In the third year of Xuanhe's reign, Chen Yan, the son of a farmer at the foot of Meiling in the south of the Yangtze River, carried "The Analects of Confucius" in exchange for half a bag of millet, and vowed to pass the imperial examination by farming and reading. A rural boy's student examination was failed due to fraud by corrupt officials. He refused to accept his fate and embarked on the road of filing a complaint with a piece of ironclad evidence. On the way, he met the lonely chivalrous girl Su Ningshuang, and they traveled together, from Hongzhou Prefecture to Lin'an City, and then to the emperor's feet. The scientific expedition was repeatedly hindered by the suppression of the powerful, and he was put in danger several times after complaining. They experienced robbery and massacre in Qingfengling, assassination in the academy, and conspiracy in the court, but they always used justice as the blade and knowledge as the shield, and stuck to their true intentions in the unfair world. They finally overturned the corruption network in the capital and were named on the Chen Yan gold medal.
