In the winter of 1983, Shi Mantun, heir to the Shi family of old mountain hunters, died in a snowfall in the 1990s. When he opened his eyes, he was back at fifteen, on the night before he was due to enter the mountains.
In his previous life, his grandfather guarded a sheepskin ledger for his entire life, only for it to end up in the hands of outsiders. The old account of the seven lives lost by the ginseng-picking team remained untouchable. In this life, Shi Mantun heads back into the mountains with an empty basket, making a living in the old mountains with his keen eye and knowledge of the rules, while picking up the pieces of that rotten account from forty years ago, one by one.
Gather mushrooms at Frost's Descent, collect pelts at the Beginning of Winter, leave marks along the animal trails, and learn the story behind every old object you find. The mountain god's ledger records seven people, but eight went into the mountains that year. The extra one was a figure who came down alone carrying a goods list, the guide who secretly took money before they set off, the "seventh entry" that still has no name on the page.
The mountain shadows of the Old Ridge loom over the village, and people from the county supply and marketing cooperative have already arrived. Someone wants to burn the ledger.
Clutching half a sheepskin ledger, Shi Mantun thinks: What needs settling will be settled, and what needs collecting will be collected. The mountain god may govern what is in the mountains, but it does not decide how people live.
