In the thirteenth year of Sui Ping's reign, Jiang Li's father was dismissed as prime minister and his family moved back to Jinling.
Three years later, when the new emperor came to the throne, a dancing girl from the south of the Yangtze River came to Bianjing Jiaofangsi. She wore a bone flute around her neck, was barefoot, was good at spinning, and was named "A Nian".
She broke the newly laid gold bricks at the palace banquet, revealing the old inscription of the previous dynasty, "Sui Ping Chu Nian".
The new emperor knelt down and touched the line of words, then raised his head and smiled at her.
He thought the dance was a celebration.
But the northern shaman's ritual of Tiantage has a strict seven-step and eighteen-turn procedure. Each step is in a specific direction, corresponding to one of the seven stars of the Big Dipper. The direction of rotation determines the nature of the spell. Clockwise is for praying for life, counterclockwise is for offering sacrifices. Every lap she dances is a sacrifice to heaven.
Death, like dance, happens naturally when the rhythm is set.
Purpose: Take your lover's bone flute to the ice-free river in the north.