Detective Di Renjie: The Sun Hanging Over Chang'an

In the first year of the Ruyi era under the Wu Zhou dynasty, a “ghost lantern” appeared at night in Huaiyuan Ward, Chang’an. Foreign merchants died one after another, each with a vermilion mark between the brows. Rumors spread throughout the ward. Di Renjie, Assistant Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, was ordered to solve the baffling case, but traces of lapis lazuli powder on three sheepskin contracts led him to uncover a staggering corruption scandal: Wu You Ning, the commissioner overseeing construction of the Mingtang, had been stealing tribute goods, while the grain transport accounts concealed a massive shortfall of fifty thousand hu.

(I originally planned to write four million words... Well, we’ll see. Who knows what the future holds?)