Shen Mo was a low-ranking judicial officer at the Dali Temple.
That is, until he cracked his head against a wooden pillar and awakened an incredible skill:
I can understand animals!
From then on, my approach to solving cases went completely off the rails:
The eyewitness at a murder scene was a haughty black cat on the roof. It complained that the killer hadn't warned it to move before setting the fire.
Finding crucial evidence meant relying on a lazy, work-shy hound's nose, and the price was every last bit of my dried meat stash.
Even tracking down the real culprit depended on the sparrow intelligence network, because they knew all the gossip in Chang'an.
I thought solving cases with my new ability would be a breeze, until I peeled back the surface of an arson case and found a smuggling network, a headless corpse, and a cat's testimony that said, "Prince Six is plotting a rebellion."
Now my direct superior has ordered me to keep quiet, the mastermind wants to silence me forever, and my animal teammates are arguing over who gets the most dried fish tonight.
Well written.