During the Jingyuan era of the Great Wei dynasty, the land has only just been pacified, yet strange events are happening one after another. Dark Fragrance Slope is surrounded by water, with a grand tower rising from the islet. A golden sign hangs high above: Fragrant Garden. Beneath it, a line of small characters reads: “Every night, we get drunk in the mortal world, sharing stories and play with you.”
The Fragrant Garden is a tavern run by demons.
Its owner, Hu Yaoyao, is a thousand-year-old fox demon, blessed with beauty enough to topple kingdoms and a heart with a keen understanding of people. Here on Dark Fragrance Slope, she is the emperor, holding the power of life and death over all manner of people and ghosts. The beast-demon faction handles punishment. Those who have harmed others or bullied and abused women are never allowed back out once they enter these doors. The flower-demon faction grants wishes. For kind men and women who are ill-fated, wrongfully accused, or all alone, the Fragrant Garden creates a dream for them: a single woman is paired with a handsome flower demon, and a single man with a beautiful flower demon. From then on, they live in their dreams and never come out again.
Some say the Fragrant Garden is a paradise. Others call it a man-eating den of demons.
Hu Yaoyao merely smiles when she hears this, hiding half her face behind a round fan. “Paradise or demon’s den, it makes no difference. Not one person who comes in wants to leave.”
That is, until Gu Yanzhi, an assistant judge of the Court of Judicial Review, comes across the water.
