In the third year of Tianbao, Chang'an City is about to usher in the Shangyuan Lantern Festival, and all nations are coming to visit, creating a prosperous atmosphere. However, a huge conspiracy against the Tang Empire is brewing in the dark. Various forces such as the Turkic Wolf Guard, the Western Region Chamber of Commerce, DPRK and Chinese dignitaries, Jianghu Rangers and other forces intertwined and collided in this most prosperous capital city in the world at that time.
With two hundred chapters, the novel shows the undercurrents under the surface prosperity of the prosperous Tang Dynasty through the shocking conspiracies and multi-party games that took place during the twelve hours (twenty-four hours) before the Shangyuan Festival. The protagonist Zhang Xiaojing, a former bad handsome man with a blood feud and imprisoned on death row, is forced to cooperate with Li Mi, the Prime Minister of Jing'an Division, to trace clues, solve the mystery, and save Chang'an within twelve hours. The story unfolds under tight time pressure, integrating historical research and suspense reasoning, and depicts a picture of the various social aspects of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty. From the palace to the market, from Hu merchants to scholars, the panoramic view shows a real and complex flourishing age of the Tang Dynasty.
