After transmigrating to the Great Yan dynasty, Lu Qingyuan wants only to pass the civil service examinations and live in peace.
Then he sees the rich feasting behind vermilion gates while the poor freeze to death by the roadside. Then he experiences firsthand how officials crush one another like a tightening noose, while outdated laws and customs bind people like shackles.
So he picks up his brush and sets his sights on changing the realm.
In the county examination hall, he writes policies for governing the people. Among the old papers of the Hanlin Academy, he studies the principles of statecraft. Amid the power struggles at court, he pursues reform and renewal.
He no longer seeks merely to place first in the examinations and rise to the highest office.
He wants to transform this twilight dynasty, to breathe new life into it.
