The Counterfeit Celebrity

They wanted the airs of a celebrated scholar; he gave them the common sense of a later age. Wei-Jin elegance, redefined by a modern man. He knew nothing of the Five Minerals Powder, but he understood fermentation and purification; he could not write parallel prose, yet he remembered the famous works of the Jian'an spirit; he could not match the sharp wit of idle philosophical debate, but he could recount "the general trends of the world" as if he had lived through them. Thus the realm gained a "prodigious talent" among its celebrities, and the court's factional strife acquired an unfathomable piece on the board. Everyone praised his free-spiritedness; only he knew that every time he blurted out "the future," he was gambling with his life. And when the empty fame of a celebrity brought the heavy weight of real power, he had to choose between "pretending better" and "living truer"—a path with less bloodshed. After all, a celebrity can be counterfeited, but a nation cannot. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Counterfeit Celebrity — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠