The Poor Scholar's Rise: Taking the Young Master's Place in the Imperial Exams

I transmigrated into an impoverished family in ancient times, and I’ll change the fate of the dynasty by taking someone else’s exams!

Li Ning, a modern history PhD, transmigrates into the body of an eight-year-old farm boy. To make ends meet, he becomes a spoiled young master’s book attendant. Under pressure from the boy’s threats and bribes, he is forced to write the civil service exams in his place, then goes on a rampage in the examination halls.

At eight, he shocks the literary world with his poem “Pity the Farmers.” At nine, his annotations to the Four Books become a standard civil service exam text. At seventeen, he passes every level of the examinations with top honors, becoming the youngest top scholar in history!

When the emperor discovers that the top scholar was actually a book attendant taking the exams for someone else, Li Ning pulls out a formula for gunpowder. “Your Majesty, the Japanese pirates are about to attack. Why not appoint me chief minister first?”