In the twelfth year of Yongchang of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Ye Xun, a poor scholar, held half a piece of moldy cake outside the Gongyuan wall on the day when the imperial examination results were released. His ten years of hard study were easily wiped out by the powerful man's words of "exchange examination papers". When he opened his eyes again, he went back to three years ago, when he had just passed the national examination and entered Beijing to prepare for the exam with great hope.
Memories of his past life came flooding back, not only the humiliation of being deprived of his fame and becoming a laughing stock, but also the ending three years later when he was framed by the prime minister's disciples for trying to expose the shady secrets of the examination room, and ended up tragically dying in prison. In this life, there is no innocence in Ye Xun's eyes. He burned the sage books that symbolized pedantic dogma, leaving only a cold "Thirty-Six Stratagems" in his heart. He knew that in this "pseudo-prosperous age" where wealthy families were stinking of wine and meat, and people were freezing to death on the road, benevolence, justice and morality were just a fig leaf, and only strategy and power were the real blades.
His goal is clear and cruel: within three years, he must bring down those high-ranking fraudsters, seek justice for himself and the countless souls of poor families who were buried in his previous life, and completely tear apart this rotten promotion system. However, there are obstacles: Prime Minister Xiao Wenyuan's disciples and old officials are all over the government and the public, the Minister of Civil Affairs, Qian Min, controls the selection of officials, and the Minister of Rites, Zhou Wenbin, controls the imperial examination process. The three of them form an iron triangle and regard Ye Xun as an ant that must be crushed. Failure means repeating the same mistakes and ruining the family.
Ye Xun has no capital to confront the tough situation. His only golden finger is to accurately predict personnel changes, court trends, and even palace secrets in the next three years.
