During the Northern Song, a remarkable man appeared in Bianjing.
Song Ming, a coroner whose pair of “ghost hands” could make the dead speak.
An unidentified woman’s corpse in the river, a bride who died on her wedding night, a Zen master who passed away in seated meditation... One baffling case after another followed. In the end, all twenty-three deaths pointed to the same secret, one buried by imperial power.
He pursued the truth for five years, searching all of Bianjing and Jiangnan. At last, he uncovered what had really happened when the entire Song family was executed, and came face to face with the true power behind it all: the emperor himself.
But imperial authority loomed like a mountain. His father gave his life to secure his escape, forcing him to flee and wander the martial world.
Thirty years later, a long-overdue imperial decree arrived to clear his family’s name. In front of the imperial envoy, he set it alight and watched it burn to ash.
The next day, Song Ming picked up his examination case and swung into the saddle.
Someone behind him asked, “Mr. Song, where are you going?”
He reined in his horse and smiled over his shoulder.
“Where? To give every victim the justice they’ve been denied for thirty years.”
