Chapter 1026

"I can swear on my manhood!"

Gao Yang replied directly.

"Hiss!"

At this, Shangguan Wan'er stopped asking.

This oath was more convincing than ironclad evidence.

Lu Luo spoke up, unable to bear it, "If Liu Dashan didn't build the orphanage to do good, then why does he adopt so many children? What exactly is he trying to do?"

This single sentence made even Wu Guang, a bandit leader, fall silent.

Although he was a bandit, at this moment, a chill still surged through his heart.

Gao Yang shook his head and did not answer Lu Luo's question.

He turned his gaze toward Zhao Da and Wu Guang, his voice cold.

"Zhao Da, Wu Guang."

"Disguise yourselves, leave the prefecture, and head to the surrounding counties to investigate one thing for me."

Gao Yang's eyes were deep, his voice revealing neither joy nor anger.

"At your command!"

The two men responded in unison, their faces serious.

"Pass down the order: investigate the major noble clans within Suiyang Jun and look for signs of them performing ghost marriages."

"Then, secretly dig up the graves and examine the cause of death to see if they died of suffocation. Do not do this under my name."

"Additionally, I will conduct a random sampling; you must immediately send people to verify whether these children were actually adopted!"

Zhao Da and Wu Guang agreed repeatedly.

Their expressions shifted slightly; Gao Yang was going straight to digging up graves—this was too ruthless!

Shangguan Wan'er felt a shiver run through her heart.

She said to Gao Yang, "Gao Yang, do you suspect that Liu Dashan founded the orphanage to provide bodies for ghost marriages?"

Then, Shangguan Wan'er gritted her teeth and said, "But ghost marriages with the living are strictly forbidden by the Court; to touch them is to invite death. Is Liu Dashan truly that bold?"

Gao Yang had to dig up graves and check the cause of death.

That meant there was only one possibility!

In the seven kingdoms of the world, in this era where epidemics ran rampant, children had weak resistance; sometimes a common cold could claim the life of a frail child.

Not to mention plagues or smallpox!

For the poor, if a child didn't survive, those with a bit of money would buy a coffin and bury them, while those without would just roll them in a straw mat and bury them in a pit.

But for the great noble clans, there was one more option—ghost marriage!

A so-called ghost marriage occurred when a noble family felt their child would be lonely in the underworld, so they sought a companion. Furthermore, according to traditional beliefs, those who died unmarried could not rest in peace and would bring great misfortune to the family, so some noble clans would perform ghost marriages to let the child's soul rest!

However, this was not illegal in the seven kingdoms today, because since it was a ghost marriage to be husband and wife in the underworld, it required the dead.

Generally, when a child in a noble clan died prematurely, if they wanted to perform a ghost marriage, they had to find a child of the opposite sex of a similar age who had also unfortunately died.

But this created a problem: children died without warning. How could it be so convenient that one died here, and another happened to die there?

Therefore, ghost marriages were very troublesome; one had to find a body immediately, pay a high price to buy it, dig it up from the grave, and then hold the ceremony.

Especially in summer, when the weather was hot, a body buried for a few days would stink, and some would even have terrifying faces or be infested with maggots.

But if they had just died, and were strangled, the state of the body would be much more presentable...

Hearing Shangguan Wan'er's words, Gao Yang retorted, "If everyone in the world followed the law, what would we need laws for?"

"The law also says that those who commit corruption should be skinned and stuffed with straw, but just in the single Jun of Suiyang, how much corruption is there?"

Shangguan Wan'er fell silent.

She didn't know if Gao Yang's heart had fluctuated during this trip, but she had certainly seen too much ugliness that she never would have seen in Changancheng...

"In *Das Kapital*, I remember one sentence."

Gao Yang's voice was low as he spoke to himself.

"When there is a ten percent profit, people will be stirred to action."

"When the profit reaches fifty percent, people will take risks, walking on the edge of the law!"

"When the profit doubles, some will dare to trample on all the laws of the world!"

"When the profit reaches three hundred percent, they will not even fear being executed along with their entire clan!"

Gao Yang's voice grew louder; his eyes seemed to have seen too much ugliness, too many unimaginable and disgusting things.

"Wan'er, never underestimate the human heart. The human heart is the most complex and ugliest thing in this world."

"Wan'er, do you still remember a sentence I said earlier? Humans are..."

Shangguan Wan'er hesitated, then subconsciously finished the sentence, "Humans are just idiots!"

Gao Yang nodded and sighed.

"Indeed!"

"This matter might be hard for you to believe, or even make you feel angry, but in my eyes, it is not shocking at all."

"Whether it is the 'jar graves,' the ugliness of the human heart, or forcing the people to donate money—taking 150,000 taels to reinforce the river dikes only to embezzle 130,000 taels, causing the dikes to collapse in a rainstorm and killing or injuring thousands—or this orphanage with its massive problems, none of it shocks me."

Gao Yang said this with a sneer, even a touch of self-mockery. "Because in my eyes, people are just like this. Too many will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, and for the sake of profit, they have no bottom line. Among all living things in the world, what is worse than a human?"

"Everyone says tigers, leopards, and jackals are evil, and they use 'worse than pigs and dogs' as an insult, but if pigs and dogs could speak, the dirtiest insult they could give would probably be: 'You are as evil as a human!'"

Shangguan Wan'er's lips trembled; she wanted to refute him, but she couldn't find a single word to say.

On this trip to Suiyang Jun, the weight of Gao Yang's words had only continued to rise!

*The road is littered with the bones of those who froze to death, while the vermilion gates reek of wine and meat! *

This was the most realistic portrayal of the entire Da Qian, and even the seven kingdoms of the world!

Gao Yang swept his gaze over their faces and said with deep eyes, "You are angry and even incredulous because of the ghost marriages in the orphanage, but I am worried that this ghost marriage is only the smallest part of it." ===== CHAPTER 1028 =====