The chill on my neck hasn't dissipated yet. The Xiuchun knife is much sharper than the boning knife I bought on the streets of Yingtianfu. When the blood spattered on the gold bricks, I saw my own shadow floating crookedly, like silk wrinkled by the wind, and the corpse lying on the ground still had its eyes wide open, staring at the gilt animal head of the Hall of Supreme Harmony - that is a place I have never been qualified to approach in this life. It would be better to die, but to be able to float on the rafters and see it clearly.
