In the late autumn of the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu's reign, gray rain fell on the ground in the capital, soaking the remaining leaves in the alleys and causing them to swell. Shen Yanzhi, an Imperial Hanlin scholar in the former Qing Dynasty, picked up half a torn copy of "Notes on Wanli's Daily Life" from the waste paper pile of the Hanlin Academy. There was a yellowed note sandwiched between the pages, and the ink was smeared like a ball of blood that could not be opened. The six words on the note, "In the Year of Renyin, the Three Corpses Say", led him to the half-collapsed Baoguo Temple on the outskirts of the city. The old monk in the temple said that there was a fire here twenty years ago, which destroyed three officials of the Qintian Prison and also destroyed a book recording "Celestial Changes". Shen Yanzhi rummaged through the pile of old papers and discovered that the deaths of the three officials were tied to the same invisible thread as a murder case during the Wanli period, a drowning during Emperor Qianlong's southern tour, and even a few prophecies in the boxing of justice. The rain was still falling, and the patrolman in the alley walked through the stagnant water. The lantern illuminated a beggar huddled under the wall, repeatedly chanting: "When the paper is burned through, the words will come alive..."
