Those of you who've been reading here awhile might remember when I wrote about the curious practice of minghun, or "afterlife marriage," whereby the parents of unmarried men procure corpses of deceased young women to 'marry' to deceased sons, in order to provide them with a happier afterlife. A broker is usually hired to find a suitable 'bride.' Then, the coffins of the happy couple are trotted out for a wedding ceremony, and then reburied. This practice is believed to appease the dead, thus ensuring the happiness of their living descendents.

As it turns out, this odd custom has a sinister side. Sinister as in, sometimes the brides are not quite deceased when the brokers first encounter them. It would seem that corpse marriage is a lucrative cash business, so brokers are sometimes finding it simpler- and cheaper- to procure a corpse of their own, rather than negotiate with the families of the deceases. This makes marriage a risky proposition for young women who think they are about to enter arranged marriages, especially as the broker leaves out a crucial bit of information about the prospective bridegroom.