On the Bone-Nailing Platform in Hui Tuo Town, Lu Yan was sentenced as a star-ore thief for hiding sixteen pieces of official gravel gold. His entire clan had been executed, and he was stripped of his status and sentenced to death. As the executioner, Tu Sanchui, raised his hammer, Lu Yan pressed a black nail he'd picked up into his left collarbone himself. The sound of bone cracking was louder than the hammer's blow. A voice came from inside the nail: a woman's scream cut off halfway, then a man cursed and cried for his parents. His breathing grew slower and slower, until at last he said, "Don't let them take the scale away."
Lu Yan saw a low-roofed room in his mind. A broken lantern hung from a beam. Three dark golden nails were stuck in a man's back, and someone was carrying an official scale out of the room. The people carrying it wore the black uniforms of the Star Bureau.
Lu Yan opened his eyes and said, "Tu Sanchui, two jin and seven liang of gravel gold are buried under the crooked jujube tree behind your house. You wrapped it in the cloth your wife brought as dowry and buried it eleven days ago. The day before yesterday, you even peed on the spot to cover the smell. Last month, you took four jin of official gravel gold for a duty assignment and claimed it was stolen on the road. The thief was Liu the Sixth, who wears blue shoes and works for the Star Bureau. You two split half of it at the river bend, two jin each. Liu's share was exchanged for a coffin for his mother."
The crowd below the platform erupted. Someone hurled a straw sandal onto the stage. Tu Sanchui's face turned as white as lime, and the Star Bureau official's knuckles whitened around his scroll. He raised his chin and said, "The execution was improperly carried out. Take him away and throw him in the pit." But the nail in Lu Yan's collarbone was still moving, and every twitch made his teeth ache.
