Records of the Case Review Office: A World Hidden in the Inkstone

Song Yan, the least noticeable “black sheep” at the Imperial College, picks up a bloodstained inkstone at a pawnshop in the Western Market, and a 3D scroll suddenly bursts into view before his eyes! Stolen jewels, vanished footprints, a shadow hiding in the rafters: everything comes to life inside the picture! When an officer from the Ministry of Justice slams the table and sneers, “What would a bookish scholar know about solving cases?” Song Yan lightly taps the scroll. “The culprit isn’t a cat burglar. It’s the pawnshop’s appraiser. The ledger hidden under the counter has lighter ink on the third page than on the pages before it, because he just falsified the accounts last night.” The others search and, sure enough, find half a pawnshop seal stuck to the appraiser’s shoe. From then on, a saying spreads through the capital: “Never underestimate a frail scholar. Song Yan’s inkstone holds a casebook that can strip every conspiracy bare.”