Jing'an Temple is attacked, and the female visitors who came to burn incense are abducted. Zhao Zhengli, the imperial detective, is ordered to solve the case. Yet the women he rescues die one after another. Three months later, Zhao Zhengli resigns and heads home. On the way, he encounters Xiao Man, who has been thrown into a pond to drown. Seven years later, the chief judge of the Dali Temple in the Yin Kingdom dies under mysterious circumstances. A series of murders soon rocks the capital, accompanied by the sound of women weeping. People say vengeful spirits are claiming lives. To restore order, the emperor orders Zhao Zhengli to return to the capital at once, but he has already been dead for more than two months. Xiao Man, his last and closest disciple, goes to the capital in her master's place and unravels the many layers of mystery beneath the turbulent surface.
The blame lies with bandits' cruelty, the strictures of propriety, and the harshness of the world, but never with women. Zhao Zhengli solved countless cases and saved countless lives, never imagining there would be trouble beyond his ability to resolve. Watching one woman after another lose her life to a strip of white silk, he decides to take a woman as his disciple. Beautiful and clever, she will stir up the world seven years later and carve out a path to survival for women everywhere.
Lu Chen never thought he could fall for a married woman, especially when he already had a beloved wife and a beautiful daughter. But little by little, he began to feel differently. He had spoken too soon back then, and the long road to winning her back stretched on. Even after rising to the very top, he still couldn't bring her back to his side.
