In the fifth year of Xuanhe under the Great Song, Lu Ming, a top scholar born to a poor family, was demoted to county magistrate of Linxi after refusing to marry into a powerful minister's family.
A case of missing salt-tax revenue exposed a shocking network of collusion between officials and merchants;
a purple-bronze official seal revealed the secret of a regicide and attempted coup eighteen years earlier;
a desperate escape from death brought him face-to-face with Su Mingwei, the salt merchant's daughter who disguised herself as a man.
When Lu Ming discovers that the identical birthmarks of a crape myrtle flower on his and Su Mingwei's waists point to their identities as the late emperor's surviving children
he realizes that behind the salt-tax case lies a power struggle capable of toppling the Great Song dynasty.
