At the ferry crossing of Qingliu Town in June, Shen Qingci, the head of the Xuanjing Department, received an order to investigate the murder of the Lin family, but encountered a cynical Jianghu man named Xie Linyuan on the way. The details of the body brand he casually told made Shen Qingci alert - this murder case was far more complicated than it appeared.
The green willow leaf brand on the deceased points to a mysterious organization called "Black Network". Xie Linyuan said that this is called the "Falling Leaves Order", which is specially used to clean up the door. But when Shen Qingci investigated deeply, he discovered that the case involved arms smuggling, water transportation corruption, and even the mystery of his father's unjust death that he had been pursuing for sixteen years.
In order to break the situation, Shen Qingci had to join forces with Xie Linyuan, whose origins were a mystery. From the ruins of the Miemen in Qingliu Town, to the bloody collection of books in Tianji Pavilion, to the scene of the unsolved case where the Minister of Household Affairs "committed suicide out of fear of crime", they step by step approached the core of the truth: the black network not only turned the world upside down, but also closely connected with the powerful people in the DPRK, and the interior of the Xuanjing Division - including Shen Qingci's most trusted boss - had long been eroded.
At the same time, the "four envoys" of the black network appeared one by one. Ji Yuntang, the eastern envoy, betrayed a blood feud, and Zhao Wuhen, the western envoy, turned out to be Xie Linyuan's murderer's enemy. In the final battle at the Fire Temple, the emperor came in person, and the secret edict opened up the scars of Dajing's century-old war.
The case was solved and his father was avenged. Shen Qingci stood in the empty courtyard of Xuanjingsi, but he only felt a huge emptiness. The emperor invited him to take over as head of the department, but he bowed his head and resigned. When he turned around, Xie Linyuan was already waiting outside the palace gate, with the morning light falling on his shoulders.
"Where are you going?"
"I don't know. Let's find a place and have a drink first."
"I'll accompany you."
Purpose: Use life as a candle to illuminate the century-old dark web; use the truth as a blade to cut through the ills of a single day.