After overworked office drone Lin Ran dies suddenly, he transmigrates into the body of the Prince of Chang’an, Qin Shi Huang Ying Zheng’s own nephew.
On his first day in this new life, he draws up a “Survival Checklist”: stay away from the tyrant and look for a chance to run.
By the third day, he has added another item: His uncle seems to… like tomatoes?
The man from the history books, who burned books and buried scholars alive with a blank expression, secretly uses tomatoes as paint to draw. He stays up all night when Lin Ran is sick and puts all the meat from his own bowl into Lin Ran’s, saying, “Eat more. You’re all skin and bones.”
Lin Ran decides to stay. He cooks with tomatoes, improves the imperial cuisine, and starts a food revolution in the Qin dynasty, all while protecting an uncle who is nothing like the man he imagined.
But he doesn’t know that every dish that makes his uncle laugh is pushing the man deeper into the abyss of tyranny. The kinder Lin Ran is to his uncle, the more cruel things his uncle will do to protect him.
When he discovers that one of his words was among the books burned, and that people connected to him were among those buried alive, he finally understands: his very existence is his uncle’s greatest weakness.
And all he can do is learn to make tomato and egg stir-fry before it’s too late.
