The Salt and Iron Prophecy

In the winter of Yongchang's seventeenth year, Hanlin Academician Shen Yanqing received a secret order to travel south. By day, he was to investigate the shortfall in Jiangnan's salt tax; by night, he was to probe the mystery of the East Sea naval governor's sudden death. Beneath the jade steps, the game was already in motion: wealthy salt merchants had joined forces with the Imperial Weaving Bureau, a vassal prince's private soldiers lurked in the East Sea, and hidden agents of the Embroidered Uniform Guard followed like shadows. Yet the emperor on the Dragon Throne gave him a blank warrant.

From a blood-written letter in Xuzhou to a Yangzhou mystery, from private soldiers on a remote island to the game in Jinling, Shen Yanqing tore away layer after layer of deception, only to find the warmest shadow beside the Dragon Throne: the person who had once guided his hand as he learned to play chess had long since made the killing move against the emperor from the other side of the board.

This was a game with the realm itself at stake. The players did not know they were pieces, while the true strategist watched from the sidelines. Everyone who climbed the jade steps would ultimately be frozen to the bone by the frost waiting there.