The Bianjing Skeleton Case

The Lantern Festival had ended just three days earlier, and the whole city of Bianjing still held the warmth of the holiday. The night market at Zhou Bridge closed late, and now and then you could still step on firecracker fragments beneath Tianhan Zhou Bridge. But the area around Tianshui Lane had grown quiet early. Tianshui Lane was an old lane dating back to the previous dynasty, named for a thousand-year-old cave at its end. According to legend, an underground river once flowed through the depths of the cave, its water sweet to the taste. But during the wars at the end of the previous dynasty, the river changed course, and the cave dried up. As time passed, the lane fell into ruin, its surroundings overgrown with weeds. Only a few local ruffians occasionally gathered there to gamble. That night, the moon was dark and the wind high.