A top scholar who bought his title is personally summoned to the imperial court by the emperor. Jiang Xiaobai had planned to carry on as a spoiled noble heir, but he discovers troubling questions surrounding his elder brother’s death—and that the marquis’s household is already caught in a web of intrigue. Rivalry at poetry gatherings, tests before the throne, power struggles among influential ministers, and secret plots within the imperial family follow one after another. Everyone thinks he is nothing but a foolish spendthrift. Little do they know that this unassuming young master is quietly seeing through the entire scheme.