Modern project manager Lin Fan is reborn as Zhao Xu, a young emperor of the Northern Song dynasty. He opens his eyes in the seventh year of Yuanyou: Empress Dowager Gao rules from behind the curtain, the Old Party holds power, and he is merely a puppet emperor who could be deposed at any moment. Fortunately, he has a "Modern Survival Guide" System, letting him manage the court like a project and run the country by KPIs.
Facing a deadly game of poisoning by the empress dowager, power grabs by ministers, and collusion with salt merchants, Zhao Xu starts "making trouble": he uses performance reviews to reform the Directorate for Palace Attendants, newspaper opinion to fight the Old Party, and cement and gunpowder to build infrastructure and strengthen the army. With the mysterious eunuch Liang Huaiji and his aging loyal servant Chen An, he weaves through a web of conspiracies, only to gradually discover that behind the Hundred-Day Drunkenness poison case, canal transport corruption, and the destruction of the Imperial City Bureau lies a shocking game of chess spanning ten years.
On one side is a palace power struggle where danger lurks at every turn; on the other, economic reforms that crush the old order through sheer superiority. While both the New and Old Parties think the emperor is just fooling around, Zhao Xu has quietly laid a vast net. He wants to save more than himself: he wants to save a dynasty mired in deep-rooted problems.
This is a clash between modern thinking and ancient political scheming, a hard-core comedy about a puppet emperor using management principles to defy fate and change his destiny. Is His Majesty making trouble again today? No, he's playing a much bigger game.
Everyone is welcome to point out problems. This is my first time writing and there are still many bugs.