An Engraved Oath: Within Three Days, Nothing Will Remain of Your Corpse

Wei Ning's elder brother and sister-in-law pawned him to the Chu family for nineteen knife coins. They pinned him to a bluestone execution platform, and Chu Wujie drew a bone knife carved from a human finger bone. He inscribed a death oath, seventeen strokes deep, into Wei Ning's chest: Within three days, flesh and bone will vanish without a trace, and the debt will die with the debtor. The words were carved into bone; wherever he went, they would follow. The second steward said to lock him in the woodshed, give him water but no food, and let him starve to death faster. On the steps, people counted their betting chips and wagered he wouldn't last the night. One bet twenty coins that before he died, he would have to thank them. Wei An used a handkerchief embroidered with crooked characters by Liu to wipe his hands again and again. His brother's hands hadn't trembled when he sold the ox, or the house, or led Wei Ning to the Debt-Bearing Guild's door.

Chu Wujie sheathed his knife and recited the oath. "By the rules, you have to thank us." Wei Ning didn't kowtow. He was studying the direction of the seventeen strokes. The final stroke ended half a fraction off, slanting down to the right. His father had taught him that a character carved half a fraction off meant the person carving it had something on his mind. By the time they untied him, his hands had gone numb. The nineteen knife coins still pressed against his lower abdomen through his clothes. The broker said to save them for funeral paper: if the family burned paper for someone who died in their place, they had to make clear who he had died for, or he'd have to do it again in his next life. Wei Ning sat on the straw in the woodshed. Every breath passed over the carved marks on his chest, and he began memorizing everyone's faces and hands. Village head Wu was missing half a front tooth and whistled when he spoke. The broker's left pinky was short by one joint. The second steward liked to fold the word for "no" instead of crossing it out. The round-faced man in a blue cloth tunic had a mole on his right cheekbone and smiled so early that his lips curled up first. The man who had bet twenty coins that Wei Ning would thank them. And when Chu Wujie bent over with his hands clasped, his right shoulder dipped half a fraction. When the knife came down, he had something on his mind.