The Corrupt Official Reborn

In the seventeenth year of Yonghe in the Great Zhou dynasty, Niu Chen was taken to the execution grounds at Caishikou. His crime: “spreading heretical ideas and destabilizing the government with novel inventions.” Thirty years in office, incorruptible as water, had earned him nothing but the punishment of being cut in half. He watched helplessly as the people were devoured by harsh rule and famine, as aristocratic clans smashed the farming tools he had improved, and as his wife and children froze and starved to death on the road to exile. As the final blade fell, he swore that if he ever had another life, he would never again be a foolishly loyal official. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the third year of Yonghe. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.