Zhang Hailou and Zhang Haixia smuggled themselves into Xucheng by playing dead to avoid paying the steep head tax. Upon entering, they found the city in ruins, littered with lifeless bodies despite no reports of plagues or bandit attacks. Upon closer inspection of the corpses, Zhang Haixia noted a bluish-purple coloration on one victim's face and an angle of compression on the neck, indicating death by suffocation. Another body nearby had slit wrists.