I am Jiang Ning, the youngest coroner in the Great Yin Dynasty, and I can hear the dead speak.
But this time, I wish I were deaf.
Golden threads from an imperial robe are lodged beneath the Grand Princess’s fingernails. The Minister of Justice pins me against the autopsy table and forces me to change my testimony.
I cut open his son’s corpse and hold up the shards of jade from the stomach, sneering. “My lord, your son swallowed the evidence of your regicide for you.”
The candle flame flickers. Outside the door, a eunuch announces in a shrill voice:
“His Majesty has arrived!”
One corpse, two lives, and the bloody secrets hidden in the dragon-embroidered golden thread.
Just when I think I’ve caught the real killer, Consort Duan brings me a copy of Compendium of Materia Medica in the dead of night. A page has been quietly folded at “Azure Sea Orchid”...
And the owner of the imperial robe sits on the dragon throne, watching as I overturn his game board with my own hands.
