Human Traces

Do you have anything that others have asked for on your behalf? Song Zhifei didn't believe this. Twenty-six years old, supervisor of a construction company, working on construction sites to earn a living. There are three old scars on his forehead that cannot be erased. Until that day when he walked into the old temple that was about to be demolished, knelt down in front of the weeping Buddha, and threw a Holy Grail that no one had ever seen before - his fate no longer belonged to him. One person drowns in Shenzhen River every year. The deceased has a peaceful face, with his hands folded on his chest, as if he was being gently carried into the water. Something is counting people in the fog on the top of the foggy mountain. Every time a name is counted, there is an additional crack on the monument. These seals span hundreds of years, are connected to each other, and have been waiting for a name - a name left by Shen He's mother before her death twenty-six years ago. He was chosen. There is real horror in this book. It does not come from ghosts, but from obsession itself - the vows made by mothers for their children, the debts borne by the living for the dead, and the hidden prices under those seemingly unrequited gifts. The Buddha sheds tears, the hair emerges from the bottom of the river, and the child's face emerges from the mist. Behind every image stands a person. Their greed, their ignorance, and their love are harder to escape than any monster. And all Song Zhifei could do was to go on. He walked into every river, climbed over every mountain, trudged between seals, and discerned between broken names and broken names. He read out the forgotten names one by one, not to ward off evil spirits, but to send them home. But he was missing half of his name, which was still in the hands of others.