Fang Zhengzhi wakes up expecting very little from his new life. His previous life was spent studying ancient history, so being reborn as the son of poor villagers hardly sounds like the beginning of some grand adventure. The village is small, his family survives through honest work, and every meal comes from hard-earned effort. At first, he thinks the knowledge he brought with him might at least help him stand out, until he realizes this world has its own history, its own traditions, and even its own classics. Almost everything he thought he understood stops being useful the moment he arrives.
Growing up again does have one advantage. Behind the face of a child is someone who has already lived once, making Fang Zhengzhi far more patient than most children his age, though patience rarely stops him from causing trouble. He enjoys arguing when he knows he is right, takes every chance to outwit people who underestimate him, and rarely follows the path others expect. His cleverness earns him praise just as often as it earns him headaches, especially when adults discover he is far harder to fool than he should be.
As the years pass, life outside the village slowly comes into view. A simple encounter with a young girl, strange visitors passing through, and stories carried from distant cities all hint that the world is much larger than the fields where Fang Zhengzhi spends his childhood. Children with talent are chosen through demanding examinations, respected figures possess abilities ordinary people can barely understand, and opportunities are rarely handed to anyone without a price attached.
Trying to earn a place among those people proves harder than Fang Zhengzhi expected. Ability matters, but so do family background, reputation, and connections. His parents can offer encouragement, not influence, leaving him to solve most problems with the only thing he truly trusts, his own mind. That turns out to be enough to open doors others thought were permanently closed.
The biggest surprise arrives when Fang Zhengzhi discovers that the famous writings he once spent years studying still exist, only they are tied to something called the Law of Dao instead of ordinary scholarship. Passages he once memorized for academic research carry a meaning nobody from his former world could have imagined. That unexpected link becomes the first real clue that his past life was not left behind as completely as he believed, and from that point onward, every answer only pushes him toward another question.
