The liveliest place in Changning County isn't the market. It's the He Feng Inn.
That's because the innkeeper, Xie Chang'an, makes a point of helping ordinary people file complaints.
Against the richest man in town, the local government, even the Ministry of Revenue's Vice Minister in the capital.
No one believes he can win.
Until he lays the account book and a corpse before the imperial commissioner at the same time.
Some want him dead.
Some want him to keep quiet.
Some blame him for the deaths of seventeen people, tallying them up one by one.
He lays all the evidence before the court:
"First, whether this road can be built isn't for you to decide. The things buried beneath it will decide that."
"Second, you don't get to decide how those seventeen people died. Their bones will tell us."
"Third, you don't get to decide how much Vice Minister Liu embezzled. This ledger in my hands will tell us."
This is the story of a nobody who uses a ledger, a road, and seventeen lives to bring down the halls of power.
It's also the story of a world finally willing to bow its head before the people.
