Heavenly Punishment Corpse

An Yunli froze on the spot, too afraid to run.

She had seen Lin Shou easily vault over the wall into the teahouse's back courtyard—she knew he really could come find her in the middle of the night.

This person was truly terrifying...

"Turn around. Face me."

An Yunli shuffled her feet, reluctantly turning to face him.

She wanted to find someone to beg for help, but there was no one to turn to.

Shopkeeper Xia wasn't in today—he'd gone to the pharmacy to fetch medicine, leaving only an old accountant to mind the shop. The elderly bookkeeper was advanced in years, dim-sighted and hard of hearing, and was dozing off right then.

"Come here."

Lin Shou's tone was overbearing. Seeing An Yunli inch forward, he clicked his tongue in impatience and barked:

"Hurry up!"

"Don't yell at me... don't yell at me..."

Like a startled rabbit, An Yunli trembled in fear, muttering the same words under her breath as she scurried over in quick, short steps.

Lin Shou grabbed An Yunli's wrist and felt her pulse.

No use—he still couldn't get a read on it.

Lin Shou flipped his hand and pulled a tool from Three Immortals Return to the Cave. It looked like three cords joined together; he stuck both ends into his own ears and handed the other end to An Yunli.

"Put this under your clothes, on your left chest."

"What... what is this?"

"A stethoscope."

"Steth...oscope?"

"For examining patients."

"Oh..."

An Yunli obediently placed the stethoscope over her left chest.

This stethoscope was something Lin Shou had specially made for An Yunli. Since he couldn't feel her pulse at the wrist, he had to listen to her heart instead. And it wasn't proper to press his ear directly against her like last time—too invasive—so he'd crafted this stethoscope.

Lin Shou listened to the beat of An Yunli's heart. It was much better than last time; back then, it had sounded as weak as someone on the verge of death. After taking the medicine, she was clearly improved.

"The new medicine... did you prescribe it for me..."

An Yunli suddenly asked, timidly.

Huh? Lin Shou thought to himself, this silly girl could tell the medicine had changed? Did Xia Ruzhen tell her?

"How did you know?"

"That medicine... it's so bitter."

"..."

Lin Shou was speechless. He took out a small paper packet.

"There's some sugar cubes I made inside. Every time you take your medicine, hold one in your mouth, and it won't be bitter anymore."

These sugar cubes were something Lin Shou had made while researching spice blends from the Compendium of Materia Medica. Since An Yunli said the medicine was bitter, he'd make more in the future.

After taking her pulse and giving her the sugar, Lin Shou finally nodded to let An Yunli go. She felt as if pardoned from a death sentence and quickly fled back to her boudoir.

The great Devil King was terrifying, and the medicine he gave was so bitter...

Still, once back in her room, An Yunli hid under the covers, opened the paper packet Lin Shou had given her, and looked at the snow-white, fine sugar cubes. She'd never seen anything like them, but they were beautiful. Unable to resist, she took one and ate it—sweet, delicious.

After giving An Yunli the sugar cubes, Lin Shou returned to the Corpse-Stitching Shop.

Until the sun set in the west and evening crows cawed.

A corpse was delivered.

Lin Shou lifted the straw mat for a glance and furrowed his brow.

He stepped back a few paces, grabbed the Disinfectant Alcohol Spray nearby, and sprayed it. The whole room filled with the smell of alcohol. Then he pulled out the Medical Arm. Before he'd even lit three incense sticks, Lin Shou was already keeping a safe distance from this corpse on his own.

He manipulated the Medical Arm to open the straw mat, revealing the horrifying corpse inside.

Missing one eye, with granulation tissue sprouting on its face, a deformed sore on its chin, nearly half its right hand gone, and varying degrees of deformity and mutilation on its other fingers and toes...

It no longer looked like a human at all—more like a zombie from a horror film, terrifying and ghastly.

Lin Shou had only taken one look before cautiously backing away, not out of fear, but because he recognized this condition.

Common folk called it "Heavenly Punishment." In Lin Shou's past life, it had another widely known scientific name.

And it was contagious. Though his own poison resistance was stacked high, he still had to take proper safety and isolation measures to eliminate even the slightest chance of infection.

Lin Shou stared at the "Heavenly Punishment" corpse, his brow deeply furrowed.

Heavenly Punishment was mostly prevalent in the Min region; it was rarely seen in the north, and many people didn't even recognize it.

The Capital City, how did something like this appear?

As night deepened, lamps were lit and candles burned.

Although the Heavenly Punishment corpse was not exactly safe, Lin Shou knew he had to sew it up—not just because of the Bureau of Corpse Management's regulations, but because he needed to see the corpse's Lantern of Life. He had to know the origin of this "Heavenly Punishment."

Three incense sticks burned to ash.

The Medical Arm threaded the needle and stitched the corpse. Because the body had multiple deformities, Lin Shou used dough clay to fashion several small prosthetics, sewing them together with the corpse until it was fully mended.

The Record of Selling Corpses appeared, and the Lantern of Life rose.

Lin Shou carefully examined this person's life.

His family were small wealthy merchants in the Capital City, dealing in the cloth trade. His old man had money, so he was a rich second-generation wastrel. Every day, he carried his birdcage, strolled about, ate and drank, and never did anything worthwhile. The only proper thing he knew how to do was spend money.

His family had money, so he squandered it.

A complete ne'er-do-well, a true playboy.

Every day, he ran with a pack of worthless friends, going everywhere, playing everywhere. His favorite place? The Capital City's "Eight Great Alleys."

What kind of place were the Eight Great Alleys?

Simply put, the Capital City's pleasure quarters, streets of romance and song.

To put it more crudely, a place for whoring.

But unlike the common impression of brothels and bordellos.

The Eight Great Alleys didn't just cater to prostitutes—they also catered to male entertainers.

And this patronage of male entertainers had once been the mainstream.

In the early years of Ganhuang's reign, a ban on prostitution was issued, forbidding brothels within the inner city. All the Capital City's pleasure houses were moved outside. The largest pleasure ground left in the inner city was the opera troupes lodging near the Eight Great Alleys, and among those troupes were many handsome male dan actors...

Since the previous dynasty, the official class had cultivated this custom of patronizing male entertainers, favoring the keeping of private troupes and raising catamite companions.

Don't think the Capital City's opera circles have famous stars now. In the early days, the troupes of the Eight Great Alleys couldn't sing well—they valued looks over skill. For a time, they were nothing more than a large-scale gay dating platform for high officials and nobles.

The male dan would finish their performance on stage, go backstage to change clothes, and then go off to enjoy themselves with their favored patrons.

Although prostitutes had since been unbanned and the trend of male entertainers was in decline, there were always those who still craved it, weren't there? Take this fellow here, for example—he kept a catamite in the Eight Great Alleys.

Tsk, Lin Shou looked at the corpse beside him, startled. A gay man had been right beside me?

Not one to comment much on the man's private hobbies, Lin Shou was looking for the origin of the "Heavenly Punishment."

That catamite might be the key.

In his early years, this playboy had been very close with that catamite, often engaging in intimate affairs. Later, for some unknown reason, the catamite suddenly stopped seeing him. The playboy flew into a rage, cursing him as an ungrateful wolf who had swindled his silver.

Not long after the playboy returned home, he started losing his hair and eyebrows, and his skin often broke out in bumps. He felt he had caught some strange illness. He called in many doctors, but none could figure it out. They always said it might be a depletion of the body, an imbalance of yin and yang, so they prescribed some medicine.

He took it for a year. It didn't help. The illness worsened. He felt his hands growing weaker, unable to grip things. One day, when he got up, his fingers fell off.

Later, his body began to deform.

His family grew terrified. Calling doctors was useless, so they called in a seer, commonly known as a Great Immortal. The seer said he had been struck by "Heavenly Punishment" and told them to kick him out immediately, or disaster would befall the whole family!

The old man said, how could he do that? He couldn't bear it. This was his son, his own flesh and blood. Cut the flesh, and the tendons still connect.

In the end, there was no choice. The old man found his son a place to live outside, gave him some money each month to get by, and when he missed him, he would go take a look from afar.

The father was miserable, and the son was miserable too. Day by day, his hair fell out, his fingers fell off. He was neither human nor ghost. If he went out after dark, he could scare someone to death. Even his parents were afraid of him.

The more he brooded, the more depressed he became. Seeing his own deformed body was painful enough. Finally, one day, he went out, found a well, and jumped.

Thud. Dead.