Graveyard Night School

After the controversy triggered by the autopsy of Chen Zian’s body settled down, the Huimin Medical School resumed its courses. When Wei Lan walked on the street, she could always hear people gossiping behind her back or even pointing at her openly. She didn’t care much about her reputation, but she feared it would affect the school.

In order to calm the situation, Zhang Wenyuan suspended the courses of Wei Lan and Liu Mingyi, suggesting they take some time off and rest.

On the evening of the third day of the suspension, Wei Lan was squatting in the pharmacy of the medical hall, sorting mulberry bark threads. The sunset slanted through the window, dyeing Liu Mingyi’s white robe a warm golden color. He was standing on a wooden ladder, organizing the top shelves of the medicine cabinet, his sleeves slipping down to reveal his toned arms.

“Mingyi, brother,” Wei Lan suddenly looked up, her gaze filled with some confusion, “You’re from a proper Confucian medical family. Do you really think it’s right to cut open someone’s belly?”

Liu Mingyi took two steps down the ladder and leaned against the cabinet. “The Huangdi Neijing says, ‘The body can be measured and cut for knowledge,’ our ancestors had already wanted to understand human anatomy, but lacked proper tools.” He touched his fingers, which were covered with angelica debris, and casually wiped them on his cloth. “Just like this autopsy, though it caused a stir, it revealed that Chen Zian died from a stomach perforation. That’s the power of truth.”

Wei Lan lowered her head, continuing to wind the mulberry bark thread into a ball, murmuring, “Those Confucian scholars keep quoting the Xiaojing…”

“They didn’t understand the text,” Liu Mingyi suddenly squatted down to meet her eye level. “When Confucius said that the body, skin, and hair are gifts from the parents, he was urging people not to harm themselves, not to suggest that people should die from illness without surgery.”

He took the tangled thread from her hand and, with a few swift movements, neatly wound it into a circle and handed it back to her, smiling slightly. “This is the true meaning of learning.”

When Wei Lan turned, the tip of her nose brushed against his sleeve. She took a step back. “But now everyone uses that quote to silence me.”

Liu Mingyi suddenly grabbed her wrist, his fingers gently resting on her pulse. “If you had a carbuncle in your abdomen right now, should I abide by ‘the body, skin, and hair’ and let you suffer until you die, or should I follow in Hua Tuo’s footsteps and cut open your abdomen to cure the disease?” The warmth of his palm seeped through her sleeve, so hot that Wei Lan forgot to pull her hand back.

“Of course, curing the disease is more important!” Wei Lan lifted her gaze, and her eyes collided with his smiling ones. She suddenly realized they were so close she could almost count his eyelashes.

“That’s it,” Liu Mingyi let go of her hand, his tone gentle. “The Xiaojing says: ‘When ill, it causes anxiety.’ Causing your parents to worry about your illness is the greatest form of filial piety.”

Wei Lan stood frozen in place until he reached the door, then snapped back to reality. “Mingyi, brother!”

“Hmm?” Liu Mingyi turned back, the evening sun casting a golden halo around his figure.

“You’re a philosopher, aren’t you?” Wei Lan teased, her eyes full of mirth.

After Liu Mingyi’s advice, Wei Lan no longer insisted on openly teaching anatomy. She decided to take a different approach.

First Strategy: Connecting with the Coroner

Wei Lan thought that if she wanted to practice dissection, she would need to find a legitimate way. The coroners were the best opportunity for that. They were experts and had strong ties with the government. If she could get in with them, it would be much more efficient.

She heard about an experienced coroner named Li Tietou, and brought him three bottles of homemade medical alcohol, which was very effective for sterilization and something the coroners were in need of.

Li Tietou, holding a pipe, looked Wei Lan up and down and grinned, his face full of wrinkles. “Girl, the mortuary is no place for young ladies.”

Wei Lan didn’t say much, just directly handed him the alcohol. “Uncle Li, I’ve heard your skills in autopsy are unparalleled. It would be wonderful if you could come to our school to teach a class.”

Li Tietou knocked the ash off his pipe and teased, “Teach them how to autopsy? You’re trying to steal my job.”

“You misunderstand.” Wei Lan stood up straight and spoke earnestly. “Doctors treat and save lives, and coroners examine the smallest details of a body. Both are equally important skills. If the students can learn how to detect internal changes, they’ll be more confident when treating diseases. And you’ll have more helpers when performing autopsies, won’t you?”

Li Tietou’s eyes flickered. He had been a coroner for thirty years, and it was the first time he heard someone say their profession was just as important as that of a doctor. He thought back to the time when Wei Lan had publicly dissected a body and faced scathing criticism but still persisted, and he couldn’t help but feel some respect for her. Eventually, he nodded.

Not long after, the government had a body for autopsy, and Wei Lan, accompanied by her students in white coats, arrived early at the mortuary to assist. She had a rule: when students entered, the first thing they had to do was bow to the coroners, whether they were experienced or new.

When Li Tietou saw Wei Lan bringing students, he half-jokingly said, “You’re leading an army?”

Wei Lan only smiled and seriously polished his pipe, handing it to him. “Uncle Li, you’re much more impressive than us doctors. Without you, we’d never be able to see the true nature of the human body.”

During the first autopsy, Wei Lan unexpectedly ran into trouble. Some family members of the deceased suddenly barged into the mortuary, crying and accusing Li Tietou of desecrating the dead, demanding that he be taken to the authorities. The atmosphere in the mortuary instantly grew tense, and the students were also frightened by the sudden situation.

Without hesitation, Wei Lan immediately stepped in front of Li Tietou, her voice firm. “Uncle Li is helping you uncover the truth! If you can’t even figure out the cause of death, how will you get justice for your loved ones?”

Her words struck at the family members’ hearts, and they were left speechless, standing there not knowing how to respond. After a brief standoff, they could only leave reluctantly. The atmosphere in the mortuary gradually relaxed, and the students breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Tietou, who had witnessed the entire scene, looked at her with a complicated expression. He seemed surprised, but also somewhat moved.

After the troublemakers left, Li Tietou spoke. “In our line of work, we’re doing the dirty and exhausting jobs, and we’re not understood. The reputation of coroners isn’t good. Many people think we make a living off the dead. In a year, I may not even get ten intact bodies…”

Wei Lan listened quietly, letting out a small sigh in her heart. She knew that Li Tietou was opening up to her and acknowledging her respect for his profession.

As the autopsy continued, the atmosphere in the mortuary lightened. The coroners and students became familiar with each other and started joking around.

Li Tietou pointed at a body’s stomach. “This person’s stomach is rotting like this, guess what they ate in life?”

The students began guessing, and Wei Lan picked up a pair of forceps, grabbed the blackened stomach, and smiled. “Shall we cut it open and see?”

Laughter echoed throughout the room, and the smell of alcohol mixed with the tobacco smoke from Li Tietou’s pipe drifted out of the small mortuary.

Although cooperating with coroners was effective, the opportunities for autopsy were still limited. After some deep thinking, Wei Lan’s lips curled into a sly smile. She had a second plan.

When the third watch struck, Old Zhao was carrying a lantern on his way to the western part of the city. The night wind carried the stench of decay, and he shivered, about to turn around when suddenly, a woman’s crisp voice came from the direction of the graveyard: “Look, people’s hearts are smaller than pigs’ hearts, only as big as a fist.”

“The kidneys look like broad beans!” A few young voices followed, and a light laugh followed.

Old Zhao, scared out of his wits, raised his lantern and shone it forward. He saw over thirty white figures gathered around a mound of graves, their bodies wrapped from head to toe in deathly white cloth, looking like a group of hanging ghosts lining up. One of the white figures suddenly raised something bloodied in her hand, and in the moonlight, it was clearly half a piece of intestine!

“Damn!” Old Zhao screamed, stumbling and falling. The lantern rolled into the grave pit. He crawled and scrambled to the county office, banging the alarm drum so loud it shook the heavens. “A ghost! A flesh-eating female ghost leading a group of ghosts to chop up bodies!”

Lei Qilong suddenly threw off the blanket and jumped up. Hearing “over thirty white figures gathered at the graveyard,” cold sweat instantly broke out on the back of his neck. The miner riots last month had killed over a hundred people, and their bodies had been hastily buried at the graveyard. Could it be that the refugees were gathering for rebellion?

He couldn’t think any further. With a loud shout, “Prepare the horses! Gather all the officers!” He grabbed his saber and rushed outside without even fastening his official robe.

The graveyard was lit by twenty torches, and Lei Qilong took a sharp breath. That group of white figures all turned in unison, their faces covered in white cloth, and their eye sockets hollowed out, like wandering souls from hell.

The figure at the center held a bloody piece of intestine in her hand, and as the wind blew, her bloodstained robes lifted, revealing layers of burial cloth underneath, like a female demon crawling out of the grave.

“Protect the lord!” The officers were terrified, their hands trembling as they drew their swords.

Wei Lan squinted against the torchlight and quickly pulled down her mask. “Lei, my lord, we…”

“Wei! Lan!” Lei Qilong ground out her name between his teeth, the tip of his sword pointing directly at the body that had yet to be fully dissected at her feet. “What are you doing?!”

Liu Mingyi quickly stepped forward and bowed. “My lord, these are unclaimed corpses. We’re just conducting research.”

“Research my ass!” Lei Qilong was furious, his beard trembling with rage. “You’re pretending to be ghosts in the middle of the night to scare the people, or do you want to incite rebellion?” He slammed his saber into a tree stump, embedding the blade in the wood, and the surrounding air turned cold. “Take them back!”

As Liu Mingyi was shoved past Lei Qilong, he lowered his voice, “Among the refugees who died recently, 30% of their lungs had black spots.” Noticing Lei Qilong’s slight shift in gaze, Liu Mingyi added, “It looks like they inhaled something dirty.”

Lei Qilong’s hand tightened on his saber. He knew the refugees had been working in illegal coal mines, and he was well aware of the chaos this could cause if it got out. He paused for a moment and waved his hand, his voice low. “Go back and change out of those mourning clothes! If I catch you again…”

“We promise, there won’t be a next time!” Wei Lan grabbed Liu Mingyi and ran off. They didn’t stop until they rounded a mountain bend and stopped, panting and laughing. Wei Lan teased, “Did you see that? Old Lei’s saber was shaking. He really thought he saw a ghost!”

Liu Mingyi glanced back toward the graveyard and whispered, “He’s not afraid of ghosts. He’s afraid of the living. When the rumors die down, we’ll come back.”

To make up for the lack of official autopsy opportunities, Wei Lan came up with her second plan: to establish a “night school” at the graveyard.

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