The Book That Burned the Granary

Li Jiwen woke on a hard cot with another man’s hands, another man’s debts, and the memory of an emperor who had already failed once. His old life had ended in fire and ruin. His second life began in a village office where grain was counted like lives and every seal meant power. Jiwen was different from the people around him. He carried a private archive of techniques from worlds the system had already closed, and he could spot the exact moment for action long before anyone else felt danger. That gift kept him alive, but it also made him hard to trust. He refused the role that should have led him to a villain’s death, then started fixing the broken place around him with a ruler’s habits and a...