A Farmer's Daughter Takes the Imperial Exams: I Become Top Scholar with My Agricultural Knowledge

Shen Qinghe, a modern agricultural science graduate student, wakes up in the body of a farm girl in a remote village of the Great Ye dynasty. Disaster strikes from the start: the harvest fails completely, and her father is forced to sell himself into servitude to keep the family alive.

Faced with her mother’s tears and her young siblings’ hunger, Shen Qinghe clenches her fists. She knows that the agricultural knowledge etched into her bones is her only weapon for defying fate in this era.

Others study in hopes of rising from a farm hut to the emperor’s court in a single day. She studies so that no farmer in the realm will ever go hungry again!

Disguised as a man and using the alias “Shen Qinghe,” she embarks on the imperial examination path with an astonishing policy paper on agriculture.

From breeding superior seeds to building greenhouses, from pest and disease control to water conservancy, she turns modern agricultural techniques into ingenious strategies for governing the realm and helping its people.

She surmounts one obstacle after another through the provincial, metropolitan, and palace examinations, stunning the court at every turn and ultimately being named Number One Scholar by the emperor.

Standing in court as a man, she debates the scholars and champions new policies, all for the sake of one promise: “Let everyone in the realm have enough to eat.”

The powerful mock her for being “covered in dirt.” She answers with vast fields of rice, waves of golden grain, and a face-slapping rebuke.

The scions of great families sneer at her “humble origins.” She turns the desolate village of her past into a prosperous land of fish and rice that everyone longs to visit.

Wen Ziran, the elegant Minister of Rites born into a prestigious family, is the one who sees through her disguise to the woman’s heart and her desire to serve the people. He bows to her, clears her path, and willingly joins hands with her to paint a picture of a golden age and bumper harvests.

When all is settled, she sheds her Number One Scholar’s robe and resumes her identity as a woman. Her father is free, and her hometown is prosperous.

She is the first female agricultural official in history, and the “Goddess of Agriculture” celebrated by all the people.