The day the sky screen appeared, the whole realm saw the countdown to the Ming dynasty's fall.
A lone tree on Coal Hill, the rebel army entering the capital, Manchu cavalry sweeping in beyond Shanhai Pass: the sky screen showed Chongzhen, his officials, and all the people the nation's ruin seventeen years in the future, frame by frame. The whole realm was in a panic, and no one could change it.
Only He Yannian saw what nobody else could: after each episode, when the sky screen went dark, a line appeared that belonged to him alone: "Coming next."
While others wept at the ancestral temple over the dynasty's impending fall, he had already figured out which year and month the next disaster would strike. Others saw only a verdict of fate; he held a head start in his hands.
And so, in the chaos of the age, a strange man emerged. When military levies threatened to ruin him, he turned around and checked the accounts. When grain prices were about to soar, he stocked his warehouses in advance. When schemers tried to frame him, he turned the tables. Frame by frame, he used these "spoilers" to build his family estate into a fortress and rise from commoner to pillar of the state.
Until one day, he rewrote a piece of history. The sky screen's main feature updated at once, and the whole realm saw with their own eyes: the future had been rewritten.
A thousand-year screen reveals how a dynasty falls and how it may rise. More than five thousand days remain until the upheaval of 1644. In this life, he will not only protect his family, but also change the story of the three centuries of ruin that await this dynasty, and let it see a different future.
To put it nicely, isn't it just a time traveler who got cheated? I thought I was very capable and could rely on myself. So-so, just a slap-in-the-face story.