Three Quarters Past Midnight

Lin Qian, a night-shift guide at the Jinsha Site Museum, sees a silent scene from three thousand years ago when the bronze bell left behind by his grandmother rings at the third quarter of midnight: an ancient Shu priest casting a gold foil Sun Bird into a fire.

He can only watch. He cannot touch anything or communicate. Each time he rings the bell, his hearing grows a little duller.

His grandmother died in a “car accident” fourteen years ago. The bell is the only thing she left behind. Sealed inside it are memory fragments from twelve Jinsha relics, holding the truth about the last night of the ancient Shu dynasty.

An organization called the Shuhua Society is using violence to extract these memories. Its members are descendants of the usurping rebels from three thousand years ago. They hunt down descendants of ancient Shu priestly bloodlines who can awaken the memories of relics, with a single goal: to erase living evidence that their rule was illegitimate.

Before the Society destroys all the relics, Lin Qian must use the bell to awaken them one by one and piece together a complete, wordless history. The price is that the bell is slowly devouring his senses.

Shen Tang, a relic restorer, is his only ally. Her father was silenced seven years ago for uncovering the same truth.

Chengdu. The Jinsha Site. The third quarter of midnight.

Each time the bell rings, he draws one step closer to the truth and one step farther from an ordinary life.