The Top Scholar Doesn't Want to Attend Court

In the Great Jing Dynasty, undercurrents swirled through the court. Lin Yichen was a laid-back young man who only wanted to laze around in his family’s backyard, but by a twist of fate, he came first in the imperial examinations. He thought that after earning the title of top scholar, he could retire and return home as a matter of course, settling into a carefree life in the countryside. Instead, the emperor showered him with favor, appointing him directly to the court as one of his closest attendants.

From then on, Lin Yichen’s plan to slack off collided head-on with the court’s scheming and chaos. He appeared refined and gentle, but was actually lazy and devious, determined to pass every troublesome assignment off to someone else and reduce all complicated social interactions to one rule: “If I can lie down, I’m certainly not going to sit.” Yet fate kept playing tricks on him. Every seemingly casual brush-off and every time he slacked off without a second thought somehow solved a thorny issue, averted a crisis, or even exposed a shocking conspiracy.

With his colleagues admiring him, the emperor favoring him, and one headache after another piling up, all Lin Yichen wanted to do was look up at the sky and sigh: I really just want to be a quiet, handsome man. Why do you all insist on making me a workaholic? His life’s ambition was to turn the high-risk job of top scholar into a relaxed retirement gig without anyone catching on.