The Tainted Register

Han Dynasty China, 200 BCE. A disgraced court clerk is sent undercover into a shadowy network that forges household registrations for fugitives and slaves, using bribes to pervert justice at every level. His mission is to expose the criminal matriarch known only as "Zeng." But as he sinks deeper, he discovers that her monstrous cruelty is nothing but a fierce, maternal will to protect the abandoned—pushed to its darkest extreme. When the imperial censor orders a final purge, the agent can no longer tell where the law ends and his own guilt begins.