A modern archaeology professor transmigrates into the body of a poor young man: his family has nothing, his mother is frail, his younger brother is still a child, and they can’t even afford a proper meal. To make matters worse, the landlord is demanding repayment, and the neighbors bully them! He’s the very picture of a destitute scholar’s family. Everyone says it’s hard for the poor to produce great men. Watch the protagonist prove you wrong.
With modern knowledge at his disposal, will he bring shame on the transmigration crowd?
As the saying goes, “With no one to help me pursue my ambitions, I’ll climb to the summit through snow alone!”
But for a poor scholar, the imperial examination path is harder than climbing to heaven! Powerful families’ sons frame him for cheating in the county exam, corrupt officials secretly suppress him in the provincial exam, and the emperor throws tricky questions his way in the palace exam. How can he possibly rise from an uncapped scholar all the way to top scorer?
Even more astonishing, four women fall for him along the way: a painter’s daughter from the countryside recommends a mentor to him; a medical woman in the prefectural city risks her life to clear his name; a minister’s daughter in the capital helps him establish himself at court; and a swordswoman from the martial world protects him through countless clashes of steel.
On one side is a treacherous struggle in officialdom: he must fight the landlord Qin Wanshan, who is swallowing up farmland, bring down the corrupt prefect Wei Chengan, and push through reforms despite the suppression of the conservative minister Liu Chengye. On the other is a tangled web of love and longing: whom will he ultimately choose? A confidante who understands his original aspirations, or an ally who can help him rise to power?
When the poor scholar who topped the exams reaches the pinnacle of power, can he hold on to his original goal of serving the people amid the emperor’s suspicions and the whirlpool of factional strife? Is this journey of face-slapping across time a trick of fate or an inevitability of history? Open the book and find out!
