Xie Wuyi wakes up in the body of the second male lead in a female-oriented novel he was reading. In the original plot, this character is a complete fool—hopelessly in love with the female lead, Liu Xiyin, and destined to be destroyed by the male lead, Xie Huan. He is meant to give up his military command, lose his dignity, and die a meaningless death. But Xie Wuyi is a modern man with no intention of following a script written by someone else.
On his very first day, an imperial edict arrives ordering him to take his own life. Instead of accepting his fate, Xie Wuyi beheads the eunuch who delivered it and declares open war on the capital. When Liu Xiyin arrives to talk him into surrendering his military power, he plays along—offering his seal of command as bait. He lures her into his manor, humiliates her, and seizes back full control of the army. Humiliated and furious, Liu Xiyin runs straight to Xie Huan, who is convinced that victory is already within his grasp.
At the imperial court, Xie Wuyi publicly tears apart Xie Huan's mask of virtue. He exposes forged edicts, the secret affair between Xie Huan and Liu Xiyin, and the embezzlement of military grain meant for the border troops. The Empress Dowager, Xiao Wenyin, attempts to shield Xie Huan by invoking his "virtuous" reputation, but Xie Wuyi silences her with a piece of evidence too scandalous to ignore. One by one, the officials who once mocked him turn their backs on Xie Huan. With 600,000 troops at his command and the entire court in chaos, Xie Wuyi has officially rewritten the script—and this time, the second male lead is the one holding all the cards.
