It Was Him

Zhao Ruxi ticked a box next to those eyes. "Alright, you can go back to your place now."

After Sun Jiawang returned to his seat, she said, "Continue talking. For example, his mouth, his nose, his face shape, etc. Say whatever comes to mind. Don't be nervous, think slowly."

Sun Jiawang thought for a moment before continuing, "His mouth is a bit big, his lips are thick, and he has a mustache..."

Zhao Ruxi drew a few more mouth shapes and asked, "What kind of beard? A goatee, a full beard, or a handlebar mustache?"

After being asked this, Sun Jiawang thought for a long time before hesitatingly saying, "It seems to be... a mustache?"

Zhao Ruxi drew a mustache on each mouth. After she finished, seeing that Sun Jiawang was still frowning and deep in thought, she quickly added a goatee and a full beard to each mouth shape.

She used a sketching technique, the lines simple yet incredibly expressive. Wu Zong stared intently at the pen in her hand, his expression one of intense excitement.

Zhao Ruxi's painting style seems somewhat different from the one she taught them. Although the principles of painting should be the same, it seems faster and simpler, capturing the essence of the subject with just a few strokes.

After Zhao Ruxi finished drawing the mouth shape and mustache, she asked Sun Jiawang, "Still haven't decided?"

Sun Jiawang shook his head, somewhat dejected, and said, "I don't remember it very clearly. My first impression of that person was his eyes."

Zhang Changshen nodded.

He was a seasoned veteran of solving cases. He could tell at a glance whether the person in front of him was lying or not. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to bring Sun Jiawang from Yangzhou, three thousand miles away, to the capital, and have Zhao Ruxi draw a portrait of the murderer.

"Then come and look at these drawings I made. Which one do you think should be on his face?" Zhao Ruxi said.

Sun Jiawang came over to take a look, but hesitated for a long time before daring to make a decision.

The main issue was that these mouths were all very similar in shape. He only glanced at the criminal, and in his panic, he didn't get a clear look.

He vaguely remembered that the man had thick lips and a mustache. But he couldn't tell exactly how thick his lips were or what his mustache looked like.

"It's okay, just point randomly based on your feeling," Zhao Ruxi said.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Changshen's eyes lit up again, and his gaze toward Zhao Ruxi became even more different.

First impressions are crucial. Sometimes you may feel like you haven't remembered something, but subconsciously you still have a recollection. So, when memories are hazy, making choices based on intuition is often less likely to lead to mistakes.

This principle is something that experienced investigators understand, but most people don't.

It's amazing that this young Miss Zhao knows this at such a young age; she's truly remarkable.

Sun Jiawang visibly relaxed after hearing Zhao Ruxi's words. He closed his eyes first, then opened them, glanced at the drawings Zhao Ruxi had made, and pointed to one, saying, "It should be like this."

It was a pair of lips that weren't particularly thick, paired with a mustache.

"Okay." Zhao Ruxi ticked the box. "Go back and stand there."

"I'll just stand here," Sun Jiawang said.

"Go back and stand still," Zhao Ruxi repeated sternly.

Zhang Changshen said, "I'll listen to Miss Zhao."

Sun Jiawang was confused, but he still obediently went back to stand there.

This time, not only Zhang Changshen, but Wu Zong's gaze towards Zhao Ruxi was also different—his master seemed unreliable, but his judgment was truly sharp; the junior sister he had taken in was indeed formidable.

As an artist, he knew best that if an eyewitness looked at his portrait, they would often be influenced by what they saw, leading to memory confusion.

Only when he describes it from memory, and the painter draws the portrait with him on his back, and then asks him to confirm it after it's finished, can he tell if it's correct or not.

"Do you still remember your face shape?" Zhao Ruxi asked Sun Jiawang.

Sun Jiawang shook his head. "I don't quite remember."

Where's the nose?

Sun Jiawang continued to shake his head, "I don't remember much."

While in Yangzhou, officials had questioned him about the murderer's appearance. Later, after arriving at the Court of Judicial Review, he was repeatedly questioned by everyone, and he had recalled the murderer's appearance many times.

This time, however, the girl was kind and asked precise questions, even drawing pictures for him to choose from. As a result, he was able to recall the details more clearly.

Zhao Ruxi didn't say anything more and started drawing in the blank space on the paper.

She drew the eyes and lips that had been marked with a checkmark, and then directly drew a full beard with a handlebar mustache.

Zhang Changshen and Wu Zong's eyes both lit up.

Sun Jiawang had no recollection of the man's face shape, perhaps because his face was obscured by a thick beard. It was just that it was nighttime, and Sun Jiawang's attention was drawn to the man's features, so he didn't notice him.

After Zhao Ruxi finished drawing, she quickly added a nose to the person.

With the addition of a nose, the portrait was essentially complete. However, she then drew several more versions next to it, using the same eyes and mouth with different types of noses.

In her past life, she squatted on the street sketching portraits, and she had studied the types of human facial features, so drawing these was a piece of cake for her.

After finishing the painting, she called Sun Jiawang over, "Come and take a look."

Sun Jiawang walked over curiously, and when he saw the six portraits laid out on the paper, his breath caught in his throat, his pupils widened instantly, and he pointed at one of the portraits, shouting in terror, "It's him, it's him!" As he spoke, he trembled all over and hugged himself, trying to shrink into a ball.

Seeing this, Zhang Changshen almost wanted to slap the table and burst out laughing.

Without even asking, just by looking at Sun Jiawang's reaction, he knew that the portrait Zhao Ruxi had drawn looked remarkably like the criminal.

Wu Zong looked at the portrait Sun Jiawang was pointing at, his face turned pale instantly, then flushed red.

In fact, when Sun Jiawang was brought to the capital, fearing that Sun Jiawang's impression of the murderer would become blurred over time, he immediately drew a portrait of the murderer during the interrogation.

However, his portrait is far inferior to Zhao Ruxi's.

When it was shown to Sun Jiawang, Sun Jiawang hesitated for a long time before saying, "It seems so."

He had always thought that Sun Jiawang's memory of faces was blurred due to fear, light, face blindness, and other reasons. Now he realized that it was because the portrait he drew was so different from what Sun Jiawang saw.

Zhao Ruxi picked up another piece of paper and said, "I'll draw a bigger one."

This time, she painted in front of Sun Jiawang. Sun Jiawang had never seen anyone paint like this before, and he was immediately mesmerized.

Wu Zong glanced at Zhang Changshen and found that his master was also watching intently, so he had no choice but to watch Zhao Ruxi paint as well.

This time, Zhao Ruxi still used the sketching technique. She felt that the task of copying the portrait would fall to her, since everyone else was just starting to learn sketching and no one could share the burden with her. The constables needed to track down the murderer, and even if they couldn't each have a portrait, they would need at least a dozen or twenty, or even more. The sketching technique was too delicate and took too long; she didn't know how long it would take her to finish by herself.