I always thought that my folklore professor sent me to "Shenwangtan" just to collect fishermen's songs that were on the verge of being lost. Until I discovered the "Observation Notes of Shenwangtan" written by scholars from all generations of our school and spanning hundreds of years in the secret room of the village ancestral hall.
There are no fishing songs in the notes, only crazy and bloody truths: "In the eighth year of Qianlong's reign, it was observed that the 'old people' could perfectly imitate human emotions. The first generation of gatekeepers sacrificed the entire clan to reset their 'cognition'." "In the 20th year of Daoguang, the 'door' became loose, and the reflections of stars could be seen on the tidal flats, which were not earthly stars." "In 1983, the observation failed, and the seventeenth generation of gatekeepers... Were 'assimilated' by the observation target."
Only then did I realize that my family and my sect were not scholars at all. We are the "gatekeepers". Shenwangtan is not a village, it is a "door" located between the real world and an unknown dimension. The sacrifices passed down by the villagers from generation to generation are not rituals, but a lock. Now, the lock is... Rusty. And I am the last person who knows where the key is.
Treasure novels