The Classic of Mountains and Seas in the City

A key, an apology, and a request.

That was Wen Yan’s twenty-sixth birthday present.

Together, these gifts all pointed to one person: his mother, who had been missing for eight years.

To keep his promise and search for his mother, Wen Yan returned to his family’s old house in his hometown.

But when he opened the door from his childhood memories, he didn’t find his mother. Instead, he discovered an unfinished book, Records of Lost Legends from the Mountains and Seas.

The moment he turned its pages, clouds and mist surged forth, and a white dragon soared into the sky, calling out his mother’s name.

“Wen Rou?”

Gradually, Wen Yan understood.

What his mother had been doing wasn’t merely an unfinished research project or a notebook of folk customs.

She had been offering a gentle form of end-of-life care to the “beings” of this world who were being completely forgotten.

Now, that “gentleness” had passed into his hands.

[Dedicated to creating a Chinese version of Natsume’s Book of Friends, telling a heartwarming fantasy story.]