Su Yunxi, a modern forensic pathologist, transmigrates by accident into the body of the neglected third daughter of a concubine in the Prime Minister's residence of the Da Jing dynasty. The moment she opens her eyes, she finds herself caught in a life-or-death trap: her legitimate elder sister has pushed her into a lotus pond, and the original owner has already drowned. With a new soul in her body and her forensic skills, she fights her way back from the brink of death.
Starting out in the cold, secluded quarters of a great house, she uses a forensic eye to see through people's hearts. She exposes Madam Liu's scheme to frame her, opens a coffin and examines the bones to prove that her birth mother was slowly poisoned, unearths account books documenting fifteen years of embezzlement, and uncovers a shocking old case involving the Eastern Palace and the maternal relatives colluding to smuggle salt and iron and embezzle palace funds.
The turmoil spreads from the inner residence to the court, then into the depths of the imperial palace. When Consort Chen suddenly dies in the palace, Su Yunxi uses marks on the body to determine that she was strangled to silence her. When the magistrate of Huaiyuan County is found dead in his office, she examines the strangulation marks and the remnants of his accounts, exposing a breach in the Eastern Palace's secret diversion of military funds. The struggle over the succession is roiling beneath the surface, and the Crown Prince's faction makes repeated attempts on her life. Joining forces with the Eldest Princess, she uses bones as evidence and proof as her blade, cautiously navigating the treacherous whirlpool of power. She wins justice for her mother and herself, while forging a path through the ancient court, using the dead to speak the truth and the truth to determine the fate of the realm.
