Strange Tales of Tokyo: A Concubine-Born Daughter's Unusual Life

Zhao Yue, a concubine-born daughter of the prince’s household, disguises herself as a man and wins fame in one contest at Qingfeng Tower with twenty bowls of insanely spicy pepper soup and her extraordinary silver-needle leather embroidery. This false young man, who covers his mother’s debts and secretly builds up a source of income, takes an unexpected interest in the Kaifeng Prefecture’s beheading executioner post, a position everyone else avoids.

She puts on the black uniform and takes up the executioner’s blade, becoming the most unconventional “executioner” in Dongjing. In the courtroom, she reads the mud on a criminal’s boots to uncover the secrets of a dock. In the execution chamber, she pretends to learn the secrets of sharpening a blade while keeping a close eye on the files for the “Canal Transport Deficit Case.” While the men of Dongjing are busy catching people’s eye with flower arranging and tattoos, she follows bloodstains to decipher the clues to a case.

From street contests to turmoil at the execution ground, from gambling schemes to secrets of officialdom, Zhao Yue carves out a path for a concubine-born daughter to rise against the odds, her passion blazing in the prosperous Song dynasty. The secrets hidden beneath Dongjing’s splendor lie at her fingertips as she wields the executioner’s blade, her edge never dulled.