The sickly son died young? After the marriage exchange, I will bring prosperity to his entire clan f

Du Mingxian instantly understood, "Mother wants to ask if anyone collected the bodies of the Lin family members after they died?"

Families beheaded like this will likely end up in a mass grave, but not all will; it depends on luck.

Some executioners, after carrying out an execution, would collect the body with their families to accumulate good karma for their descendants, and then bury it directly. It was impossible for them to buy a coffin or anything like that.

But burying it in soil is still an option.

But some were unlucky; after being beheaded, their bodies were taken directly to a mass grave. Who would care about an unclaimed corpse, especially since the Lin family had many members?

Mass graves, mass graves, they can't all be littered with corpses, there has to be someone to collect the bodies, otherwise everything would be in chaos.

Sometimes, if there are still relatives in the family, the younger generation will collect the body. But in cases like the Lin family's... there's a high chance that no one will end up cleaning up the body.

As she was thinking, she suddenly remembered the old man from the Wen family who had passed away.

"Yes, Mother doesn't know anything. She just wants to burn some paper money, but she doesn't know if it's possible. If it's too difficult, then forget it."

"It's alright, we can just ask around. It's easy to investigate. The Lin family committed a crime back then, so there's plenty of information to look into."

"it is good."

Du Mingxian didn't go herself; she sent Chunfeng instead. By bribing the officials with some silver, they could find out who carried out the execution back then, and then easily find out if anyone collected the body and where it went.

The reply Chunfeng gave to Du Mingxian also surprised her.

The body was indeed collected by Old Master Wen, and... it wasn't far from the capital, only a day's journey away. All the members of the Lin family, including the three female members who had already returned to their clan, were also transported here and buried together.

Having found out the location, and with the New Year fast approaching, it was best to go early since they were going to burn paper money. So Du Mingxian prepared the things, and Da Zhou Shi only needed to get herself ready to set off.

Because the place they were going to wasn't very nice, they only brought two people with them this time: Chunfeng and Xiayu. Du Mingxian and Da Zhoushi were in the carriage.

Fortunately, the snow that fell a couple of days ago has melted on the road, making the official road easier to walk on. There is still some snow on the roadside, and there is quite a lot of snow on the shady side where the sun doesn't reach.

Since it was her first time visiting the cemetery, Du Mingxian bought a lot of paper money and paper gold ingots to offer solace to the living.

They arrived at the town that evening in a day, and since it was too late, they stayed overnight at an inn in the town.

It's close to the capital, but with the Lunar New Year approaching, many people aren't traveling, so the inn is almost empty. The owners, a middle-aged couple, were overjoyed to see guests checking in.

In order to gather information, Du Mingxian ate her meal in the lobby. Fortunately, she was dressed warmly enough that it wasn't too cold.

"This shop looks like it's been around for a while?" she asked first.

The boss smiled and said with some pride, "It was passed down from my grandfather. Now I am the third generation. After two more years, my wife and I will be able to work and our son will take over. Then we will go home."

“That proves you’re honest people. If it were a shady business or something dishonest, it probably wouldn’t have been able to stay in business long ago,” Chunfeng chimed in.

"Yes, we believe in being honest in business." The boss said, glancing at the four women.

Their clothes were ordinary, but he dared not underestimate them. Any woman who could walk out like this was formidable, and two of them looked like they were trained martial arts practitioners.

"The New Year is just around the corner. Are you visiting relatives in our town, or are you just passing through?"

"I'm here to visit relatives."

The boss was quite surprised. Their town was really small. His family had lived there for generations, so he was very familiar with the town's affairs and people. He knew who had what kind of relatives, but he had never heard of anyone having such a relative before.

"I've never seen you before."

"Yes, we didn't know our deceased relatives rested here before. It's almost Chinese New Year, so we came to offer incense."

The boss was surprised to hear this, then frowned. "You guys are really thoughtful. On our side..." Realizing he had said something inappropriate, he shut up and didn't say anything more.

The owner didn't speak, but the owner's wife said, "We've always been here. We know everything about the town. You must have come to the wrong place."

"No, I inquired before, and they said it was right here." Du Mingxian didn't deliberately hide anything; she had come to inquire about information. "It happened decades ago, involving the Lin family. I don't know if you know anything about it."

Upon hearing this, the boss and his wife's expressions changed instantly, and they looked at Du Mingxian and the others with strange expressions.

"What's wrong?" Du Mingxian feigned ignorance. "Is there a problem?"

The boss shook his head, but his wife, being a woman, asked another question, "What is your relationship to the Lin family?"

"Daughter and granddaughter."

"The Lin family wasn't all executed back then..." How could there be any survivors?

Du Mingxian thought for a moment and deliberately came up with an excuse, "My mother was switched at birth. At first, I didn't know about the Lin family. Later, I found out, so I thought I'd come and offer incense."

"Oh dear, they were lucky that one of them survived." The proprietress felt upset when she mentioned it, and the boss tried to tell her not to talk about it, but she wanted to say, "The Lin family is quite famous around here."

Du Mingxian didn't know much about the Lin family, so she was quite happy to hear it when someone brought it up. "You all know?"

The proprietress nodded emphatically, "We all know, everyone in this area knows, it's just... it's just that the Lin family is unlucky."

"How to say?"

“This used to be a small village. Later, due to a disaster, people couldn’t survive and had to sell their land. It was the Lin family who stepped in and bought the land, which turned the village into a manor.”

"Gradually, more and more people came here. Our ancestors also stayed here around that time."

"The Lin family isn't domineering. If any family has money, they can buy the land back if they want, so everyone is very grateful to the Lin family."