"Red Makeup Detective" tells the story of a female widower Shen Zhiwei and the county magistrate Gu Mingyuan teaming up to solve a strange case in a foggy town in the Song Dynasty.
Shen Zhiwei, who possesses ancestral autopsy skills, can only show herself as an embroiderer because of her identity as a woman. The new county magistrate Gu Mingyuan does not follow the rules of etiquette. He saw her talent in a bride's heart-breaking case and hired her as a criminal consultant. The two team up to investigate a series of strange cases in Mist Town: the bride who was disemboweled on her wedding night but showed no scars, the mummies suspected of being drowned by water ghosts by the river, the mummies with spells arranged in a Beidou pattern in the Taoist temple... Each case is shrouded in supernatural fog.
Shen Zhiwei relied on the "seven orifices autopsy method" to break through the illusion in subtle ways - poisonous mushroom fragments between teeth and fingernail paper dust were all key clues; Gu Mingyuan used his authority to conduct overt and covert investigations, gradually approaching the truth. The story combines the post-mortem technique of the Song Dynasty, folk taboos and trace supernatural elements. In the gloomy scenes such as bloody paper flowers, autopsy in foggy nights, and the search for deserted temples, a detective legend intertwined with rationality and mystery unfolds.
In the end, all cases point to a mysterious cult organization, and the two must uncover the shocking secret that has lasted for twenty years in the bloody wedding.
