Reborn as a Cannon Fodder, I Crushed the Imperial Exams

One day, she opened her eyes and went from being a senior cramming for graduate school entrance exams until the world spun around her to becoming a cannon-fodder concubine-born daughter in the fictional Great Jing dynasty. The original owner had a little talent for literature, but insisted on throwing herself into the newly established imperial examination for women. In the end, she failed, disgraced her family, and was hastily married off, only to die of depression. Lin Zhixia looked at the dusty examination regulations on the table, and the competitive spirit of a grad school exam veteran awakened on the spot. While others complained of exhaustion after memorizing a couple of policy essays, she turned the classics and histories into catchy rhymes and rapped them from memory. While others studied by lamplight until midnight and called it a night, she set her alarm for the hours between midnight and dawn and kept grinding until sunrise. While others avoided male candidates for propriety’s sake, she challenged her rivals to timed practice tests, then gave the loser a full analysis of their mistakes. The women’s imperial examination was a novelty in Great Jing, but Lin Zhixia’s methods completely shattered everyone’s expectations. She used mind maps from her exam-prep days to organize the structure of policy essays, reviewed every mock exam with an error log, and even applied the idea of “targeted final revision” to her analysis of current affairs. Between matching wits with her miserly father to get money for paper and ink, trading barbs with an arrogant future top scholar over who could study harder, and dealing with the ridiculous antics of her relatives, she had her hands full. Cannon fodder? Not a chance. Exam veterans never believe in a predetermined script. Even in the women’s imperial exams, she would carve out a path to the top and leave everyone who looked down on her far behind!