Gilded Shell of Piety

In the twilight of the Qing Dynasty, a lowly Hanlin Academy copyist is drawn into a secret society that cloaks theft and mass murder in the fervor of divine nationalism. Forced to execute a massacre under the banner of protecting sacred texts from foreign heresy, he faces a modern trial decades later, pleading innocence through obedience. A psychological historical thriller exploring how the banality of evil wears the most ornate mask of religious zeal.