Autumn Execution #1 (M1234567m2000)

In Xiuning County, Luo Susu is executed by lingchi, with her limbs amputated before decapitation and her head displayed on the city wall. Xu Ningxin is then sentenced to the same slow-slicing death, but the execution is halted when it is discovered she is pregnant, and she is returned to death row under Ming Code prohibitions. The volume concludes with Xu Ningxin reflecting on her uncertain future, while the bodies of the executed are burned and scattered, and Mrs. Zhang secures a proper burial for Ma Erjie.