You are a newly appointed scholar-official and have just passed a series of rigorous examinations. They were set up to ensure that only the most worthy individuals obtain positions in the government, instead of those who were merely the friends and relatives of powerful individuals. As you sit down to a nice dinner, you are feeling MOST worthy. Before you can take your first bite of spiced pork, you hear a banging at the door. You open it to admit a terrified looking servant who announces that there has been a murder at the home of the local Magistrate. The Honorable Judge Sung Tzu – who you have been studying law and the principles of death investigation under -- requests that you meet him at the house, post haste!

With mournful thoughts of your lovely dinner cooling back on your table, you hurry to the house of the official, who you remember from your days as a student. It is in a respectable part of the city, but instead of finding peace and quiet, you find it surrounded by soldiers, with the neighbors peeking over garden walls and around corners in a most UN-respectable manner! Squaring your shoulders you march up to the soldiers guarding the door, who immediately let you pass. Hey, being an apprentice of the Honorable Judge has its privileges!

Once your foot crosses the threshold, you meet by the formidable commander of the city’s garrison, Jiang Feng. He fills you in on the details. The unfortunate Magistrate was found face down in his garden pool, with his pet carp swimming around his head. It appears that he tripped and fell, knocking himself unconscious and drowning before anyone found him. His old friend, Bei Mu Xun, came by to play his usual after dinner mahjong game with the Magistrate. He waited for his friend to appear, but after an hour with no sign of the Magistrate, Bei Mu asked the household servants to go in search of him. They found him…dead.

What a calamity! You ask to see the body, and the commander nods, and takes you to the garden, where you find the unfortunate man just as Jiang Feng said. Also present are two women, one older and one younger. The older one is crying and sobbing, and being supported by two maids while two small dogs run ‘round her feet. That must be the wife, you think. The younger one is looking angrily at the older one, and the commander whispers in your ear that she is the Magistrate’s daughter, Hai Lin. You pause to observe the women for a few moments, and your eye catches sight of a form lurking in the shadows, just inside the gate that leads to the opening of the garden.

“You there! Come forth!” you command.

An angry looking young man steps into the light and goes to the side of Hai Lin. “Who are you?” he demands.

You explain that you are there to investigate the death of the Magistrate. Hearing this, the wife stops howling. “Oh my!” she says. “My poor husband. To die like that! What a terrible accident! Don’t you think it was an accident, Honorable One?” She looks at you, like she expects you to agree with her.

You keep your own counsel, and ask the commander where has the Honorable Judge gotten to? You were supposed to meet him here and investigate together. “I am so sorry,” the commander replies. “Before you arrived, the Honorable Sung Tzu was called away. A runner arrived from the capital, Hangzhou, with a message from the Emperor. The Honorable Sung Tzu was compelled to leave straightaway. But, he did leave a scroll for you…”