The Brocade-Clad Beast of the Forbidden City
Inside the red walls of the Forbidden City, the most dangerous predator isn't the Emperor's political rivals—it is the man who guards his bedroom door, a beast in silk robes waiting for the moon to bleed.
The night of the Mid-Autumn Festival was supposed to be a celebration of celestial harmony in China. Instead, the Forbidden City was bathed in the copper scent of blood. Three high-ranking officials were found shredded within a locked treasury, their bodies bearing wounds that no human blade could inflict.
Lin Xiyao, a physician ignored by her peers, is summoned to analyze the remains. Using her Heavenly Forensic extraction technique, she discovers a single, silver-white hair—a clue that leads directly to the Emperor’s most trusted shadow, Lu Yan, the Commander of the Jinyiwei.
Lu Yan is a man of cold steel and lethal silence, but beneath his embroidered uniform beats the heart of a feral beast. He is the victim of a hereditary lunar curse, a secret that would lead to his execution if ever revealed. When he realizes the young physician has found his secret, he doesn't kill her. Instead, he traps her in a deadly pact: she must find a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) cure for his transformation before the Blood Moon arrives, or they will both be devoured by the palace's shadows.
As the investigation deepens, Xiyao uncovers a conspiracy involving forbidden alchemy and ancient folklore that threatens to topple the Ming Dynasty. In a world of incense and irony, Xiyao must navigate a path where the man she is falling for is the very monster she is hunting. Can a silver needle restrain the hunger of a wolf?