In the third year of Yonghe reign of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the imperial court had become increasingly troubled and border troubles arose, while southern commerce quietly emerged. This was an era when the imperial examination system was perfect but there were many wealthy families. Paper was expensive and books were scarce. Students from poor families often studied hard and struggled to find a way out. Tribes in the northern grasslands are watching with eager eyes, Japanese pirates are constantly intruding along the southeast coast, and reformists and conservatives in North Korea and China are fighting endlessly. At the same time, overseas merchant ships brought novel goods, the prototype of movable type printing began to appear in the market, and gunpowder recipes accidentally spread to the hands of folk magicians. At this juncture of the times when tradition and change are intertwined, a modern soul quietly descends and becomes a poor scholar whose family is in decline in a county in the south of the Yangtze River. In front of him are shabby pens, ink, paper and inkstones and dusty bookshelves. Outside the window is an ancient empire that is slowly fissuring.
