I originally put this novel in the women's fiction category because I thought a bunch of guys probably wouldn't enjoy such a delicate, emotionally nuanced story. But I overlooked the emotional needs of female readers. It's a brain-teasing mystery. By the time I realized my mistake, I'd already signed a contract. Well, it's too late to change it now, so here we are.
In Mirror Bay, a town shrouded in sea fog year-round, fishermen have recently been disappearing one after another, and strange “eyes” have been appearing on the water at midnight. Zhao Haitao, host of the obscure podcast Tales of the City, comes to town in search of a hit story. But in the town square, he witnesses an ancient bronze mirror reflecting a “third eye” and meets Wang Xinyi, a young woman plagued by these strange phenomena. As the two investigate the mirror's origins, they discover that missing fishing boats, abnormal underwater currents, news reports that have been altered or deleted, a manuscript left behind by a foreigner named Tom, and an underground group calling itself the “Society of Mysterious Collectors” all point to the same horrifying truth: the “crack in reality” sealed beneath the nearby sea over a decade ago is beginning to open again, and Wang Xinyi seems to have become a “passage” through which some unknown will observes the human world. Amid the competing forces of the police, a scientific research team, a cult, and ordinary townspeople, the two must seek answers between rational deduction and an inexpressible terror. Before the crack opens completely, they must discover what this “eye of the sea” wants to see.
