Lord Jiao Takes a Job

“An ancient true dragon? It's in volume four of the Classic of Mountains and Seas: a little darling, just a water snake.” Master Jiao is a water-snake spirit who failed to complete his flood-dragon transformation. With a broken horn on his head, he keeps river water in his thermos instead of tea. He runs Jiang's Folk Customs Agency, taking cases from water ghosts at Waibaidu Bridge to a headless dancer at the Paramount Ballroom, each more sinister than the last. His partner, Chu Jianyi, is a junior Maoshan disciple with round glasses and a compulsive need for cleanliness, who believes in “scientific cultivation” and calculates the time and direction before drawing a talisman. Chen Qing, a wealthy young woman recently returned from abroad, studied both psychology and archaeology. Her first reaction to seeing a ghost? Pull out her gun. These three misfits take on the most hellish cases. The stench above a stage, sobs from a bridal gown in an old mansion, the taboos of the Yellow River's corpse retrievers: behind every case, human hearts are more vicious than ghosts. Master Jiao's quips fly fast, but his scales really do hurt when they take a blade. Chu Jianyi delivers icy put-downs, then becomes the anchor that steadies the seas when he opens a formation. Chen Qing loads her gun, calculating bullet trajectories more accurately than feng shui. But Master Jiao knows the truth: his failed transformation and broken dragon horn weren't caused by a natural disaster. Someone was secretly severing the waterways of the mortal world, inch by inch. And this “little darling” is determined to defy the thunder and press on. He wields water to cast spells and drives off evil with his dragon breath. On a stormy night, the Dragon Gate rises once more.