You’ve Guarded the Border for Three Years. Are You Living Better Than the Emperor?

Chen Cheng transmigrates to an alternate dynasty, thinking he can live in luxury and sweep all before him.

Instead, he becomes a spoiled young heir from a marquis's household, one who has just fled an arranged marriage to a princess and been banished to a remote backwater.

Qingshui County is exactly what its name suggests: a place of thin gruel and clear water, with nothing to be had.

Chen Cheng initially wants to shirk his duties and enjoy himself as a county magistrate in name only.

But seeing the county's old, weak, sick, and disabled, he can't bring himself to do it.

He leads the people and spends three years turning Qingshui County into a proper place.

Just as he's about to settle into a life of leisure, the princess whose marriage the original owner fled comes knocking. She's dazzled by the sights in town and refuses to leave...

Then the emperor comes to inspect the county, and the good times come to an end.

The emperor thinks that with a son-in-law like this, the realm is bound to prosper, and arranges a marriage between Chen Cheng and the princess.

After a palace coup leaves the emperor dead and the royal family without an heir, Chen Cheng ascends the throne at the ministers' urging.

He continues developing the realm and leading campaigns across the land, until, without even meaning to, he becomes an emperor for the ages!