Old Locust, New Tales: The Whole Village Owes My Family a Debt

#Mystery #RuralFolklore #SupernaturalFolktales #UnconventionalRedemption #EnsembleCast

The village guardian dies without an heir. The old locust tree is hollow.

Chen Guinian, a cultural relic restorer, returns to his hometown after twenty years away to mourn his father. A thousand-year-old locust tree at the village entrance is struck down by lightning, revealing a bronze coffin sealed with cinnabar talismans inside its trunk.

On the night the coffin is opened, the water in every well in the village turns sweet overnight, and no mirror can reflect the face of a living person ever again. His grandfather, dead for thirty years, knocks on his door and hands him a blood-written ledger.

“Guinian, it's time to repay the debt our village owes.”

The ledger is packed with names. Beside each one is a price: eyes, voice, descendants, years of life...

A hundred years ago, the village's ancestors traded “the most precious thing they had” for a century of favorable weather and bountiful harvests. Now the contract has expired, and the creditor has awakened.

Then Chen Guinian discovers that his name is written at the very top of the last page.

The space beneath it is blank.

The creditor wants him to fill it in himself.

I have restored thousand-year-old paintings, but I can't mend a contract written on human skin.