Yang Du held the final hexagram in his hands and saw the fate that would leave his name infamous for generations.
In the winter of the fourth year of the Republic, Yang Du opened his eyes and discovered that he had returned to the day he wrote Yuan Shikai’s On Constitutional Monarchy as a Means to Save China.
In his previous life, he had wagered on the “Hongxian Empire” and borne the infamy of being the chief culprit behind the restoration of the monarchy, dying alone in a sickbed.
In this life, he drew a copper coin standing upright and a blood-red vision: the nation’s fate was like a dragon that had flown too high and now faced ruin, and his own end would see thousands condemn him.
But Heaven had given him the chance to live again for more than atonement.
When the tortoiseshell heated up once more and visions came one after another, he discovered that he could glimpse the forks in history and even touch the hidden threads beneath the currents of the age.
From helping Cai E escape the capital and guiding future stars, to making quiet moves among the rival factions; from the undercurrents of Shanghai to the lamplight in Yan’an’s caves, he entered the game as a remnant of the monarchy, quietly laying the groundwork for the country twenty years in the future.
This is no simple attempt to defy fate.
It is a desperate gamble, sacrificing his own reputation and using the whole world as the board.
As the wheels of history come rolling on, can this “ferryman” of the final hexagram find a hidden path to survival for China amid the raging waves of the age?
And where will the ultimate secret hidden deep within the tortoiseshell, the mystery of the “Guixu” and his own bloodline, lead…?
In a nutshell: A chief culprit behind the monarchy’s restoration is reborn in the Republic of China. Using divination to enter the game, he makes his moves in the cracks of history, quietly turning the nation’s fate around in a lone hero’s epic.
Super good book, love it