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A cofferdao on The body swept through those torrential waters in ly, the land flattened Fields stretched out for miles on either bank There would be places nohere the river would be entle but ihai still beckoned Below that, the estuary spread out across fiftyanother mile of Chinese mainland every seventy years

Along the river’s course, shrines had been built as reodas rose to warn sailors of hidden navigational dangers, and terandeur and risks of this place But for every monu, the river was all—other spots brought that e down to its most intimate human scale For millennia a little spit of land protruded into the river just below the town of Anqing, where for the last three centuries the Jia clan had lived and worked the earth

Every fu walked the banks to ree the trash that had come to rest He’d seen trees that had journeyed all the way down fro beans that had been sucked out of cottages, pieces of boats that had been ripped into splinters He’d also seen ht down others like himself—farmers and their families who’d been washed off their land—while in winter he found the occasional young erous then, but the shortness of the days brought out a melancholy turn of mind, and broken love affairs were too much to bear

Jia Mingfu knew by the smell that a body—perhaps huripped the stick that he carried on these excursions a little htly as he hardened his heart for what he kneould see—a corpse ravaged by exposure to water, rocks, the sun, wildlife, and the natural decomposition of flesh As he’d done so many times before, he used his stick to brush away some of the trash that had accu was s still attached But this creature with its red hair was no ordinary ner

THE IMPERIAL DOMAIN

(Dian Fu)

The Imperial Domain extends 500 li in each direction from the capital This is the raphy The Central Nation should truly be central

THE SUN STILL HADN’T CRESTED OVER THE ROOFS OF THE STATELY buildings on the eastern edge of Tiananmen Square when Inspector Liu Hulan of the Ministry of Public Security gazed across a sea of people gathered in the huge cement expanse for the first public asse Until today, the All-Patriotic Society’s clandestine s had taken place es along the Yellow River Although the cult had recently gained a foothold in the capital, no one had expected a show as brazen as this

All religious cults were against the law in China, and it was part of Hulan’s job to do what she could to eradicate the rally only fifteen hours ago fro froht make a more sizable donation to the Society After several impromptu discussions at the o forward If a high-ranking All-Patriotic Society member could be drawn out and identified, then Hulan could ht prove fruitful in many ways

Hulan had arrived here at three thisof policemen and soldiers around the perimeter of the square She had hoped that an official presence would serve as a deterrent to converts and help keep the numbers down, but as far as she could see no one had turned back The adherents were orderly, polite, obedient, and simply paid no attention to the unifor over their shoulders If everyone re exercises, chanting, and inspirational seret hurt Sure, photos would be taken and a few people held for questioning, but the plain fact was that the Ministry of Public Security wasn’t prepared on such short notice to detain h tiovernment to request that a camera crew from a state-run television station cover the event, and Hulan felt a certain amount of confusion about this

Five years ago she had made a deal with souided China from a compound situated across the lake froht before theht International case, in which more than 150 women had lost their lives in a horrible fire in an A deep in China’s interior The “men across the lake,” as Hulan referred to them, told her they would let her ive birth to her half-breed daughter—both of which were questionable actions under Chinese law and custom They told her they would keep her nae, Hulan had to promise she would follow the party line, obey orders without question, eli her, the men across the lake, and her reed to the conditions, hoping they would allow her to have the private life she’d always longed for But of course the gae to David…