I Learn to Solve Cases in the Imperial Prison

In the twentieth year of the Wanli era, the Korean War rages, while the first signs of a succession crisis emerge. Ling Yun, a hereditary junior officer in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, has grown obsessive and withdrawn ever since his father’s dubious “death in the line of duty” three years ago. To his colleagues in the Northern Branch, he is an oddball. During an investigation, he talks back to his superior and is punished by being forced to kneel in the snow at night. On the brink of death, he is taken in as a disciple by Shen Zheng, the Southern Branch’s commander, who is renowned for his iron mask and merciless nature and is known as the “Cold-Faced Yama.” Ling Yun thinks he has found a shortcut to uncovering the truth about his father, only to discover that his master not only forbids him from investigating the old case, but trains him with a severity bordering on cruelty. The two investigate one bizarre case after another, from the capital’s ghost market to the Jiangnan grain routes. Each case seems intricately connected to the court’s larger power struggles and the wars on the border. Ling Yun grows rapidly under Shen Zheng’s discipline, but he also begins to realize that his master has a profound connection to his father’s death and may even have helped conceal the truth... This is a tale of a master-disciple bond woven from suspicion and protection, as well as a portrait of the turbulent court and martial world of the Wanli era. Ling Yun will ultimately uncover a vast conspiracy capable of shaking the foundations of the state, and through the choices he must make, learn what it truly means to be an Embroidered Uniform Guard.