Ming Dynasty: Cursing Old Zhu, Restoring the Realm

In the ninth year of the Hongwu reign, the Empty Seal Case claims countless heads as entire families of officials are executed and their properties confiscated. Chen Yang, a transmigrated magistrate of Liyang County, is swept into the bloodshed. Just as the executioner's blade is about to fall upon him, a thunderbolt strikes from the heavens—an omen that earns him a special imperial pardon. Yet the Great Ming does not need the salvation of one man alone; it cries out for justice for all the wrongfully condemned officials across the realm. Clad in white mourning cloth, Chen Yang beats the imperial grievance drum. How does a lowly time-traveling nobody, armed with no system or cheats, carve out a path to survival? To curse the emperor is to court certain decapitation; to accuse the chancellor is to be crushed into oblivion. Any fiery hothead would not last three episodes in the brutal early Ming court. This is the story of one insignificant man's desperate struggle to stay alive amid the treacherous politics of the dynasty's founding years—and to quietly mend the cracks and regrets that history has left behind.