In Dasheng, history books do more than record the past. Once a name is erased, its owner first loses their household registration and right to travel, then vanishes from the memories of friends and family. Lu Zhao, a copyist in a border town, is framed and imprisoned. Before his execution, he discovers that his name is fading from the death register. The Nameless Register left behind by his mother can restore the names of those who have been erased, but every name he writes requires physical evidence, witness testimony, and an independent record, and permanently costs him a personal memory. In three days, a prewritten draft accusing Yanhui of treason will strip seventeen thousand people of their identities. Lu Zhao and the physician Pei Zhaoxue investigate from the death cells to the granaries, military settlements, and courier routes. Before the city falls, they must prove one thing: Yanhui never surrendered. But when the buried truth comes back to light, old crimes, old debts, and responsibility for the war will awaken with it.
