When Su Chen wakes up, he discovers that he has somehow arrived in Chang'an at the height of the Tang dynasty. He has no System to rely on, no modern inventions to give him an edge, and not a penny to his name beyond a few coppers. All he has is the rough linen robe on his back.
He runs into a man in yellow on the street and, in a slip of the tongue, calls him “Old Li.” He has no idea that the words terrify everyone around him: the man before him is none other than Li Shimin, newly enthroned as emperor!
Su Chen expects to lose his head, but instead, “Old Li” takes a liking to him. From then on, Su Chen’s life in the Tang dynasty goes completely off the rails. He debates livelihood and policy with Fang Xuanling at court, trades barbs with Yuchi Gong over military training, and gets chased by Wei Zheng for “violating proper decorum.” Then he turns around and crouches by the palace wall with Cheng Yaojin, munching on flatbread.
He brings no gunpowder or papermaking techniques with him. Instead, armed with a silver tongue and a head full of “crooked logic,” he turns Chang’an’s streets upside down, leaves the court ministers speechless, and even follows “Old Li” onto the battlefield, where he uses a few “homespun tricks” to launch a surprise attack on the enemy camp.
What gives him an even bigger headache is that “Old Li” takes such a shine to him that he forces a princess on him as a wife, calling it an “imperial marriage decree” when really he just wants to keep his “living treasure” close at hand.
With no golden finger and no advanced technology, Su Chen relies on a modern man’s sense of equality and sheer shamelessness to thrive during the Zhenguan era. From street ruffian to imperial favorite, from the bustle of Chang’an to the frontier battlefield, watch how one “Old Li” leads him into a hilarious yet sweeping adventure in the Tang dynasty.
