- Xie Yan: The embroiderer who guards the "Palace Embroidery Workshop" on the outskirts of the city for her master. She specializes in embroidering "Ming Yi" (embroidered clothing for the deceased). Her fingertips always carry the cold fragrance of mugwort and cinnabar. It is said that the lotus she embroiders can reflect the appearance of the deceased.
- Shen Yanzhi: An antique dealer wearing a custom-made suit always comes to the embroidery workshop at midnight, but never mentions the Ming Yi. He only asks Xie Yan to reproduce the "blood-embroidered lotus" on a Republic of China cheongsam - the original owner of the cheongsam was the concubine of a warlord who was burned to death seventy years ago, and the embroidery thread on the fragments of the cheongsam was tested to be human blood.
