My younger sister gave birth to a son in the Eastern Palace.
I brought a fortune in family wealth and cartloads of rare medicinal pills with me to the palace to visit her.
The moment she saw me, she nestled into my arms and began to cry, tears falling one after another.
Her movements were intimate, her voice soft and spoiled. There was not the slightest trace of distance or unfamiliarity between us.
And yet my entire body went rigid, a chill crawling up my spine and sinking into my heart.
Because the face before me, identical to my sister’s in every way,
was not the dead woman’s skin I had sewn onto her with my own hands.