Changsha, 1935. Chen Pi A Si, the head of the Ping San Gate, finds a three-year-old child in the main coffin of an ancient Song Dynasty tomb in western Hunan.
The child wears a plain little outfit that has not decayed in a thousand years. His whole body is ice-cold, and a jade pendant around his neck is engraved with two seal-script characters: “Yu Jue.” A knife cannot draw blood from him, and wounds heal in the blink of an eye. He looks just like a little zongzi.
Chen Pi means to kill the ominous creature with a single palm strike. But the child opens his eyes and looks at him quietly, without crying or fussing. He simply reaches out with a cold little hand, clasps Chen Pi’s index finger, and holds on all the way without letting go.
Later, Chen Pi discovers that the child cannot speak. Not a single word. When he is starving, he only opens his mouth and looks at you. When he is cold, he burrows into your arms. When he is afraid, he buries his whole face in your clothes without making a sound. Like a newly awakened little beast, he takes the first person he sees for his entire world.
Everyone in the Nine Gates says Chen Pi A Si has picked up a mute zongzi who won’t live long. Zhang Qishan tests the child’s blood, then falls silent for a long time before saying it is a bloodline of the Zhang family, lost a thousand years ago. When Er Yuehong sees half the child’s face peeking out from behind Chen Pi, he freezes, remembering so many things. Wu Laogou waves a meat bun in front of him for three days before the child finally reaches out to take it. Hei Bei Liu silently shields him from three assassination attempts. Qi Tiezui casts nine hexagrams, then pushes aside his divination board. “The child isn’t mute. He’s slept too long and forgotten how to speak like a human.”
Everyone says he is a calamity and should be burned. Chen Pi pulls him against his chest, his voice cold as ice: “Anyone who lays a hand on him will pay with their life.”
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Good-looking but a little lacking