Core premise: Su Huairen, a modern emergency-room doctor, accidentally transmigrates to the Hongwu era of the Ming dynasty and is swept into a political maelstrom sparked by a smallpox epidemic. Relying on modern medical knowledge, he struggles to survive between the Imperial Medical Bureau and the Jinyiwei. He tries to fight the raging disease with cowpox inoculation, but unexpectedly becomes entangled in power struggles and palace secrets.
Main plot: Su Huairen wakes amid a pile of corpses in a medicine bureau and discovers that he has been thrown back in time to the fifteenth year of Hongwu. Using medical records from the Yongan Qianfang and modern techniques, he risks inoculating Zhu Xiongying, the emperor’s eldest grandson, with cowpox, but faces obstruction from the Imperial Medical Bureau and the forces of the Prince of Jin. As his investigation deepens, he uncovers a conspiracy behind the epidemic: the Prince of Jin has colluded with the Japanese to spread variola inoculation, intending to destabilize the foundations of the dynasty.
Key conflicts:
Medical battle: A life-or-death contest between cowpox inoculation and traditional variolation, and a clash between science and ignorance.
Political intrigue: Navigating the competing forces of Zhu Yuanzhang, Empress Ma, Prince of Yan Zhu Di, and others, while unraveling plots involving poisoned ginseng at the Prince of Jin’s residence and a Japanese coastal defense map.
Mystery of time and space: A mutated barcode on a payment receipt and the eerie parallels between emergency-room floor tiles and an ancient corpse pile hint that the time travel was no accident.
Highlights:
Thorough historical research: Incorporates traditional Chinese medical texts such as the Yongan Qianfang to recreate medical practice in the Ming dynasty.
Suspense: Each chapter advances the plot through a medical challenge, such as vinegar fumigation to prevent infection, autopsies in an ice cellar, and a viral battle at the Tea and Horse Office.
Character arcs: Su Huairen goes from fighting to survive to standing up against his enemies, forming complicated bonds with the eunuch Jing Yuan and the servant Wang Er.
Theme: As plague and power close in, how can the compassion of a modern doctor bring light to a dark age?
