My name is Shen Nian. I’ve been a coward who’s afraid of ghosts since birth. I sleep with the lights on and run past graveyards as fast as I can.
My grandmother was a renowned spirit medium in Sujiatun, but when she was alive, she never let me anywhere near her altar.
After she passed away, one strange thing after another began to happen:
I wake up at exactly three in the morning, and the silver bangle I wear against my skin heats up for no reason. An old photograph shows a half-transparent shadow beneath an elm tree. A rusted copper bell rings by itself in the dead of night. I see wandering ghosts on the subway, and my whole body aches, but the hospital can’t find anything wrong.
When I return to my hometown, I uncover my grandmother’s spirit registry. The name of Zhang Guangfa, a missing worker from a gravel plant, is clearly written inside. Gu Shen, a Taoist who specializes in folk customs, comes to see me and reveals my fate: the immortals have waited for two generations, and only I can inherit the altar.
Hu Tianba stands guard, while Huang Xiaocui runs errands and carries messages. A decades-old injustice buried by the Hun River, the unfinished signs my grandmother left to guide the dead, and my grandmother’s earth soul waiting on a register in the underworld all weigh on me, the person most afraid of ghosts and gods.
On one side are endless revisions to my client’s proposals. On the other are the yin-yang consequences bound to my bloodline.
Terrified as I am, I have no choice but to accept the incense and carry on the tradition, helping my grandmother guide lonely souls and giving the immortals a place in the world.
It feels very real, and it describes the hardships faced by the disciples who have gone through hardships, but their luck is pretty good. There are many people who have been struggling for many years and don't know what happened.