In the 26th year of the Republic of China, during the rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River, Qingxi Lane was enveloped by continuous rain and was airtight. Su Wanqing, a clerk at a foreign bank, picked up a peach wood comb engraved with lotus-tangled patterns in a puddle in an alley. She felt a biting chill and an inexplicable sense of voyeurism, which laid a fatal foreshadowing for her life. Midnight nightmares, strange hair on the pillow, and the mysterious loss and recovery of a comb force her to seek out the truth from her old neighbors. However, she uncovers the tragic case of a girl named Axiu who died violently with a comb on the eve of her wedding thirty years ago.
Su Wanqing tried to get rid of the curse, but found that the comb could not be thrown away, burned or hidden, and the shadow of death was pressing closer. As the investigation deepened, she discovered that the cause of Axiu's death was not a "violent death", but involved the struggle for property in Zhangjia Buzhuang, the oppression of feudal ethics and a forbidden love affair that was covered up. With the help of folklorist Jiang Shutong and bold and careful newspaper reporter Lu Jingran, Su Wanqing not only has to fight against the entanglement of Axiu's resentful spirit, but also has to deal with the real murderer hidden in the alley who participated in Axiu's murder. From the old house in Qingxi Lane to the abandoned dyeing workshop on the outskirts of the city, from dusty letters to strange folk rituals, the three people peeled off cocoons in fear and fog, and finally uncovered the truth about the injustice that spanned thirty years. Su Wanqing must also make a choice to save herself and quell the resentment of the resentful spirit before the curse bites back.
