The morning market bustled with activity, crowds jostling against one another. Even the steady drizzle couldn't stop the vendors from hawking their wares in their distinctive, singsong voices.
Suddenly, the crowd fell silent, their eyes filled with fear as they stared in one direction.
Two grim-faced yamen runners emerged from an alley, carrying a corpse wrapped in coarse hemp cloth on a wooden plank. Blood dripped from the board onto the bluestone pavement.
Whispers spread through the crowd.
"Another dead person?"
"How unlucky..."
"This must be the third one this month..."
"Don't look, don't look."
The onlookers quickly scattered, and even the stall owners hurriedly packed up their goods as if fleeing from a plague.
The two yamen runners paid no mind as they moved the corpse to a more open area.
The older runner wore black robes, his frame gaunt, with slightly sunken eye sockets… giving the impression of a man plagued by chronic illness.
The cuffs of his sleeves bore the embroidered words "Authorized Runner of the Prefecture", and a two-foot staff of authority hung at his waist.
Though yamen runners served the government, they were little more than low-ranking subordinates tasked with errands. The staffs at their waist were merely tools for self-defense.
The other runner was much younger, around thirteen or fourteen; his black robes were slightly ill-fitting and lacked the "Authorized Runner of the Prefecture" insignia.
This was a Bai yi; an unofficial runner who served under a formal one, often waiting years for promotion.
They set the corpse down.
The lead runner coughed violently from the strain of carrying the heavy load, taking several breaths before it subsided.
The Bai yi asked with concern, "Brother Qing, are you alright?"
The runner replied in a hoarse, low voice, "Just an old ailment, nothing serious. Xiao Wu, keep watch here. I'm heading into the shop."
"Brother Qing…"
Xiao Wu trembled visibly, his legs shaking, his voice as faint as a mosquito's hum.
"Don't worry, I'll be back soon."
The runner, named Ren Qing, patted Xiao Wu's shoulder and strode quickly toward the alley entrance.
His steps were unsteady, his breathing heavy…
The calm demeanor he showed was clearly nothing more than a facade.
As Ren Qing ventured deeper into the alley, the stench of blood hit him, so thick it was nauseating.
A dilapidated bookstore came into view, with two Bai yi, both under twenty; standing at the entrance. They visibly relaxed when they saw Ren Qing.
"Runner."
Ren Qing nodded at them and said, "If you need to vomit, do it. Then get inside and clean up. We need to finish quickly; Or do any of you want to stay here longer?"
"Understood, Runner…"
Li Mian and Li Heng were brothers, their appearances nearly identical. With no connections in the yamen, they had been assigned to Ren Qing.
Xiao Wu, on the other hand, had sought Ren Qing out himself; his father and Ren Qing's were from the same hometown after all.
The Li brothers retreated to a corner of the alley, leaning against the wall as they dry-heaved.
Ren Qing fought back his own nausea; not just to maintain authority in front of his subordinates, but also because he feared his weak constitution might cause him to faint.
He took a deep breath and pushed open the slightly ajar wooden door of the bookstore.
The interior was strewn with chunks of flesh and blood, the bookshelves toppled haphazardly. Strangely, there were no books on the shelves, leaving the space eerily empty.
The shopkeeper's corpse, which had been carried out earlier, had originally been kneeling behind the door.
His hands were outstretched, palms holding his own gouged-out eyeballs.
And this was after the yamen had already "cleaned up" the scene… it was hard to imagine what it had looked like before.
Ren Qing was assigned to Tan Street in the western district of Sanxiang City, serving as a Corpse Burner among the yamen runners.
His duty was to cremate corpses and the deceased's personal belongings. In theory, this shouldn't have involved much danger.
But cases like the bookstore owner's death were clearly unnatural; anyone could see that.
A few days ago, there had been eight Corpse Burners responsible for Tan Street but while burning the corpse of an unnatural death, they caught a whiff of a strange scent… and then disaster struck.
All the Corpse Burner collapsed, their faces frozen in eerie smiles as they died.
Ren Qing appeared to be the sole survivor, but in truth, his body now housed a different soul; that of an ordinary office worker from a past life.
His first few days after transmigrating had been a daze. Fortunately, he had kept to himself even before, so no one noticed anything amiss.
But time hadn't given him a chance to fully adjust.
Before Ren Qing's eyes, countless lines swirled, forming chaotic patterns before finally solidifying into lines of text.
[Ren Qing]
[Age: Seventeen]
[Remaining Lifespan: Five years, one hundred thirteen days]
This was Ren Qing's innate Divine Ability… by touching someone, he could see their remaining lifespan. But that was all it could do.
His own lifespan was reduced to five years because his revival had left his internal organs severely deteriorated.
Strangely, in this world, most people's lifespans seemed capped at around fifty years. By forty, they were already frail and nearing death.
Though Ren Qing hadn't yet found a way to extend his life, he had pieced together clues from yamen runners of different roles.
Typically, when an unnatural death occurred, Restraint Officers would first inspect the scene. Only after they confirmed it was "safe" would Corpse Burner like Ren Qing be sent in, followed by cleaners to scrub away blood and filth.
Ren Qing had never interacted with a Restraint Officer, but he suspected they were cultivators who wielded supernatural arts… otherwise, how could Sanxiang City maintain its veneer of order?
That was why he had steeled himself and taken three inexperienced Bai yi to handle this bizarre and unsettling mess.
Ren Qing carefully tidied the shop's interior.
After a while, Li Mian and Li Heng mustered their courage and entered.
They wrapped the flesh chunks in hemp cloth they carried with them, even dismantling wooden furniture into fragments to ensure nothing was left behind.
"Runner, there's a book wedged between the shelves."
Li Mian handed the book to Ren Qing.
He didn't dare flip through it; every action of a Bai yi required a yamen runner's permission to avoid unforeseen consequences.
When Ren Qing took the book, a sharp pain lanced through his mind.
He collapsed to the ground, tears streaming uncontrollably.
"Runner!!!"
Li Heng and Li Mian moved to help, but Ren Qing raised a hand to stop them.
"I'm fine. It's nothing."
Ren Qing had them continue cleaning while he sat by the bookstore's entrance to recover, the book clutched tightly in his grip.
The moment he touched it, his innate Divine Ability activated on its own for the first time, streams of information flooding his vision.