The ancient Yellow River crossing "Wangniangtan" has been passed down from generation to generation as the ancestral motto of "crossing corpses without crossing resentments, and lighting lamps without extinguishing them". The Jiang family has been corpse ferryers for generations. They not only salvage corpses sunk in the Yellow River, but also use river lanterns as a guide to resolve the resentment of the dead souls and protect the tranquility of the ancient crossing. The protagonist, Jiang Su, was originally a top student in the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Medical College. After his grandfather Jiang Shouyi accidentally drowned, he was forced to return to Wangniangtan to inherit the mantle of the corpse ferryer and the ancestral "Grudge Transfer Lamp". When he returned for the first time, he used forensic rationality to deconstruct folk customs and use modern medical knowledge to solve the mystery of corpses. However, during salvage operations, he discovered that his grandfather's death was not an accident. Behind it was the shocking secret of the corpse burial case in the ancient ferry a hundred years ago. The corpses that were salvaged were all related to a "cave of resentful souls" hidden under the Yellow River. Standing corpses in red clothes, river oxen colliding with boats, giant turtles carrying coffins, and ancient elm locks souls, taboo folk customs on the ancient Yellow River road emerge one after another; the greed, betrayal and redemption of human nature are revealed layer by layer in the turbid waves. While Jiang Su adheres to the ancestral precepts of the corpse-walkers and balances the cause and effect of life and death, he joins forces with Su Qinghan, a reclusive ghost wanderer, and Lao Zhao, a boatman with an alienated body, to decipher the clues left by his grandfather and fight against evil spirits and evil thoughts controlled by resentment. Not only did he want to salvage the sunken corpses and transfer the resentful souls, but he also wanted to uncover the family curse and the secrets of the ancient ferry. He finally understood: the corpses are ferrying the dead souls, but also the living people who are coerced by desire; the river lanterns illuminate the way back, and also the glimmer of humanity.
