The Law Is Clear

When legal provisions become physical laws, justice has a three-foot-thick wall. In an accident, Di Ming, a junior official in the Ministry of Punishment, caused the characters in the "Household Marriage Law" to drink blood. The next day, three hundred couples in Chang'an were separated by invisible barriers three feet apart. They could not hand out medicine or hold hands. The word "sin" appeared on his forehead that only he could see, and Di Ming was forced to break into Dianzhang Pavilion, the origin of the law. Words become demons, laws are like locks, and the cost of repairing the loopholes is longevity. When he exchanged five years of life for peace in Chang'an, what awaited him was not praise. Censor Han Mo, a cruel Legalist official who firmly believed that "perfect order requires sacrifice", used this to implement the "New Order of Strict Law". In Yongningfang, curfews are fossils, quarrels are palms, and absolute order becomes a reality. On one side is Han Mo's "ideal world" forged with blood and fire, on the other side is the wailing of the people under the iron law. Di Ming discovered that the real battlefield was not in the court, but in the gaps between every law. He must use his opponent's rules to fight an unprecedented "legal guerrilla war." And when he finally stood in front of Han Mo, what awaited him was an even crueler truth: deep in Dianzhang Pavilion, there were sealed the thoughts of hundreds of schools of thought suppressed by Legalism. The collapse of the legal system will unleash a world of competing ideas and chaotic rules. From fixing a clause to challenging the entire system, in the end, he must answer an eternal question: If you were asked to write, what first rule would you write for civilization?