Am I Smarter Than the Emperor?

Shen Zhibai, a 32-year-old middle manager at an internet giant, dies mid-PPT presentation during layoffs. He opens his eyes to find himself as a scholar awaiting execution in the Great Zhou dynasty. His family is exiled, his father unjustly killed, and his sister's engagement broken off. A hellish start, but he smiles. A decade of corporate grind wasn't for nothing. PPT presentations, upward management, KPI breakdowns, cross-departmental bickering—these workplace survival skills turn out to be top-tier political maneuvering in ancient courts. Better yet, his mind holds the next three years of court trends. Emperor Jinghe wants to purge Minister Yang Yanzhi but can't; the Zhenbei Marquis's mansion is stuck investigating a military grain corruption case; three thousand unjust souls in Jiangnan await a chance for vindication. Using 'information asymmetry' as his blade, Shen Zhibai stirs the capital with three letters: one to win over a jailer, one to leverage the underworld, one straight to the emperor. Dressed as a woman, he infiltrates the palace and wins over the young emperor in three sentences; posing as a playboy, he enters a brothel and extracts secrets from an enemy spy in two drinks. From a death-row prisoner to imperial tutor and powerful minister, from alone to his sister's remarriage, the emperor's trust, and the enemy princess's pursuit—Shen Zhibai carves a bloody path through ancient times with modern thinking, finally realizing: the greatest cheat of transmigration is a mind tempered by 996.