Yang Ke, head of the major crimes unit in the city public security bureau's criminal investigation division, has finally caught the murderer he pursued for seven years. But he himself tumbles straight into the Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty.
When he wakes, someone is pinning him to the ground and stabbing him.
After killing the assassin, he discovers that he has become a low-ranking officer in the Northern Branch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, a seventh-rank post. He has no powerful connections, no allies, and someone is already trying to silence him.
His predecessor had received a secret order to investigate a murder at a grain shop, but someone pushed him off a wall, killing him.
Yang Ke had planned to play dead and save his own life. He never expected the next morning to bring the victim's daughter to his door, weeping and begging him to investigate the case.
Even less did he expect that the half-burned letter, the stack of paintings hidden in the grain shop, and the man in black standing deep in the alley would all tell him the same thing:
This case is no simple matter.
Someone wants to use his death to make the case blow up.
Someone wants to use his survival to investigate a secret no one dares touch.
Someone wants to kill him to silence him.
Someone wants to keep him alive as a pawn.
The only cards in his hand are fifteen years of criminal investigation experience. Crime scenes don't lie, people always have their weaknesses, and the truth is always hidden in the details.
But he soon discovers that this time, he isn't investigating a person. He's investigating an entire era.
Liu Jin, the Eastern Depot, the Western Depot, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Prince Ning, the Tatar cavalry... Behind every clue stands one of the most powerful people of the age.
And he is only a low-ranking officer trying to stay alive.
