Suspended pending an investigation, city forensic doctor Su Zhao rushes back to Chang Geng Village in the middle of the night to mourn her father. But Su Chang Geng's death has already been hastily ruled a heart attack while he was keeping vigil. One of the night watchmen says he "broke a taboo" and forbids anyone from touching the body again. Su Zhao only has to look down once to see something is wrong: red soil under his nails, an unnatural mark on his neck, a posture too rigid for a heart attack. None of it fits. On the inside of the coffin lid, a hastily torn piece of paper bears her father's handwriting: Third night. Don't let anyone in. But her father died on the first night.
A Night Watch Ledger recording thirty years of death patterns, three consecutive deaths dismissed as "retribution," and an old mine sealed for thirty years. The ledger lists seven names, with the last spot left blank. No one knows who it belongs to. The entire village believes the old rules have come true. Only she studies the details and sees someone working through a list.
What she must uncover is not just a murder, but the old debt the entire village is pretending doesn't exist.
