On a stormy night, Jiang Tao wakes in front of an abandoned hotel, clutching half a bloodstained copper button.
The hotel is occupied by people who never left, even thirty years ago.
He is an archivist at the county bureau. No, he's just an ordinary man who can understand the whispers of the dead.
Five ruined realms, five old cases no one has claimed: a hotel, a sanatorium, a sealed-off subway, an ancient sacrificial village, and a city absent from every map.
With every case he solves, another black mark appears on his body. The stronger his abilities grow, the more he resembles the things he is hunting.
Everyone advises him to stop once he reaches the ancient city.
But the last page of the archives reads: The nuclear ash has been taken out and moved elsewhere. Those who come after must not search for it.
Jiang Tao copies the words into his ledger:
The case is closed. The matter is not.
He fears the dark, fears closing his eyes, and fears those trapped beneath the truth.
But what he fears even more is that one day, he will no longer be able to hear their voices.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
