Book Description: This is a wholly fictional story, with no System, no transmigration, and no multiple female leads. It is a classic tale inspired by the historical figure Liu Bowen. He perceived the workings of fate and traveled far and wide, living like an immortal while weathering the shifting tides of officialdom, from the Zhizheng era at the end of the Yuan dynasty to the Hongwu era... A secret lies in the mists of Qingtian Mountain: the impoverished scholar Liu Ji received a heavenly text from a white-haired elder in a stone chamber, and from then on, he understood yin and yang and could foresee the rise and fall of fortunes. Armed with the incisive wisdom of his work Yulizi, he left the mountains. He first served the Yuan court, only to find corruption rotting the bureaucracy. Later, he met Zhu Yuanzhang among the common folk. His insight into "clouds over West Lake" identified the place destined for the rise of a new dynasty; his stratagem of "switching boats on Poyang Lake" rescued his lord from a crisis; and his prophecy about "building the city" laid the foundations of Nanjing. At court, he matched wits with Li Shanchang and maneuvered around Hu Weiyong, his proud spirit clashing loudly with Hongwu's imperial authority. In the countryside, he was the strange man in the "Song of the Sesame Cake" who glimpsed five centuries into the future, as well as an ordinary man who, while wrongly accusing his sister-in-law, accidentally gave accurate advice on feng shui. From a solitary crane in Qingtian to a founding military strategist, from "divine predictor" to "criminal minister," his life traced the stars on the Shoushi Calendar, precisely fixed in the coordinates of history, yet glimmering with sly wit through the mists of unofficial tales. Drawing on strange stories passed down over more than seven hundred years and grounding them in the documented history of the Hongwu reign, this book portrays a strategist caught between fate and human nature, a wise man wavering between political intrigue and moral duty. He was no god. He simply saw the world too clearly and understood people's hearts too well.
