Chen An was born on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month in 1996 next to the morgue of Jiangzhou No. 1 Hospital.
This is no coincidence.
His mother, Lin Suxin, was a nurse at the hospital and was doing the final cleaning for the deceased in a car accident that night. The labor pains came suddenly and there was no time to shift. Chen An's first cry sounded at the same time as the mechanical hum of the corpse refrigerator in the morgue next door.
The old nurse who delivered the baby later said privately:
"The child didn't cry. He stared at the ceiling with his eyes open. His eyes were as calm as a baby's. Until... There were three knocks from the next door."
It was the body of a young girl who died in the car accident. The monitor on her wrist suddenly beeped three times and then went silent again.
Only then did Chen An cry.
