Weishui

Biodata

Geography

Districts

Surrounding Sites

• Weishui River — A river running through or alongside the county; its winter freeze prevented Jiang Sanyu’s murdered body from being carried away and enabled the crime’s eventual discovery. 21 22
• Qingfeng Mausoleum — Cemetery for the poor, criminals, and unidentified dead; Yu Chen serves as its gravekeeper. 2 37
• Bright Moon Mausoleum — Formal burial ground for officials, nobles, and wealthy households, maintained according to strict Great Xia funerary customs. 2 45
• Fanghua Mountain — Herb-rich mountain near Weishui whose dangers sustained the Wang Household’s medicinal-herb trade; it was formerly terrorized by the White Ghost. 12 14

Society and Economy

• Weishui is sharply divided by occupation and class. Gravekeepers, corpse carriers, porters, and other laborers are socially stigmatized, while wealthy families dominate Skybridge. 2 13 26
• The Wang Household is among the county’s wealthiest families, having built its position through Fanghua Mountain’s medicinal herbs and related shops. 14
• Spring Breeze Pavilion is the county’s largest and most luxurious restaurant, serving officials, nobles, and merchants on important occasions. 2
• The Golden Sun Merchant Guild recruits laborers and guards in Weishui when its caravans suffer losses, offering rare opportunities for poor residents to earn substantial money. 12 37
• A hundred taels of silver is enough for an impoverished resident to buy a house and storefront in Skybridge and live securely; by contrast, two taels represented the compensation received after Sun the Old Lady’s son died in a labor accident. 13

Organizations and Institutions

• Weishui yamen — The county’s civil administration, led by a county magistrate and supported by constables and clerks. Its authority is compromised by corruption and its limited ability to control the southern district. 32 37
• Aura-Observing Bureau — Great Xia’s extraordinary institution for dealing with demons, ghosts, fiends, and corrupt Qi Refiners. Although nominally below the county magistrate in rank, it cannot be directed by the yamen. 12 47
• Zhengqing Gang — Southern-district martial organization led by Xie Qing. It controls roughly eighty percent of Weishui’s porters and hard labor and becomes an important counterweight to Blackwater. 14 19
• Blackwater Gang — The largest gang in the south, tied to gambling, extortion, murder, bribery, and the frame-up of Yu Chen’s parents. 14 37 50
• Inspection Bureau — External authority that exposes Xiao Zihua’s bribery and corruption, resulting in his arrest before his escape. 42 48

History

Fifteen years before the main events, the Chen Household—twelve family members and a dog—was massacred in Weishui. Yu Tiesheng, then the county’s chief constable, and his wife were convicted within three days after their bronze maces were found at the scene and were subsequently executed. 41

The official verdict was later exposed as a frame-up. Six Blackwater Gang experts committed the killings, while Yu Tiesheng’s disciple Xiao Zihua stole the maces and planted them as evidence. The gang exploited Xiao’s resentment and greed after Yu Tiesheng dismissed him for accepting a bribe. 49 50

Major Events

Role in the Story

• Weishui is the place where Yu Chen lives as Qingfeng Mausoleum’s gravekeeper while concealing his strength and criminal-household status. 1 6
• The county’s poverty, hereditary punishment, class divisions, and weak legal protection repeatedly produce the unresolved deaths that draw Yu Chen into the affairs of ghosts. 1 22 37
• Its southern gang conflict becomes central to Yu Chen’s pursuit of justice, first through individual cases and later through his investigation into the Blackwater Gang’s role in his parents’ deaths. 39 41 50
• Public rumor repeatedly transforms Yu Chen’s hidden interventions into ghost stories, including the tales of hauntings, the Dream-Sleeping Constable, and the Head-Plucking Ghost. 13 24 36