“The Huaiyi look toward us and come bearing tribute.” From The Book of Odes: Song of Lu, “Pan Shui”
Liu Chen, courtesy name Yu, was an emperor of China renowned throughout the world. More than two thousand years after his death, he was summoned to take part in a Holy Grail War. He was accidentally swept into a temporal rift and ended up in another world, one whose history had taken a slightly different course from the world he had known in life.
But Liu Chen wasn’t worried at all. He had already transmigrated once before. In her previous life, she had been a woman who accidentally transmigrated to the Western Han dynasty, where she was born as a prince. She worked diligently for forty years as emperor, and after her death became a Heroic Spirit. In this other world, though, all the great writers had somehow gained supernatural abilities. Most surprising of all, the world seemed to have two versions of him: one was the emperor of the ages, named Liu Chen, and the other was a wanted criminal called Liu Yu.
“A wanted criminal? Wow, you really made a mess of things, Liu Yu,” Liu Chen teased.
“That’s right, I’m a wanted criminal. So tell me, as my counterpart, are you ashamed of me, Liu Chen?” Liu Yu shot back without changing expression.
“Of course not. I’m just curious how you could be foolish enough to believe a book would help you achieve your goal.”
“You know why. If you were me, you’d have done the same. I won’t give up any chance to bring her back to life. Liu Chen can’t live without Zifu.”
“Of course. Liu Chen’s beloved will always be Wei Zifu.”
Note: This story contains a mountain of headcanon and may be out of character. Please don’t nitpick the historical details. It does not follow the main plot of Bungo Stray Dogs.
There are a few stories within the story, and the writing in those is poor.
The protagonist is based on the author’s own preferences. The author likes Mohism and doesn’t care for Confucianism, so they didn’t want to include the policy of suppressing the Hundred Schools of Thought and elevating Confucianism above all others.
