Before the Song Falls

History Has Already Written Its Fall. I Arrived Before the Ink Was Dry.

My name is Zhao Chen.

I've been transported through time.

This is the first year of Shaoxing—1131 AD.

When I opened my eyes again, I had become Zhao Chen—the Crown Prince of the Great Song, a man who should have vanished from history with the Jingkang Incident.

Four years ago, the Jin army broke through Bianjing. Emperors Huizong and Qinzong were taken north. The Great Song crumbled, and the Central Plains fell.

And Zhao Chen was among those taken.

I had read this history in books before.

But now the cold prison walls stand before me, shackles bind my feet, and the name I once saw in the history books has become my own.

I escaped.

No Imperial Guards. No royal carriage. None of the glory once afforded to a crown prince.

All I have beside me are refugees fleeing south, villages burned to the ground, and a Great Song still teetering amid the flames of war.

I know what happens next.

I've never thought of myself as particularly capable...

God, I didn't even graduate from college!

But now that I've come this far, I have to do something.

Up ahead... there seems to be a refugee settlement.