2026, The Year of the Horse, is the eve of the Lantern Festival.
When the lights of thousands of houses are lit for reunion, a group of people go against the crowd and walk towards the deepest darkness. They are called "Sui Shou" - at the peak of every festival, they strengthen the seal and eliminate those strange "Nian beasts" that breed due to excessive human joy or negative emotions.
Ye Xiao, the third generation Sui Shou, is born with the ability to swallow emotions. He was fed up with this fate of guarding the reunion of others in silence, and regarded it as a curse.
However, on this Lantern Festival, the unusual looseness of the seal pushed a truth that had been deliberately buried for thousands of years before him: the original "Nian Beast" may not be a monster, but the forgotten and sad guardian himself.
When fireworks light up the night sky, the real "New Year's Eve" quietly opens. This time, what Ye Xiao faced was no longer an enemy that needed to be destroyed, but an eternal lonely soul that needed to be heard and understood.
Should we continue to follow tradition and use stronger chains to complete the suppression? Or risk everything and go through the third path that no one believes in - to understand and complete the true guardianship?
Concept: modern fantasy, growth, group portraits, moderate emotional lines