The Mystery of Backwater Bay

The story opens with a chilling tale of the River God claiming lives at a bend in the Yangbi River. Longjia, a bachelor from Heima Village, unexpectedly hooks a woman's corpse weighted with stones, bringing Luo Xin, head of the county Public Security Bureau's Criminal Investigation Section, and her team onto the case. The victim is Lin Wanqiu, a missing investor. A local hallucinogenic drug is hidden in her body, and the knots in the ropes binding the stones are a lost Yi technique known as the Soul-Locking Knot. The villagers refuse to talk, and Longjia keeps experiencing eerie incidents, but his knowledge of the waters makes him Luo Xin's unofficial assistant. Starting out at odds, the two gradually learn to work in sync. They crack the hydrological puzzle of the river bend and mysteries rooted in Yi customs, then expose a smuggling ring using ecotourism as a cover for its crimes, a scheme tied to a land dispute and a decade-old cold case. In solving the case, Longjia sheds his reputation as a good-for-nothing and finds love, while Luo Xin identifies the mastermind and closes the old case. The smugglers are finally arrested, the village pivots to ecotourism, and the rumors surrounding the river bend fade away. Justice and hope bloom along the Yangbi River, with several tangled love stories and twists within twists woven throughout. My new work is out! Come read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you enjoy it. Your support motivates me to write, and I'll do my best to tell every story well!