At six years old, Shen Yan formed a chess piece without an attribute. Everyone said he was going nowhere. At twenty-two, he ranked first in both the imperial examination and the chess trials, and was swept into the political games of the court and the northern frontier.
A list of wounded soldiers showed him how human lives were reduced to numbers. An old military grain case led him to the truth behind his father's death. Starting with checking the rolls and distributing medicine, he investigated military supplies, defended border cities, and entered the political arena. From a worthless chess piece scorned by the world, he became the century's Chess Sage, famed for the four chess arts.
Su Wan is the Grand Tutor's legitimate daughter, and the first to understand him through a game of chess. An arranged marriage in which each had their own conditions brought them together. They share genuine affection, but family, power, and the silences they each keep leave cracks between them. Gu Wantang is a military doctor on the northern frontier. They became partners over two prescriptions, saving lives, defending cities, and facing death together. Even at his most wretched, she still recognizes who he is.
When the four chess arts burn out and old accounts are brought to light, can he hold on to the person he once was and return to the place where someone is waiting to share a meal with him?
