Chapter 352: Chapter 351: Dead for a Long Time

As soon as Zhu Yu saw the appearance of those people, he knew they had been dead for a while. In an instant, his professional instincts kicked in, and he lifted his leg to step forward and examine, but before he could take a step, Lu Qing pulled him back: “Fu Lu.”

He only called Fu Lu’s name, and Fu Lu immediately understood and stepped forward to examine the scene, then turned back to nod at them: “No problem.”

Zhu Yu stepped forward and asked Fu Lu to bring the torch closer.

The man in front of her, bound to the wall by iron chains, had a thin and lanky frame. His hands were tied above his head, and his sleeves had slipped down, gathering at his elbows. His exposed arms appeared chillingly pale in the warm light of the torch.

Zhu Yu gently lifted the man’s head to see his face clearly,

which was extremely gaunt, with a mole on his sunken cheek, and a lifeless, scraggly goatee on his chin.

Seeing the man’s facial features made Zhu Yu’s heart sink slightly. She sighed lightly and turned to glance at Lu Qing.

Lu Qing had also taken in the appearance of the deceased by now. While it didn’t surprise him, he couldn’t help but frown.

“How did he die? How long has he been dead?” he asked Zhu Yu quietly.

Zhu Yu carefully pried open the dead man’s eyelids. His pupils were already dilated, his eyeballs muddy and somewhat shriveled, and there was no trace of fresh or stale blood under his lower eyelids, just a deathly white.

She then pinched the skin of his cheeks, neck, and arms — all of it was extraordinarily loose. With just a light pinch, she could lift a layer of shriveled skin, like a scale raised upwards.

“He died from excessive blood loss, and the blood didn’t drain all at once. It seems it took several days, exhausting him to death,” Zhu Yu said, squatting down to lift the dead man’s trousers and see the blood bruises on his calves. Pressing them with her fingers, they didn’t fade or spread, “He’s been dead for at least five days. In such a cool and dry dungeon, most of the blood and water in his body had been drained, so there’s no decomposition.”

She stood up, pulling down the dead man’s sleeves to expose his arms fully to the three of them.

The insides of his two arms were riddled with countless wounds, making it impossible to see any intact skin.

The cuts didn’t appear deep or long; some were nearly healed, while others still had slightly curled edges, suggesting they were inflicted shortly before his death.

Upon closer inspection, one could see that the older knife wounds were relatively shallow compared to the deeper cuts made later.

As it progressed, the poor tax collector likely had little blood left to extract, requiring deeper cuts to draw out any more.

In this place, Zhu Yu couldn’t easily perform an autopsy. They still didn’t know what else might be in the dungeon, so she could only reach out to feel the person’s abdomen.

Even through his clothes, she could feel his protruding ribs and sunken, hollow abdomen clearly.

Zhu Yu couldn’t help but sigh again. Upon inspecting the other corpses, she found them in similar conditions to the first tax collector, with only the time of death varying. Without exception, they had been starved and confined here, repeatedly cut to drain blood, suffering extremely painful and tragic deaths.

“Who could be so cruel as to torture them like this, not allowing them even a quick death?” Zhu Yu whispered, “What could the blood possibly be used for that prevents it from being drained all at once, requiring it to be extracted slowly and continually?”

Fu Lu bent down and shone the torch around on the ground, nodding to Lu Qing and Zhu Yu: “There’s no trace of blood on the ground here either. Judging by the situation, the blood from these people was collected and used elsewhere.”

“Let’s go. Let’s see what’s inside,” Lu Qing said with a heavy expression. He nodded slightly, gesturing for Fu Lu to lead the way with the torch. He himself walked in the rear, keeping Zhu Yu between the two of them in case of any sudden developments.

The three of them carefully felt their way along the low corridor. This underground passage twisted and turned. If there weren’t only one path with no forks, Zhu Yu would have worried about losing direction and not finding the way back.

After walking for some time and turning a few corners, they found a more open area ahead. As they moved toward it, the faint, fishy smell in the air grew stronger.

It wasn’t an ordinary fishy smell; it was the unique scent of blood.

Earlier, those nearly blood-drained corpses didn’t smell particularly strong to Zhu Yu during her examination, but now she sensed the source of the faintly lingering blood scent along their path.

When the three reached the end of the passage, this open ground was considerably more spacious than the earlier dungeon.

Fu Lu shone the torch around, discovering a wooden frame in the center of the clearing. On it rested a large wooden box.

The size of the box itself wasn’t particularly striking; after all, Zhu Yu grew up in the Prince Shuo Mansion, where her father Zhu Cheng had even larger weapons storage boxes everywhere.

However, this large wooden box was black, pitch-black all over, with gaps even carefully sealed with black suede and brass nails, completely covering the seams.

This is…

Zhu Yu stared in puzzlement at the object before her, guessing what might be inside the box.

It was evident that Fu Lu, having followed Lu Qing through many experiences, had grown considerably more experienced. He moved to the back of the large wooden box: “My Lord, Second Lord, please step aside, I’m going to open the box.”

Lu Qing led Zhu Yu to a safer spot, nodded at Fu Lu, who then mustered his strength and lifted the lid of the wooden box from the rear.

The box’s lid was heavy. As it slowly opened a crack, the pungent scent of blood surged forth, instantly filling the entire clearing.

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