Starting as the Prince Consort

Shen Yanzhi woke up in a worn blue gown, with a provincial graduate's certificate in his pocket and not a coin to his name. The good news was that he understood people, knew when to advance or retreat, and was good with numbers. The bad news was that he had offended someone he shouldn't have. Princess Zhao Lingyi, still unmarried at twenty-one, spotted a poor scholar in a shabby blue gown at the Number One Scholar Tower—not because he was handsome, but because his hand holding the teacup was remarkably steady. Shen Yanzhi didn't want to be the prince consort. He wanted to be an official, to get things done, to make sure farmers had enough to eat and that those who bought exam questions failed. But he soon realized that in this world, wanting alone wasn't enough. The imperial estates were in deficit, merchants defaulted on debts, the powerful oppressed the weak, and civil officials impeached him at every turn—each matter had to be resolved by his own efforts. So he invented the curved-shaft plow and the vertical-axis windmill; opened the first hotpot restaurant in the capital; cleared up five years of bad accounts for the imperial estates; built a salt mine from scratch; and in the Golden Throne Hall, he cursed out the entire civil official faction. The emperor said, "This man, I like him more and more." The princess said, "There's something in his eyes, something bigger than being a prince consort." The civil officials said, "This man must be eliminated." Shen Yanzhi said, "Then let's see who dies first." From "forced marriage" to "actively stirring up trouble," from "court intrigue" to "border warfare," this is a story of a time traveler who stands tall to earn money, to get things done, and to marry a princess.