After some investigation, the actual circumstances had little in common with the accounts given by the two men.
The Relevant Department's staff believed they were deliberately causing trouble. They flew into a rage and prepared to work overtime to show them the power of an iron fist.
They interrogated them for two whole days.
The two men confessed everything about the thefts and burglaries they had committed along the way. The case that had happened in Yuecheng in particular greatly excited the Relevant Department—this was merit delivered right to their door!
However, regarding the situation with the two thatched huts, the two men continued to stick to the same story, claiming that they had seen ghosts.
Still, many rules had yet to be fully established in that era.
After some discussion, the Relevant Department decided not to dwell on the matter of the thatched huts any longer and simply treated it as the two men having suffered a psychotic episode and lied. The cases they had confessed to were already enough to get them executed.
And so.
The two men were swiftly sent to trial, sentenced to death, and executed a few days later.
The matter should have ended there.
No mistakes or accidents occurred in between.
Everything went smoothly.
Until... the few photographs taken before the execution were developed.
According to procedure.
Photographs had to be taken before and after a prisoner was executed.
However.
Everything had clearly been normal when these photographs were taken, but once they were developed, everyone discovered that the two executed prisoners were completely absent from them.
In the black-and-white photographs, an elderly couple stood in the very center. Behind them stood a row of men with their backs to the camera. Their faces could not be seen, but it was still possible to