The Bronze Bell Ritual

"Bronze Bell Festival": an immersive feast of ancient folk customs and suspense During the 40th year of the Jiajing reign in Yangzhou, there was a rainy season. The new prefect Lu Wenyuan's awning boat had just docked at Chaoguan Wharf. A copper bell with dark red traces and an old imperial edict written in blood dragged him into the twenty-year mystery of "blood sacrifice to the river god". When the ghost in red appears repeatedly on a rainy night, and the sound of copper bells becomes a talisman on the banks of Slender West Lake, the suspenseful curtain of "Bronze Bell Festival" begins. The most amazing thing about this work is the seamless interweaving of folklore and suspense: the copper bell ritual in Qingya Village in eastern Guizhou has transformed from a tradition to ward off evil spirits and protect the village, to a carrier of curses; the old blood sacrifice case of "The Marriage of the River God" locks the sins of the 20 and 40 years of Jiajing into a closed loop of "reincarnation". The protagonist Lu Wenyuan has gone from a new official who passively accepted the imperial edict to an investigator who took the initiative to solve the injustice. His growth line is layered with the decryption line of the case. Every time the bell rings, it is a progression of suspense. The details about poison patterns, blood edicts, and red-clothed ghosts, in the weird atmosphere of ancient customs, also imply questions about the greed of human nature. When the lingering sound of the Bronze Bell finally settles and the truth emerges like peeling off a cocoon, you will find that this is not only the clarification of an old case, but also a trial of human nature spanning twenty years - and this is the unique charm of "The Bronze Bell Festival" on the folk suspense track.

Who is the protagonist? I haven't read much yet, but I feel the desire to read it after seeing so many words. I've read a few and don't know who the protagonist is? Wouldn't it be the various bells that are the protagonists?