I Am the Villainous Prime Minister’s Elder Brother [Transmigration]

Lian Cheng transmigrated into a book, taking the place of a good-for-nothing young master despised by every upstanding character in the story.

The original host had no talents and no official title to his name. He spent his days wandering the streets and back alleys, teasing cats and dogs, visiting teahouses to listen to storytellers, and keeping company with men and women alike without discrimination.

And it wasn’t just him. Nearly everyone in the Lian family was the same way, save for one Lian Xiusheng. Lian Cheng was simply the most “outstanding” of the lot.

Lian Xiusheng passed the imperial examinations as the top imperial examination graduate at sixteen and entered the Hanlin Academy. He rose to minister of personnel and grand secretary, attaining the rank of the three excellencies. Every matter in the Lian family, large or small, required his nod of approval. In the open and in the shadows alike, he was the true head of household.

He brought the Lian family a life of ease and extravagance. He brought them glory. And at the end of the book, he also brought them total ruin.

“Obstructing the emperor’s counsel, seizing military authority, monopolizing state affairs, accepting bribes and colluding with enemies, persecuting the loyal and the virtuous, a great and wicked villain, a scourge upon the people and a disaster for the nation.”

Only at the final reckoning did the Lian family finally wake up to the truth: their dazzling, all-powerful Lian Xiusheng had committed nearly every offense that warranted losing one’s head.

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After Lian Cheng realized he had no way back, he immediately set himself a goal: he would pull Lian Xiusheng back onto the right path. He could not let the Lian family be executed and their household razed.

When Lian Xiusheng brought home antiques and famous paintings, Lian Cheng said, “Return them. We don’t want dirty things like that.”

When Lian Xiusheng took a corrupt old official as his patron, Lian Cheng said, “Listen to your ge. Don’t get mixed up with him. The two of you are not a good match.”

When Lian Xiusheng started hauling gold home by the crate, Lian Cheng nearly fainted. “Stop taking bribes, I’m begging you, ge is begging you.”

On top of all that, Lian Cheng drove away wave after wave of people who came to the door bearing gifts. And he practiced what he preached: he began pushing himself hard, clinging to Lian Xiusheng and demanding to study diligently, to go to court and relieve the people’s hardships, to serve the emperor and share Lian Xiusheng’s burdens. All of it was to keep Lian Xiusheng too busy to get up to any of that mess.

Lian Xiusheng had long since seen through him. He said gently, “third elder brother, if you want to achieve your goal, there’s no need to go to such lengths. Would you like to hear my method?”

Lian Cheng said, “Huh?”

That same day, several of the Lian family’s servants all witnessed the third young master, Lian Cheng, looking as though he had seen a ghost, scrambling and tumbling out of Lian Xiusheng’s study.

Not many days later, Lian Cheng appeared in Lian Xiusheng’s study again, and Lian Xiusheng played him half to death.

A beautiful shou with no real brains who nevertheless finds himself thinking when there’s nothing to think about, paired with a gong who appears on the surface to be upright and gracious but is in truth deeply calculating and ruthlessly cunning, and younger than him.

Pseudo-angst. fictional historical setting. one-on-one romance. dual protagonist. Do not dismantle, reverse, dream-cast, or pit against the other party.

Unsolicited moralizing is unwelcome. Whether there is a side couple is uncertain; if there is, it will be a male pairing.