Ying Chang'an

Ying Chang'an sets its story in Yongchang, a major town in the southwest during the golden age of the Tang dynasty, using the splendid surface of "wealth rivaling a nation" to set off the dark side of "human lives like weeds"; the premise itself carries strong tension of contrast. The author Long Lou chooses the female coroner Shen Ying and the young county magistrate Jiang Yanqing as dual protagonists: one grew up in the dark corners of the marketplace and stands on her skill in examining corpses, the other enters Shu by imperial grace and holds the ideal of "establishing a heart for heaven and earth." Their encounter begins with the rainy-night sedan chair, naturally carrying a sense of mystery and intertwined fate. The novel's appeal lies not in simple case-solving, but in using one unsolved case after another and one demon-like figure after another to pry open the power structure and dark foundations of the entire city of Yongchang. Jiang Yanqing's conviction of "not seeking to live for himself" and Shen Ying's lowborn resilience of "self-reliance" complement each other; readers can enjoy the thrill of solving mysteries as the cases advance, and also feel the strength of idealists and doers supporting each other in the mud. It suits reading in continuous stretches, following the rhythm of the cases step by step into this city that "takes lives without bloodshed."