A list of assassinations, at the birthday banquet where the rituals and music are still lingering, in the ancestral hall filled with incense, at the moment when everyone bows their heads and swears an oath... Someone falls quietly, without leaving a trace.
The wrinkles of death have been ironed out, and the person who really writes is called Hua Zhaoying. Her murderous intention was hidden in a congratulatory message, a cup of residual wine, and a just-right night breeze; and the person chasing her was named Shen Wu Jiu. She does not solve ordinary murder cases. Her files only contain gaps in the timeline, violations in etiquette, and silence in human relationships.
This is not a cat-and-mouse game, but a confrontation between two human natures: they are not the polar opposites of good and evil, but the front and back of the same coin. The real opponents are never between each other. "Flowers Fall and Shadows Never Return", the title of the book is a prophecy.
"Flowers fall" is the silent withering when order runs over individuals; "shadows never return" is the fate of the executor who will never be able to return to darkness once he becomes suspicious.
This is a suspense novel that carries modern speculation in a classical context: it uses assassination as a stitch to sew etiquette and violence, loyalty and conscience, memory and erasure; it uses the eyes of two heroines to uncover the most subtle and dark layers of ancient power operations.
For readers, it is an intellectual puzzle nested in layers, a pulsating blood under the cold silk; there is no need to impose a setting, history itself is the biggest background; there is no need to exaggerate pathos, restraint is the sharpest expression.
The flowers have fallen, but the shadow has not returned.
And the truth is always before the next page is turned.
