The Secret Records of Dongpo

In the second year of the Yuanfeng era, the Crow Terrace Poetry Case erupted. Su Shi was escorted from Huzhou to Bianjing. The world believed it was a literary persecution, but no one knew that what the Censorate truly wanted was a “ink core” that did not belong in this world. It could turn poetry into a key, letting a single regulated verse unlock doors, open books, and take lives.

In the Northern Song, where factional strife intertwined with the dark web, the Lantai Literary School, the Mengxi Bureau of Artifices, and the Crow Terrace Directorate relied on one another even as they devoured one another. A strategist from the future and a constrained “ink spirit” used poetry as a cipher and meter as an algorithm, forcing Su Shi to choose between “benefiting the people” and “benefiting tyrants.”

Optimistic and broad-minded, he was also careless about details, curious by nature, and quick to trust. He was charming yet self-restrained, and often paid the price for a moment of compassion. Beneath the night rain at the Crow Terrace, what Su Shi had to protect was not only his life, but also his right to “still be himself.”