Nangong Ce was once Zou Ce, a loyal official who died unjustly in his past life. Now he has been reborn as the illegitimate son of the disgraced Nangong family, a man with the same name and appearance as before. When he awakens, his family has been thrown into the imperial prison on the trumped-up charge of “colluding with the enemy,” and in a hundred days they will all be executed. The mastermind is none other than the Third Prince, currently enjoying the emperor’s favor, and his followers. Thanks to his memories of his past life, Nangong Ce knows that the Third Prince, in his bid for the throne, framed the Nangong family and secretly joined forces with the northern frontier tribes. In the future, he will invite disaster into the empire, leaving its lands in ruins.
Time is short. Nangong Ce must use his foreknowledge to make the right moves from this desperate position. First, he cleverly seeks out and saves Qi Xi, the orphaned daughter of a military family who was also killed by the Third Prince in his previous life. The two become sworn allies, ready to face death together. Next, using his precise predictions of the future, he draws the attention of the Crown Prince and the emperor under the pretext of “offering advice,” gradually transforming himself from a condemned prisoner awaiting death into an indispensable statesman. He helps the court defuse the threat from the northern tribes and expose a traitor within its ranks. Every move strikes the Third Prince where it hurts, delivering one face-slapping triumph and act of revenge after another.
Yet the closer he gets to the truth, the greater the resistance becomes. The Third Prince throws every resource into a desperate counterattack, even launching a coup ahead of schedule. With only a handful of allies and a shifting balance of power to rely on, Nangong Ce and Qi Xi stand together. On the night of the coup, their knowledge of the terrain and understanding of human nature turn the tables in one decisive stroke. In the end, he clears his family’s name and uproots the Third Prince and his followers. Rising from humble origins, he achieves an extraordinary feat, leads his family and the woman he loves to the pinnacle of power, and becomes a vital pillar protecting the fate of the empire.
