Lin Yan, a history student, is trapped in a cycle of random transmigration. For a thousand days, he has been thrown into countless roles, from a horse groom in the Warring States period to a Brocade Guard in the Hongwu era. His only creed is to stay alive. Armed with solid historical knowledge and masterful disguise skills, he escapes one desperate situation after another, until he transmigrates into the body of an obscure young eunuch serving Kangxi and stumbles into the bloody struggle among the nine princes for the throne.
A sudden notification in his mind shatters his routine of mere survival: after surviving for a thousand consecutive days, the Historical Maintenance System has activated. His new mission is to ensure that the key historical timeline of this world does not veer off course. From then on, the “invisible man” is forced into the heart of the imperial power struggle, navigating the currents beneath Qianqing Palace as “Xiao Yanzi,” a lowly eunuch.
Faced with Kangxi’s suspicious scrutiny, the Eighth Prince’s faction trying to win him over with kindness, and the Fourth Prince’s faction making covert probes, he must use his historical knowledge to anticipate events and make tiny interventions to correct deviations while avoiding the risk of the System’s backlash. At the same time, he must stay alive amid the princes’ rivalries and the palace’s treachery, striking a balance between self-preservation and his mission. From the turmoil of the first crown prince’s deposition to the reshuffling of power after his second deposition, and then the controversy over Kangxi’s final edict before his death, Lin Yan proceeds with caution and witnesses Yongzheng’s arduous ascent to the throne.
But once the new emperor’s position is secure, the former “pawn” becomes the target of imperial suspicion. More unexpectedly, the System suddenly suffers an unknown fluctuation, throwing the historical correction force of this world out of balance. In the end, Lin Yan cannot escape unscathed. As he deals with Yongzheng’s probing and reckoning, he must also confront the mystery of the System’s malfunction. Ahead lies nothing but the unknown.
