I Wanted to Be a Tyrant, but the Sky Screen Revealed I'm an Emperor for the Ages

Feel free to add these upcoming stories to your favorites: “The Sky Screen Spoils the Future, So I Pretend to Be the Second Phoenix and Save the An Lushan Rebellion,” “The Sky Screen Spoils the Future, So I Pretend to Be the Second Phoenix and Save the An Lushan Rebellion,” and “After My Inner Thoughts Leak, the Entire Court Helps Me Seize the Throne.”

My completed sky-screen stories: “The Eternal Emperor Goes Wild Snatching Deals on a Livestream,” “The Sky Screen Livestreams Me Starting a Rebellion in the Zhenguan Era to Li Shimin,” and “Livestreaming My Rise to Become the Second Empress to Empress Wu.”

Xiao Ran, an innocent college student, gets transported to another world and becomes a prince of the Southern Sheng Kingdom, with wealth and luxury within easy reach.

But before he has much time to celebrate, Xiao Ran discovers that his emperor father is near death, powerful families control the court and are waiting to install a puppet emperor or even seize the throne themselves, and two powerful northern kingdoms are eyeing their small southern neighbor.

Xiao Ran: This is bad! This is a story about a kingdom falling! I absolutely can’t be chosen as the new ruler and become the unlucky emperor who loses his country!

So Xiao Ran starts acting like a foolish, incompetent prince, planning to run away once the new emperor takes the throne. But just then, a sky screen appears.

[Today we’re digging into the infamous “foolish emperor” of history, Emperor Shengwu Xiao Ran. He neglected state affairs, often refused to attend court, searched everywhere for beautiful women, and recruited artisans on a grand scale to satisfy his extravagant lifestyle… He did just about everything we associate with a foolish ruler.]

Xiao Ran, getting roasted: Being publicly put on trial by the sky screen is embarrassing, but surely if I act like this, Father won’t choose me as the new emperor and make me the ruler who loses the country, right? Seems like a good thing!

But then the sky screen continues:

[Every foolish thing Xiao Ran did deserved to be denounced by Confucian scholars, yet often produced the opposite result.]

[For example, he recruited beautiful women to fill his harem, but ended up recruiting the greatest female chancellor in history. He launched massive construction projects, but in doing so provided disaster relief through public works and helped refugees, averting several disasters. He also enjoyed torturing and executing prisoners, but accidentally advanced Chinese medicine and became the Founder of Medicine… Eventually, he even reunified China and became an emperor for the ages.]

[Some people think he was simply lucky to encounter so many talented people, but many more believe Xiao Ran was pretending to be a fool so he could do things an ordinary emperor couldn’t. Today, this creator will take us inside the life of this controversial ruler.]

Xiao Ran is stunned: Am I really that amazing? I thought I genuinely wanted to lie flat!

The treacherous ministers who were eyeing the throne: We got played into looking like fools!

1. A silly, entertaining story. Don’t take it seriously.

2. As emperor, the male lead will certainly have heirs, but there’s no romance plot, so this is a no-pairing story.

Theme: Rebirth through destruction.