Shen Zhao, the son of a convicted official, endured for five years. Taking advantage of the Emperor's birthday banquet, he used evidence concealed within a luminous pearl to expose in the golden palace the old case of Wang Chong, the Minister of Personnel, colluding with the enemy and framing his father, Shen Tingzhi. After toppling Wang Chong, Shen Zhao perceived that there was another mastermind behind the scenes: the Prince Regent, Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan attempted to coerce and co-opt Shen Zhao into serving as a chess piece, unaware that Shen Tingzhi, who ought to have been executed, was still alive, and father and son secretly laid out a net. Scholars from the Imperial Academy of humble origins provided concerted assistance, and with comprehensive witnesses and evidence from multiple quarters, the father and son produced the late Emperor's imperial edict in the imperial court, exposing Xiao Yan's conspiracy and clearing the Shen family's wrongful grievance. Just as the storm had settled, Xiao Yan's younger brother, Xiao Heng, returned to the capital, and a new chess game had already begun its prelude.