Shen Qingtan, a down-and-out painter in the capital, was born with a strange eye that can "see things that ordinary people cannot see" - he can see the "spirits" born in utensils and paintings. He was picked up and adopted by his master, a painter, at the age of six. At the age of fifteen, he was kicked out of the school because his eyes were considered unlucky. Five years later, he set up a portrait stall in the West Market of the capital city and was impoverished. His only companion was a civet called "Ink Slave" that jumped out of his paintings.
One night, Gu Yelan, the commander of the Jingzhao Mansion, came to the door - bizarre murders occurred one after another in the city: a Hanlin scholar drowned in his "Small Rain River Waves", with no water on his body but choked with ink in his mouth and nose; the Minister of Household Affairs was bitten to death by a tiger on the embroidered screen. The embroidered screen was intact and the tiger's eyes were filled with blood. Gu Yelan checked the files and found that all the deceased had purchased items from the same painting shop before their death.
Shen Qingtan was involved in the mystery, but found that the master's brushstrokes remained in these "murder paintings". And the man who expelled him from his school and had no news for fifteen years actually hid a message for him in every painting:
"Tan'er, stop checking."
