Daxuan's laws are so fair that they are almost merciful: if you kill one person, you will be promoted to a noble rank.
Huo Zhao spent thirteen years and heads one after another to transform himself from an abandoned son to a Marquis of Guannei. Then the new emperor summoned him back to Beijing with an edict and rewarded him with a lamp on a snowy night.
The man holding the lantern was called Wei Heng, a penman with unknown origins. He was in his prime and had been copying documents for seven years, but he had half a golden goose in his sleeve - a pair with the half in Huo Zhao's arms.
One step shakes the family, one destroys the family, and one poison has been delayed for ten years.
Everyone in the court knew that the Ninth Prince, who had been thrown to the border to feed wolves for thirteen years, returned to the capital this time to die. Only the man holding the lantern stopped him in the middle of nowhere and handed him three lines of words that were enough to overturn the verdict - and by the way, he pressed the half-armor in his sleeve a little tighter.
Huo Zhao didn't know that the person who handed over the relics for his mother was the son of a criminal who had his whole family executed. Wei Heng also didn't know that he would be the one trapped in the killing situation that he was approaching step by step.
