Eunuch Lou passed away peacefully.
The street, only a mile from the city gate, bore a trench nearly ten feet long.
The soldiers sheltering from the rain in the city gate archway heard the noise and were just about to venture out in the rain to investigate when they saw a procession of papermen carrying a rain-drenched coffin, scattering paper money, emerging from the rain curtain.
The stark white lightning flashed across the sky, accentuating the eerie atmosphere of the papermen.
The soldiers guarding the city gate instinctively retracted the foot they had just stepped forward, pretending they hadn't seen anything.
Once the papermen put the body into the coffin, only a still-burning, red-hot axe was left stuck in the ground, sizzling and smoking.
The burning wooden handle of the axe, once wet by the rain, turned charcoal black.