The imperial family is locked in a struggle for power, and undercurrents swirl through the prince’s manor.
Five-year-old illegitimate son Lin Xiaofan treads carefully through the manor’s rigid hierarchy, until his granduncle, Lin Muyun, who had been an imbecile for 46 years, falls into a pond and wakes up. Everything changes overnight.
To outsiders, Granduncle is still a useless madman, babbling nonsense. No one knows that a modern soul lies within that body. By pretending to be crazy, he secretly turns information warfare and psychological games into “case studies,” personally shaping Lin Xiaofan into a hidden blade.
In the manor’s deep waters, skimmed allowances, maids serving as informants, and brothers plotting assassinations all become whetstones for the grandfather and grandson.
Granduncle teaches him: “Hide your edge in madness, and kill through schemes. A true blade must be so dull that no one sees it coming.”
From bringing down the steward of the inner treasury to turning informants into double agents, from outwitting legitimate heirs at the Imperial Academy to impressing the court with his arguments on the grain transport system, Lin Xiaofan carves out a path to survival, step by step, within the game Granduncle controls.
But as the truth behind Granduncle’s fall from a cliff years ago comes to light, the mastermind turns out to be his own second uncle. With a vast web of imperial, military, and financial power closing in, the blades of grandfather and grandson now point toward the shadows beside the imperial throne...
The one who moves the pieces from the shadows will ultimately rule the world.
This is a story of lying low, betrayal, and turning the tables. Watch as the imbecilic granduncle and his illegitimate grandson stir up the capital.
