Investment banker Su Tanyue works herself to death from overtime. When she wakes up, she finds herself lying beside a man's corpse.
The dead man is Lin Xiuwen, a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue, and she has transmigrated into the body of an obscure junior female official in the Great Zhao Dynasty. Before she can even figure out what's going on, the cold-faced regent Lu Heng corners her against a wall. “Lin Xiuwen is dead. From now on, you are him. Pretend to be him for three months and balance the Ministry of Revenue's fraudulent accounts, and I'll give you your freedom. Otherwise...” He glances at the corpse. “That will be your fate.”
Su Tanyue has no choice. But when she opens the fraudulent ledgers, she freezes. The modern accounting tricks, circular bookkeeping and capitalized expenses, are exactly like the fiscal schemes she studied in the late Ming dynasty crisis.
She has transmigrated into the history she once researched.
Even more chillingly, the last page of Lin Xiuwen's notebook reads: “If you can understand these accounts, you're from that place too. Be careful. I'm not the only one here.”
A shortfall of three million taels points to the emperor's private army; seven merchant houses laundering money reveal a shocking conspiracy. Su Tanyue uses modern knowledge to outclass everyone at court, but she soon realizes that every step she takes toward the truth brings her closer to death.
What she doesn't know is that the cold, powerful minister who threatened her comes from the same place she does. He has been waiting three years for someone like himself.
