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Longing for Chang’an is a historical mystery visual novel set in the Middle Tang after the An Lushan Rebellion. An exiled aristocrat is drawn into a murder case that reveals a brutal power struggle in the Hexi Corridor, where every truth has a price and every choice shapes the frontier’s fate.
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A murder case. A fractured frontier. A path back to Chang'an.
Year 863. Zhang Yichao has retaken Liangzhou after a brutal campaign, but Hexi remains a land of old wounds, competing loyalties, and unfinished reckonings.
For nearly a century, this frontier has stood cut off from the Central Plains. Yet even here, people still raise the banner of return. What are they truly fighting for - home, power, survival, or a memory that refuses to die?
Longing for Chang'an begins with a single murder and unfolds into a historical mystery shaped by investigation, political maneuvering, and branching choices. Gather clues, expose lies, weigh factional interests, and decide how far you are willing to go. Each deduction reshapes the people around you; each choice leaves its mark on the fate of Hexi and Beiting.
· Search multiple locations for physical evidence and hidden leads.
· Question people from different factions and uncover contradictions in their accounts.
· Assemble fragmented testimony into a fuller picture of each case.
· Link clues together through logic and build your own chain of reasoning.
· At decisive turning points, make judgments that push events toward different outcomes.
· Your conclusions can determine who is condemned, who is spared, and who survives.
· Move carefully among military authorities, noble houses, merchants, informants, and spies.
· Use information asymmetry to make timely, calculated decisions.
· Every choice is another wager placed on a shifting political board.
· Follow diverging story routes with distinct developments and endings.
· Different loyalties, values, and ambitions lead to radically different destinies.
· What changes is not only your own life, but the future of the entire frontier.
Li Changle (Protagonist) Age 24
Once born into a respected Chang'an family, Li Changle loses everything after his father is implicated during the An Lushan Rebellion. Exiled to the northwest and stripped of status, he survives as a servant under another household's roof. A murder case offers him something he no longer thought possible: a chance to act, to climb, and perhaps reclaim what was lost.
The Dancer Age 29
A native of Chang'an, she entered the imperial music bureau in her youth and became one of the capital's most dazzling performers. During the rebellion, she was taken captive and traded from hand to hand as spoils of war. Now sold to a tavern in Liangzhou, she lives on in the shadow of a brilliance the world has already consumed.
Yang Ruyi Age 17
Daughter of Yang Zhilie and the treasured jewel of the jiedushi residence. Raised in shelter and privilege, she has grown into a proud, vivid young woman whose feelings are never hidden. Untouched by hardship, she still shines like a flower protected from frost - beautiful, sharp, and dangerously sincere.
Zhang Yifang Age 51.
A Liangzhou native and commanding officer of the famed Chishui Army. He entered the military as a young man with fierce devotion to his homeland and has spent decades in war. Battle-hardened, disciplined, and widely respected, he stands as one of Hexi's most steadfast generals.
Every case is tied to something larger. Behind each answer lies a deeper contest over loyalty, authority, and survival.
From military governors and noble houses to refugees and itinerant traders, each person has something to defend - and something they dare not say aloud.
Between private desire and public duty, what will you choose to protect? The story does not offer easy answers, only consequences.
A realistic Chinese-inspired art direction enriched with a textured faux-impasto finish.
Settings draw from the material culture of Dunhuang and Turpan, as well as the landscapes of Tang-era northwestern China, to recreate the harsh beauty and historical atmosphere of the Hexi Corridor.
Cinematic framing and storyboard-driven presentation heighten immersion throughout the narrative.
