Mysteries of the Dali Temple

During the Qiyou era of the Great Jing, the court was roiled by hidden currents, and strange cases plagued the capital and its outskirts.

Three years ago, Lin Jingyuan, the Judicial Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review, presided over a major corruption case in the Ministry of War. Just as the evidence seemed conclusive, he mysteriously bit through his tongue and died in prison. The case files were altered, his family was framed, and their fortunes were overturned overnight.

His daughter, Lin Qingru, endured in silence for three years. Abandoning the delicate life of a sheltered young lady, she took up her father's mantle. With her exceptional intelligence and forensic skills, she won an unprecedented appointment to the Court of Judicial Review, becoming the first woman ever to serve as a Junior Judicial Commissioner.

A corpse floating on Suzaku Avenue on a freezing night, a headless murder in the ghost market of the Western Market, a secret scandal involving the palace selection of consorts, a chain of killings linked to secret letters from the regional warlords... Every case was bizarre and chilling, and each pointed back to the shadow of the case from three years earlier.

As she investigated, she was repeatedly framed, attacked, and caught in political infighting. Yet she kept a clear head and a blade in hand, cutting through the fog with clues from the bodies, the ink marks on the case files, and the weaknesses in people's hearts.

More troubling still was the mysterious merchant Rong Shuo, who kept appearing at crime scenes. Clad in white as pure as snow, with secrets in his eyes, he sometimes helped her and sometimes tested her. His identity was a mystery, yet at every desperate moment he managed to provide a crucial clue.

As the cases became increasingly intertwined, the real killer of her father, a traitor at court, and a vast network of spies serving a foreign power gradually came to light. Joining forces, Lin Qingru and Rong Shuo faced the shifting currents of the struggle for imperial power. With the law as their blade and their wits as their shield, they reopened old cases, brought traitors to justice, and protected the people, until the wrongful convictions were overturned and justice prevailed.

Theme: Historical mystery