Thinking of this, Ding Yun immediately used her mental power to suppress the life force of this body, held her breath, and stopped her pulse, causing herself to fall into a temporary state of suspended animation.
She could maintain this state for six shichen.
If she was careful and cautious, and managed her breathing.
She could even extend it for a few more shichen.
She figured as long as that old Zhang wasn't some divine doctor, he definitely wouldn't be able to detect any problems and would declare her dead.
After that, it was just a matter of waiting.
Waiting for that old Zhang to take everyone's pulse one by one to determine if the prisoners could be saved, and if saving them was worth the effort.
They weren't relatives of these prisoners. If they weren't extorting them, it was because their families had already been confiscated, they had nothing valuable on them, and no one wanted to rescue them or care for them, so there was nowhere to extort from.
Therefore, even if they could be saved, if it required a significant amount of money, they would naturally give up.
After all, they couldn't claim reimbursement for this money.
Only if it cost a small amount of money to keep them alive would they be willing to spend the money to reduce the number of deceased prisoners.
Old Zhang was too familiar with them, so there was no need for any instructions. He simply took their pulses and began to say, "This one can be saved, this one can't be saved, this one can't be saved either, this one is even more beyond saving, this one has already stopped breathing, this one can also be saved, this one doesn't need to be saved."
Just apply some medicine to the wound.
And the jailers by his side began to reclassify the people based on his pronouncements.
They had already classified them before: the dead on one side, the uninjured on one side, and the injured on one side. Now, they were reclassifying the injured group, moving all those that Old Zhang said couldn't be saved.
All to the side of the dead.
As for the one who suddenly appeared among the dead.
It was naturally Ding Yun.
She had successfully blended in and was unceremoniously carried by the jailers and tossed into the group of dead people.
Then, after nearly another hour had passed.
The coroner from the Heavenly Prison conducted another post-mortem examination on those who had already died, confirming their deaths without a doubt.
Only then were the bodies allowed to be sent out of the Heavenly Prison.
They were temporarily placed in the morgue.
Generally speaking, as long as the deceased prisoner was not specifically ordered by higher-ups not to be claimed, their families or friends could collect the body for burial. Those who died in prison could naturally have their families notified.
To be claimed by family or friends.
After paying a fee and proving their identity, they could take the body away.
However, for those whose entire families had been confiscated, close relatives were usually implicated and also confiscated. Distant relatives would do anything to avoid them, and inwardly they might be blaming them, so why would they come to help claim the body?
Even if friends wanted to help claim the body, their own families, to avoid bad luck, would generally not allow it.
After some time, when the situation had calmed down.
They would send someone to a mass grave or similar place to retrieve the body and rebury it, which would be considered a good friend.
Therefore, placing them in the morgue was just a formality.
If no one claimed them for a day.
They could deal with the bodies as they pleased, throw them into a mass grave, bury them, it didn't matter.
At this time, Ding Yun still dared not make any moves, as the loss of a body from the morgue would certainly cause a stir. So, at most, she would take the opportunity when no one was around to recover her breathing a little.
To avoid actually suffocating to death or something.
Or the state of suspended animation lasting too long and damaging her body.
In the middle of the night, she even woke up when the morgue guards went to relieve themselves to check the bodies in the morgue and found that her mother was not among them.
She then lay down again with a complicated feeling.
Continuing to feign death.
Her mother had strangled the original owner, and then she herself hadn't died. She didn't know if it was regret, or if she couldn't bring herself to be so ruthless, and was only injured. Although the original owner's mother hadn't died, which seemed good.
But who would not have complex feelings in such a situation?
It was like two people agreeing to commit suicide together, but one had already left, and the other hadn't died. How could the one who died not have complicated feelings? Not to mention that the original owner didn't want to die, but was strangled by her mother with a look of sorrow.
This situation was clearly more complicated.
But Ding Yun was not the original owner, and after agonizing for a while, she let go. Since the original owner did not resent her mother, nor did she think of revenge, then so be it.
At worst, she could consider it repaying the debt of birth.
And when she rescued her mother later, she could consider it repaying the debt of nurturing.
Thinking of it this way, she had even emulated Nezha!
Time quickly passed to the afternoon of the next day. Just as Ding Yun was becoming anxious about whether they would bury the people, several jailers finally came to drag people away. Oh, no, it should be considered dragging bodies.
However, what surprised Ding Yun was that the jailers debated and selected among themselves while dragging the bodies. They even discussed how much money they could earn this time, which made Ding Yun a little flustered.
This did not sound like they were taking the bodies to be buried.
It rather felt like they were taking the bodies to be sold.
To avoid any glitches or failures in her escape plan, Ding Yun continued to hold her breath, but she had fully restored the function of her ears and began to listen intently to the words of the jailers and various sounds.
Then she finally understood what they were going to do.
How to describe it?
Some unclaimed female corpses in the prison could, to a certain extent, be considered a source of extra income for them, especially if they were beautiful young women, or daughters of officials, who could fetch a very good price.
Tens or even a hundred taels easily.
As for who they sold them to, and how this money was earned.
It was, of course, for ghost marriages.
The practice of ghost marriages had existed for a long time, the only difference being that some followed the rules, some did not, and some even hoped to improve their family's feng shui and ensure prosperity for their descendants by arranging ghost marriages.
Generally speaking, there were three types of situations.
One was when both the man and woman had died young and had not been married. Their parents mutually discussed and arranged a ghost marriage. Although this did not consider the wishes of the deceased children, it was now customary to follow the parents' wishes and matchmakers' words, so the authorities did not prohibit this.
The second type was when there was no suitable partner, or they were unwilling to spend money. Some people would secretly dig up bodies themselves to arrange ghost marriages for their own families, or they would dig them up to sell, or buy pre-dug bodies.
This was clearly illegal.
Those caught were generally sentenced to death.
Because the laws of the current dynasty stipulated that anyone who privately excavated graves would be sentenced to death, the nature of this was the same as grave robbing, both resulting in the death penalty.
The third type of situation mainly arose from believing what feng shui masters, fortune tellers, and the like said, believing that by burying someone with a compatible birth chart or a special destiny for their son or daughter, they could also improve their feng shui.
But where could they find so many perfectly compatible individuals of similar age who had also coincidentally died? Therefore, some people would even take lives to arrange these ghost marriages.
Those who were caught were generally also sentenced to death.
What those jailers were doing could barely be considered the second type, but since they had not yet buried the bodies, their crime was not punishable by death. If caught and investigated, they would only be exiled to the border.
However, such matters were generally not investigated.
Most people in the know at the lower levels tacitly allowed it.
Some even thought they were doing a good deed, because at this time, it was generally believed that if a woman could not be buried in her own family's grave or her husband's family's grave, she would become a lonely spirit. Helping them find a husband could be seen as doing a good deed.
And it was natural to receive money for doing good deeds.
It was the same as a matchmaker receiving a matchmaking fee.