In the winter of the twelfth year of the Zhengde era, Xu Jin transmigrates into the body of an impoverished Confucian student in Shangrao County, Jiangxi.
That year, the Ming emperor Zhu Houzhao is touring the border garrison at Xuanfu.
That year, Zhu Chenhao, Prince of Ning in Jiangxi, is secretly plotting a rebellion.
That year, Xu Jin, with nothing but bare walls at home, searches for a way forward and ultimately decides to pursue an official career through the imperial examinations. He conquers each stage, from the county and prefectural exams to the academy and provincial exams, only to be drawn deeper and deeper into the maelstrom of Zhu Chenhao's rebellion...
