Chen Du, a night-shift worker at a funeral home, accidentally uncovers a century-old underworld conspiracy tied to a ghostly marriage contract. A selfie stick engraved with the date 1957.3.7 appears out of nowhere in freezer number 13. From then on, his body undergoes one transformation after another: his left ear becomes an abyss, twenty-four seasonal blades sprout from the root of his tongue, the soul of a dead woman named Lin Wan lies dormant in his right eye as a fish, and bronze weighing stars are driven into his spine. Every strange change in his body is a mark demanding repayment of a debt of three taels and seven qian of yin money.
Long ago, the Chen family ancestors used living people to lay the foundations of an apartment block and forged a ghost marriage pact. The souls of every generation would be weighed on the scales, and debtors would pay with their bones and marrow. Chen Du's father turned to scale ash to protect him. Forensic pathologist Lin Wanwan saw through the deception and willingly offered her eyes and tongue to cover the marriage payment. A sinkhole in South City tears open an ancient river channel once used for drowning executions. Thirty-seven frozen corpses underground and countless wronged souls all come to light. A scale demon lurks below, sustaining the pact with human marrow and continually reaping mortal souls.
Chen Du searches pawnshops, apartment blocks, and underground silkworm chambers, tracking down weights, marriage contracts, and ration coupons left behind through the generations. At last, he discovers that the scale demon has been stealing the original gold dust, and that the entire debt was a scam from the start. Refusing to submit to fate and reap souls, he takes on the rules of Yanluo's private treasury alone and settles the Chen family's old debt, which has spanned sixty-eight years. Every encounter in this world has its cause, and every debt will one day be settled.
If you can't sleep, just look at it twice, hehehe