Li Xiao, a modern history prodigy, unexpectedly transmigrates to the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty and awakens in the body of a poor scholar who failed the exams and took his own life. Armed with advanced knowledge and a vast store of classical Chinese poetry, he sweeps through the imperial examinations starting with the county-level test. But at the palace exam, Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately stifles him for his radical ideas. Exiled to a remote county, he invents glass, improves tea-making, and revitalizes commerce and industry, transforming a barren region into a prosperous land. Once his achievements earn him a summons back to the capital, he navigates between Zhu Yuanzhang and the great clans, using modern ingenuity to set a quiet transformation of the dynasty in motion.
