Shen Tuo relies on his gift of foresight to survive under Zhu Yuanzhang’s watchful eye. He lies slumped over the cold case desk, his nostrils filled with the stench of inferior ink and moldy old records. He jolts awake, a fine sheen of cold sweat on his forehead. That same dream again: flames soaring into the sky, the deafening cries of battle, and a bloodstained general’s seal engraved with the words “Mighty and Majestic” rolling into the mud, only to be pinned beneath a large, knobby foot. Then comes a sky full of funeral paper money, followed by the execution officer’s cold, drawn-out voice: “The disgraced official Shen Tuo, guilty of colluding with frontier generals and spying on the imperial palace. The evidence is conclusive… He shall be cut in half at the waist in the marketplace, and his three clans exterminated…”
