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Chapter 228 is full of "acquaintances".

Zhu Yu tried hard to recall if he had ever heard of any particularly serious murder cases or other alarming number of disappearances that had occurred within the territory of Shuo Kingdom since he could remember.

After racking her brains to recall, Zhu Yu was certain that in the history of the Shuo Kingdom, even before her father ascended the throne, there had never been anything so horrifying.

In contrast, she is more inclined to believe that all of this is related to previous missing persons incidents.

At Zhu Feng's signal, the other soldiers also jumped into the pit to help dig out the bones of the dead. Zhu Yu then carefully identified the bones that were taken out of the pit according to different parts of the body and divided them into several piles.

The craftsmen and villagers who were helping to dig the canal stood at a distance, watching Zhu Yu work in astonishment.

Zhu Yu picked up two broken bones from the ground. They had been accidentally broken when the burial site was first discovered. She held the broken bones in her hands and carefully examined the cross-section of the bones.

The cross-section of the bone was somewhat rough, and the edges were blurry, which surprised Zhu Yu.

She considered herself to be more knowledgeable in this area than the average person, but after carefully examining the cross-section of the human bone in her hand, a cold sweat crept up her back, making her hair stand on end.

"Second Master, what's wrong? Is there something wrong with these bones?" Seeing that there were enough people digging for bones below, Fu Wen immediately climbed out of the pit and returned to Zhu Yu's side.

With Lu Qing not around, the mistress naturally wants him to keep a close watch on things, making sure nothing goes wrong, especially in this chaotic situation.

“These bones…” Zhu Yu sighed slowly, “are cooked.”

“Cooked?!” Fu Wen’s heart skipped a beat, and he looked at the bone in Zhu Yu’s hand in surprise. “Cooked…human bone?!”

“Yes,” Zhu Yu’s expression was also very serious, “whether it’s human bones or bones from other animals, they are all the same.”

Raw bones are relatively brittle, while cooked bones are more resilient.

The cross-section of a raw bone is relatively neat with clear boundaries, and it would never look like this.

I was wondering why every single corpse was completely skeletalized, with no difference whatsoever.

Now it's easy to explain, because the bones are cooked... not to mention the meat..."

Zhu Yu found it difficult to continue speaking.

She had handled exceptionally brutal cases before, including some that were completely unrecognizable as human.

But it's not just one or two perfectly healthy people, and no matter what kind of wicked method they use, they can cook bones... This method is truly chilling.

Zhu Feng watched for a long time. He was still somewhat afraid of those dead people's bones. Although he was embarrassed to admit it, his actions told him otherwise. He stood aside and did not dare to get too close.

Therefore, he didn't hear the conversation between Zhu Yu and Fu Wen very clearly. He could only see that although Zhu Yu's expression was not very good and his look was quite solemn, he was calm overall and showed no fear.

Far from being surprised, the guards of the carefree king were respectfully asking her questions with expressions of admiration.

Before her marriage, the only thing that left a deep impression on Zhu Feng was when they all went hunting with their father. While the other girls in the family were picking flowers and making garlands or flying kites, this second sister begged to learn how to ride a horse. At the time, their father thought it was just a joke and casually agreed, pointing to a tall horse next to them and asking Zhu Feng to teach her.

The horse was plump and strong, with a large size and long legs. Zhu Feng didn't believe that his second sister would dare to ride it, let alone learn how to control it.

Unexpectedly, she actually managed to climb up, and then carefully tried the method Zhu Feng taught her. After a few times, she was able to ride slowly on horseback.

When they returned from the hunt, the second sister was already able to control the reins and make the horse trot.

It now seems that this younger sister has many abilities they were unaware of.

He looked away, not wanting Zhu Yu and Fu Wen to notice the probing look in his eyes.

Things are different now. The half-sister from the past is now a first-rank princess consort of Jin Kingdom. From what I've observed along the way, the carefree prince has indeed been very attentive to Zhu Yu. Zhu Feng doesn't want his actions to be seen as impolite.

He turned to the group of people watching the commotion from a distance and asked, "You all live in this area, right? Within this radius of about a hundred miles, has anyone gone missing or been kidnapped by bandits before?"

Zhu Feng never revealed his identity, but the guards of the Prince of Shuo's mansion all obeyed his orders, and others assumed that he was some kind of steward working under the Prince of Shuo, so they treated him with considerable respect.

“Reporting to this official,” an old man said to Zhu Feng, seeing that the younger people around him were too frightened to speak, “aside from the blacksmiths in this area who all went off to make their fortunes somewhere else and never came back, I haven’t heard of anyone else who has gone missing or gone missing.”

The others chimed in with their own opinions.

Just then, an older woman who had just delivered food peeked out from the crowd and shouted, "Who says there isn't one! My nephew is missing!"

"Oh? What does your nephew do? How old is he? How long has he been missing?" Zhu Feng asked hurriedly.

Just as the woman was about to speak, several people around her burst into laughter.

"Sir, don't pay any attention to her!" A man in his thirties waved his hand. "Aunt Li's nephew went to another place last year to learn the craft from a blacksmith. He plans to open a blacksmith shop when he comes back. There's a shortage of blacksmiths in the surrounding area, and the business is so good that we can't keep up with the demand."

He's only been gone for a year, and he didn't finish his apprenticeship, so he hasn't come back. Isn't that a perfectly normal thing?

She, on the other hand, was terrified that someone would open a blacksmith shop and make all the money before her nephew finished his studies and returned. So she anxiously waited for him to come back every day!

As soon as the man said that, the people around him started to chuckle again. It seemed that Aunt Li was indeed a somewhat greedy person, which made the others agree with what the man said.

The woman known as "Aunt Li" became a little anxious upon hearing this and quickly used the wicker basket in her hand to hit the people around her: "You peasants, stop talking nonsense!"

My nephew lost his parents when he was young and grew up by my side. He's just like my own son.

If nothing had happened, even if he failed as an apprentice, he would have sent a letter to let me know; he wouldn't have disappeared without a trace like this.

Now things are really messed up. Forget waiting for him to write back, even if I ask someone to send a message, I haven't received a reply. How can I not be anxious!