Xie Zhiwei, son of a former dynasty's minister of the Dali Court, watched his family be falsely accused and executed to the last member. Frail and sickly, he was said not to live past twenty. By sheer luck, he escaped death, but the world sees him as a useless invalid. To protect himself and clear his family's name, he is forced to marry Gu Lin, the ruthless Marquis of Jing'an who commands the royal secret service, the Xuanjing Bureau. He becomes Gu Lin's male bride, meant to bring good fortune to her new husband. On their wedding night, a baffling murder takes place in the marquis's residence, and every clue leads nowhere. As everyone looks on in disbelief, Xie Zhiwei uses his extraordinary powers of observation and meticulous deductive reasoning to calmly identify the culprit from his sickbed, instantly making a name for himself. Thus, a beautiful invalid in a wheelchair and a cold-faced marquis known as the King of Hell become the most unlikely crime-solving duo in all of Daliang. From a headless bride in a haunted mansion in the capital, to rumors of painted-skin demons in the water towns of Jiangnan, to a general's sudden death at a border fortress, they unravel one bizarre case after another. As they do, the pair go from probing one another and clashing as bitter rivals to becoming the only people willing to trust each other with their backs. Xie Zhiwei's illness is a disguise, and Gu Lin's coldness is a mask. When the conspiracy that destroyed the Xie family years ago and the undercurrents at court begin to stir again, the two join forces, using each case as a blade to cut through hypocrisy and themselves as bait to flush out the mastermind. In the end, they clear the family's name and bring peace and justice to the realm.
