In the twenty-seventh year of the Republic, on the eve of Guangzhou’s fall, Lin Yanzhou flees up the Xi River with his ailing mother. At the dock, a gravely wounded young man presses half of a bloodstained cloth ticket into his hand.
Pursuers spot the cuff of his sleeve. The Su Family Silk Shop opens a door for him, but also pushes him into an even deeper web of intrigue.
The half bloodstained ticket is no ticket at all. It is a gateway to a secret network along the Xi River.
His father, missing for years; the Zhixin warship, sunk beneath the river; a messenger who faked his death; and a name hidden in old account books all gradually force Lin Yanzhou to surface.
All he wanted at first was to keep his mother alive.
Only later does he realize that survival is just the first step.
Someone wants to make him a pawn.
He is determined to see the whole chessboard for himself.
