In the height of summer, 2019, 24-year-old Xie Qing graduates from police academy and is assigned to an internship at the Huizhou County police station in Quanling City. This seemingly ordinary young man, however, has an extraordinary foundation: a natural Daoist physique, supernatural six senses, and a photographic memory. Since childhood, he has studied ancient martial arts and medicine under a wandering old Daoist. He combines the hard and soft styles of Tai Chi and Baji, and has trained his body with medicines made from ferocious beasts. His true strength is unfathomable. Yet he is lazy and devious by nature, with a gentle, clear voice and a mild, refined appearance that hides a mind full of schemes to “do less and earn more.”
On his first day, Xie Qing “happens to” talk a heartbroken young woman out of jumping off Huian Bridge. In just a few words, he starts talking about the river's chemical oxygen demand exceeding safety limits, somehow turning a tragedy into an environmental science lesson and leaving the onlookers dumbfounded. At the police station, his colleagues Tao Ye, Wang Jianguo, and Sister Li each bring their own everyday warmth. Even Zhao Ziming, a civilian auxiliary officer who disliked him at first, is won over by Xie Qing's understated professionalism and the eyes that seem to “see right through people.”
His younger sister, Xie Wan, secretly runs away from home to visit him, chattering like a little magpie. Xie Qing complains about her even as he dotes on her. His roommate, Gu Yetang, is a surgeon at the county hospital, cool and capable, but one night she tells him, “Be careful.” At the end of the night market, a mysterious figure in a black hoodie vanishes in an instant, leaving only scraps of paper scattered on the ground. In the darkness, an ancient blade, the Crescent Blade, glints coldly. Shen Du, a criminal investigator from the provincial department, suddenly arrives in Huizhou, with far too many unspoken words in his every sentence.
In Huizhou, the storm is brewing. Cicadas sing as usual, and the aroma of ginger duck fills the air. But Xie Qing knows that still waters do not mean there are no currents beneath the surface. And that undercurrent is flowing toward him.
