The Poor Scholar's Mentor: A Country Girl's Road to Success

Synopsis:

[“They say women without talent are virtuous? Then I'll teach everyone in this world to read!”]

Su Wanqing, a modern master's graduate in education, transmigrates into the body of a nine-year-old orphan girl. The moment she opens her eyes, her mother is coughing up blood, and her little brother is being bullied...

Her father died because of an imperial examination fraud case. In the mire, she discovers a blood-written message he left behind: “When the Golden Carp Register appears, the examination halls will be in peril.” To escape this dead end, she uses reeds for brushes and frost-covered snow for paper, opening the Great Zhou's first school for children from humble families in a ruined temple.

She uses mathematics to measure fields and expose the local gentry's schemes, and psychology to untangle children's emotional troubles, all while bringing modern education to bear on the needs of ancient society.

Then one day, she saves a gravely wounded young man dressed in black. He wears a jade pendant carved with a hornless dragon and carries a Mountain-Slaying Sword, yet he carves movable type for her and shields her from hidden arrows. He even risks revealing his identity as a prince: “If Teacher Su means to overthrow this corrupt examination system, then I shall be your sharpest blade.”

When the girls' school is smeared as a means of “bewitching the people,” he rides in with iron cavalry to crush the rumors.

When The Secret Files of the Golden Carp expose a scandal in the imperial family, she uses her blood as ink to rewrite the primers for young students.

[“Your Highness, do you know that I don't want a phoenix crown and the position of empress?”]

[“I know.” He takes her hand and presses it against the imperial seal. “What you want is for every child of humble birth under heaven to have a path to success.”]