✪ 2,000,000 copies sold in China!!!
✪ Top 3 of Douban 2022 Annual Chinese Literature, fiction category

We all have the option to quit if we hate our job. But what if you couldn't—what if your very life depended on completing the task assigned to you?

Li Shande is given a mission: to deliver fresh lychees from nearly 2,000 kilometers away to his boss’ favorite concubine. While this might seem like a simple task in modern times, set 1,300 years ago in ancient China—where cars, planes, and refrigerators didn’t exist—it’s nothing short of a logistical nightmare.

Yet, failure is not an option. Li’s employer, the Tang emperor, demands nothing but success. If the lychees do not arrive fresh and on time, Li will face the emperor’s wrath—a fate as certain as death.

Desperate to save his own neck, Li embarks on a journey to southern China, relying on his talent for numbers and a spirit of scientific inquiry to find a solution. Although ​Li does find help and support, ​he is​ also hopelessly naïve about politics and disrupts many vested interests of others along the way.

Written in a brisk pace and humorous tone, THE EMPEROR’S LYCHEES cuts across humanity beneath hidden corruption and disguised glory, revealing how even the smallest whims of those in power can trigger far-reaching consequences, impacting both personal lives and political landscapes.