Shen Heng, Assistant Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, bears a curse: whenever he touches a corpse, he sees scenes from the dead person's life, at the cost of searing pain that eats away at his bones. Then he meets Su Yan, an assistant coroner who carries a jade hairpin for examining corpses. She uses the hairpin as a blade to probe the bones and detect poison, sparing him the agony of touching flesh and blood. Together, they solve strange cases in Chang'an, only to discover that every victim bears a bizarre ghost-face mark burned into their shoulder blades. A shady Ministry of Works case, a mystery surrounding grain transport, and a bloody case from fifteen years ago are all intertwined. At last, on the corpse of the Chancellor, Shen Heng is shocked to see Su Yan's face! And the instant the jade hairpin in her hand pierces the corpse, it reveals fragments of Shen Heng's unknown past
“This body once belonged to you.”
