Xi Yang, a modern-day office worker, accidentally travels back to the Ming Dynasty in the fifteenth year of the Hongwu era. Through a twist of fate, he saves Empress Ma and Zhu Xiongying. Knowing that Zhu Yuanzhang has a history of slaughtering meritorious officials, he politely declines his rewards and asks only to be sent to the remote Qianjiang County to serve as a seventh-rank county magistrate. Keeping a low profile and concealing his abilities, he avoids attracting the emperor's attention. Using modern knowledge, he quietly governs the county, disciplines local gentry, improves farming methods, develops infrastructure, resettles refugees, and strengthens public welfare. Amid one crisis after another, he plays the fool while secretly outsmarting his opponents, resolving local conflicts one by one. In a remote corner of the southwest, he gradually transforms a poor little county into a peaceful and prosperous haven where the people can live and work in contentment.