Shanghai, 1937.
Shen Mu is the most forgettable clerk in the archives bureau, until he comes across a sealed file containing a living eyeball.
His hand reaches out against his will. His right eye burns with pain, and a monstrous beast growls in the distance
He knows his life will never be the same again.
His father died of a “sudden illness” twenty years ago. The pawnshop owner is hiding the secrets of a beast-tamer clan. A major in the secret police smiles and hands him a transfer order. “Join us, or disappear.”
But Shen Mu doesn’t believe in anyone’s “greater plan.”
He relies only on what he can understand: the ferocity of strange beasts, the greed of his enemies, and the cracks in the rules.
Step by step, he goes from pawn to player, at the cost of every awakening taking him further from being human.
