Chen Yuan, the chief executive of a national key project, accidentally traveled back to the era of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty and became a scholar rushing to take exams.
All nations come to visit here, but despite its glory, it suffers from inefficiency and misallocation of resources.
He did not copy poetry or make salt, but used a set of "system thinking" that spanned thousands of years to break the situation: using project management to rebuild the Eastern Capital, using data analysis to predict crises, and using standardization to subvert traditional construction.
From a "mathematical" wizard to an imperial engineer, the efficient system he established became the sharpest scepter and the most dangerous shackles of Queen Wu Zhao.
When the imperial power wants to turn his wisdom into a tool of dictatorship, Chen Yuan faces the ultimate choice: to become the prime minister of the empire, or... To sow a new world for the future at the fork in the road of civilization?
