The Black Lotus When the Geese Return: the End of the Hypocritical Father

A poisoned cup on the night of the Winter Solstice exposes twenty years of vile schemes by a prominent Jiangnan family. Zhuang Hanyan returns to her ancestral home wearing the guise of a frail woman. With the assassin Chai Jing posing as her servant, she uses the point of an embroidery needle to pierce the mask of her hypocritical father. From leftover wine at a family banquet to ledgers at a birthday feast, the two women drag the family's dirty business into the open. A longevity tapestry stained by embezzled salt taxes becomes the hammer that shatters the chains of feudal oppression. When the officials of the Court of Judicial Review break down the vermilion gates, the women laugh and curse amid the scent of tofu: "This filthy house isn't as clean as a millstone!" Chapter One: Trouble at the Family Banquet. The third knock of the clapper had barely sounded on the night of the Winter Solstice when the carved doors of the Zhuang family's main hall creaked open