The Coroner's Wife in the Imperial Prison

There’s an odd person in the women’s prison at the Imperial Prison. She helps fellow inmates with acupuncture and treatment, helps the guards examine corpses and determine their causes of death, and dissects executed prisoners to study how to stitch them back up. Inmates and guards come and go in waves, but she remains unmoved, with white hair and a thornwood hairpin, serene as a deep abyss. It seems she would be content to spend her whole life immersed in darkness. People have long forgotten the Lin family’s wrongful conviction. Her parents and elder brothers were brutally killed. Before she had even come of age, Miss Lin had nowhere to turn for help. Her relatives and friends avoided her, and her fiancé sent a letter breaking off their engagement and chose the daughter of his enemy instead, climbing higher step by step on her blood and tears... Lin Jinran remembers it all, never daring to forget for even a moment. After four years in the Imperial Prison, she has finally waited for her chance. The Commander of the Northern Pacification Office has lately been hearing one name again and again. He has encountered her at the Imperial Prison three times. The first time, she rescued a prisoner in a critical condition and still managed to unravel the clues to the case. The second time, she was taken hostage by a violent escapee. She pretended to be weak and terrified, then struck back and killed him before his men could act. The third time, she washed her hands and lowered her eyes as she poured him a cup of detoxifying herbal tea. Every time, this woman faces danger without panic and shock without fear. Her beauty is breathtaking, and she seems nothing like a prisoner of the Imperial Prison. She has never made any requests, but he knows she longs for a chance. Unfortunately, he is no good man: suspicious and cold-hearted, with no compassion for women and the weak, and no interest in romantic gestures or tender chivalry. He waits for her to beg him, to stake all her cards. That is how the rules of the world work: trade what you have for what you want. At last, she comes to see him, but not to ask for anything. She comes to thank him for dealing with someone. Only then does he remember that the pathetic man he beat until he couldn’t get out of bed, had removed from the court register, and demoted three ranks was her former fiancé. “Not for your sake.” “I know,” the woman says. “After four years in the Imperial Prison, the clearest lesson I’ve learned is not to mistake things for more than they are.” The moon hangs high as day and night pass. He hates that she never mistakes things for more than they are. “Today, I’m giving you this opportunity because one day, you’ll have to gather someone’s bones. Not a single one can be missing.” The Commander offers her a special transfer token, stars and moonlight resting on his shoulders. Lin Jinran accepts it reverently. “Who?” He brushes past her. “Me.” Theme: See all living beings, understand the mortal world, and find yourself.