At the age of 22, Lin Qingyan inherited the only Taoist altar in the town, but could not even draw a complete talisman.
Until the bulldozers used for the reconstruction of the old city crushed the century-old ban next to the Zhenshui Monument.
Lin Qingyan is the only disciple of Zhang Shouzhen, a folk Taoist priest in Qingxi Town. After fourteen years with his master, he is still a dilettante who misses the mark when drawing talismans, is uncertain about scents, and panics when meeting people.
She thought her life would go on like this - grinding cinnabar every morning, folding gold paper in the evening, and following the master to deal with some strange things in the neighborhood. Until the notice announcing the renovation of the old city was pasted on the Zhenshui Monument in dazzling white.
The survey team stepped on the roots of the old locust tree and dumped construction waste next to the monument. What followed was the constant knocking on the door in the middle of the night, the vegetation withering for no reason, and the strange phenomenon of the river flowing backwards at the dock. The neighbors all said, "Master Zhang must be invited to come and take a look." But Zhang Shouzhen handed her the old cloth bag with cinnabar yellow paper and only said: "This time, you go alone."
She stood in a hurry at the barber shop, the fish stall and under the old locust tree, hesitating and hesitating in the face of questioning, and the talismans she drew often failed. Until Su Wanxing, a folklore student with a camera on his back and a mole in the corner of his eye, appeared and stretched out his hand to her: "Do you need help?"
A half-hearted female Taoist priest who can only copy spells and formulas, a nerd who is full of theories but has no practice. The two began to cooperate stumblingly, but found that the source of all supernatural events pointed to the same secret - the balance of yin and yang that has been suppressing Qingxi Town for hundreds of years under the Zhenshui Monument.
The real plan of the renovation party is to demolish the monument and cut down the trees.
Intention: Is what we protect superstition or another kind of survival wisdom?