Archaeologist Lin Mu touches a mysterious jade cicada in a Han dynasty tomb and is swept into a temporal maelstrom. To save her companions, she's forced into a contract with the "Night Watchers," an organization tasked with maintaining the timeline, becoming a cleaner who roams the cracks in history.
Her first mission is to return to Shanghai in 1928 and retrieve the out-of-control "Resonance Bell." But the mission goes completely awry from the start. She, who should have been a mere passerby in history, is recognized at a glance by Jiang Linyuan, a Night Watcher traitor who should already have been "eliminated." He tells her, "You're three years late."
The neon-lit, bustling streets of old Shanghai are both the starting point of a temporal war and the vortex of a vast conspiracy. There she meets Shen Zhiyu, a girl who can see the paths of time, and faces the deadly pursuit of Zhong Ziyan, a Night Watcher commander. As Lin Mu works to save a beleaguered unit on the brink of annihilation and uncover the truth of history, she discovers that her mother's disappearance, Jiang Linyuan's defection, and even the founding of the Time Management Bureau are all closely intertwined with this era.
When saving one person conflicts with protecting the fate of millions, and the cold laws of time collide with the vivid emotions of history, Lin Mu must choose: obey the Night Watchers' ironclad rule of non-interference, or heed the bell within her heart and protect the starlight that should not be forgotten in the flood of time?
This is an adventure about time, memory, and choice. In the folds of history, every moment holds the possibility of changing the world.
Theme: Wrapped in a story of transmigration through time and space, this novel poses a humanistic question about memory, dignity, and choice. In the end, it celebrates the small but steadfast acts of resistance people can still make in the face of an irresistible tide
