Thirteen years ago, Shen Shenyan, the number one concubine in the capital, was convicted of forging a testimonial and murdering seven palace residents. The entire Shen family died in a prison fire. Only nine-year-old Shen Zhaogu survived and became a dead person in the household registration.
Thirteen years later, she changed her name to A Zhao and started sewing corpses for others in Yizhuang, a remote county. She has a secret that no one knows: when she touches a specific knot of the deceased, she will inherit the last movement that the deceased failed to complete before his death.
The drowned bride desperately made a tying gesture, the accountant with a severed finger made non-existent abacus in the air, and the county magistrate who died in the secret room stretched his hand to his throat again and again. Action never gives answers, only leaves more dangerous questions.
When these dead people pointed to a non-existent medicine warehouse underground in the imperial city, Shen Zhaogu finally understood: his father did not perform the wrong autopsy back then, but found someone who should not have existed.
Purpose: The work takes Shen Zhaogu, an ancient female widow, as the main line to trace an old case of massacre, and explores the relationship between truth, evidence and power through each case of the deceased. The novel emphasizes that the grievances of the deceased cannot be vindicated by magical power. What can really fight against lies is rigorous testing, a complete chain of evidence, and people who dare to take responsibility. The work focuses on expressing respect for the dignity of life, procedural justice and the value of women's careers. Shen Zhaogu has gradually grown from a lone avenger who reversed the case for his family to a professional who promoted changes in the judicial inspection system. What she ultimately pursues is not just personal innocence, but so that more unknown dead can be seen, so that the testimonies of the weak can be entered into official records, so that the truth can no longer be easily erased due to identity, power and interests. At the same time, the work also reflects on institutional crime and collective silence: perpetrators need to be punished, but indifference, obedience, self-preservation and dereliction of duty can also become part of the tragedy. The novel hopes to convey that evidence not only belongs to those in power, but also to the victims and public justice; those who survive should not always be defined as victims, but have the right to choose their own identity and future.
