The Corpse Retriever of the Yin River

The day the crack appeared between my brows, Great-Grandpa’s hands began to shake. My name is Li Zhuiyuan, and my family has been pulling corpses from the water for generations. Lately, a pair of eyes has been watching me from the riverbed. Yin Meng, from the paper offerings shop, brought me a paper boat. The little figure sitting at its bow had a black mole between its brows, exactly like mine. The order had no name on it, only my birth date and time. Great-Grandpa said that once you learn certain things, there’s no going back. But my mother jumped into the river when I was three. Great-Grandpa says she didn’t die. She’s just trapped in a river that doesn’t exist. That river is called the Yin River. The paper boat orders keep coming, and the crack between my brows keeps widening. I leapt into the deepest part of the ferry crossing. At the bottom, there was no mud Only a starry sky.