During the Yuanhe period of the Tang Dynasty, undercurrents surged beneath Chang'an's prosperity. Zhou Luo, the young owner of a bookshop in West Market, was away from prison because of his father's unjust case, but was forced to get involved in the mystery because of a "human skin lantern" found in the ghost market.
With his extraordinary memory and wisdom from ancient books, he uncovered the real murderer from the lantern paint, and discovered that his father's death was involved in a palace conspiracy that spanned eight years.
From then on, he formed a life-and-death partnership with the upright bad handsome Qin Lang, the poisonous intelligence leader Wu Ning, and the calm female medical officer Su Waner, and repeatedly solved strange cases——
The Bronze Buddha weeps and sheds blood to reveal the corruption of the Ministry of Industry, the Hua Fang Qin Murder points directly to the machinations of the Eastern Palace, and the female corpse of Yizhuang tears apart the hypocrisy of ethics and religion... Behind every case is the abyss where power and human nature intersect.
And the riddle left by his father in Zhou Luo's hand, "The truth is outside the scroll," illuminates the dark night of Chang'an like a candlelight, and also leads him to the final showdown——
There is not only the real culprit of the crime, but also the dark shadow of "Tianshu" shrouding the lifeline of the empire.
Under the strange Tang style, a game of wisdom and courage about legal principles, human feelings and perseverance begins...
