Abandoned halfway through!!!
Me! Chi Wenche! My family all say I’m destined to become a successful imperial graduate!
Our ancestors fought alongside the founding emperor to conquer the realm and were granted the title of Duke Cheng.
By the time the title passed down to my great-great-grandfather, it was revoked because he backed the wrong side. Before that happened, he made plenty of futile efforts.
My great-grandfather finally married the daughter of an Imperial Academy vice director who had suffered the same fate, and thus began the Cheng family’s shift from the military to the civil service.
My great-grandfather took the imperial exams again and again, but remained a lifelong licentiate.
My grandfather was expected to do great things, but he only ever made it to licentiate.
My father was a prodigy in his youth, but despite taking the metropolitan exams several times, he never advanced beyond provincial graduate.
Now! It’s my turn! I’m! So! Doomed!
You tell me, am I doomed or what?
The literary fortunes of the whole family rest on me, their only offspring. Ahead of me are the titles of licentiate, provincial graduate, and metropolitan graduate.
Each one is like a mountain pressing down on me.
If I fail to become an imperial graduate, who could I face?
But the path of the imperial examinations is a narrow bridge over which countless candidates struggle to cross. How could it be easy?
Sigh! I’m doomed!
