The Secret Story Under Sophora Japonica

Introduction: Twenty years ago, a bizarre "soul exchange" ceremony took place in the locust forest in Kaoshantun. Seven villagers who participated in the ceremony disappeared overnight, leaving only seven pairs of cloth shoes embroidered with locust tree patterns. No one knows where they went, but they only know that from then on, every night when the locust trees were in full bloom, there would be the sound of soft footsteps in the forest, like someone wearing cloth shoes walking on the fallen leaves. Folklore researcher Chen Yanqiu returned to this isolated mountain village in order to investigate a incomplete manuscript left by his grandfather. The manuscript records the taboo of "soul exchange": feeding the locust tree with the blood of a living person can exchange lives during the dark time. The price is that the person being exchanged will be trapped in the shadow of the locust forest forever and bear all the disasters for the performer. And my grandfather's name suddenly appeared on the list of those who participated in the ceremony. As the investigation deepens, Chen Yanqiu discovers that there are too many secrets hidden in the village: the forest guards bury black cloth bags at the roots of the locust tree every night, there is a "thing" in a red wedding dress locked in the cellar of the village chief's house, and the descendants of the missing people have a light blue locust leaf birthmark on their left wrist. What made his hair stand on end was that his birthmark would become hot on a full-moon night, and an endless locust forest would always appear in his dreams. There would be a man wearing cloth shoes whose face he couldn't see clearly, asking him over and over again: "It's your turn, right?" When he found the seventh pair of cloth shoes in his grandfather's old house, half a piece of yellowed paper suddenly fell out of the cloth shoes, with his grandfather's handwriting on it: "They didn't leave, they just turned into trees." At this time, familiar footsteps came from the locust forest outside the house. This time, they were extremely close - as if they were stopping under his window sill.