“Do not sing the songs of Chu before the flowers, lest they stir a hero to ask once more what can be done about Yu.” Zhao Yu, a woman with a doctorate in classical Chinese literature, is organizing materials at the Handan Idiom Museum when her soul transmigrates into the pre-Qin State of Zhao. She becomes Zhao Yu Er, the legitimate granddaughter of Zhao Kuo, the general who inspired the phrase “an armchair strategist.” After Zhao Kuo’s defeat by Qin, every member of the Zhao family, men and women alike, is demoted to common slave status and becomes a target of public hatred throughout Zhao. Orphaned, she is sent to the palace of the King of Zhao as an adopted daughter. Following the prophecy that Qin will fall to Chu, she meets Xiang Yu in the Zhao palace after his victory over Qin at the Battle of Julu, and presents him with Zhao Kuo’s Art of War.
