The Divine Constable in a Chaotic Song

The Divine Constable in a Chaotic Song is a historical time-travel web novel by the online author Richard Tangseng. Serialization began on Qidian in August 2013 under the categories of time-travel and alternate history, with the story set during the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song. The protagonist, Xiaoyuer, is a homebody netizen from the 21st century who, while browsing at home, accidentally clicks a "Confirm" button on a webpage and inexplicably travels back to the Song dynasty with a system, taking over the body of a frail young beggar with amnesia. In the city of Bianliang he comes to know Bao Zheng, Gongsun Ce, Zhan Zhao, Wang Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long, Zhao Hu, and other figures of the Kaifeng Prefecture, and later crosses paths with historical figures such as Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, and the Yang family generals. He takes part in case-solving in the form of standalone episodes while being drawn into jianghu feuds and court intrigue. The work blends mystery and deduction with a system-quest mechanism: the protagonist uses modern thinking and scientific common sense to crack ancient puzzles, reworking classic cases such as The Case of the Beheaded Beauty and The Human-Skin Drum, and also stages collisions between wuxia elements and traditional culture. The book is long, driven forward by a chain of cases, and belongs to the light-hearted strand of historical time-travel detective fiction.