I Interpret the Dead in Chang'an

With one hand, she weaves an all-encompassing net; with the other, she strives to save all living souls. The Xu family’s cherished daughter, a radiant young woman who smiles and laughs with easy grace, and the Dali Temple’s upright chief, whose temples have begun to frost and who has cracked one bizarre case after another: which of these masks is her true self? The night before, she was still a sweet, clever girl on the cusp of adulthood. But after witnessing her father’s inexplicable hanging, she resolves to be reborn in his place. She infiltrates Dali Temple to kill her father’s murderer and bring the truth to light.

She searches for clues amid the banter and bustle of the streets, sees the secrets behind murder in the labyrinth of the human heart and the thin line between good and evil, and listens to the dead through blood-red glass and fresh graves of withered bones. Cui You, the jade-like young man who carefully trained her and serves as minister of Dali Temple: is he an upright, humble gentleman of the gentry, a corrupt power broker and Wu Zetian’s favorite, or a pillar of state who embodies both righteousness and wickedness?

One bloody case after another, each seemingly unrelated, unveils layer upon layer of schemes: corrupt officials devouring one another, princes and brothers locked in bitter rivalry, and the entrenched ills of an empire ruled by an empress. As the Wu clan and the Li Tang dynasty vie for power like titans, common folk, petty officials, and honest courtiers are all treated as expendable. The master of Ruyi Studio, whose informants span the capital; the empress Mingkong’s foremost spy in the Inner Guard; and a senior court official secretly fanning the flames of hope for the Li Tang dynasty all take the stage. The yin and yang of political intrigue, the good and evil of human nature, and the true and false faces of love intertwine layer by layer, shrouded in endless mystery...