That Word, That Melody, That Spoiled Brat

Li Mu: Formerly a PhD in both arts and sciences at Yanbei University, he transmigrates after an accident to the Great Xuan Dynasty. He becomes the legitimate son of Li Jing, Marquis of Dingnan, and a notorious wastrel in the capital, Xuanjing.

He has barely arrived when someone frames him, and the old marquis throws him out of the estate.

To clear his name and find the mastermind who framed him,

he stays up all night talking with street vendors, bribes tavern servers, and pays off jailers.

Visiting brothels, pleasure boats, and gambling dens is all in a day’s work.

Everyone thinks he’ll always be nothing but an idle wastrel.

Yet this very wastrel asks why people study, and what kind of character a true scholar should have.

He doesn’t say that studying is for bringing honor to one’s family, for wealth and high office, or that all other pursuits are inferior to scholarship.

Instead, he says that studying cultivates character, broadens one’s horizons and spirit, and teaches the ways of a gentleman.

He dares to kill a court official for the sake of his maids and servants, and to defy the whole world for the sake of a woman from a brothel.

He dares to point at the noses of Xuanjing’s many talented scholars and call them unworthy of being scholars.

He may be a wastrel in everyone’s eyes, but he comes up with a military strategy: “When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy camps, we harass them; when the enemy tires, we strike.”

The mandarin duck formation he teaches the empress combines offense and defense, and when used flexibly, it is truly invincible.

His steelmaking method gives Great Xuan powerful, durable weapons that can sever a hair with a single stroke in no time at all.

He joins forces with commoners and merchants to suppress the aristocratic clans and powerful nobles.

Until one day, the Empress of the Great Xuan Dynasty, Murong Xue, issues an edict to the world:

“Heaven and earth shall bear witness, and the people shall be my proof. I offer my empire as the bride price.”