The Usurper

This is an age that seems to bustle with song and dance, steeped in luxury and excess. It is an era in which ambitious men lie in wait, watching coldly for their moment to rise. It is a dynasty with a glorious past, now riddled with problems.

When the emperor cares only for poetry and elixirs of immortality; when celebrated men of letters rise to high office but know nothing of governing a country; when meritorious generals are kept down as the northern Di tribes grow ever stronger, how should Xiao Mo, unwillingly drawn into officialdom, find his place?

Convinced he lacks the ability and ambition to change the age, he occupies a lofty post without earning it, spending years in mediocrity. Sober while everyone else is drunk, he pretends to be drunk among them, coolly watching the rise and fall of the times like a bystander. While protecting himself, he means to be an ancient homebody, playing the qin, writing, drinking, reading, and enjoying a carefree life. Nothing more.

Yet the course of fate and the turning points of life cannot be decided by people's wishes alone.

A so-called traitor is one who betrays his country and seizes the realm, earning the contempt of later generations.

At the very beginning of the story, all Xiao Mo wanted was to be a pampered young master with no worries about food or clothing.