Collecting Corpses

"Clang~ clang, clang~"

"Grandpa, Grandpa, wake up! It's already a quarter past six!"

Dawn had barely broken. It was only the middle of the hour of the Rabbit, but Lu Mingyue, dressed in a little floral skirt, had already boiled a pot of water. After waking her grandfather, she pushed out the family's handcart.

The handcart was dark in color, almost a deep brown, with a faint bloody smell that would not disperse.

"Mingyue, what's for breakfast?"

Old Lu, already in his fifties, came out of the room wearing a blackened jacket. Rubbing the corners of his eyes, he called to Lu Mingyue, who was busy in the kitchen.

"Grandpa, we're having vegetable porridge and boiled eggs this morning!"

Lu Mingyue was only seven that year and had to stand on a stool to ladle the vegetable porridge out of the pot. Old Lu merely glanced at her before walking over to the handcart, picking up a bundle of willow switches, and lashing it.

"Snap~ snap~ snap~"

The crisp sounds rang through the courtyard. Long accustomed to this, Lu Mingyue set two bowls of porridge and a small plate of pickles in the main room, then cracked the shells of two boiled eggs and patiently peeled them.

"Grandpa, the hot water's in the kitchen."

Old Lu lashed the handcart for a full quarter of an hour, until the bundle of willow switches had broken apart. Only then did he go to the kitchen to wash his face. Returning to sit in the main room, he took the peeled boiled egg Lu Mingyue handed him, bit into it, and finally said with a smile:

"Eat."

After the grandfather and granddaughter finished breakfast, Old Lu took out his tobacco and began smoking, leaving Lu Mingyue to clear away the bowls and chopsticks.

Only when the hour of the Dragon arrived did Old Lu tap his pipe against the edge of the table and say to Lu Mingyue:

"Let's go. Fetch that thing of mine. It's Master Shen's young son who's getting his head cut off today."

"All right!"

Lu Mingyue answered and scampered into the inner room on her short little legs, taking out a bundle her grandfather kept in the cabinet.

She opened the bundle and looked inside. It contained a piece of black cloth used for wrapping corpses.

Lu Mingyue knew that although this cloth looked ordinary, it was her grandfather's family heirloom.

There was no knowing how many generations it had been passed down.

In short, as long as a corpse was wrapped in this cloth, whether the person had been executed by a thousand cuts, beheaded, or sliced in half at the waist...

None of the blood would seep through, so it would not spill all along the street leading from the marketplace.

That was why her grandfather treasured this cloth so much.

If Lu Mingyue had not grown older, and if her grandfather had not been unable to marry and been counting on her to care for him in old age and see him buried, she would not even have been allowed to touch it.

-That was what Old Lu had told Lu Mingyue when she was five.

And Lu Mingyue was a transmigrator.

Her luck simply had not been very good. Other people transmigrated as daughters of aristocratic clans or the darlings of their families.

At worst, they could still get some cheat ability and transmigrate into a book.

And her?

She had transmigrated as an abandoned orphan!

Heaven knew how desperate Lu Mingyue had felt when she first opened her eyes in her swaddling clothes and found herself amid a world of ice and snow!

Fortunately, Old Lu was a good man. He had picked her up and brought her home, and even bought a nanny goat to feed her with its milk. She had grown up in his home.

And over those years of growing up, Lu Mingyue had gradually learned from Old Lu's mutterings just how difficult life was in this ancient world that did not exist in the history books.

Poor families selling their sons and daughters was commonplace, let alone abandoning a baby girl like her.

That was why she truly treated Old Lu as her grandfather.

Because Old Lu treated her even better than the grandfather in her previous life, who favored boys over girls!

"Grandpa, are we going now?"

Drawing back from that momentary train of thought, Lu Mingyue put away the black cloth, hugged the bundle to her chest, and ran out of the inner room. She went over to her grandfather and asked.

"Yes, right now!"

Old Lu answered, took the bundle and slung it over his back, then pushed the handcart along, taking Lu Mingyue toward the marketplace in the west of town.

In the ancient Great Ye Dynasty, the western part of a town was usually home to the marketplace where villagers gathered.

Even before daybreak, quite a few people had gathered in the west of town.

There were villagers from outside town selling vegetables, as well as townspeople up early to buy them.

So whenever some utterly vicious criminal needed to be beheaded as a public example, the west of town was the first choice.

It served as the strongest possible warning to the world.

"Usually, those lawbreaking villains are beheaded at noon. Master Shen's young son is an exception today."

As he walked toward the marketplace through the lingering morning mist, Old Lu spoke to Lu Mingyue, the constable's instructions from yesterday echoing in his mind:

"Old Lu, come at the first quarter of the hour of the Dragon tomorrow. Don't be late!"

As a corpse collector, Old Lu depended entirely on rewards from the magistrate's office for his livelihood. Naturally, he dared not neglect its officers' instructions.

Mingyue was seven now. Although he was only fifty-five, he most likely did not have many years left.

Although Mingyue was willing to inherit his corpse-collecting trade, Old Lu still hoped to find a husband to marry into her family. If she could have a child or two, he would not have to be like the father who had taken him in all those years ago, dying without ever seeing his descendants flourish.

At these thoughts, Old Lu glanced at the little girl walking beside him, looking at the shops on either side, and a little more of a smile appeared on his weathered face.

He had no idea where the girl got all that curiosity. They had been walking these streets for years, yet she never tired of looking at the shops whenever they passed this way.

In another two years, I'll have to start arranging a match for Mingyue. Once she's a little older, I'll be able to watch her bring a husband into the family...

Dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue. Even more exciting things await!

Old Lu thought to himself as he brought Lu Mingyue to the marketplace.

"You two, wait off to the side."

"Yes."

A constable responsible for clearing the area stood before the grandfather and granddaughter, his hand resting on his saber's hilt. His face was stern, his whole bearing warning strangers away. After addressing them, he said nothing more.

"The County Commandant has arrived!"

At the end of the hour of the Rabbit, a square-faced man in black official robes approached under the escort of a dozen or so constables. He sat on the execution supervisor's raised platform, where beheadings were held throughout the year in the western marketplace, picked up a command token, and tossed it down.

"Clatter~"

Although she had accompanied her grandfather here many times, Lu Mingyue still could not help shrinking behind him when she heard the execution token hit the ground.

"The time has come. Carry out the execution at once!"

At the County Commandant's order, two constables immediately escorted a handsome, fair-faced young man before the platform. He wore prison clothes, his body was covered in blood, and chains had been driven through his shoulder blades.

"Shen Yulang, as a native of Yangguan County, you dared to brutally torture and murder eight women of respectable families in this county, treating human lives as worthless grass! All the bamboo in the world could not record your crimes. Even death cannot atone for them!"

Looking at the young man below the platform, the Yangguan County Commandant coldly recited his crimes, drawing pointing fingers and comments from the townspeople and villagers around them.

"Ha ha ha! You there, Qin! I've already cultivated a Houtian Spirit Mansion. Soon I'll enter the Immortal Sect and become one of its cultivators!"

Yet the young man suddenly burst into wild laughter, shouting at the Yangguan County Commandant on the platform, his words filled with sinister coldness.

This is a story that takes cultivation seriously, with all sorts of absolutely fascinating settings. I hope you sweethearts will give it plenty of support!