A Northeast Daoist in Jiangnan

Synopsis

Shen Du, nineteen years old, is the only successor to Qingyun Temple.

His master found him as a child and brought him up on the mountain. He studied Taoist arts for over a decade and has plenty of skills, as well as plenty of quirks: he can't use a smartphone, has never ordered takeout, gets carsick every time he rides in a car, and speaks with a thick Northeastern accent that clashes badly with his Jiangnan surroundings.

Before his master died, he said, “You little rascal, no one's going to keep an eye on you from now on. Go wild.”

Before Shen Du got the chance to “go wild,” the temple roof sprang a leak.

Just as he was worrying about how to afford the repairs, a Maybach drove up the mountain. The young woman who stepped out was Gu Niannian, granddaughter of the province's richest man. She offered a deposit of half a million yuan right away: “Please come take a look at my grandmother.”

Shen Du did the math: half a million was enough to repair ten roofs, with plenty left over to buy his orange cat a lifetime supply of ham sausages.

“I'll take the job.”

And so, a young Taoist priest who couldn't even use WeChat set off down the mountain for the first time, carrying an old phone and his master's orange cat.

He thought exorcising ghosts would be the hardest part.

He had no idea the real challenges would be finding his way around the richest man's estate, outsmarting a houseful of relatives who didn't believe in the supernatural, dealing with a distant cousin who seemed perfect but always sent a chill down his spine, and explaining to a soft-spoken young woman two years his junior that “what's going on in your family is a lot more troublesome than a haunting.”

Worse still, on his very first day living with the Gu family, Shen Du discovered that the thing that had haunted the family for decades seemed to be... waiting for him.