The Scarlet Acquittal

In the grip of Emperor Wu's expansionist wars, Wang Wenshu's reign of terror consigns countless innocents to death. Farmer Liu Ji and his wife Su'e lose their son to a conscription gang and spend years tracking the truth: their boy was among hundreds slaughtered and branded as rebels. When imperial prosecutors finally charge Wang Wenshu, the couple believes justice for their child is imminent. But the trial is a surgical procedure, confining its scope to bribery and military embezzlement—the dead are mere administrative errors. Witnessing the law triumph while their son's murder is legally erased, the couple devises a desperate act to force the court to speak the dead's names, even as it condemns their own souls.