In the morning mist of Wuluo Town, wood carver Zhou Heting fell on the grand master's chair on the century-old stage, with a rusty silver gun stuck in his chest and half an ebony chess piece clutched between his fingers. Detective Chen Mo stepped over the wet marks on the bluestone slab and smelled the smell of blood, medicine and river fish mixed in the air - this death, like the old curtains on the stage beams, hides secrets swollen by time.
The freshly broken ebony chess pieces, the silver gun wrapped around the fisherman's unique "death buckle", the gray-black powder in the corners of the deceased's eyes, and the shell fragments on the soles lead clues to the shopkeeper Lin of the medicine shop, the old Qintou guarding the boat, and the rumored mad woman who knew how to play. When half of the chess piece was combined with the other half in the costume pocket to form a complete fox, the old cases of Mingchun Class in the 36th year of the Republic of China surfaced like the body of Shen He: the mysterious disappearance of the class leader, the disappearance of Huadan Lucai, the greed of martial arts student Li Jingchun...
The gap in the double fox wood carving hides an unspoken acknowledgment, the hollow of the silver gun is curled with a must-have pen, and the finger bones at the bottom of the dark river are covered with the leader's ring. Chen Mo peeled off the thirty-year disguise among the fragments of costumes in the medicine jar, the straw ropes of the fishing boats, and the scorch marks on the tobacco poles: some people protect their lovers with silence, some use paranoia to cover up their life experiences, and some use death to end the entanglement.
The underground river of the old stage is still flowing, carrying the opera troupe's singing, unfinished facial makeup, and wood carvings with patched ears. When the truth breaks through the thick fog, it is discovered that all sin and redemption are tied to the pair of red-painted foxes - they look at each other in time, as if asking: Is the secret that has been hidden for a lifetime, a shackles or a tenderness?
