In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, the Hu Weiyong case broke, and the office of chancellor was abolished.
Zhu Yuanzhang was swamped with state affairs until he was vomiting blood. Then someone attempted to assassinate him, so the Imperial Guard secretly searched among the common people for "men who looked like the emperor" to serve as his doubles.
Those who looked the part were taken. Those who didn't were killed. Seven had already died.
Jia Zhen had spent eight years playing Zhu Yuanzhang as a lookalike actor in Hengdian. When he opened his eyes, he had become the eighth.
He had to stand in for the emperor at the sacrifices to Heaven, at court, and when people cursed him, and even take a blade for the real emperor.
To stay alive, he brought all eight years of acting experience to bear: the Fengyang accent pressed deep in his throat, the habit of rubbing his knee with his thumb, and the look in his eyes amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
If he didn't act like the emperor, he'd be beheaded. If he acted too much like him, Old Zhu would sharpen his knife in the middle of the night.
In this deadly predicament, where every step was treacherous, Jia Zhen fought his way to a path of survival.
He used modern criminal investigation techniques to solve the assassination attempt, used double-entry bookkeeping to bring corrupt officials to justice, and even saved the Crown Prince's life along the way.
Then one day, he was handling memorials more smoothly than the real emperor, and the officials feared him more than they did the real emperor.
Zhu Yuanzhang sat behind the scenes, one hand on the embroidered spring blade at his waist. Looking at the figure on the dragon throne, who seemed more like an emperor than he did, he finally panicked.
"In this Ming dynasty, which one of us is the double?"
