it’s going to be a problem for me to get back up."

The rune looked at Zhu Yu, with only her head exposed above ground, and indeed, it would be hard for her to climb out on her own, so he nodded and stayed by the edge, watching.

Zhu Yu squatted down and, carefully moved the loosened dirt near the skull with her hand. Her fingers maneuvered through the soil particles, and she could distinctly feel that the soil was very dry. Other than the excavated part, the rest of the soil covering the skull was pressed tightly and wouldn’t simply come off with a light brush of the hand.

After poking around a few times, the tips of Zhu Yu’s fingers started to feel the sting of getting scratched, so she stopped her actions and looked up at the rune. The rune, as if guessing her intent, quickly pulled a dagger from his waist and handed it over, "Second Master, use this for now."

Zhu Yu took it, seeing that the dagger’s blade was narrow, just perfect for the job. She nodded at the rune and continued to carefully dig out the skull.

A group of people stood at the edge of the channel, watching from afar. They didn’t dare to approach, but were reluctant to run away, both frightened and curious to see Zhu Yu daring to jump in and dig at the skull on her own, wanting to see what was happening.

Zhu Yu stayed crouched at the bottom of the pit, working carefully for a while until she finally excavated the complete skull from the soil.

Just as she had finished extracting the skull, another piece of white bone was revealed beneath it.

The rune, seeing this, said to Zhu Yu, "Second Master, let me pull you out. I’ll take care of the rest!"

Zhu Yu, after pulling this one skull out of the dry and hard soil, already felt some ache in her hands. Thinking about the fact that this was clearly not just a part, but an entire skeleton, she realized she really couldn’t do it alone, so she didn’t insist. She nodded, asked the rune to pull her out of the pit, handed back the dagger, and started to examine the skull.

The skull was very highly ossified, clean and with no residue. From the frontal bone to the parietal bone, to the temporal and occipital bones, it was intact and smooth. Not only was there no sign of damage from external injuries, but there wasn’t even a single small crack.

Zhu Yu flipped the skull over to examine the side that should have connected to the cervical vertebrae. From the fracture surface, it wasn’t violently cut off by someone, but separated naturally after becoming ossified and the cartilage rotted away.

Zhu Yu couldn’t help but glance back into the pit, wondering to herself: for the bones to ossify like this, they must have been buried here for quite a while.

At least for now, the skull seemed particularly intact. If the other bones were just as well-preserved, with no unusual signs... they might have accidentally unearthed someone’s unmarked grave while digging the water channel... 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

But she quickly dismissed this idea.

Because after a short time, the rune had dug out several more thoroughly ossified bones haphazardly from the pit. Zhu Yu squatted by the edge of the pit, piecing them together, her brows gradually furrowed tightly.

"Second Master, is something wrong?" the rune asked as he threw out another bone, noticing Zhu Yu’s uneasy expression. He knew that the mistress wasn’t one to fear such things, so her unsettling demeanor must have been due to something else.

As he asked, the crowd of onlookers perked up their ears, eager to hear what the young gentleman, called "Second Master," might say.

They hadn’t originally paid much attention to this young man, who seemed somewhat scrawny compared to others, but now they saw this seemingly frail guy fearlessly crouching there, handling the bones of the dead. The impact of this image was powerful enough to temporarily overpower their fear with astonishment.

Zhu Yu held up two slightly triangular bones in each hand: "Among the bones you just helped me dig out, there are two scapulae.

Both are right shoulders."

The rune’s face turned serious, and he quickly continued to dig out more bones from the pit.

Soon, some government soldiers from Prince Shuo Mansion, who were excavating the channel in another location, also noticed the anomaly over here. They came to check the situation and were stunned to see white bones by the pit, and the second miss, who was already married, crouching at the edge manipulating them. Meanwhile, in the pit, the guard of Prince Xiaoyao was still helping the second miss continue to dig out the bones; they were completely taken aback.

"What are you standing there for! Two of you come down and help me, the rest of you move the idle people and continue working on the other side of the channel!" The rune was a bit exasperated by their reaction, but he had no time to evaluate Zhu Cheng’s management of the mansion’s subordinates at the moment, so he simply yelled out commands.

The few soldiers snapped out of it and quickly followed the orders, leaving two to help the rune while the others herded the onlookers away to continue working on the other side of the channel.

With the help of those two soldiers, it didn’t take long before many more pieces of human bones were gradually excavated from the pit.

And Zhu Yu’s expression grew more and more unpleasant, her demeanor eventually turning from stern to dark and cloudy.

"Master... how many people are there?" The rune straightened up, wiped the sweat off his forehead, and glanced at the pit where yellowish-white bones were still faintly visible, asking Zhu Yu.

"At least 9," Zhu Yu replied.