The 1980s: A Debt Collector on the Old Yellow River Course

Modern-day auditor Tie Zhongyuan transmigrates and arrives at Zhaojiatan on the Yellow River.

He wakes straight into a deadly trap! A bowl of black water turns dark out of nowhere, and the entire village insists the Pool God has called his name. Within seven days, they'll throw him into the depths as a sacrifice to pay with his life!

There's no Pool God or supernatural beast. It's all a deadly scheme laid by antiquities dealers! His father died while investigating secret accounts at the bottom of the pool, and his death was staged as an accidental drowning. His brother Tieshuan has fallen into the hands of the villain Tie Changgeng as a hostage. The other man stirs up chaos in the village with fake supernatural tricks, while plotting to seize the ancient Ming Dynasty ledgers from the pool and plant evidence to frame him for the capital crime of illegally excavating cultural relics!

The protagonist has a special ability: by touching an ancient artifact, he can see fleeting images of its past. But the price is deadly. Every time he uses it, his nose bleeds and large chunks of his memories disappear. The more he uses it, the more he risks gradually forgetting who he is.

He exposes the whole set of tricks: bowls of bloody water, reed tubes that carry voices, and trapdoors at the bottom of the pool. Using paper fibers and ink marks, he tears apart the fake ledgers and fights the human-trafficking smuggling ring to the death, step by step.

What lies buried beneath the pool is not just gold and silver, but also a wrongful conviction that has been altered for four hundred years. But the closer the ancient ledgers bring him to the truth, the more a mastermind who has never shown his face watches from the shadows. Can he save his brother?

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.