The two-story building on the edge of town is called Peaceful Rest Hall. It takes care of the dead's final arrangements: washing, makeup, encoffining, cremation, and a one-stop trip to the underworld. Everyone in the county knows the place is steeped in gloom, but no one dares say why. People who keep vigil always return home missing one of their shadows. When the photographer who takes postmortem portraits develops the pictures, the same wet child's face always appears in a corner. And the urns left after cremation are sometimes as light as empty shells, sometimes as heavy as if they hold a living person.
Twenty-four-year-old Lin Huan is dumped at Peaceful Rest Hall by his relatives to learn the “business of the dead.” On his first night, he sees the person inside a coffin slowly turn over beneath the white shroud. The next day, in the lowest drawer of the morgue, he finds a yellowed death registration form bearing his name. The date of death is the night he suffered a high fever as a child. From then on, everything covered in white cloth in the funeral hall seems to be waiting for him to come closer, then closer still, so it can drag him in and make him lie flat.
At Peaceful Rest Hall, are the living laying the dead to rest, or are the dead choosing which living to bury? Before you open this book, you should make sure of one thing: are you really still alive?
