I’m a Literary Master in 1919

Chen Yan blinked and found himself back in the tumultuous eighth year of the Republic of China. From the start, he stumbled into the May Fourth student demonstrations, got clubbed over the head, put in the stocks, and thrown in jail. Luckily, he had a “literary heart.” By writing books and being remembered by others, he could gain literary energy. Spending it could strengthen his body or unlock his brain, making ideas gush forth like a spring. He plagiarized online novels, leaving Lu Xun, the standard-bearer of the New Culture Movement, torn between love and hate as he demanded updates day after day. His satirical essays skewered the ills of the age, humiliating warlords and keeping their assassins constantly on the run. He founded a library and was hailed as “the first man of the modern library.” When the United States returned the Boxer Indemnity, Tsinghua got a share, and so did he. He established an SCI citation index, forcing every scholar in the Republic of China to compete over impact factors and journal rankings, and curse him for being inhuman. He also founded magazines, news agencies, and factories, all in pursuit of a fully independent and self-reliant industrial supply chain. And of course, he couldn’t go without confidantes: first a warlord’s daughter, then a young lady from an illustrious family. It all began when he started adapting Infinite Terror in a basement at Peking University...