Phoenix flowers bloomed red as fire in the humid, sweltering weather of the southern territories. Outside Zhenhai Tower, which stood majestically atop Little Coiling Dragon Hill, the mottled cannon platforms had grown a ring of azure moss. Climbing the tower to gaze into the distance, the clear Pearl River flowed gently past Guangzhou City, merging into the vast sea.
On the mudflats and empty ground near Wuxian Gate in the new city, several tall wooden poles stood upright, each bearing a human head congealed with black blood.
The head in the very center was particularly conspicuous. It had a fierce, malevolent appearance, with a full scraggly beard soaked in coagulated black blood, each hair standing like thorns. A frightfully thick queue hung in the air, swaying slowly in the wind.
This was the first “person” Lin Yuchan saw upon opening her eyes.
She stared at that severed head for a long time.
Not because she had any perverted preferences. It was simply because she was seven or eight parts dead, lying in the dust and sand, unable to move her eyes or neck properly. The moment she opened her eyes, she found herself in deep communion with that severed head.
On the wooden pole bearing the head, fluttered a tattered strip of white cloth with several large black characters declaring the person’s identity.
“Heaven and Earth Society bandit leader Jin Lanhe.”
Lin Yuchan’s consciousness scattered as she thought: “Someone with such a name should be an otherworldly master, shouldn’t they? How did he die so easily…”
Her body alternated between hot and cold, each breath requiring half her life’s strength. Her three souls and seven spirits floated in the air, under Jin Lanhe’s watchful gaze, drifting in and out of consciousness.
The original owner of this body had probably already rushed off to reincarnate. She was no more than fifteen years old, with sparse, disheveled yellow hair, thin as a skeleton, dressed in rags that exposed her bony, pitiful elbows and ankles.
Fragmented memories fluttered chaotically in her mind like leaves in the wind, impossible to grasp when she tried to catch them.
She was still in Guangzhou City, but not the Guangzhou in her memories. She could understand the local accent that people spoke. She recalled some faces with blurred features, perhaps family members…
But there was no more information about this society and era. The original owner’s life had probably been lived in a daze, with no pursuits beyond eating and clothing.
People came and went around her, treating this sick girl who had collapsed and died in the street as nothing unusual.
The men were short in stature, with thin, long queues hanging behind their heads, wearing robes and jackets of indeterminate color and baggy pants. Their trouser legs were bound layer by layer with cloth strips, outlining their protruding ankle bones before disappearing into oversized hemp shoes. But half of them had no socks at all, walking barefoot with thick soles treading on the uneven roads.
The scattered women walked with hunched shoulders, pressed against the walls in small, slow steps, their feet remarkably small, like pointed rice dumplings.
Occasionally, a sedan chair would creak past, its curtains slightly raised, revealing half of a glossy black, elaborate headdress.
The entire world seemed like a dull, silent film, emanating a strange yet familiar atmosphere.
The Qing Dynasty.
Lin Yuchan closed her eyes in despair.
Others who transmigrated to the Qing fell in love with princes; she had air-dropped directly into becoming a corpse on the street.
This was hopeless!
Jin Lanhe stared with his pair of eyes that refused to close in death, gazing at her with compassion.
…
Lin Yuchan discovered she wasn’t dead yet.
Someone pulled her out of the earthen pit. The movements weren’t particularly gentle; her foot knocked against broken stones at the pit’s edge, but she didn’t feel any pain.
“Tsk, just died, still soft… Oh my.”
It sounded like a young man. While moving her, the back of his hand was scratched by broken stones, drawing several bloody marks that made him hiss softly through his teeth.
Lin Yuchan wanted to shout “I’m not dead,” but she lacked even the strength to move her lips.
The young man looked at her deathly pale face and said sympathetically, “This place is filled with freshly beheaded society members, people who have no one to burn incense for them after death. Even if you’re going to collapse and die in the street, you can’t choose this kind of place. You won’t be able to explain yourself to the King of Hell, understand?”
Lin Yuchan: “…”
Indeed, she had been sent back by the King of Hell.
“Anyway, I’m not staying in Guangzhou anymore. I’ll do a good deed before leaving and move you to a better spot. Little sister, do you want to go to the small hill at the western moat of the city wall, or to Yizhong outside Zhenhai Tower?”
The young man flicked his queue behind his head, looked left and right down the road, and made his own decision.
“Let’s go to Yizhong. There’s a pastry shop across from there. The owner is kind-hearted and has people bring offerings of steamed buns every day. Look how thin you are, you probably never had a full meal in your lifetime, right?”
Lin Yuchan couldn’t speak. Beside her was a mass grave with corpses strewn everywhere, all bodies of executed rebels. This young man, a living person walking in, showed no fear whatsoever. He spoke to her in a gentle, calm tone, completely ignoring the rivers of blood around him.
He carried a traveling bag, dressed as if for a long journey. He shifted the bag to one side, hoisted her over his shoulder, and tied a rope around his waist.
I’m not dead, I don’t want to be buried alive, I need to go to a hospital…
Lin Yuchan screamed helplessly in her heart.
High on the wooden pole, the head of “Heaven and Earth Society bandit leader Jin Lanhe” swayed in the wind, his bull eyes still wide open, reluctantly watching her depart.
The young man took a secluded path. Chaotic shops lined both sides of the road, with murky dirty water accumulated along the roadside. A squad of soldiers passed by beating gongs, shouting something: “Harboring remnants of society members carries the same crime as the bandits themselves…”
No one paid them any attention. In the sweltering heat, shirtless laborers stood in the shade of trees, drinking tea from large bowls.
She heard the words of passersby, their voices reaching her ears in fuzzy waves.
“…This time in suppressing the Heaven and Earth Society, we’re lucky Master Qi provided soldiers and silver. Otherwise, with just those worthless soldiers the government has, heh heh… Official and merchant, official and merchant, Master Qi is going to be promoted to another rank this time. His mansion will probably need more construction work. You’d better stay alert, there’ll be work coming soon!”
“Hey there, young man, want to earn some silver? There’s a foreman here offering double wages! Come, come with me…”
“Did you all hear? Zhan Xinghong’s son from Defeng Trading House is hosting a hundred-day celebration today. Let’s go get a red envelope…”
Everyone was busy with trivial matters, and no one noticed someone collecting corpses.
Suddenly, a deep bell tolled overhead. A stone-built church stood out jarringly among a cluster of earthen courtyards. At the church entrance, a line of raggedly dressed children waited while an elderly Western Pastor with a beaming smile brought bowl after bowl of porridge, handing them to the children.
“Thank God for His blessing, forgive my sins!”