Li Ming, a dual master’s graduate in financial engineering and physics, dies suddenly and wakes up as Cheng Chumo, the most useless son in the Cheng family.
The moment he opens his eyes, he’s told that he publicly harassed Princess Li Lizhi.
The officials fill the court, eager for a show. Li Shimin roars from his throne, “You brat! The Cheng family has served with unwavering loyalty for generations. How could it produce someone like you...”
He immediately collapses to the floor. “Your Majesty! I was only helping the princess shoo away a bee! Look at this glass bead...”
Behind the throne, the bead curtain stirs. The princess’s cool gaze falls on the unusually clear “glass” in his palm.
From then on, he becomes Chang’an’s number-one wastrel. He plants crops to make wine, wasting fertile fields, yet doubles the yield per acre. He smelts iron just to make polo mallets, yet ends up producing refined steel.
When the Turks invade, he drunkenly tosses out a “wastrel’s plaything,” which blasts the Turkish cavalry into disarray.
Li Lizhi visits him late at night. “Cheng Chumo, how much longer are you going to keep pretending?”
He smiles lazily. “Your Highness, being a good-for-nothing... is really comfortable.”
Not bad, very imaginative