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The autumn wind sighed, the air turned cold, the red sun hung high. It was the perfect season for beheadings.
Sshhh…
The scraping of a whetstone came from the alley of Dead Street.
Dead Street had thirteen households in all, all of them titans of the city’s funeral trade, like Old Lin the cobbler, Old Wang of the coffin shop, Old Qian the paper-artist. And in the last courtyard of the thirteen lived the city’s only executioner, Li Chaosheng.
“Ah~ a ghost-head blade, severing all evil heads—what a fine blade!”
Li Chaosheng looked at the ghost-head blade in his hands, polished to a mirror shine, and a trace of reluctance crossed his eyes. This old companion had been with him for five years. Since his foster father’s disappearance he had inherited the profession and with this blade he had cut off ninety-nine heads on the execution ground.
Ninety-nine heads was already the limit in the executioner’s trade. Surpassing that number could invite retribution. There was an old saying in the trade: “Beheadings should not exceed a hundred; past a hundred, your life becomes hard to keep.” Before his foster father vanished he had warned him, “Son, kill ninety-nine, and then quit.”
So when Li Chaosheng felled the ninety-ninth head yesterday, he petitioned the county magistrate to let him sheathe his blade.
The magistrate, seeing how conscientious he’d been over the years, issued a certificate of transfer. With it Li Chaosheng could rid himself of the executioner’s title and take up another trade. This was the artisan-household system commonly practiced in the Great Gan. When the father dies, the son inherits.
Li Chaosheng stood and tied the ghost-head blade’s ring with a length of bright red silk, holding the ends of the blade with both hands, the white edge facing upward, preparing to go out. According to executioner custom, when washing one’s hands of the trade, one wraps the tail of the ghost blade in red, presents it with both hands before the gods, thereby severing all previous life’s evils. Only then can one hope for peace in the afterlife.
An executioner’s blade, stained with countless lives, was a great source of malediction and must not be kept at home. It should be sent to a temple to be bathed day and night in Buddhist rites, so that its malice may be turned into a treasure.
“From now on, a new life.”
Li Chaosheng looked up at the sky. The red sun hung high. Today really was fine weather.
Ta, ta, ta…
Just as Li Chaosheng was about to head to the temple, a sudden flurry of hurried footsteps sounded outside. In moments they reached his door.
Knock, knock, knock…
Violent knocks sounded on the door, and a voice outside shouted, “Brother Li, are you home? Open up quickly, the county magistrate calls for you!”
“Hm?”
Hearing the voice outside, Li Chaosheng was taken aback. He had already asked the magistrate for leave to sheathe his blade today. Why would there be an urgent summons?
He set the blade aside and opened the door, finding a middle-aged constable outside in a grey uniform with a circle on his chest and the large character “Zu” inside it.
“Brother Er, why is the magistrate urgently looking for me?” Li Chaosheng asked the middle-aged constable.
This man was called Wang Er. He usually manned the county gate and had a decent relationship with Li Chaosheng. Wang Er was also usually the one who came to fetch Li Chaosheng when the magistrate needed an execution carried out.
“I don’t know the specifics either. The night watch said that at midnight last night a group of men in black escorted a prison cart into the city. The cart was covered in black cloth so you couldn’t see who was inside. They took the cart straight into the county office, handed the magistrate a token, and the magistrate ran out barefoot…”
“He ran out barefoot?”
Li Chaosheng’s expression changed. The magistrate was usually very particular about appearances. Running out barefoot to greet someone meant it must be an emergency!
“Were the escorting men from the prefectural office?”
“I don’t know that. Come on, Brother Li, let’s not chat here. When I left, the prisoner had already been taken to the execution ground. If we delay a moment more we might end up dead instead!”
Wang Er urged anxiously. Hearing that, Li Chaosheng frowned and said, “But Brother Er, the magistrate already granted my sheathing. If I kill one more it would break the taboo!”
“Brother Li, there’s no time to worry about that now. Before leaving the magistrate entrusted me with a message for you.”
“Your transfer certificate hasn’t been sealed yet. When today’s business is done, go to the back office to collect it.“
“Hm?”
There was no point in asking further questions. Things couldn’t be clearer. Li Chaosheng had no choice but to go. But he couldn’t understand why the magistrate, who had always treated him kindly, would behave this way.
Was it because of the prisoner transferred overnight?
Li Chaosheng thought this and pulled the red silk from the ghost-head blade. Today he probably wouldn’t be able to sheathe it.
He wrapped the ghost-head blade in cloth, slung it on his back, and hurried with Wang Er to the execution ground!
At the execution ground, Li Chaosheng could see from afar a prisoner in rags kneeling on the execution platform, but sitting in the executioner’s pavilion was not the magistrate he knew. Instead there was a middle-aged man in a black robe flecked with rust-like specks, with a three-inch beard, a righteous face, eyes slightly narrowed. Authoritative without showing anger.
The guards around the execution ground were also not the usual county men. They were all strangers in black. Searching around, Li Chaosheng couldn’t find a single familiar face.
“Who are you?!”
As Li Chaosheng and Wang Er stood uncertainly before the ground, the men in black noticed them. Two advanced and asked that question in deep voices. Wang Er glanced at Li Chaosheng in surprise. Li Chaosheng clasped his hands and bowed, “Li Chaosheng, the county executioner, ordered to attend.”
“Oh, it’s you. Go on in.”
The black-clothed man let Li Chaosheng pass, but stopped Wang Er. “You stay here.”
“Ah, but sir, I’m his assistant. I’m in charge of passing him things,” Wang Er protested.
“Within this execution ground we are in command. Except for the executioner, no one else may enter. Didn’t you see your magistrate waiting outside?” The man in black pointed to a tea-house second floor not far off. Sure enough the magistrate stood there watching from a distance, not daring to come close.
“Are you the men from the county gate?”
Seeing his magistrate behaving in such a humiliating manner, Wang Er’s curiosity flared and he asked, but the black-clad man quietly spat out, “If you don’t want to die, don’t ask anything.”
Wang Er’s face changed and he immediately bowed, “Yes, sir, I spoke out of turn, I spoke out of turn…”
Curiosity kills the cat was a phrase that everyone knew. After years on the county post, how could he not understand that concept?
…
Li Chaosheng was admitted into the grounds, changed into the executioner’s bright red robe, and was led by the black-clad men onto the platform to stand behind the kneeling prisoner. From behind Li Chaosheng could faintly tell the prisoner was a woman. Black long hair covered her cheeks, her head bowed so her face couldn’t be seen, and an icy aura emanated from her that sent a chill through him even in the heat.
“What the… Is this woman an air conditioner? She can do automatic cooling?” he muttered under his breath.
At that moment, a man in black produced a dark sundial, set it for time, and told Li Chaosheng the execution would be at 45 minutes past noon.
45 minutes past noon was a significant and very specific time. Ordinary prisoners didn’t have to wait till then, and only those guilty of especially heinous crimes were executed at that precise hour.
Such people’s fate was something extremely ominous. It was believed that after death they could cause trouble and become malevolent, so they were executed at 45 minutes past noon, when the sun was strongest and shadows shortest. The yang energy at that moment could dispel the convict’s malevolence and yin energy, making it harder for evil spirits to arise.
After waiting a while longer and the sun climbed high, the black-clad man checked the sundial and nodded to the middle-aged man in black sitting in the execution position. That man picked up a red-tipped bamboo lot from the table, threw it to the ground and yelled, “Execute the prisoner!“
The lot struck the ground, and a black-clad man carried over a tray. On it was a bowl of rice, its porcelain was chipped, and chopsticks stood upright in it like incense. This meal was called the “long rest”. Beside it was a plate with a piece of pork with hair still on it, half-raw, briefly scalded in boiling water and taken out.
This half-raw meat was called “decapitation meat”. Beside it sat a pot of wine called the “eternal farewell wine.”
After these three items were presented, Li Chaosheng poked the meat with his chopsticks. By custom the meat was smeared at the prisoner’s mouth to represent their last meal in the living world, then the wine was poured—the eternal farewell wine—and after drinking the person was sent on their way.
Li Chaosheng brought the hairy raw meat to the woman’s mouth. Normally this was just a formality. They just rubbed some on and left it there, no one actually ate it because it wasn’t for normal people to eat. But today was different: the moment the meat reached her lips, the woman snapped it off with a bite.
With a sizzle the unclean blood in the meat spurted out and ran down the woman’s mouth. She chewed the raw flesh and made a horrifying sound like a beast. Li Chaosheng’s hairs stood on end and his gut churned. This was not a normal person!!
“Wine!”
The woman swallowed the raw meat in a few bites and croaked in a voice like sand on glass.
Li Chaosheng’s hand trembled as he reached for the wine pot and fed it to her, ready at any moment. If she made any strange move he would lop off her head with the wine pot without hesitation. Fortunately, after she drank she fell silent.
Li Chaosheng continued the ritual, pulling out the bamboo peg from her neck and tossing it aside, lifting his ghost-head blade, picking up the wine bowl and taking a mouthful to steady his courage. The instant the spicy wine hit his tongue it chased away his fear. He spat the wine onto the blade and prepared to swing!
“Execute her!”
Seeing Li Chaosheng ready, the black-clad men with their merciless staves beat the ground and shouted loudly to bolster the terror!
Li Chaosheng was prepared, but as he lifted his blade the kneeling woman’s neck twisted ninety degrees and she glanced at him with pleading in her voice, “Young brother, spare me!”
Those words terrified Li Chaosheng. On the execution ground, the thing that an executioner feared most was for the prisoner to suddenly “return to life,” and many old executioners had died this way. The elders had a remedy: you must suppress the prisoner. If you don’t, the consequences are unthinkable.
Thinking of this, Li Chaosheng suddenly bellowed like a thunderclap, “How dare you! Heaven’s way must not be defied, the law of the king is as vast as the sky. When death comes do not cry unfairness. Before the Lord of Hades there is no pleading. I hold the blade for Heaven, and ask no reason. Take your path quickly. This time next year will be the anniversary of your death!”
Normally such a roar would pacify the prisoner for a moment, long enough for Li Chaosheng to sever the person’s head. But today, something wasn’t quite right. The woman chuckled, “Hehe… spare the words, it won’t help. Whoever kills me, I will remember. I will come for you. Hehehe…”
Hearing her laughter, Li Chaosheng’s hairs bristled and his body began to shake uncontrollably. Despite the heat it felt as if he’d fallen into an ice pit. His body stiffened and his mind went numb!
“Execute her!”
Just as Li Chaosheng was about to lose control, a sudden shout came from behind like a thunderclap, shattering the surrounding layers of cold and snapping Li Chaosheng’s mind back to clarity. His ghost-head blade came down in a strike!
The silver blade flashed and the head tumbled off, rolled down the platform. Blood spurted, the corpse fell, the platform was stained red, and the air filled with a choking metallic smell of blood.
But the head rolled a few times and suddenly stopped, then turned toward Li Chaosheng and the mouth curled into a grin…
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