The Yanlan Qin Chronicles

[Two formidable minds face off: strategy and music unite to unravel the mystery]

At the head of the Vermilion Bird Bridge in Jinling, a carriage bearing the Qingluan crest crushed the early cherry blossoms beneath its wheels. The clatter of a black abacus sent the swallows from the eaves scattering. Shen Yanbing, the Shen family’s business manager, swept through the heady fragrance of rouge, wielding an abacus to shatter the moonlit illusions of the Drunken Moon Tower. Upstairs, the strings of the moon-white-robed musician Xie Yanzhou’s qin snapped beneath his fingers. The dark mole at the corner of his eye reflected the colored-glass lanterns, concealing the same “Raging Tide Mark” found behind her ear. Two ships, the Yongchang and the Changfeng, sank in the river twenty years ago. The crooked words “Yanbing, save us” carved into a ship’s rudder brought two people burdened by the blood feud of their families’ destruction together. As abacus beads resonated with icy strings, they unlocked the mystery of the sea chart their fathers had sealed away in blood.