The Ashen Lantern Ledger

Book One: The Book of Unpaid NamesThe dead do not forget a debt. They only need a name to collect it.When travelling clerk Ning Caichen reaches Black Gourd Ferry, a drowned toll keeper hands him a receipt from an office abolished twelve years ago. By dawn, a widow will lose her boat unless Ning can prove the payment was real—and find someone living who will testify to it.Ning has one dangerous advantage: an ashwood lantern that reveals the last promise a named person knowingly broke. Every use takes a memory in return.With Xu Yao, a sharp-eyed herbalist travelling under a false registration, he follows forged seals, impossible ledgers, and spirits trapped by the paperwork of the living. Each case has an answer. Each answer points toward a hidden network that has learned how to turn temporary records into supernatural law.A continuous historical-fantasy mystery series: one haunting, one investigation, and one consequence at a time.