Borrowed Life
I was born with the face of a ghost. I scared the midwife to death when I was born, and everyone in the village called me the Coffin-Born Child.
When I was eighteen, a blind master from the Ma Yi Fortune-Telling lineage came to my door and forced me to become his apprentice.
He handed me a blood-red envelope. “Your fate is too yin. If you don’t learn physiognomy, you’ll become a menace.”
I touched the blood-red birthmark I’d had since I was in the womb and gritted my teeth as I kowtowed to him.
Three years later, I became the youngest Ghost Face Reader in the trade, specializing in yin residences, causes of death, and dispelling baleful forces.
The daughter of the richest man in the city had died under mysterious circumstances, and her family offered a fortune for my help.
I lifted the shroud. The corpse opened its eyes and smiled at me.
The curve of its smile was identical to the birthmark on my face.
Behind me, my blind master murmured, “The time has come...”
