[Folklore Supernatural] [Mystery and Investigation] [Feng Shui Secrets] [The Bureaucracy of the Underworld] [Two Growing Protagonists]
Paper effigy makers follow three rules: never use the names of the living, never touch the eyes of a paper figure, and never retrace your steps after closing up for the night.
On the seventh night of mourning for his grandfather, Lin Mo was closing up when he ran into a man in a blue-green robe. The paper lantern in the man's arms had no oil or wick, yet it lit by itself, glowing an eerie green.
"Keep an eye on this lantern for me. I'll come back for it in seven days."
At midnight on the seventh day, the visitor inspected the lantern and left him with just three warnings: The wick is missing one part from the start. It cannot be replaced within seven nights. When the lantern goes out, the door opens, and the person watching it dies first.
The Paper Effigy Manual left behind by his grandfather recognizes its master and communicates with spirits. Orders from the Underworld Bureau keep arriving: guide the dead, find lanterns, and suppress evil. The payment is Underworld merit, and the price is karmic debt.
Never paint eyes on a paper figure, or it will find its own customer;
A birth date written on paper can claim a life, a paper house can suppress evil, and three peachwood nails can nurture a forbidden place...
And someone is using the Lin family's methods to teach an entire city of "sleepwalkers" to make death notices for the living.
Forensic pathologist Su Wan doesn't believe in ghosts or gods. She believes only in evidence.
She investigates a string of "accidents," while he recognizes the paper effigy techniques. One follows the visible trail, the other works in the shadows. Bound by the rule "No information goes unreported overnight, and protect people first," they investigate side by side.
His grandfather's "illness and death" were a setup. His parents vanished ten years ago, leaving a mystery behind. In an old photo from the Hall of the Heavenly Emperor in Fengdu, someone has scraped away the face of a third young man with their fingernail.
As the seventh-night countdown runs out, the white lotus blooms to nine-tenths...
The man who calls himself "Martial Uncle" has come to their door in person.
