Core premise: Lin Mu, a product manager at a major modern internet company, works himself to death from overwork and transmigrates into a down-and-out scholar abandoned by his family during the Hongwu era. With his knack for "painting grand promises" (making PowerPoint presentations), he rises from a local county office all the way to Fengtian Hall, becoming a favorite of Zhu Yuanzhang. While other officials still rely on the old routine of "Your subject has a report," Lin Mu is already using bar charts to show Zhu Yuanzhang tax revenue growth, pie charts to analyze official corruption rates, and Gantt charts to plan the Northern Expedition. Zhu Yuanzhang becomes hooked: "Make me a chart! A big one!"
Historical timeline: Begins on the eve of Empress Ma's serious illness in the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382), spans the Empty Seal Case and the Guo Huan Case, and continues to the end of the Hongwu era.
