Once, the leader of Di Ting, an intelligence network that stirred the martial world and held countless secrets, was known as “Thousand Faces” Shen Qingwu. Tired of deception and intrigue, she faked her death and disappeared. Taking the name “A Wu,” she settled aboard the unassuming yet secretly ingenious Floating Life, a mechanical boat that drifted through the vast, misty waters of Jinghu. She wanted only to live quietly as a boatwoman and spend the rest of her days in peace.
But her peaceful life was shattered by the bizarre “Jinghu Bride Corpse Case.” The distinctive marks on the victim pointed to the past she had deliberately tried to forget and the mystery surrounding Di Ting's destruction. Even more alarming, clues left at the scene seemed to implicate her younger sister, who had been missing for years and whose fate remained unknown.
To find her sister and uncover the truth behind Di Ting's downfall, Shen Qingwu has no choice but to revive Thousand Faces' disguise techniques and powers of observation, steering the Floating Life back into the maelstrom of the martial world. She maneuvers among old enemies, suspicious officials, and mysterious patients seeking treatment, using her boat as a base to solve one strange case after another: a stolen family heirloom, killings blamed on an ancient tomb's curse, a series of baffling skin-stealing murders... Each case brings her one step closer to the truth, but also draws her deeper into power struggles and tangled relationships. The Floating Life is no longer a safe harbor from the world, but a lone boat sailing toward the heart of a storm of fate. Can she strike a balance between old shadows and new bonds, protect everything she holds dear, and find a true “floating life” of her own?
