The Bestiary: I Become a God by Collecting Resentment

Shen Jian was laid off by a major tech company and returned to his hometown, where he took over the secondhand shop his grandfather left behind. Then he discovered he could hear the lingering resentment clinging to every old object.

Other pawnshops take money. His takes resentment. The more he collects, the stronger the spirits awakening in the Compendium of a Hundred Objects become: a broken-stringed erhu, a mourning ceramic bowl, a doll bound with red thread... Clients arrive one after another, each carrying an obsession. As Shen Jian resolves their grudges and grows stronger, he also gradually pieces together the truth behind his grandfather's disappearance.

But in a hidden compartment of the shop lies a book of shadow accounts: resentment incurred must one day be repaid. And who is behind the growing chill spreading through the city?