Phantom Tally

In the reign of Wu Zetian, the Tang bureaucracy reduces men to coded fish tallies and ledgers of loyalty. When Bozhou's vice-prefect, Xiao, finds his identity digitally forged into a traitor's profile, he is ensnared in a lethal office war orchestrated by his superior, Prince Li Chong. In this world of whispering files and algorithmic denunciation, privacy is poison, promotion is murder, and crime becomes a spectral game among phantoms. A psychological thriller of workplace annihilation in ancient guise.