Rising to the Top in the Red Chamber

When Jia Heng woke up, he was in a shabby gray carriage.

Rough hemp curtains, faded cushions, two bundles in the corner: this was what you got as a member of a collateral branch. Not poor, exactly. Gray. Neither here nor there.

In his previous life, he had spent thirty-five years rising to become a corporate vice president. He had seen the fiercest business wars and the deepest schemes. Now all that experience was packed into the body of a twelve-year-old boy, whose identity was this: a member of a collateral branch of the Rongguo household, his father dead and family fallen on hard times, traveling with his mother to seek refuge.

He knew how this household ended. After a blaze of wealth and glory came confiscation, exile, and a vast white emptiness.

He knew the only card in his hand was his knowledge of the ending.

But novels and the real world weren’t the same. He knew the broad strokes, not the details. Change one thing, and something else would change too. His foreknowledge was losing its edge, while the butterfly effect was growing.

So he didn’t rush to turn things around.

He entered through the side gate, found his footing among the collateral branches, and started at the clan school. He would hide his talents, build his strength, and wait for the wind to rise.

The wind would come. The fires on the frontier, the undercurrents at court, the collapse of the four great families: he had to stay one step ahead at every turn.

He hadn’t come to save the Jia family. He had come to change the world.