The Idler of Zhenguan: Intercepting Wu Zetian at the Start

Blending historical detail, imperial court intrigue, daily cultivation, business warfare, and grand strategy, this epic historical drama follows a modern archivist who is reincarnated into the golden age of the Tang Dynasty. In the tenth year of the Zhenguan era, Changsun Dan—notoriously known as Chang'an's premier good-for-nothing and the sixth son of the powerful Chancellor Changsun Wuji—dies of alcohol poisoning in a pleasure house. He is replaced by a 21st-century National Library administrator who is painfully aware of a looming historical inevitability: the Changsun clan is destined to be utterly destroyed by the formidable Wu Zetian. Meanwhile, a young Wu Zetian and her mother are suffering severe abuse from her stepbrothers following her father's death, just as Emperor Taigong prepares to summon her to the imperial harem for her legendary talent and beauty. Terrified of future retribution, Wu's stepbrother conspires with Changsun Dan to disrupt the imperial selection. But after waking up framed in a death row cell for defiling an imperial concubine-in-waiting, Changsun Dan must use his knowledge of history to survive. Citing apocalyptic prophecies and imperial omens, he secures an audience with Emperor Taizong. Through a brilliant war of words in the imperial court, he turns a death sentence into a shocking royal decree—Emperor Taizong forces him into marriage with Wu Zetian instead. As modern intellect clashes with ancient technology, the trajectory of history is shattered. Deprived of her path to the inner palace and supreme political power, will Wu Zetian still rise to become history's ultimate female monarch? With Emperor Taizong's suspicion, the desperate counterattacks of the aristocratic families, Wu Zetian's own unpredictable schemes, and premature barbarian rebellions caused by the shifted timeline, how will the reluctant idler Changsun Dan reverse the tides of fate and rewrite the empire's destiny?