No Way Out

"In this vast, fleeting world, I have no path forward, and I cannot see the way home."

Luo Tianxiang, governor of Hezhou, committed suicide at Yunting Lake. The evidence was conclusive, and his family accepted the verdict and signed the papers. But Luo Tianxiang's former students refused to believe it. While the emperor dispatched a judicial officer from the Court of Judicial Review to Hezhou to investigate, the Empress Dowager also sent her bodyguard, Liang Youqing.

Their first meeting was at the Haishi Inn, and it began with suspicion.

One was the renowned commander of the Azurebird Guard, unwaveringly loyal to the Empress Dowager. The other was a frail scholar from a poor family, burdened with a blood feud.

They thought it was an ordinary case, but in a sudden turn of events, it became entangled with a string of bizarre incidents.

Corruption, disasters caused by human error, framing, secret arts, resurrection...

Before he knew it, Liang Youqing was caught up in the mess as well.

Everything he had seen had been an illusion.

[Not a conventional mystery. There may be plot holes, so please be gentle. Please add to your collection.]

[2022.2.1]

Theme: Don't do bad things.