Detective Stories of Officer Xue

The ancient state of Nanting, pronounced like "Ding," centered around Kainan County, was once one of the Eight Mysterious Ancient States of ancient Huaguo's southern frontier, as famous as the ancient states of Nanjiang and Yulang.

In the 1980s and 1990s, swept up in Huaguo's market-economy boom, everything in Kainan began to revolve around profit. Some people, ignorant and unscrupulous, racked their brains to swindle people out of their money, engage in illegal trade, and commit theft and smuggling.

Where there is crime, there are also "guardians of public safety" who uphold justice and fight evil, such as Xue Yiren, captain of the Kainan criminal investigation squad.

The story takes place during a special period in Kainan, from the end of the last century to the beginning of this one. Under Captain Xue's leadership, the criminal investigation squad solves one major case after another: in desolate snowy wilderness, amid treacherous rapids, at a bizarre vocational school, along minefield borders, in dark ancient tombs, and across the thousands of miles of mountains in Heluo and the vast northern frontier bordering Mongolia and Russia.

The book contains eight crime-solving stories, including "The Album of Those Who Guard Life" and "The Search for the Dog." Through the cases Xue Yiren has worked over half his life, it seeks to create a frontier-police version of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

As Xue Yiren puts it, when everything is orderly and society is peaceful and harmonious, there will no longer be so many criminals. Many young detectives might go through their entire careers without encountering a major case worthy of the name.

Of course, the ability to fight is what makes it possible to end a war. That is Captain Xue's ultimate dream. And when that day finally comes, the likes of Xue Yiren will no longer be needed. They will lay down their arms and retire to the countryside, telling the children gathered around them stories of their old detective cases beside the fire on winter nights.