Case Solved: Zhu Di Was a Ming Loyalist Too

In the fourth year of the Jingnan Campaign, Prince of Yan Zhu Di captured Nanjing, and the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen burned to death in the palace. That month, Zhu Di led his ministers to pay their respects at the Xiaoling Mausoleum. There, they saw blood and tears streaming from the portrait of the Great Ancestor. Countless insects had gathered on the portrait, forming a poem: “Jianwen lives, yet his robe and crown are stolen; a rebellious son deceives Heaven and seizes the throne.” The next day, a meritorious official from the Jingnan Campaign was found dead by suicide at home. Bloodstained words on the wall completed the poem: “Though the imperial robe comes by decree, the regicide will never be concealed through the ages.” The army's morale in Nanjing wavered. Many surrendered soldiers wept, saying they had failed the Great Ancestor's spirit, and took up arms in rebellion once more. Furious from his sickbed, Zhu Di gave the officials a deadline to solve the case and capture the killer. Otherwise, he would answer killing with killing and bathe Jinling in blood. Qi Qing has the bad luck to transmigrate into the body of a low-ranking official in Jinling. To stay alive, he begins investigating a series of bizarre cases orchestrated by the remnants of the Jianwen faction.