The Ancient Book Restorer

Shen Jinghong is a古籍修复师 at the city library, earning a meager salary of 1,200 yuan a month, dealing with papers older than his grandfather. Three years ago, his father, Shen Yuan—renowned as the 'once-in-a-century Tian Shan Master'—disappeared mysteriously, leaving only a note. Some say he stole national treasures from the Book Restoration Society; others claim he was drowned by the Ink Sect. One day, his blood drips onto an anonymously donated Qing Dynasty copy of 'The Jest Book'. A faint ink-blue glow flashes, and a little old man with a goatee emerges from the page, hands on hips: 'Kid, your father owes me three hundred years of wine money—you pay up.' Only then does he learn that words have spirits, and restorers ferry them. Every ancient book houses a word spirit that has lived for millennia. And the 'Secret Notes of the Ink Sect' left by his father holds the secret to resurrecting dead word spirits. Assassins from the Book Burning Pavilion are already on his trail, and the big shots of the Restoration Society have their own agendas. Clutching the bamboo awl his father left behind, Shen Jinghong must forge ahead. He must find his father, uncover the truth, and give the souls trapped in pages for centuries their due.