"The Code of Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is a long ancient suspense novel based on the famous Northern Song Dynasty painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". The story is rooted in the streets of Bianjing in the third year of Xuanhe's reign. Starting with the "Plum Boat Case", it connects a series of complex mysteries involving the court, rivers, lakes, and marketplaces.
The protagonist Zhao Buyu, who is a master of solving private cases, is accidentally involved in the Mei Ship Strange Case on Hongqiao - a mysterious black ship moves mysteriously in the thick fog, and the people on the ship are mysteriously missing. Clues such as severed hands floating in the water, forbidden army weapons in the secret cabin, and silver hairpins embroidered with plum blossoms lead him into a puzzle involving smuggling, murder, and court conspiracy. As the investigation deepens, the disappearance of Taixue scholar Liu Erlang, the secret whereabouts of Chu Lan, a woman from Jiangnan, and the huge network behind the corruption in river transportation gradually surface, and even involve the collusion between the prime minister's gang and Jianghu forces.
The novel restores the prosperity and undercurrents of Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty with delicate writing: the bustling traffic of Hongqiao, the Jinxiu Embroidery Shop on Panlou Street, and the secret transactions at Liuxi Wharf, intertwining the livelihood of the common people with the power of the court. The "investigation team" composed of Zhao Buyu, his sister Zhao Pan'er, his brother Zhao Mo'er and others, in the process of solving a series of mysterious cases such as the "Sachet Case", "Plum Boat Case" and "River Smuggling Case", not only have to face the scarface killer, the corrupt county lieutenant and other open and secret attacks, but also have to find the truth in the cracks between imperial power and party struggle, and uncover the shocking conspiracy hidden under the prosperous appearance of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".
