I Do the Concubines’ Laundry in the Imperial Harem

Modern medical student Shen Du dies suddenly in the lab, only to wake up as the lowest-ranking laundry slave in the Great Yan imperial palace. Forced to hand-wash consorts' menstrual blood, eunuchs' festering sores, and maids' filth, he unexpectedly awakens an incredible ability: he can see microorganisms with the naked eye. Staphylococcus aureus, syphilis spirochetes, toxic malachite crystals, plague bacilli... To him, every filthy garment becomes a source of information that can speak. At the laundry pool, he spots bacteria on Consort Rong's clothes that match those on the steward eunuch; cinnabar hidden in an empress's maid's sleeve; pollen that shouldn't be there on the empress dowager's new clothes; and a young maid's tears, fragmented like stars under his gaze. As he endures beatings and curses, he secretly records the evidence in the laundry ledgers, turns his enemies against one another to bring down those who oppress him, shocks the court with a plague warning, and uses bacteria to solve cases and expose a powerful minister's treasonous conspiracy. From a wretched slave whose finger bones were crushed to the head of the Bureau of Hygiene with influence over the Imperial Guards, he climbs step by step. The lowliest hands wash away the darkest secrets in the palace, and clear a bloody path to the throne.