Writing the News at the Palace Office

Shen Congyan held three posts: supervisor of the memorial office, overseeing reports from across the realm; judicial commissioner, investigating criminal cases nationwide; and compiler of the national history, recording the rise and fall of the realm. By day, he reviewed the reports and issued across the land the news the court permitted its people to know. By night, he picked up his brush and wrote another history in private: The Iron Brush Records. A minor case involving a forged decree exposed the deepest currents beneath Lin'an. Zhou Yi died in prison, but the marks around his neck were not from a suicide. Shen called on Jiang Buyi, a coroner from a family that had served Yong'an Lane for generations, who trusted bones, not the living. One read the words of the living; the other read the wounds of the dead. Together, they traced Zhou Yi's death to Chen Zi'an's, then followed the trail from Lin'an to the Huainan Circuit. They uncovered doctored drafts of official reports and military provisions being smuggled out in collusion with the Northern Di. And behind Shen stood Su Xiaotang, owner of the Meixi Teahouse and head of Lin'an's largest civilian intelligence network. Her broadsheets reported the things official dispatches dared not mention. He said, "Official dispatches are the court's mouthpiece~ (So don't go getting any ideas.)" She said, "Broadsheets are the people's ears~ (You can't stop me.)" What they protected together was a truth that must never see the light of day. But sometimes, the truth could get you killed~