The Corpse Reader

PROLOGUE

1206, Tsong dynasty. Eastern China.

Fujian Circuit.

Jianyang Subprefecture farmlands.

Shang didn’t know death was coming for him until he tasted the blood spurting up into his throat. He covered the wound with his hands to try to stem the bleeding. He tried to speak, too, but before he could make a sound, his eyes opened wide and his legs crumpled beneath him like a worn-out marionette’s. If he could have uttered the words, he would have spoken his killer’s name, but the blood in his throat, along with the cloth the killer had stuffed into his mouth, prevented him.

On his knees in the mud, before breathing his last breath, Shang felt the warm rain on his skin and smelled the wet earth beneath him. Both had been with him his whole life. Then, soaked in blood, Shang’s body collapsed into the mire, and his soul drifted away.