I am Huo Lin, the general banner of Jinyiwei.
After the corruption trial yesterday, the soles of my boots are still stained with mud from the slums. Widow Zhang's three acres of land was bought by me with three years' fine, but she didn't know. I stuffed cotton wool into the feet of the trackers on the pier in the middle of the night, but they didn't know either.
Today the porridge shed was burned down in the East Factory. When I stuffed rice bags into the cellar, the fire burned the python pattern on Feiyu's suit. The children had long been coaxed by me to ruin the temple. What they were crying for was the candy in my scabbard - stuffed by Lin Wan. It melted and stuck to the blood. It was so sweet that it turned bitter.
When the embroidered spring knife hit the green bricks, I touched the lotus silk ribbon she embroidered. The stitches were crooked like a worm, entangled in my blood and burrowing into the snow. It was like she was tugging on my sleeve and saying, "Look, A-Lin."
They said I was an evil ghost, but the person I was protecting was eating hot steamed buns; they said I should leave a name in history, but I just wanted Lin Wan to know——
When I died, I had not finished eating the candy in my arms, and the lotus she embroidered was drinking my blood and blooming.
