In the Republican era, Shanghai was like a splendid robe crawling with lice.
The neon lights of the foreign concessions could not reach the dark alleys of the slums, and foreign laws could not right the wrongs suffered by the Chinese. The missing women, the ghosts wailing at night, the moving portraits, the dancing specters: were they the work of demons, or were human hearts more terrifying than ghosts?
Five young people, one detective agency, and a dim yellow lamp.
Forensic pathologist Nangong Ruoxue says corpses never lie.
Detective Shangguan Yi says there is only one truth.
Martial artist Lin Feng says, “I’ll stand in front.”
Reporter Luo Miao says, “I’ll write it down.”
Nangong Jin says, “I... I’ll treat everyone to a meal.”
They solve one case after another and encounter one ghost after another, only to discover in the end that the deepest darkness lies neither in the bamboo grove nor in the abandoned girls’ school, but in the human heart.
This is the story of five people, and a glimpse of an era.
It is a record of the uncanny, and a chronicle of human life.
