Modern-day overworked office drone Chu Xiao dies suddenly after staying up all night, only to wake up as the least-favored Ninth Prince of the Great Xia Dynasty. His mother died young, his father treats him as if he doesn't exist, and even the head maid serving Consort Shu dares to point at him and call him a good-for-nothing. The original owner, furious, banged his head against a pillar and died. Chu Xiao sits up, rubbing the blood on his forehead. Looking at everyone in the room waiting to laugh at him, he suddenly smiles. Someone who's already died once has nothing to fear from you.
He doesn't rush to show his hand. When Consort Shu's maid comes to sound him out, he plays dumb and offers her tea, then turns the tables and gets the list of her spies planted in the various palaces. When the Crown Prince humiliates him in public, he "accidentally" recites a treatise on governing the state, leaving the whole court stunned and earning the emperor's attention for the first time. But that attention brings trouble. The Crown Prince sees him as a thorn in his side and plots against him again and again. Consort Shu pretends to court him while secretly testing him with poison. The court is rife with open and covert attacks, and every step in the inner palace is fraught with danger.
As Chu Xiao navigates these dangers, he builds his own network of informants. The Imperial Kitchen, the Imperial Medical Bureau, the Imperial Guards, the chief eunuch, and even Consort Shu's most trusted personal maid all become his eyes and ears without realizing it. His goal has never changed: live until he comes of age, get an edict assigning him to a fief, and go live a carefree life as a lazy prince.
But on the eve of his coming-of-age ceremony, the emperor suddenly falls gravely ill, and the Crown Prince and Consort Shu join forces to seal off the palace and seize the throne. On the night Chu Xiao is placed under house arrest, the plans he's spent a year laying into motion all spring into action. In a single night, he secures the emperor's bedside, the Crown Prince is forced to his knees, and Consort Shu is taken into custody. When the emperor awakens, he stares at his most inconspicuous son for a long time. "Ninth Son, do you truly not want the throne?"
Chu Xiao sighs. "This son only wants to go to his fief."
The emperor laughs. "You rebellious brat, you're the only one who can take the throne."
