Liu Daxia, Grand General of the Great Chen Empire's Left Golden Guards, had been thrown into prison for embezzling and accepting bribes totaling over two hundred thousand taels of silver.
As the news spread, court and country were shaken.
Because of Liu Daxia's advanced age, Emperor Chen had granted him special permission to forgo daily court attendance. Word had it that a crowd of officers had surrounded the Liu Residence early that morning, entered to read His Majesty's decree, and escorted him straight to the Court of Judicial Review.
That very morning, rain poured and thunder rolled. The skies over the Great Chen Empire had changed once again.
The rainy weather persisted for days. Like the imperial court, the streets of the Great Chen Kingdom's capital were eerily silent.
Occasionally, a few black-clad officers appeared amid the wind and rain, making everyone in the nearby teahouses and pleasure quarters fall as silent as cicadas in winter. They were arrest officers from the Ministry of Justice.
Who knew which lord at court would be the next to suffer...
Once the officers vanished from sight, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and began whispering among themselves. Some cursed the weather under their breath and quietly discussed the current state of the court...
The willows outside the Court of Judicial Review swayed in the wind and rain. Their drooping branches had been washed an even brighter green, with crystal droplets clinging to them like pearls.
Yet their thick, black trunks seemed especially cold and forbidding. In this wonderfully fresh springtime, they inspired not the slightest joy.
Draped in a black cloak and carrying an oil-paper umbrella, Censor-in-Chief Qin Lie slowly entered the prison of the Court of Judicial Review.
Although Qin Lie and Liu Daxia had always been at odds, even coming to