In the thirteenth year of the Chongzhen reign, virologist Lu Zhaoming is tracking an Ebola outbreak in Africa when he transmigrates to plague-ravaged Nanyang Prefecture, carrying a sample of live virus. Using a crystal from the princely mansion to make a microscope, he sees beneath the lens not only the ferocious flagella of cholera bacteria, but also the rotting genes of the entire Ming Dynasty:
The fat of Prince Fu of Luoyang, who was boiled alive, seethes with prions. Zhang Xianzhong's army of refugees carries hybrid pathogens stitched together from different genes. Reflected in the crazed eyes of the White Lotus Saintess are drug-resistant syphilis spirochetes. And deep in the underground palace of Prince Tang's mansion, anthrax spores that have slept for a century in a glass culture dish left behind by the Jianwen Emperor are awakening as biological weapons.
In this plague war between civilizations, Lu Zhaoming discovers that the deadliest virus is not under the microscope. When cowpox inoculation becomes a means of controlling refugees, and penicillin extraction turns into a secret technique for prolonging the lives of princes, the soul carrying memories of modern medicine is turning the Ming Dynasty into the most dangerous pathogen culture dish...
