Who's the Emperor? Me? [Nation-Building]

College-bound Chao Yanqing transmigrates into the body of a fool of a king who grew up deep inside the palace, and is told he has been on the throne for three years.

Chao Yanqing's eyes widen in shock: Who's the emperor? Me?

Looking around, he sees every palace servant with a bright red number above their head. The next moment, an unlucky eunuch with a zero on his forehead is dragged away to be executed.

So the numbers mean how long they have to live?

Chao Yanqing looks at the prominent “3” above his own head in the mirror, and feels his whole world fall apart.

That day, the Great Shaman Feng Li enters the palace for an audience.

The Chang Kingdom follows the shamanic faith. The title of Great Shaman has been passed down through generations, and its holder has a status above all others.

Feng Li has assisted with governance for years, considers himself the king's adoptive father, and holds immense power at court.

Yet this adoptive father has no number above his head, nothing to reveal his fate.

But Chao Yanqing discovers that if he keeps Feng Li in the palace, he can live a hundred days longer.

He acts at once, pretending that an old illness has flared up.

That night, a massive fire breaks out on the high platform where the Great Shaman lives, burning it to the ground.

Having escaped disaster, Feng Li gazes at the young king, asleep with fever, his eyes shifting as he falls into deep thought.

The dynasty is teetering, beset by natural disasters and human calamities within, and watched by powerful enemies without.

As the number above his head shrinks day by day, Chao Yanqing can't keep hiding anymore.

He doesn't want to be a short-lived puppet, nor the king who loses his country.

If he wants to survive, he must strengthen the nation. Time to put his freshly exam-tested brain full of knowledge to work!

Increase grain yields, build long canals, forge advanced tools, strengthen the army, establish schools, institute civil service examinations...

Chao Yanqing works day and night, throwing himself into state affairs and barely noticing how Feng Li's gaze is slowly changing.

The Feng clan had served the royal family for generations. When the previous Great Shaman divined the kingdom's declining fortunes, he sacrificed himself to prolong the dynasty by ten years. All that sacrifice bought was ten years of the foolish late emperor indulging in wine and women before bringing about his own ruin.

Feng Li thought it was absurd.

If the Feng clan's service in the world as royal advisors amounted to blind loyalty, he would rather break his oath, die, and take the Chao clan down with him.

After recovering from a serious illness, Chao Yanqing claimed that the gods had appeared in his dreams. His mind grew clearer by the day, but he was always spouting strange ideas and devoting himself to odd inventions.

Like father, like son. Even if he wasn't a fool, he was a fool's seed.

Feng Li watched coldly, his heart as withered wood.

But day after day, Chao Yanqing truly seemed to have divine help.

And under the repeated onslaught of “Father Chancellor,” Feng Li willingly used his position as Great Shaman to cover for Chao Yanqing's shocking ideas.

With a wise ruler on the throne, the dynasty flourishes once more.

One morning, several years later,

Chao Yanqing discovers that his “golden finger” has stopped working completely. In its place, a line of text appears in the sky screen and remains for a few seconds.

After reading it, he smiles and leans down to kiss Feng Li, who is sleeping beside him.

“Father Chancellor...”

Feng Li wakes at his disturbance, his cheeks turning red. He closes his eyes and tries to hold himself back. “What are you doing?”

“It is a time when heaven, earth, and people are all in harmony. I wish to ask Father Chancellor for a reward...”

“Your Majesty has given your order. How could this subject... dare disobey?”

[The sweet-faced but secretly ruthless transmigrated emperor as the pursuer x the sharp-tongued, soft-hearted Great Shaman and Father Chancellor as the pursued]

Pursuer's perspective, younger man, age gap of over ten years

***Warning***

The extras include pregnancy and childbirth!

Theme: Knowledge is power.