The Silent Judge

In the final years of the Jiayou era, Gu Kaizhi, the judicial commissioner of Hangzhou, takes on a bizarre murder case. The weaver Zhou Sanlang has suddenly died in the middle of the night, and strange golden patterns, like woven silk, have surfaced beneath his skin. Taciturn and brilliant at solving cases, he is known as the Silent Judge. When a second and then a third body appear, his investigation uncovers a secret buried for nineteen years: a sinister art known as “Silkworm Feeding,” which raises Heavenly Silkworm silk using living human bodies. From Hangzhou to Bianliang, from Emperor Renzong to Emperor Shenzong, a shocking conspiracy spanning three reigns begins to emerge. Powerful forces in the capital, dark dealings hidden within the palace, and the truth behind his father's unjust death: every clue points to the same answer. Gu Kaizhi must pry open history's silence and deliver a final verdict on behalf of the departed souls who can no longer speak.