“How could rotten bones give off a fragrance?”
In the twenty-third year of Dali, the emperor died, disorder spread among the people, and strange disasters descended from the heavens.
The White-Haired Army and the ruins of the border garrison, lost in the vast frontier and believed to have fled in cowardice forty years earlier, appeared before everyone's eyes for the first time, their name cleared at last.
Xiao Liyu, the second son of the Prince of An'nan, traveled far to the frontier and along the way took in a homeless boy with no one to care for him. The following year, after suffering defeat, Xiao Liyu retreated to the inner territories, gravely ill and kept alive by bitter medicine. His nights were agonizing, and he often dreamed of the day his father died in battle. All his former spirit was gone.
When he set out for the desert again, he was attacked before he had gone far and fell from a cliff. In an unfamiliar place, he was asked to help solve a bizarre case, the “Spirit Cat Murders Its Master” case. After that, one case after another drew Xiao Liyu in.
As they crossed paths time and again, Xiao Liyu gradually began to uncover the hidden identities of those around him...
-“A person's conscience is the one thing in this world that must never follow the crowd. Heaven would have me save the dying and bring order to a troubled age, so why not save me first? Why not save my family first, or the seventy thousand White-Haired soldiers who guarded Dali for decades?”
[Disclaimer:
1. This is a self-indulgent work written to suit my personal tastes, with plenty of plot holes and little research. It's just writing practice...
2. My abilities are limited, but I've tried my best. Thank you~
3. Mystery-solving + war + a touch of political intrigue. Much of the story is imagined, with many tales passed down among the common folk.
4. The characters' values have nothing to do with the author. Meow. Please respect the work that went into this, thank you~
I'm off now that it's finished. Bye!]
