[Slow-burn mystery among ordinary people + ensemble cast and political intrigue + dual narratives + ordinary protagonists]
The title is misleading, so be warned!
Shengjing is a bustling city, never short of storytellers. But now an unusual one has appeared.
At first, no one paid him any mind. A storyteller was just a bit of entertainment, after all.
Then came the gambling house case.
The storyteller sat high in his chair and struck his clapper. His account of every detail was even more thorough than the prefectural records. He solved in one night what the Jingzhao Prefecture had failed to crack in three months.
The prefect’s face darkened. “Even a blind cat can stumble upon a dead mouse.”
Then came the case of the public funds.
The storyteller got every detail right: exactly how much silver the clerk had embezzled and which false wall he had hidden it behind!
The prefect fell silent.
Next came the arson case in the city wards. This time, it was even stranger: the fire hadn’t started yet, but the story had already been published. That slim volume saved an entire ward’s residents.
From then on, the prefect sent someone every day to ask, “Has the Bai Family Bookshop put out a new story yet?”
Rumors swept the city, and everyone had a different theory.
Curious people sought out the Bai Family Bookshop. Its young proprietress was named Bai Qingyan. With a face like a painting and eyes like water, she said, “I’m just a frail woman. How could I know someone like that? They insisted on leaving their stories here for me to sell. What could I do?”
But one young constable refused to believe her.
Li Xingge’s phoenix eyes shone like torches, and her dazzling beauty made her look like a boneless flower leaning against the doorway. She drawled, “In the gambling house case, the Bai family’s gambling debts were cleared. In the public funds case, the fines paid for your bookshop’s losses. And in the arson case, your faithless childhood sweetheart was exiled. Could this storyteller perhaps be a relative of the Bai family?”
Bai Qingyan lowered her lashes, the corners of her mouth lifting. “I think that storyteller has a good heart.”
“Isn’t it satisfying when guilt is punished by heaven?”
The current plot is pretty good. I feel that the heroine is a person with her own thoughts and abilities, not a fool. Moreover, the novel also sets up some suspense, which is very attractive.