No matter what kind of police force they are, they cannot see that the victim is a child.
Same as Chen Anning.
So does he.
After calling in the Yulin Army and carrying out the bodies of all the children, Xie Xun directed the cleanup of the 'battlefield'.
The sky is bright.
The sun shines directly in through the 'hole' made by the stone roller.
The underground Colosseum was illuminated in full view.
The iron cages in several 'orchards' looked particularly hideous and terrifying amidst the blood and rust stains.
The viewers, even the staunch Yulin Army, couldn't help but have red eyes.
It will take several days for the bones in the Colosseum to be cleared.
It's mid-to-late May, and the weather is getting hotter day by day. Bodies exposed to the air can easily cause various viruses and plagues.
After cleaning up the 'battlefield' and making sure that no evidence was missing, Xie Xun ordered that except for the Colosseum, the rest of the area should be buried.
With the exposure of the underground Colosseum, there has been an uproar in the capital.
Although the Habayashi Army maintained order, the people who came to claim the children after hearing the news and people from all walks of life who came to join in the fun still surrounded Hepingfang.
Chen Anning didn't care about the noise outside, nor the dust and smoke falling on her body.
She squatted in front of the corpses in the Colosseum, covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and silently and indifferently pieced together the corpses.
Behind her, eleven elderly men looked at her with helplessness and admiration.
Let them examine the cause of death of the corpse, and all of them are very good at it. But piecing together a pair of skeletons against a pile of bones was obviously embarrassment to them.
When I first came here, I thought she was deliberately making things difficult when I heard her order.
But at this moment...
"Miss Chen Er," Liu, a man with gray beard and hair, asked respectfully, "you'd better tell us to do something."
The rest of the gang agreed.
Chen Anning asked without raising her head: "What can you do?"
The man named Liu suddenly stopped talking.
Yeah, what can they do.
There is nothing they can do.
After finishing the bones at hand, Chen Anning raised her stiff neck and looked back at the group of helpless workers. After a moment of silence, she ordered in a hoarse voice: "The bones don't know how to fight and there is nothing to do, so clean them up." These bones, put the same bones together.”
After receiving the order, the workers immediately dispersed and got busy.
Chen Anning calmed down for a moment, shook off the dirt on her sleeves, and was about to wipe away the sweat. A handkerchief landed on her forehead ahead of her.
"Get up and rest for a while." After wiping the sweat from her face, Xie Xun couldn't help but pull her up.
Chen Anning glanced at the seven bones that had been put together, and then at the sun that was gradually setting in the west. She held his arm and said softly, "Hello."
From the time she squatted down yesterday to now, she has been piecing together for fourteen consecutive hours.
My legs were already so numb that I lost all feeling.
My nerves have already been stretched to the extreme.
Chen Anning closed her eyes, resisting the dizziness that was rolling over her, and then took a step forward.
Xie Xun sighed silently, picked her up from the waist, tapped her toes, and flew out of the Colosseum.
He carried her to the courtyard next to the Colosseum, which served as a temporary command and dispatch center. After placing her in a chair, he told He Xiang: "Go and bring up the warm ginseng soup and clear porridge."
Instruct Chun Rui and Chuntao: "Go and prepare hot water."
Then he ordered the four maids specially transferred by Princess Guangling: "Go and prepare a change of clothes, and then make the bed."
After several maids dispersed and were busy, Xie Xun came over again. While cleaning the loose soil on her body, he said: "I know you feel bad, so I never came to stop you. But you also saw that the pieces of the bones were only I can rely on you. If you fall, you will have to stop there."
Chen Anning joked hoarsely: "Is this the purpose of calling those gangsters here?"
After shaking off the dirt on her body, Xie Xun took off the hairpin from her head and began to shake the dirt out of her hair: "I wanted to lighten your burden, but I didn't expect them to be so useless."
"It's just that I don't understand the human skeleton, so it's far from useless." Chen Anning said fairly.
It was also her fault that she really had no intention of teaching in such an environment. If they were to investigate seriously, it would not be their fault.
After shaking the dirt out of his hair, Xie Xun poured a cup of warm tea and handed it to her.
Chen Anning took it and looked at him with a half-smile while drinking, "Master Xie is quite good at taking care of others."
"This is the first time in my life," Xie Xun called someone in, cleaned up all the sand on the ground, and joked, "If there are any areas that are not taken care of well, please take care of me, Miss Chen Er."
Chen Anning chuckled twice and said no more.
moment.
He Xiang came in with ginseng soup, porridge, and a few dishes of side dishes.
After Chen Anning ate slowly, she let Chun Rui and Chuntao come over to help her take a bath.
After bathing, changing clothes, and getting on the bed, Chen Anning closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Xie Xun ordered the maid from Guangling Palace: "Light the incense to calm the gods."
despite this.
Chen Anning only slept for two hours before waking up.
The dress she was wearing was inconvenient for movement, so she asked Chunrui to find a men's suit to change into, and then she went to the Colosseum.
Day after day.
A month passed quickly.
With the help of the workers, all the bones were pieced together.
A total of two hundred and seventy-three sets of bones were pieced together.
The bones were all between twelve and sixteen years old.
Among them, there are 157 sets of bones of girls and 116 sets of bones of boys.
Including the boys and girls who were rescued and those who were killed during the rescue process, the number far exceeds the number of missing children recorded in Dali Temple!
Over the past month, the extremely high workload and constant busyness had made Chen Anning, who had long become numb and indifferent, still couldn't help but feel her heart twitch when she saw nearly three hundred skeletons arranged neatly.
So many children…
If one child represents one family, that's nearly three hundred families.
This does not include the children who died during the rescue process.
Following the busy workers, looking at the rows of corpses, they couldn't help but have red eyes.
A few grumpy old men turned their tiredness into obscene swear words and uttered them frantically.
Chen Anning didn't have the energy to curse or even speak.
After registering all the bones, she left the Colosseum without looking back, took a hot bath at the temporary command and dispatch center, had a meal, and then fell asleep with her head covered.
This sleep lasted for two days and two nights.
After waking up, she did not ask about the progress of the investigation of the case, nor did she say hello to Xie Xun or Wen Qinsang, Xu Zan, Wen Baolin and others who came to help. She took the carriage home alone.
After returning home, after eating and drinking, she fell asleep again.
This made Qiu, who had not seen her for nearly a month and a half, rush over impatiently to find out the details after hearing her return, come up empty again.
"This child, the General's Mansion and the Marquis' Mansion invited her to attend a banquet, but she didn't go. After being away from home for so long, she finally came back. She didn't come over to say hello, and then fell asleep again." Mrs. Qiu tilted her head unwillingly, while Looking into the depths of Qingzhiyuan, he muttered, "Does she still have this family in her heart, and does she still have me as her mother?"
The two maidservants guarding the door dutifully stopped her from taking a step closer.
Qiu had no choice but to go back.
Chen Anning slept for two more days.
