The Farmer's Son Becomes the Top Scholar and Rules the Realm

Autumn, the sixteenth year of Yongye. West Courtyard of the Marquis of Dingyuan's estate.

Six-year-old Lin Xiuyuan opens his eyes. The memories of his past life and six years of hunger and cold in a farming village make the silk and brocade filling the room sting his eyes.

Three days ago, he was Su Ergou, starving in Qinghe Village and chewing tree bark.

Three days later, he is the “true legitimate grandson” of the Marquis of Dingyuan's estate: the son of Lin Dashan, the second master who was switched at birth thirty years ago and only just brought back from the countryside.

At the banquet in the main hall, the false heir Lin Chengsi raises his cup with a smile. “You've had a hard journey, little brother. I've prepared a house in the east of the city. You can live there in comfort from now on.”

The hall falls silent. Everyone understands what he means: the true bloodline is to be kept permanently away from power.

Thirty years ago, two babies were switched at a mountain temple. Lin Chengsi grew up taking the place of the legitimate son and has been in charge of the estate for over five years.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiuyuan's father, the true second legitimate son, Lin Dashan, is struggling to hold his jade chopsticks. With a clatter, he knocks over his bowl of soup.

“Just what you'd expect from a country bumpkin,” a young woman from the third branch says with a stifled laugh.

His father crouches under the covered walkway, his voice trembling. “Yuanyuan... Am I holding you all back?”

Lin Xiuyuan pushes open the carved window and gazes at the estate's imposing library tower.

In his past life, he was a doctoral graduate with expertise in both literature and history. Now that he has entered this deadly game of power...

“Father, they didn't just steal thirty years from us.”

“I'll make them pay it all back, with interest, on their knees.”

Three months later, the clan school holds its major exams.

The carefully tutored heir of the false heir, Lin Yaozu, can't string together a coherent essay. But the policy essay submitted by six-year-old Lin Xiuyuan brings the old marquis to summon him in the middle of the night.

“Did this boy... really grow up in the countryside?”

Lin Chengsi's schemes, the branches' hidden attacks, the estate's contempt...

Lin Xiuyuan takes them all in stride and turns the road to success in the imperial examinations into a ladder to the clouds.