The Extraordinary Servant

This book tells the story of Lin Wanrong, a sales manager in the modern world, who falls off a cliff while traveling to Mount Tai with his female boss and wakes up in a completely different time and space—a world where Xiang Yu won the Chu-Han Contention and later generations established the 'Great Hua Dynasty.' He becomes an insignificant servant in the Xiao family mansion, known as 'Lin San.' Separated from his own time and family, he decides to set aside his grief and, with a thick skin, a clever head, and the knowledge and business sense he brought from the modern world, gradually gains a foothold in the unfamiliar ancient society. Starting from the trivial affairs of the Xiao household and the infighting among servants, he takes part in shop management and marriage entanglements, distinguishes himself in the Servant Competition and the Jinling Poetry Contest, gradually expands his business to the capital, becomes involved in court strife and border warfare, and even goes on diplomatic missions and takes part in military campaigns. The book depicts a small man's rise in a humorous, lively style, interspersed with abundant jokes, couplets, and poems, and creates the shrewd, scheming Lin Wanrong along with a group of vividly characterized women including the Xiao sisters and the madam. It is regarded as the founding work of the 'servant genre' of time-travel fiction, and many readers call it the Deer and the Cauldron of historical time-travel fiction.