After my grandfather died, I inherited a run-down shop in an alley slated for demolition.
It’s called “Shanhai Folk Culture Co., Ltd.” On the surface, we offer funeral consultation services. In reality, we carry on a family business: hunting down strange beasts that escaped from the age of the Classic of Mountains and Seas into the modern city, then containing and sealing them, and using monsters to fight monsters.
I’m the only employee. My assistant is an old yellow dog with a bad leg.
I’m three months behind on rent, competitors want to swallow up my shop, and even I look like a slacker with no prospects.
But there are three things they don’t know:
First, I never fight without a plan.
Every injury I suffer leaves a mark on my enemy.
Every retreat is a move I’ve deliberately given up.
Second, there are far more monsters in this city than you can imagine.
A Gu Diao crawls across a hospital ceiling, searching for its child. A Fei sleeps in the main water supply pipe, capable of drying up the entire city. And a man called “Mr. Meng” is selling strange beasts to the powerful.
Third, I’m not here to be a hero.
I’m only here to collect an old debt on my grandfather’s behalf.
That debt has been outstanding for decades.
It’s time to pay it back.
