My Name Is in the Underworld Register, and the Whole Village Wants Me to Die in Someone Else's Place

On the seventh night after Grandma's death, the night her spirit was said to return, I go back to the village to keep vigil. Under the offering table, I find a bloodstained register of the dead. The last page clearly bears my name: Lin Wanqiu, died on the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month, drowned at midnight. It turns out the village has a sinister custom called "trading lives to extend one's years." Grandma faked her death as part of a scheme, and the elders of my family voted to make me a sacrificial substitute, taking my life to give someone else ten more years. Ginger tea laced with sedatives, a trap beneath the water in Dragon Pool, being driven toward death at a cliff: relatives and neighbors take turns setting deadly traps for me. The coffin is empty; the dead were never truly buried. My missing father is still alive, and the mute carpenter is hiding secrets. Behind the register of the dead lies a criminal network spanning seven villages, its crimes buried for decades. I'm just an ordinary lawyer with no supernatural powers. All I have are physical evidence, recordings, and broken testimonies. If I can't escape the village, then I'll strip away everyone's disguises and piece together the complete chain of evidence. But even after the ringleader is sent to prison, it's far from over. A battered journal surfaces, and an ancient cycle called "Keeping the Lamp Alive" is still in motion. The most terrifying thing isn't a curse in a register of the dead, but the Lamp Keepers hiding in plain sight, wearing the faces of ordinary people. [Warning: All stories, customs, and characters in this book are fictional and have no real-life counterparts. Please do not imitate them.] This is a realistic suspense novel with a fake paranormal element. The register of the dead, life-swapping, and "Keeping the Lamp Alive" mentioned in the book are all hoaxes invented by the villains to harm people. There are no real curses or dark arts. There are no real ghosts. All eerie phenomena are caused by human-made props, psychological intimidation, and deliberate traps. Take a rational view of folk superstitions. Believe in science and the law.