Detective Di Mobai

The Divine Detective Di Mobai is set in the Tang dynasty during the Tianbao era. Di Mobai, a descendant of Di Renjie and an assistant minister of the Dali Court, joins forces with Su Yuejian, a female Ministry of Justice official disguised as a man who is skilled in memory techniques, and Tieshou, an underworld-born constable. Together, they unravel layers of mysteries amid the hidden currents of a golden age.

Starting with the theft of a luminous pearl in Chang’an, the three are drawn into a string of bizarre cases: a headless corpse on Suzaku Avenue, a drowned victim in Qujiang Pond, and a poisoning at the Jiaofang. These cases reveal secrets from the previous dynasty. In Luoyang, blood weeps from the Buddha statues in the Longmen Grottoes, while missing grain ships point to a revenge plot dating back to Empress Wu Zetian’s reign. A locked-room mystery at a West Lake estate in Jiangnan and a corpse that rises in a tea garden are tied to the secrets of a Silk Road caravan. At the frontier, ghosts haunt a military camp and a poisoned-salt case conceals signs of An Lushan’s coming rebellion.

As fragments of the Prophecy of the Push Back Chart emerge, the schemes of the mysterious organization known as the Xuanming Society become clear. Di Mobai’s origins, the bloodshed that befell Su Yuejian’s family, and the An Lushan Rebellion all prove to be interwoven into one vast web. On the eve of the Mawei Post Station tragedy, the ultimate truth is revealed amid the dust of a golden age collapsing. Five volumes of strange cases trace the hidden path of a dynasty’s decline.