I’m a Clerk in the Ming Dynasty

In the first year of the Chongzhen reign, a severe drought struck Shaanxi, and people resorted to cannibalism. Song Yuanming, a low-level civil servant, transmigrated into the body of a dying minor official. At the brink of death, he awakened the “Hearts of the People System”: help someone out of a desperate situation, and receive whatever they need most. A single ration bar won over a band of refugees; 250 kilograms of seed potatoes yielded 1,500 kilograms per mu. Rising to prominence as the “Grain Immortal,” he set out to pacify the Nine Frontier Garrisons. Amid the chaos, he met Li Yitong, a female general serving under Qin Liangyu. An anomaly among the White-Pole Soldiers, she believed in blades, not gods. But after tasting a bowl of “divine porridge,” she became his sharpest sword and staunchest shield. From Yan’an Prefecture to Shanhai Pass, from the roar of steam engines to the dawn of the nuclear age, she stood by him as he shattered the old world, and guarded that first bowl of hot porridge with him. “You really think everyone in this land can have enough to eat?” she once challenged him, mounted and holding her blade high. “Yes.” He handed her a ration bar. “We’ll start with you.” Years later, as commander of a space fleet, Li Yitong looked back at Earth and remembered the cracked bank of dirt where someone had held a dying old farmer’s hand and said, “Stay alive.” This is the story of a minor official’s rise, an epic of Chinese civilization ascending to a higher plane, and a tale about belief. He believed in the System, she believed in him, and together they made the people of the realm believe in tomorrow.