Synopsis of The Blade of a Son-in-Law
When Shen Yan wakes, he is kneeling on the blue-brick floor of a century-old ancestral hall.
He has transmigrated. He is now the live-in son-in-law of the Cheng family, a prominent Suzhou clan. His parents are dead, he has neither status nor influence, and even the order in which he picks up his chopsticks is subject to other people's approval. His father-in-law smiles as he hands him a maritime trade contract, his voice as gentle as if he were inviting Shen Yan to tea. Sign it, and Shen Yan becomes the scapegoat for the clan's smuggling operation. Refuse, and the Chengs have hundreds of rules ready to make his life miserable.
This is the Cheng family. A refined place, devoted to flowers, art, and propriety. Everyone speaks in soft, gentle tones while keeping their knives well hidden. In everyone's eyes, Shen Yan, the live-in son-in-law, is no more than air, until one day, the old master who has been silent for years taps his cane on the floor of the ancestral hall and says:
"Starting today, Qin Mo will join the ancestral hall's deliberations."
A sheep has been tossed into a crocodile pond. But no one knows that this son-in-law, dismissed as insignificant, is no longer the same timid and useless Qin Mo he once was. He possesses a special ability called the "Memory Palace." A draft in the wastepaper basket, a knot in a string of prayer beads, steam rising from a bowl of ginseng soup, a careless remark overheard: to him, they are all clues that can be pieced together into a game of strategy.
He is investigating more than who is smuggling contraband. He also wants to solve the death three years ago, when a boat supposedly sank by accident. Who murdered the head of the Cheng family's Fourth Branch, his late father-in-law, in the river beneath Dusu Bridge?
The deepest knives are hidden behind gentle words. Shen Yan intends to return those knives, one by one.
Pretty good plot