In the third year of the Zhenguan era, Chai Shao, Left Guard General, returned to the capital after laying down his armor in Xiazhou. But when he learned that his second son, Chai Lingwu, had been punished at the Imperial College and confined at home to reflect on his mistakes, he flew into a rage and accidentally beat the boy unconscious.
After seven days in a coma, Xu Chen, a modern man whose soul had crossed over and taken possession of the body, awoke to find he was a completely different person from the “half-baked wastrel” everyone had known!
Copying books? His slender-gold calligraphy amazed Kong Yingda. Insulted at a poetry gathering? He casually recited Tang poems and Song lyrics, leaving the sons of aristocratic clans utterly humiliated.
But rather than make his name as a “literary plagiarist,” Xu Chen first wanted to solve his most pressing problems of daily life. Toilet sticks were uncomfortable? He invented Chang'an's first soft, durable toilet paper. Meals were bland as wax? He upgraded the wood-burning stove with an iron wok, then made salt, braised pork, and hot pot, filling the entire residence with their aroma. Even Chai Shao declared, “The imperial kitchens can't compare.” The murky wine was undrinkable? He turned a copper kettle into a still, bringing forth the 15-proof “Chang'an Spring,” which Qin Shubao and Cheng Yaojin scrambled to buy.
From building a waterwheel and a curved-shaft plow on the Chai family's estate, to partnering in the trendy Zuixianlou restaurant, which brought in a hundred strings of cash a day; from setting up paper mills, sweet shops, and icehouses that monopolized Chang'an's latest fashions, to paving Zhuque Avenue with concrete and astonishing the entire court, then helping Li Jing defeat the Turks with logistical support...
With his engineering know-how, Xu Chen transformed life in the Tang dynasty into a more comfortable version: stir-fried dishes at every meal, no trudging through mud when going out, and money in his pocket to spend.
He had no ambition for power and no interest in factional struggles. He just wanted to lie flat and live comfortably. Who could have guessed that he would become the fifth “pillar of a prosperous age” whom Li Shimin relied upon?
It feels pretty good