Transmigrating as Dongfang Shuo

Lin Xiaobei transmigrated in a dream. He dreamed that a middle-aged old man with a handsome beard smiled at him and said, "Go see what the Han Dynasty is like. I'll make you famous for all eternity." Lin Xiaobei said, "Pah! I don't want that." The old man kept grinning lecherously. "That's it, that's the spirit. I like that temper. All right, you're going today. Remember, your name is Dongfang Shuo." Lin Xiaobei jolted awake, shaken by how real the dream had felt. When he looked at the furnishings around him, he woke up for real. He sat in silence, and then, after a while, a thunderous shout rang out from the attendant's room: "I'm not Dongfang Shuo!!!" Different people have different opinions about Dongfang Shuo. Some say he was wise and pretended to be foolish to outwit others, a profoundly cunning man. Others say he was tragic: he was never given important posts in his life, and in the end he left Emperor Wu of Han, became increasingly eccentric, and died in sorrow. To Emperor Wu of Han, Dongfang Shuo was a true exception. He was absurd, comical, and unkempt, yet he was exceptionally learned and brilliantly gifted. And so the still young and handsome Emperor Wu said to the worried Empress Dowager, "Since I dare to employ him, I must have a way to keep him in check. Mother, I promise you: as long as I remain on the throne, Dongfang Shuo will always be beneath me." A piece of history that is not a tragedy, and a love story that is not a tragedy. Theme: