Following Jiang Si's voice, everyone turned to look, and what met their eyes was a middle-aged man in his fifties.
The man had sparse eyebrows, with a slight break at the end of his right brow.
His eyes were slender and phoenix-shaped, with deep-set sockets, heavy drooping eyelids, prominent whites, and epicanthic folds.
The bridge of his nose had a slight bump, and the tip curved downward—a classic aquiline nose.
Thin lips and a short, flat chin.
His jawline was sharp and well-defined, with pronounced masseter muscles.
Though Jiang Si hadn’t depicted many facial details, everyone recognized him at a glance.
This was none other than Yang Zhiqi, the lover of the Huo Family’s aunt.
The most shocked of all was Mother Huo. Up until now, her daughter-in-law had never interacted with anyone from the Yang family.
Their only encounter had been the previous night.
And they hadn’t even exchanged a single glance.
If Mother Huo remembered correctly, when they heard the military truck’s horn, Yang Zhiqi had merely tilted his head slightly.
The entire moment lasted no more than three seconds!
In other words, Jiang Si had taken less than three seconds—and only glimpsed the man’s profile—to sketch a full frontal portrait of him!
If it had just been a simple frontal sketch, Mother Huo might not have been so astonished.
But it wasn’t just her—everyone else’s expressions were equally stunned and disbelieving as they looked from the drawing to Jiang Si.
When no one spoke for a long moment, Jiang Si’s heart skipped a beat.
No way… had she embarrassed her alma mater?
But that couldn’t be right. After all, she’d studied figure sketching for years.
During university, she’d even minored in courses like Human Structure and Dynamic Sketching, Facial Growth Trajectory Prediction, and Artistic Human Anatomy.
For someone like her, reconstructing the other half of a face after seeing the profile was relatively straightforward.
Still, there were exceptions. Jiang Si asked, “Does it not look like him?”
Everyone quickly shook their heads. “No, no—it looks exactly like him! This is your aunt’s husband, Yang Zhiqi.”
Jiang Si still didn’t quite understand.
If it was accurate, why were they reacting like this?
Finally, Mother Huo provided the answer: “Your uncle Yang had an accident years ago. His right cheek was badly scarred, so he rarely sees outsiders these days.”
“Just now, when we saw this portrait, we were completely taken aback.”
“To be honest, if you hadn’t drawn this, we’d almost forgotten what he used to look like.”
But one thing puzzled her. “Jiang Si, why did you suddenly decide to draw him?”
Mother Huo wasn’t foolish. If her daughter-in-law had wanted to sketch, she could have done so anytime.
Why lock herself in her room for a whole day without eating or drinking?
And with so many people in the household willing to model for her, why choose someone she’d never even properly met?
Jiang Si didn’t rush to explain. After all, Huo Tingtao’s features resembled those of the Huo Family’s aunt, who in turn shared a forty to fifty percent likeness with Father Huo.
No one would ever suspect he wasn’t a child of the Huo Family.
Besides, in this era, DNA testing didn’t exist yet. If Jiang Si outright claimed he wasn’t a Huo, her words would hold no weight.
Instead, Jiang Si pulled out a second sketch. Before the Cultural Revolution, she had attended Shanghai’s Third Girls’ High School.
This institution, formed from the merger of McTyeire School and St. Mary’s Hall, was one of Shanghai’s most prestigious.
Her art teachers had all been renowned painters, both domestic and international.
If universities hadn’t suspended admissions, Jiang Si would likely have been studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, just as she had in the world beyond the book.
“Mom, Dad, yesterday I heard from Grandma and Grandpa that Aunt Yang had three daughters. This is my prediction of what the girls might look like, based on their parents’ facial features and basic genetic principles. Take a look.”
The Huo Family knew Jiang Si had been drawing since childhood.
But while they’d always known she was talented, they never imagined she could predict a child’s appearance from the parents’ looks.
Instantly, everyone’s curiosity was piqued.
Mother Huo, not wanting to discourage her daughter-in-law, subtly signaled the others.
No matter how accurate the sketch was, they were to praise it!
But when Jiang Si handed over the drawing, the room fell silent.
“This… doesn’t it look a bit like Li Hua’s second daughter, Chunni?”
“Not just a bit—it’s strikingly similar. I remember Chunni looked exactly like this when she was thirteen or fourteen.”
Before anyone could muster any compliments, Jiang Si presented a third sketch.
Though the theoretical maximum age for accurate prediction was around twenty-five, she had settled on the ten-to-fifteen range for reliability.
By this age, most people’s brow bones had fully developed.
All permanent teeth had erupted.
And the jawline was nearly set.
“Mom, Dad, this is my prediction based on your features.”
Perhaps because she was so familiar with Huo Tingzhou’s face, this sketch took her less than an hour from start to finish.
And the result was flawless.
Grandma Huo gasped the moment she saw it.
“It’s him! This is uncanny!”
“Old Man, look—doesn’t this resemble our fourth son when he was a boy? Like they were stamped from the same mold!”
The Old Man nodded. It did look like their fourth son.
If he had to nitpick, adding a pair of glasses would make it perfect.
“Jiang Si, tell Grandma—how did you do this?”
Grandma Huo clutched Jiang Si’s hands, turning them over in amazement.
How could one pair of hands be so skilled?
“Grandma, once you master genetics, it’s actually quite simple.”
Grandma Huo gave her a skeptical look. “Mastery alone isn’t enough. If you can’t apply it flexibly, knowledge is just dead theory.”
Jiang Si nodded—that much was true.
Smiling, she explained in the simplest terms possible.
In short, facial features are divided into dominant and recessive traits.
Things like interpupillary distance, nasal bridge height, jawline contour, ear shape, and mouth characteristics are mostly dominant.
In layman’s terms, these are highly likely to be passed down.
Another key point: in genetics, “ugly genes” are stronger.
So traits like a flat nose, bulbous nose, protruding mouth, square face, or obesity?
No need to wonder—there’s over a ninety percent chance they’ll be inherited.
Once you identify the dominant traits and use the brow-nose-jaw triangulation method,
predicting a child’s appearance isn’t all that difficult.
Of course, external environmental factors also play a role.
For example, during the years of the Great Famine, people's height would generally shrink by 4-6 cm, and their head circumference would also decrease accordingly.
Similarly, there are differences in the proportions of facial features between northern and southern Chinese. Due to the colder climate in the north, people there tend to have higher and more prominent nose bridges compared to those from the south.
Grandma Huo nodded repeatedly, surprised by the intricacies behind these details.
Jiang Si smiled and continued, "Besides appearance, height can also be passed down to the next generation through genetics. With parents of such stature, their child is bound to be tall—no less than 180 cm at the very least."
Her words were deliberate, and the listeners caught the implication.
The moment she said this, Father Huo and Mother Huo both turned their gazes toward her.
In truth, they had already sensed something amiss when they saw those portraits earlier.
Now, after Jiang Si's little "science lesson," their unease grew even stronger.
"Si Si—"
Jiang Si had been building up to this moment and wasn’t about to stop now.
She handed over the final portrait—the fourth one—and said,
"Mom, Dad, hasn’t Auntie always regretted not being able to see her child grow up?"
"This is what I’ve drawn based on the facial features of her and her husband. Take a look."
