The Ming Dynasty's Ghostwriter

On the day Chen Zi'an was expelled from the Imperial Academy, he tossed his scholar's robe onto the table. “I’m afraid if I keep wearing this, I’ll forget how to write.”

Three days later, a writing-for-hire stall appeared in front of the City God Temple in Wujiang County, Suzhou Prefecture. Its crooked sign shone bright as day: “No charge for the wronged. Double for troublemakers.”

With a forged contract, he unraveled four layers of twists in court and saved thirty mu of paddy fields in Leijia Village.

With half of a torn painting, he saw through the creases in the ink by lamplight and uncovered a decade of smuggling deep in Taihu Lake.

He knew no martial arts and had no plans to sit the imperial exams. Armed only with a dog-eared copy of the Great Ming Code and a knack for reading people, he carved a path to survival for the common folk, caught between powerful families and low-level officials.

Someone was watching him from the shadows.

Someone was paving the way for him.

Someone was waiting for him to walk into a deadly trap.

And the other half of the torn painting concealed a secret far bigger than smuggling.

[No System, no martial arts, no imperial-exam power climb. This is the story of a scrivener who changes fate with the tip of his pen.]