So I've descended as a corpse… Seeing as I'm still lying in the coffin, it seems I haven't been dead for long? 

It was uncomfortable, but Lu Changsheng had done this once before, so he quickly got his bearings. He sat straight up out of the coffin. Through the incense smoke, he could make out a row of terrified faces.

"The young master's risen!"

The hall started to fill with screaming.

Six hours later, a physician had his fingers on Kao Wen's wrist. He frowned and shook his head.

"Strange... Very strange. The pulse is strong, and there's nothing wrong with him. I examined him myself a few days ago, and there was no pulse back then. Could this be what the textbooks call apparent death?"

Apparent death. 

He had handed Lu Changsheng an excuse better than anything he would have invented....