Introduction
Xi Zhaoye, an ancient book restorer, restored a fragment of an early Song Dynasty scroll of unknown origin in Dunhuang. There are no words on the paper, but fresh sand keeps falling out of the interlayer; when he uncovers a patch of paper from a thousand years ago, he is actually drawn into Shazhou in the 6th year of Xianping in the Northern Song Dynasty.
At this time, Hexi was not just a borderland in history books. The Guiyi Army is still guarding the isolated city, and Chinese, Tubo, Khotan and Sogdian are intertwined in the streets; the war in Khotan is approaching, and refugees are coming east along the ancient road. In a small cave in the Mogao Grottoes, monks and calligraphers are secretly counting scriptures, deeds, household registers and personal letters. The Sutra Cave, which became famous in later generations, has not yet been closed.
When Xi Zhaoye woke up, he was suspected of murder. The dead scribe left behind half a page of "double-layer paper". On the paper was an insignificant grain account, but in the center of the paper was a "Shazhou Lost Name Book" that had never been seen in history books: what it records is not princes and generals, but ordinary people who transported food to the city, translated scriptures, led the way, and guarded beacons. Some people are willing to kill people and burn books to make these names disappear from history.
What he can rely on is not reciting answers from thousands of years later, but his skills in recognizing paper, distinguishing ink, mending books, and collating characters, as well as the occasional "old sound" from the page. But every time I hear the old sounds, the modern memory fades a little bit. If he wants to go back thousands of years, he must personally participate in the sealing that is destined not to be seen in official history; if he wants the truth to stay, he must accept a more cruel fact: the history that is preserved is always the history that someone is willing to pay the price for.
When the yellow sand approached Sanwei Mountain, Xi Zhaoye finally understood that what he wanted to repair was not a book, but a page that had been torn out of an era.
