On his first day on the job, Chen Du, an apprentice mortician at a funeral home, received a three-page document titled Rules for Preparing the Deceased.
Rule One: After sunset, never turn your back on a corpse.
Rule Two: If the deceased’s fingers are curled, leave the room immediately and lock the door.
Rule Three: Never look into the eyes of your reflection in the makeup mirror for more than three seconds.
He thought the older generation simply had too many rules, until late one night, while preparing the body of a special deceased person, someone slipped a crumpled note into his palm. It contained just one line:
“Don’t trust the person who wrote these rules.”
