The Nightless Marquis of Wushan: The Life and Death Ledger of a Century-Old Teahouse

Lin Qinghe, a modern-day tea artisan, is forced to return to her hometown and inherit a century-old tea house. But while roasting spring tea, she witnesses a "phoenix totem" spontaneously catch fire, and bloody words appear in the missing pages of the family heirloom, The Secret Tea Classic: "Nourish tea with blood, trade life for fragrance." She discovers that her father's mysterious disappearance is linked to the taboo of "blood tea," worshipped by her family for generations. The eldest daughter of each generation of the Lin family must offer herself as a living sacrifice to an ancient tea tree on the night of the full moon, in exchange for mastery of the tea-making craft.

To break the curse, Lin Qinghe ventures into an abandoned roasting cave and accidentally activates a "time wormhole." She travels to the Guangxu era and witnesses her great-grandmother being buried alive as a tea sacrifice. As her investigation deepens, she becomes embroiled in a century-spanning conspiracy in the tea industry: descendants of Nanyang curse-casters are buying up tea houses under the pretense of "revitalizing intangible cultural heritage," but are actually trying to awaken the "Tea Fiend" and bring about an apocalyptic rebirth. The Chaoshan Chamber of Commerce appears to support traditional craftsmanship, but is secretly excavating the "roasting scorched earth" in the coffins buried in the ancient tea forest.

Inspired by the twelve steps used to make Phoenix Dancong tea, Lin Qinghe develops "Time Tea," which can store memories of time and space. In a wormhole where reality and history intertwine, she battles the consciousness of the mountain god. Can she break the curse-caster's poison with the "Phoenix Three Nods" brewing technique? As tea leaves sprout inside her body and her veins turn into twisted strands, this tea artisan ultimately chooses to use herself as a vessel, recoding humanity's painful memories into "peaceful data." Amid the clash of tea fragrance and bloodshed, she writes a tale of defying fate for Chaoshan tea culture...