In the Yongxi era of the Dayan dynasty, the Imperial Observatory misreads the stars, enraging the Water God. Three successive floods strike without warning: torrential rains drown cities, river embankments burst, seawater surges inland, and pestilence spreads. A thousand miles of fertile land are swallowed by floodwaters.
When Lin Yan transmigrates into the role of the chief seal-holding palace official in the Directorate of Palace Affairs, only a year remains before the disasters begin. With a portable stockpiling ledger System, she conceals her abilities and quietly lays her plans under the pretense of “repairing the palace”: she turns a side hall in the cold palace into a granary, extends the drainage channels to a hidden reservoir, secretly cultivates hybrid rice in the palace gardens, and fills her System space with water-purification tablets, disease-prevention medicine, and long-lasting rice cakes.
When disaster strikes, the capital is flooded, refugees surround the city, and the imperial granaries run low. Using her seal-holder’s authority, she coordinates supplies, protects a million dan of grain with waterproof coverings, eases the salt shortage with low-cost salt, and sets up quarantine zones to stop the pestilence from spreading. When corrupt eunuchs frame her, she clears her name with an imperial order and inventory list. When the grain routes are cut off, she joins forces with the censor Shen Zhiyan to promote “work in exchange for food,” preserving the people’s livelihoods.
From secretly stockpiling supplies within the palace walls, to leading troops against disasters in the flooded lands, to introducing new crops and establishing disaster-prevention laws in the aftermath, Lin Yan turns her many skills into a shield through the art of stockpiling, protecting herself, others, and the storm-tossed realm of Dayan.
Grain hidden behind palace walls, relief in times of hardship. The seal-holding palace official’s struggle to survive the years of disaster begins.
