The Chengzhou Con

In the crumbling order of the Spring and Autumn period, master swindler Zhong Ji stalks the corrupt elite who cloak their greed in ritual and duty. When he sets an elaborate trap for Jin's chief minister Wei Shu—a man exploiting a royal construction project to bleed the feudal states—he believes he has found the perfect, despicable mark. But Zhong Ji soon discovers his target is no mere embezzler. Wei Shu is a predator who acts without motive, weaving a web of deception that serves only to demonstrate his absolute power. As the con spirals into a nightmare of arrest, extradition, and hollow justice, Zhong Ji learns that the truest evil requires no justification, and the ultimate con is one where the game itself is the only prize.