During the Yong'an era of the Great Zhou, an inconspicuous lantern shop stood on South Street in the capital. It was called Nightglow Lantern House. Its eighteen-year-old owner, Shen Zhao, was a quiet young woman who made her living crafting and selling lanterns. No one knew that every lantern in the shop carried a coded message: a bright red round lantern meant “safe and sound,” a white lantern hung at an angle meant “in danger,” and a six-sided glazed lantern hung high meant “urgent, emergency.” Shen Zhao had learned this “lantern language” from her mother, who died in a great fire ten years ago, leaving behind only the words, “As long as the lantern remains, so do we.”
Shen Zhao inherited Nightglow Lantern House, along with her mother’s secret: using lanterns as signals to help women with nowhere else to turn. A wife abused by her husband’s family, a young lady forced into a political marriage by her clan, the wife of an official framed and thrown into prison… They would hang a particular lantern in front of the shop, and Shen Zhao would come to their aid.
That year, Lin Wantang, the legitimate daughter of the Anyuan Marquis’s household, hung a red lantern in front of the shop: a plea for help. Shen Zhao devised an ingenious “lantern scheme” to help her break off her engagement. But the broken engagement case unexpectedly led to the truth behind the great fire ten years earlier. Meanwhile, Lu Yanzhi, a scholar who had repeatedly failed the imperial examinations, moved in next door. He seemed down on his luck, but was in fact burdened by a blood feud, and the old case he was secretly investigating was the very same one.
One lantern lights the way for one person; ten lanterns illuminate an entire city. From testing one another to standing side by side, Shen Zhao and Lu Yanzhi wield lanterns as blades and use their light as shields. Amid the struggle between power and justice, they light one Nightglow lantern after another for the women of the realm.
A line to remember: “The darkest roads in this world still need someone to walk them with a lantern.”
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The lady who holds the lamp, she lets the lamp speak for those who cannot speak. Let those fists, knives, and the smell of alcohol all appear in front of a circle of lights. To illuminate is to force people to reveal what is hidden; to illuminate is to let everyone see what cannot be hidden.