A Top Scholar from a Poor Family: Starting with a Preview of Ming Dynasty Exam Papers

Chen Mo, 25, is a college dropout from a mediocre modern university’s history department, a seasoned office drone, a history enthusiast who only knows a little, a master of trash talk, and hopelessly bad at taking action. He dies suddenly after gaming all night and reading a history power fantasy, then transmigrates to the Jiajing era of the Ming dynasty, around 1540, when Yan Song is in power, Japanese pirate raids are on the rise, and social tensions are growing fierce. He ends up in a poor, declining branch family in a county in southern Zhili. Both his parents are dead, and his family has nothing but a few acres of barren farmland coveted by a local bully from the clan. The original owner was a “famous” failure and a cowardly pushover who had failed the county-level first stage of the civil service exams three times.