Traveling back in time to become a seventh-rank censor during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Yu walked into the fog of officialdom with historical answers in mind.
He knew when the Yan Party fell, knew all the emperor's thoughts, and even more clearly understood the final fate of the dynasty. But when he stood in front of the ruins of the collapsed bridge in Zhuozhou and faced the blood from the people in the snow, he realized: knowing the ending does not mean that he can change the process.
The bridge has collapsed and needs to be investigated. The account is fake and needs to be broken. Officials protect each other and fight. There is no iron horse, only a supervisory censor's memorial power; there is no magical power of the prophet, only the insight into human nature and history.
He has to walk on thin ice between the strict party and the clean stream, on the balance between imperial power and the people's hearts. It is easy to cure "collapse"; it is difficult to cure the collapse of people's hearts; it is difficult to cure a building that will collapse in an era, as difficult as climbing to the sky.
But someone has to light the first fire in the darkness.
