Five months after Shen Qing transmigrated to the Ming dynasty, she started with a grain of coarse sand lodged beneath a fingernail and worked her way from kitchen maid to assistant at the prefectural yamen.
Lu Che, a thousand-household commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, came looking for her. "I need your help investigating a cold case from twelve years ago."
She examined bones, he investigated people. No autopsy table, no reagents, no DNA, only the Records of Cleansing Injustice, a small knife, and a pair of eyes that had seen ten thousand corpses.
They were evenly matched, each relying on their own skills. Without the other, neither could do their job.
Theme: Under the crushing weight of the system, give every overlooked victim a voice.
