On the three-hundred-and-seventy-seventh line of the Water Alley sacrificial register, the clerk Zhu Quan read out four names from the He family: He Shuan, Madam He, He Xi, and He Qing. Ma San ordered someone to pin He Qing's father down on the stone steps and smash his knees. Chen Qi, the official in charge of verifying marks, pressed He Qing's right hand against the black stone to check for a mark. Finding none, he classified him as scrap and declared him compliant with the second clause on the yellow paper. He Qing neither cried nor shouted. Kneeling, he memorized all three hundred and seventy-seven lines, the two dents of different depths on Zhu Quan's brush, the gap in the sole of Ma San's left shoe, and the second clause on the yellow paper. Old Lai dragged him to the sacrificial pit in the sea trench and kicked him in. His mother struggled as they held her back. His sister, He Xi, mouthed, "Stay alive." He crashed into the black water and sank. His hand braced against seven scattered skeletons. Just as he finished counting them, a hand at the bottom of the water clamped around his ankle. Its fingers were slender and icy cold. It wasn't grabbing him, but holding him. The rising tide surged upward from below, and he couldn't pull his foot free.
