Turbulence in Yaxian County

“The sky over Ya County isn't blue. It's gray. There's more underground than above ground.”

Ma Jiaqi, a deputy prefect in Yangzhou, was demoted and sent a thousand li away to serve as magistrate of Ya County. On his first day at the yamen, he was treated poorly and given a dilapidated room.

On his very first day in office, he faced a particularly thorny missing-person case.

Wang, wife of Ya County cloth merchant Chen Qi, went missing on the eighth day of the eighth month after leaving the Chen residence in Yongxing Ward to shop. Her whereabouts are still unknown. The last place she was seen was the Qingfeng Mingyue Tower. A witness claimed to have seen her go inside, but the tower's owner and staff all said they hadn't seen her.

Who is lying?

And where did Wang go?

One disappearance leads to a series of baffling cases!

Main Characters

Ma Jiaqi (alone against the odds, magistrate of Ya County), age 23

Liu Yaowen (chivalrous and brave, constable of Ya County), age 20

Ding Chengxin (knows everything, a walking encyclopedia), age 23

Song Yaxuan (sees only a glimpse, night watchman), age 21

Zhang Zhenyuan (highly skilled, deft coroner), age 22

Yan Haoxiang (a man who knows the value of rare goods, black-market dealer), age 22

He Junlin (silver-tongued storyteller), age 21

Content warning: There is a female lead (Tomato messed up my tags). Everyone has a romance storyline, so feel free to leave if that's not your thing.