On the eve of Qin's unification, a modern soul named Mu Ye transmigrates into a convict laborer on Mount Li. At the edge of despair, he awakens a "Work Points System" suited to his fate: quantified labor can be exchanged for survival resources and opportunities for advancement. He uses his "ley-line perception" to avoid danger and saves the convicts in his work camp with modern knowledge. There, he meets Fang Xiaoyao, a mathematical prodigy, and the two form an alliance: Mu Ye provides the big-picture ideas, while Fang Xiaoyao handles the precise calculations. Their first breakthrough is a system that assigns work points by dividing jobs into stages, allowing them to rise from convicts to foremen.
They go on to spread the work-points system from the imperial mausoleum to state-run workshops, building a "Great Qin state enterprise" whose efficiency outstrips all rivals. But they threaten the interests of the old nobility and conservative officials, and are repeatedly targeted and attacked. Through technological breakthroughs, including standardized steel and primitive gunpowder, and their supply-chain expertise, they become entangled in court politics and support the logistics of the wars of unification, proving that "production is combat power."
After the realm is united, Mu Ye and Fang Xiaoyao face their ultimate choice: persuade the First Emperor to combine the work-points system with the merit system and drive reform, or leave with their ideals and preserve the spark of change elsewhere? This is a thrilling tale of modern institutions overwhelming Qin's Legalist system, and of a golden partnership between two people whose fates complement each other as they build a new order.
