After the Xiantian coup, the Kaiyuan Golden Age begins.
In the early Kaiyuan era, Emperor Xuanzong reforms the court and executes countless members of Princess Taiping's faction, securing stability at court.
But behind the prosperity of this golden age lie many secrets unknown to the world.
Deng Chan was born into a family of coroners and lived with her father. Though they were poor, they were happy together.
When an accident takes her father's life, she examines his body herself and discovers that there is more to his death than meets the eye.
To clear her father's name, she travels alone to Chang'an, where she becomes entangled in a baffling case.
A bone flute blooms with red flowers, the river god decides who lives and dies, painted ladies on a screen begin to dance, and golden lotuses bloom inside a steamer...
Behind every mystery lie countless threads connecting it to her father's death.
With her skill in examining corpses and bones, she works alongside Cui Zhibai, a scion of an aristocratic family, to unravel the clues and seek the truth hidden in the fog.
Cui Zhibai's childhood dream was to become a good official.
They first meet while he is on his way back to Chang'an.
A bizarre, unsolved case brings him face to face with a woman as radiant as the moon.
Deng Chan, daughter of Deng Yizhi, a renowned coroner of Jiangnan, has inherited her father's skill in examining corpses and surpassed him.
She has come to Chang'an alone to clear her father's name, but the road ahead is difficult.
And he is in need of a blade capable of cutting through the endless night...
Later, they stand side by side, seeing the full spectrum of human nature through one mystery after another.
And he, too, comes to understand his own heart.
Before meeting Deng Chan, Cui Zhibai had only one wish: a peaceful and prosperous age, with a stable country and safe people.
After meeting Deng Chan, he has one more wish: to protect her for the rest of his life.
Reading guide: 1. The story focuses on solving cases.
2. Set in the early Kaiyuan era, with some fictional elements.
(Title and blurb are provisional as of 2022.11.6)
Theme: Heaven's net is vast, but it lets nothing through
