The Humble Commoner Chancellor: I Just Want to Earn a Living

Other people transmigrate with a System. I arrived with nothing but half a moldy flatbread.

I crawled through rainstorms wrapped in a straw mat just to stay alive, and set traps in the wilderness to build my first bit of wealth.

All I wanted was to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes and become a rich nobody,

but I just had to rescue a pack of arrogant rich kids.

"Are these roasted sweet potatoes divine?" "Do you sell water-purifying pills?" "What kind of magic trick is a match?"

Fine, I'll come clean. I'm a personal disciple of the "hermit of the mountains" (self-appointed).

I make soap to wash away your prejudices, and glass so you can see the filth behind your noble family names.

I offered sweet potatoes to help with the famine? That was so nobody would compete with me for food later.

I made cement to build roads and bridges? I just wanted carriages to move faster than a soul rushing into its next life.

Before I knew it, I was richer than the nation, and had become a whole package of thorns in the court's side:

The common people call me the "common-born chancellor," the martial world calls me the "master of mechanisms," and the emperor mutters that I'm the "source of political chaos."

But does anyone get it? My only dream at first was a full meal!

And I've got a whole bunch of "odd characters" around me:

My childhood friend A Zhu went from hunter to leader of the secret guard. All he ever says is, "Whatever you say."

My confidante Su Qingyuan gave up being a sheltered young lady to become my bookkeeper. She's even fiercer than I am when it comes to money.

The former nobleman Gu Yun went from close friend to "hater," picking fights with me every day but always cleaning up my messes.

In the end, holding a kerosene lamp before the palace gates, I declare, "I really don't want to seize the throne. I just want to make sure the children don't starve to death."

The new emperor takes the throne, and I retire to the mountains, keeping my contributions hidden.

All I leave behind is a legend: the man who crawled out of the mud spent his whole life showing off, and somehow really became a legend.