Name: Southern Archives: Salt Returns to the Shrimp Shore
Author: Chang'an Returns to the Old Home

Synopsis

Inspired by Southern Archives, set in Republican-era Nanyang: a long, rebirth-themed mystery starring two male leads.

Hundred-year-old Zhang Hailou has guarded the archives alone for a century, trapped every day in nightmares of Zhang Haixia being poisoned and paralyzed, developing a split personality, and dying aboard the Nan'an. The instant he touches a fragment of a meteorite from beyond the heavens, he returns to Xiamen in 1916, before any of the tragedies have happened.

Only he carries the painful memories of two lifetimes. Knowing that Duskgrass eats away at the bones, that the Yu’s shadow ensnares lives, and that the warlord Mo Yungao has long regarded Zhang Haixia as a vessel for reincarnation, he deliberately distances himself and takes on every danger alone, doing everything he can to keep deadly threats away.

Zhang Haixia is born with an extraordinary sense of smell. He can detect poisonous fumes and identify evil spirits, and he keenly sees the fear and guilt hidden beneath his partner’s sharp-tongued facade. Unwilling to be a dependent who receives one-sided protection, he steadily breaks down the barriers between them and insists on facing the cases at sea together: the water ghosts offshore, the cave of the Balai Evil God, and the poisonous swamps of Panhua Reef, all the way to the fated end aboard the Nan'an.

The power of the Yu brings the backlash of fate. The harder they try to avoid tragedy, the more each danger closes in. When the meteorite’s illusion reveals the full truth of both lifetimes, a century of guilt and restraint is laid bare. The two give up their secrets and join their minds to seal away the source of evil, shattering the fatal cycle of one person sacrificing himself as they did in their previous life.

A blade never leaves its sheath, and salt never leaves a shrimp. In their previous life, Zhang Haixia gave his life to protect him. In this life, Zhang Hailou spends a century making amends. The two, one a warrior and the other a strategist, join forces to wipe out the poisonous scourge of Nanyang. At last, they can remain together year after year, never to be parted by death again.

Stats

140Chapters

309Reads · 30 days

22.9kReads · all time

102Shelves

26Listens

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