“They laugh at me for being mad; I laugh at them for failing to see the truth.”
Shen Yizhi is the famously unhinged bastard son of the Jiangning Marquis’s household. Disheveled and hopelessly addicted to drink, he often lies by the roadside, fighting beggars for scraps. The powerful families throughout the city make him the butt of their jokes.
But no one knows that behind his half-drunk, half-awake eyes lies the sharpest mind of this age.
When the court mocks him, he answers with satirical verse. When generals bully him, he outmaneuvers them. When scholars look down on him, he overwhelms them with his talent. Everyone thinks he has gone mad, never realizing that madness is his armor and absurdity his blade. In this chaotic age, he peels back the truth one layer at a time and lays out his game.
He has no desire to be a hero, and he disdains being a ruthless conqueror. All he wants is to answer to his own conscience, protect those who deserve protecting, and destroy the schemes that deserve to be destroyed.
The world laughs at him for being mad. He laughs at the world for never having been sane.
