The Woman of Qingcheng

During the Kangxi era of the Qing dynasty, Jia Moqing, a legal adviser at the Chengdu magistrate's office, is ordered to investigate a bizarre murder.

The merchant Boss Zhu drops dead the day after his wedding, and the suspect is none other than his sister-in-law Bai Luniang, who drove him out of the family home fifteen years earlier. The case appears to be a sudden death from illness, but it leads to a strange legend about a snake woman in Luoxia Village on Mount Qingcheng.

As he investigates, Jia Moqing discovers that neither of Bai Luniang's two husbands died by accident. Gao Mengyan, the magistrate's younger brother, is also cursed with a snake gu after assaulting Bai Luniang. His belly bursts open, and a snake emerges in a horrifying scene.

Bai Luniang reveals the truth: as a child, she learned a secret art from a snake god in a cave. She uses her body as a vessel to raise snakes for protection, and when a snake enters the body of an attacker, it causes them to die a sudden and agonizing death.

Jia Moqing's hatred turns to pity as he uncovers the old family grudge and the truth of his sister-in-law's endurance. To put an end to the world's covetous gaze, Bai Luniang disfigures herself.

In the end, Jia Moqing chooses to protect this snake woman, who has endured so much abuse, and writes a tragic lament for humanity, caught between tragedy and redemption.