Su Yao has a pair of extraordinary "ears": she can hear the voices of ancient artifacts.
It's not a metaphor. She can literally hear them. A bronze vessel unearthed from the ground, a jade pendant from an ancient tomb, a broken sword buried underground for a thousand years... As long as she focuses, the "ripples of information" left behind on these objects take shape in her mind as sounds, images, or even emotions too subtle to describe.
This ability is an inheritance from her grandfather, and a heavy burden as well.
His name is Hei Xiazi.
He is irreverent, loves money more than life, and never says a single serious thing. Yet this is the man who, faced with the training notes her grandfather left behind, took on the responsibility of helping her "open her ears."
From the antique shops of Panjiayuan to the uninhabited reaches of the Qaidam Basin, from forgotten tombs of the Warring States period to the legendary Palace of the Queen Mother of the West, Su Yao follows Hei Xiazi step by step into a world hidden in history's shadows. Her ability keeps evolving through trials that put her life on the line: from passive perception to active tracking, from vaguely "hearing something" to knowing precisely "where it is."
But the greater the power, the greater the price.
When she finally stands before the legendary bronze gate, when she finally "hears" the echo from beyond it, spanning a thousand years, she understands at last what her grandfather's parting words truly meant...
