"Do you smell it? The second before a person burns, his soul will emit the sweet fragrance of poppy flowers."
The incense shop of the blind girl Atan hides the dirtiest secret of the ancient town - 49 porcelain ashes altars, corresponding to 49 charred corpses that spontaneously ignited. When the fugitive arsonist Chen Jin held her hostage, she didn't know that she was already prey: the sulfur crystals seeping from the skin ulcers, the coordinates of the mine automatically written at midnight, and the fetal memories that revived with the pain...
While chasing the murderer, detective Lin Duo uncovers an even more terrifying truth: a twin experiment thirty years ago turned the entire ancient town into a human body incense burner. The sulfur crystal clusters on the soles of the deceased's shoes, the fluorite powder flowing from the Nuo opera mask, and the suddenly resurrected souls of the mining accident all point to the pulsating heart of the mineral vein underground.
"We are not survivors, we are pus drained from the mines."
When Chen Jin inserted his ceramic right hand into Atan's chest, what he pulled out was not a heart, but a bronze bell engraved with Lin Duo's alarm number.
Red snow began to fall in the ancient town, and every snowflake was an unburned sin.
Reading instructions:
⚠️ Hardcore suspense + folklore Cthulhu
⚠️ Skin thirsty arsonist × olfactory psychic perfumer
⚠️ All salvation is a sacrifice of a higher dimension
"Dear Judge, are you sure the burning aroma you smell... Doesn't come from you?"
