In the third year of Yuanyou's reign, he came to Bianjing. When the bodies of three boatmen surfaced in the Bianhe River overnight, the government ruled it an accident and hastily closed the case.
Shen Yan, the orphan of the former Prime Minister of Dali Temple and the owner of a bookstore, found official salt marks on the sleeves of the deceased and was forced to be involved in a series of murders. Su Wanling, the daughter of a salt merchant, secretly performed an autopsy and found that chronic poison was hidden in the body of the deceased; the new party official Lu Chengan secretly pursued the case under the pressure of the court - the three of them discovered that behind the three lives were corruption in water transportation, party disputes in the court, and an unjust case three years ago.
The man behind the scenes was Liu Huaiyuan, the chief censor of the dynasty. He killed people, burned corpses and destroyed evidence, and even set fire to Shen Yan's bookstore.
The street scholar used his pen as a sword to write down the sins of the powerful in "Bianhe Wei Shuo", which spread throughout the streets and alleys of Bianjing.
