The youngest son of Old Wang’s family at the east end of the village was dead.

This youngest son of the Wang family was an idle good-for-nothing, but he was blessed with good looks and was quite popular among the young unmarried women and little wives.

Such a person had died in the middle of the night, found dead just ten zhang away from his front door.

Village people rose early, and the first to discover the Wang family youngest son’s corpse was Old Li from next door.

Old Li had gotten up early in the morning to go to work in the fields. He hadn’t expected that just as he stepped out of his house, he would see someone lying motionless in the distance. When he walked over to look, it was the Wang family’s youngest son—his face was dark blue, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, already long dead, with two finger marks on his neck.

“Heavens! It must be that opening the coffin for examination a few days ago disturbed the wronged souls of the Qiao family. Now those wronged souls have turned into evil spirits and come out to harm people!”

“Could that be? Doesn’t the Wang family’s youngest son have two finger marks on his neck?”

“Those two finger marks were left by the evil spirit! How could a person have such great strength? Besides, our Baiyun Village hasn’t had this kind of incident for all these years. How is it that just after the Qiao family from Xingzi Grove had their coffin opened for examination, someone immediately died? If it’s not evil spirits harming people, what else could it be?”

“Exactly! At the time, I advised the village head to stop those government officials from opening the coffin for examination. Once a person is properly buried in the earth, how can they be dug up again? I’ve lived for decades and never seen such a thing. Sure enough, something has happened!”

Qiao Zhao followed Shao Mingyuan and the others to the front gate of the Wang family home, hearing the discussion of the crowd of onlookers, her face dark as water.

When her grandfather was alive, he had taken great care of the Baiyun Village people. Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, the Qiao family would become evil spirits in the villagers’ eyes.

As soon as the village head saw everyone arrive, he hurried forward, wearing a bitter expression: “Marquis, please come quickly and look. The Wang family’s youngest son looks like he was killed by evil spirits.”

“Has it been reported?” Shao Mingyuan asked in a deep voice.

The village head nodded repeatedly: “Reported. The county magistrate left several constables in the village, so we reported it to them directly.”

These past two days, because of the Qiao family matter, County Magistrate Wang came to Baiyun Village every day and even left behind several bailiffs to show his attention to the Qiao family fire case. Who would have thought that the murderer who harmed the Qiao family hadn’t been found with any clues, yet such an incident had occurred in the village.

Thinking of these things, the village head could only sigh repeatedly.

He should have insisted on stopping those people from opening the coffin at that time.

Sure enough, the deceased had been disturbed, and Baiyun Village was the first to suffer harm.

Shao Mingyuan glanced coolly at the village head: “Village head, before the matter is investigated clearly, it would be better to stop these discussions among the villagers.”

Dropping this remark, he walked into the Wang family courtyard. The Wang family youngest son’s corpse was lying under a tree in the yard, with sounds of weeping throughout the courtyard.

Several bailiffs hurried forward when they saw Shao Mingyuan and others enter: “Marquis—”

Shao Mingyuan nodded slightly and said to Coroner Qian, “Coroner Qian, I trouble you.”

“What are you trying to do?” Seeing Coroner Qian walking toward the tree, a disheveled woman rushed over to collide with him.

Chen Guang was quick-eyed and fast-handed, pulling Coroner Qian aside.

“Wang family woman, what are you doing?” the village head asked.

The disheveled woman continued trying to charge at Coroner Qian. The village head stamped his foot: “Quickly restrain her!”

The woman was held back by people nearby, crying and cursing: “Don’t let you touch my son! I don’t want my son to die without a complete corpse like the Qiao family people!”

Qiao Zhao’s face turned pale, and she said coldly: “Auntie doesn’t want your son to die without a complete corpse, but do you want him to die with eyes that won’t close in peace?”

“What did you say?” The woman suddenly looked at Qiao Zhao, appearing like a fierce ghost. “What do you mean die with eyes that won’t close? If it weren’t for you people opening the coffin for examination and releasing the Qiao family’s wronged souls, how could my son have been harmed by evil spirits? Wah wah wah, village head, these people will bring great disaster to our village! My son has already been killed by evil spirits—who knows who will be next!”

At these words, the watching villagers looked terrified, their gazes toward Qiao Zhao and the others changing repeatedly.

“San Dan, brother is dead?” A girl of fifteen or sixteen suddenly rushed into the crowd.

The girl was fair-skinned and beautiful, possessing a crane-among-chickens kind of beauty compared to ordinary village girls.

Hearing the girl’s voice, Qiao Zhao’s eyes tightened, and she couldn’t help but turn to look at Shao Mingyuan.

She had heard this voice before—it was precisely the voice she had heard in the artificial cave last night.

Shao Mingyuan nodded imperceptibly at Qiao Zhao, clearly recognizing it as well.

Their eyes met, and thinking of last night’s scene, both felt somewhat embarrassed.

“San Ni, why did you come?” the village head asked in surprise.

“Grandfather, is San Dan brother dead?” The girl went around the village head and suddenly saw the bed board covered with white cloth under the courtyard tree. Her face immediately turned as pale as paper, and she rushed over like a gust of wind.

The village head stamped his foot anxiously: “San Ni, what are you going over there for? Come back quickly!”

Shao Mingyuan and his group naturally watched the girl’s behavior with cold eyes. The other villagers didn’t react in time, allowing the girl to rush to the tree and reach out to pull away the white cloth.

Under the white cloth was revealed the face of a young man.

Though called a young man, he was only a sixteen or seventeen-year-old youth. The youth’s originally clear and handsome face was twisted in pain, with two purple-red finger marks on his neck that were particularly horrifying.

The girl screamed and retreated repeatedly. Inadvertently bumping into someone, she turned and grabbed that person, asking: “How did San Dan brother die? Tell me quickly, how did San Dan brother die?”

The person she grabbed was the deceased youth’s second sister-in-law, who grimaced in pain from being grabbed: “How did he die? They say he encountered a ghost while walking at night and was strangled to death by an evil spirit!”

All color drained from the girl’s face as she screamed: “Strangled to death by an evil spirit?”

The village head was getting a headache and shouted coldly: “San Ni, go home immediately!”

The villagers weren’t fools. If San Ni came running over like this, she would certainly be gossiped to death by those wagging tongues later.

The dead San Dan was worthless—he had never thought much of him. Now that the person was dead, he couldn’t let his granddaughter be implicated.

San Ni turned a deaf ear to the village head’s words, slowly turning back to look at the youth once more, her gaze falling directly on the horrifying finger marks on his neck.

“San Ni, grandfather told you to go home. Did you hear?” The village head reached out to pull San Ni.

San Ni jumped up as if burned by a branding iron, screaming: “Don’t touch me! There’s a ghost, there’s a ghost!”

“San Ni, what are you talking nonsense about?”

San Ni’s eyes were vacant as she retreated step by step: “There’s a ghost, there’s a ghost. Last night I was with San Dan brother, we both saw it!”

These words were like throwing a lit firecracker into the crowd. People’s blazing gossip fire immediately overwhelmed even the panic over the death.

The village head’s mind buzzed, and he roared: “Dead girl, what are you saying randomly!”

He raised his hand to hit San Ni. San Ni jumped up in alarm and ran to the dead youth, grabbing his hand and pulling hard outward: “San Dan brother, run quickly, there’s a ghost chasing us… Wah wah wah, it’s all your fault. I said not to go to that ghostly place of the Qiao family estate, but you insisted on going. It’s all your fault, all your fault…”

The village head’s third granddaughter had gone mad.