With Xu Qinghe's assistance, Shen Yao and Su Yan quickly compiled the death list of Pear Blossom Village.

Su Yan looked through the list thoughtfully. "My lord, it seems that most of the men over the age of thirty recorded in Pear Blossom Village who died were surnamed Zhao. However, the three major families of Wu, Zhao, and Sun lived in Pear Blossom Village for generations. Yet, the Zhao family had the most deaths, with only a few people surnamed Wu and Sun. Logically speaking, it's impossible that only a few people from the Zhao and Wu families died."

Shen Yao took the list and looked at it. It was indeed as Su Yan had said. "It is indeed strange. It seems we need to find out the cause of death as soon as possible."

Xu Qinghe chimed in, "But the person has already been buried, and the villagers are corrupt and unreasonable, so finding out the cause of death won't be easy."

Su Yan thought for a moment, and a sudden inspiration struck her. She smiled at the two of them and said, "Since we can't do it openly, let's do it secretly and open the coffin tonight to examine the body."

"Huh?" Xu Qinghe hesitated. "Is this a good idea for us?"

When Su Yan made the suggestion, Shen Yao agreed without hesitation.

The two hit it off immediately and made a decision right away, deciding to get started right away.

However, considering Xu Qinghe's advanced age and the fact that bringing along constables would be too conspicuous, the two of them decided that late at night, only Su Yan and Shen Yao, along with a few young and strong constables, would sneak off to the cemetery.

There are fifty-six graves to be searched. Just digging them up will take two days and two nights, so Su Yan chose people who died at different times.

The first coffin to be dug up belonged to someone who died last month. As soon as the coffin lid was opened, a putrid stench hit their nostrils. The person who was holding a torch to light Su Yan's way couldn't help but run to the side and vomit.

Every time she performed an autopsy, she would see people vomiting uncontrollably at the scene. Su Yan shook her head and said helplessly, "Sigh... I still haven't seen much of the world."

No one held a torch to light Su Yan's way, so Su Yan had to stick the torch in the mound of earth. However, this greatly hindered her ability to perform the autopsy. Just as Su Yan was thinking about how to solve the problem...

A hand took the torch from her. Su Yan looked up and saw that Shen Yao had been standing next to her at some point.

"Lord Shen, what are you doing?"

Shen Yao looked at her and said, "Don't worry about my presence. Focus on the autopsy."

Su Yan jumped into the burial pit, slowly lifted the blanket covering the corpse, untied the clothes the corpse was wearing, and carefully examined it by the firelight.

The corpse was largely decomposed, and maggots crawled out of it, swarming beneath the skin. The sheer number of maggots was enough to send chills down one's spine.

This was nothing to Su Yan. She squatted down and examined the body carefully. She found that the skin was black all over, the mouth and nose were bluish-black, and the body was emaciated. Logically speaking, if the time of death was within a month, the body would be emaciated.

However, the body was thin and emaciated, and it was missing its hands. Moreover, the edges of the missing hands were cut cleanly and smoothly, as if it had been chopped off by a sharp weapon.

The skin turning black was a sign of death by poisoning. Su Yan then took out silver needles and inserted them into various parts of the corpse, finding that only the lungs were black, while the other parts were normal.

Su Yan then examined the first deceased body. Upon opening it, she found that the bones had turned black, clearly indicating that the person had also died from poisoning.

Subsequently, Su Yan examined the bodies that had died at other times. All ten bodies had also died from poisoning and shared a common characteristic: they were all missing their hands.

If only one or two people are missing their hands, they may have been disabled before death. But if all the corpses are missing their hands, it can only mean one thing.

It was murder, not a natural disaster.

Su Yan climbed out of the burial pit, took off her mask, and sought Shen Yao's opinion.

"Lord Shen, the cause of death for all of them is poisoning. Should we continue to exhume and examine the other bodies?"

It was already past midnight, and from the depths of the forest, the occasional cries of crows, sounding like the wails of a baby, were particularly eerie in the silent mountains.

After working through the night, everyone was exhausted.

Shen Yao looked up at the sky and noticed the unusual nature of the corpse. He decided not to linger any longer and thought it best to head back home. "No need," he said, "let's go back to the yamen first."

Upon hearing that they could return home, the constables immediately became energetic, and about two hours later, the group descended the mountain in a grand procession.

…………

"What? They all died from poisoning."

Xu Qinghe was shocked when he learned the results of Su Yan's autopsy last night.

Su Yan shook her head. "Lord Xu, I have only examined ten bodies, all of which died from poisoning. The cause of death for the remaining forty-six bodies is still unknown, but I deduce that they all died from the same cause. Moreover, all the bodies were missing their hands, so it is very likely that they were murdered."

This matter was completely beyond Xu Qinghe's imagination. Since the founding of the Great Liang Dynasty, there had never been such a large-scale poisoning case.

Such a big thing happened within his jurisdiction that Xu Qinghe was completely flustered and didn't know what to do. He hurriedly asked Shen Yao for help.

"Lord Shen, this...this...what should I do?"

Shen Yao sat calmly at the main table, slowly sipping his tea. After taking a sip, he said, "Lord Xu, don't panic. The person is already dead. The most important thing is to catch the real culprit, report to the prefecture, and send people to dig up the remaining forty-six corpses to see if, as we suspect, they all died of poisoning."

"Yes, yes... This matter is too serious. I must report it to the prefectural government."

After saying that, Xu Qinghe ran unsteadily out the door, almost tripping and falling at the doorway.

The incident in Lihua Village has caused a huge uproar in Yangliu Town. Today, the government sent people to exhume the coffin and examine the body, and the back mountain is filled with onlookers from all around.

When Su Yan arrived at the scene, there was already a huge crowd, with crying and shouting mixed together, like a thousand ducks quacking in her ear, making her ears almost burst.

Fifty-six corpses lay on the ground; the scene was truly chilling.

Su Yan worked with the coroner from the prefecture to examine the corpses, and it took them two hours to finish.

As expected, all the corpses had died from poisoning and were also missing their hands.

At this moment, Shen Yao stood beside the prefect with a sullen face, listening attentively as the village head and the head of Pear Blossom Village recounted the situation in the village.

The fifty-six victims did show signs of poisoning before their deaths, but there was no cure. They could only watch helplessly as the victims died in agony. As for what kind of poison they had been poisoned with, they were not entirely unaware of it.

"Such a big thing happened in the village, why didn't you report it to the authorities?" Shen Yao shouted sternly at the village head and the head of the village.

The village chief and the neighborhood chief exchanged glances, not daring to answer Shen Yao's persistent question.

At this moment, a disturbance broke out in the crowd, with the young clan leader, Zhao, shouting curses in the crowd.

"You two old bastards, do you dare tell the truth? It's because of your Wu and Sun families that we Zhao family members were harmed! A life for a life, a life for a life..." the young clan leader incited the clansmen.

"A life for a life... a life for a life..."

The clamor from the crowd surged one wave after another, and the situation was clearly spiraling out of control.