Face to Face

My name is Pei Du. I grew up in the Ten-Thousand-Faces Pawnshop. In this world, faces are currency: behind every face is a life, and once you pawn a face, you have to live out that person's days for them. The authorities say faces are bestowed by Heaven, one to each person, yet every influential man in the city secretly changes faces, buying doubles to ward off disaster and other people's lives to enjoy their fortunes. I've never had a face of my own, and that's exactly why there's no face I can't wear. I can play anyone, even a good person, better than the real thing, and then collect my fee. When upright magistrate Cao Mian traded a dead man's face for his own life, I borrowed a living face and stood before him, settling the account in public. Jin Cheng warned me not to touch the dead-pawn vault. But through the crack in the door, I saw that jade face, its contours a perfect fit for mine. Seventeen years ago, on the night I was born, someone tore my face away and pawned it. So I'll redeem it piece by piece, from the pawnshop to the Registry of Faces, from the facial ledgers to the imperial city. This world uses faces as money. I'll make sure not a single face can be pawned. You want to define me by a face? I'll stop treating myself as one first.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.