The Mute Dragon of Jinling

The seventeenth year of Jiajing, the Qinhuai River in Jinling. A boy whose entire family was executed when he was eight has spent ten years pretending to be mute, making a living ferrying people beneath Wende Bridge. Everyone thinks he's a useless mute, but no one knows that his water vat hides ten years' worth of accumulated inner strength, his bamboo pole conceals refined iron, and the bottom of the Qinhuai River hides secret files from the Embroidered Uniform Guard dating back twenty years. The Censorate, the Commandant's Office, the Directorate of Ceremonial, Japanese pirates and maritime merchants: he has recorded every dirty secret of the court, stroke by stroke. Until one night, an official vessel docks, carrying the family of Su Qingye in chains. The mute ferryman raises his head and speaks.