"Night Alley Pattern Record" originates from the legend of "alley closure" in old alleys in the south of the Yangtze River and Chinese folk customs.
A young man who studied folklore but could not find a job returned to Huichun Lane in the old city to work as a night watchman. He thought it was a leisurely job, until the light at the alleyway went out on the night of the winter solstice, and he was pulled into the "Suppressing Evil Layer" underground in the alley. There are lanterns, paper figures, sedan chairs, red ropes, iron pillars, and a set of rules that could kill him.
The protagonist, Shen Yan, does not know Taoism and has no system. His only weapons are the "rules" learned in folklore - Suppressing Rice, Summoning Souls, Missing One Door, Soul-Inducing Ship, and Suppressing Evil Gauges. He survived by "reading the rules" rather than "breaking them".
When he finally inherited the alleykeeper's blood contract and sealed the entrance, he discovered from an anonymous email: the person who had been guarding the alley for him for ten years was not himself, but his late grandfather Shen Shouzhuo. The old man who when he was a child disliked the smell of sandalwood and didn't like to be near him. He put a bowl of rice behind the stone drum every night and spent ten years dragging his grandson back from death to life.
This is not a story about fighting ghosts and upgrading, but a story about "how do people who know the rules live" and "who is using their lives to follow the rules for you"
