The Seed of Malice

After spending forty years in prison for a rebellion he knew nothing about, elderly Han Ziming is suddenly pardoned. Stepping into a world that has moved on, he begins tracing the roots of the Chu Prince purge. What he uncovers is not a grand political conspiracy but a banal act of petty jealousy and greed—a small lie told by a low-level clerk that, nurtured by ambitious officials, grew into a massacre. His quiet search for justice reveals how monstrous tragedies are often born from the most ordinary human frailties.