My name is Chen Yan. In my previous life, I was a commander of the Ming dynasty’s Embroidered Uniform Guard. I was fiercely loyal, yet framed, and my entire family was executed. Only as I lay dying did I see that the mastermind was the very brother I trusted most. When I opened my eyes, I was reborn twenty years earlier, in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, when I was still an obscure junior officer in Yingtian Prefecture. In this life, I swear to move carefully at every step, bring down the powerful eunuchs, and purge the court, forcing every noble who climbed over the bones of the common people to kneel and confess. In this game of chess that is the Ming dynasty, the emperor is the player and the civil officials are the pieces. I will be the hidden nail that pries the whole board apart. Reborn, I seek no empty fame, only to kill my enemies with my own hands and clear my name of the wrongs I suffered in my previous life. The court is a treacherous place, but I will climb over its corpses all the same: first play the pig to eat the tiger, then draw my blade. Whoever stands in my way will fall. Here beneath the Son of Heaven, if I, Chen Yan, am going to play, I’ll play for the highest stakes: play the pig to eat the tiger, turn the tables against all odds, and strike once to kill.
