Night Talks in Lin'an: Records of Ghost Cases

In the second year of the Longxing era of the Southern Song, strange murders plague the capital, Lin'an. A silk shop owner is found dead in a locked room, with fox-claw marks on his neck. A transport commissioner drowns, with water-ghost fingerprints left on his ankles. A Confucian scholar is clawed by a “zombie,” forcing the prefectural school to close. Even the Deshou Palace is said to be haunted by a “vengeful ghost,” alarming the retired Emperor Gaozong and the reigning Emperor Xiaozong. The people are gripped by fear, convinced that ghosts and monsters are to blame. Only Du Meng, a former judicial reviewer at the Court of Judicial Review, and the young Su Mu refuse to believe in such things.