Lin Xi, a modern forensic pathologist, suddenly dies at the autopsy table and awakens in the body of Su Qingyuan, the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, who was poisoned and dumped by her stepmother and stepsister. Still reeling from the shock of coming back to life in the morgue, she relies on her forensic instincts to play dead and save herself. She then volunteers to examine her own body in front of everyone, using a silver needle to detect poison and dirt under her fingernails as evidence. With a face-slapping turn, she exposes the lie that she “fell into the water by accident,” stunning the entire household.
During her days at the funeral home, living on brown rice and osmanthus cakes, she makes gloves from lard and turns bamboo strips into scalpels. Two ligature marks expose a staged hanging, while pollen and a trail of limping footprints help her solve a string of thefts. She transforms from a “monster of a legitimate daughter” into a “female sleuth” celebrated by the people. In the Golden Hall, she publicly determines that an official died from an icicle piercing his heart, then uses ice chips and palace fragrances to identify the real culprit. She is appointed the imperial coroner, but after openly counting her reward money and verbally flooring the official who impeaches her, she becomes the most “authentic” oddball in court.
Together with Xiao Che, Prince Jing'an, who pretends to be ill to investigate cases, she digs into the old mystery of her mother’s poisoning and uncovers a shocking plot by the Second Prince to collude with the enemy and stage a rebellion. Trapped in a mine, she uses forensic survival knowledge to fight back against impossible odds. During the palace coup and its suppression, her sharp eye spots the infiltrator and stabilizes the rear. In the end, she kills her enemy and retreats to Jiangnan with Xiao Che, where she compiles her modern forensic knowledge into Records of Postmortem Examination. She lets the light of female coroners illuminate the ancient dynasty, and joins hands with her beloved to see the land’s rivers and mountains, true to her calling and her love.
The Forensic Daughter: A Coroner’s Tale of Justice and Revenge
