A Record of Chang'an's Floating Clouds

In the third year of the Tianbao era, at Chang'an's Eastern Market.

Shen Ji wakes up in the mud with only one life to his name, and ten days left to live it.

Tang law: Any vagrant without household registration who is not apprehended within ten days will receive a hundred strokes and be exiled to a border prefecture.

He assumes the identity of a dead man: Xue Yanguo, a jinshi graduate from the first year of Tianbao, missing for three years, with no one knowing whether he is alive or dead.

A dead man leaves no loose ends. Unless his brother refuses to believe it, unless his mother recognizes him, unless that penniless scholar named Du Fu notices something amiss.

Ten days later, the officials from the Jingzhao Prefecture kick down his door.

What he doesn't know is that Xue Yanguo's death conceals a massacre from sixteen years ago. By surviving, he will witness the collapse of a golden age, drink with Li Bai, save Wang Wei's life, collect Du Fu's poems, and become the last night watchman of his era.

Floating clouds over Chang'an, a thousand-year dream.