In the fifteenth year of Yongle, the Ming Empire was at its peak: Zheng He's treasure ships were cruising the oceans, and tens of thousands of craftsmen were building the world's miracle, the Forbidden City, in Beijing. However, just before the capital was moved, a series of shocking and mysterious cases followed one after another.
Bloody ancient books were unearthed from under the foundation of Fengtian Palace, and the supervisors burned themselves to death in full view of the public, but their official uniforms remained intact; a locust tree that had been dead for decades on the top of Jingshan Mountain sucked human blood and blossomed into red flowers overnight; in the keel cabin of the shipyard, dead bones made from foreign secrets were discovered, targeting Zheng He's fleet...
Xia Houxuan, a minor official from the Ministry of Industry who was born as a craftsman, shuttled between the imperial city and the city by virtue of his special ability of "turning a picture into a picture" and his meticulous logic of "observing things to gain knowledge". He believes that architecture cannot lie, and every brick and every mortise and tenon joint bears traces of conspiracy.
The iron-blooded guardianship of Su Qing, the captain of the Jinyi Guards, and the toxicology skills of the mysterious female doctor Lu Wanyan, the three of them formed the Ming Dynasty's strange investigative formation. Not only do they have to solve the shocking cases that seem to be caused by "ghosts and gods", but they also have to face the shocking chess game hidden behind the many palaces that affects the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty.
When the truth was peeled back layer by layer, Xiahou Xuan discovered that the rising Forbidden City was actually a huge killing trap...
