A Poor Scholar's Rise

The protagonist, Shen Xie, is a modern graduate student of history specializing in the history of the civil service examination system during the Ming and Qing dynasties. After pulling an all-nighter to finish his thesis and dying suddenly, he transmigrates into the body of Shen Xie, the third son of the Shen family from Qingxi Village in Daoning County, Great Sheng. The original Shen Xie is the least favored child in the family. His eldest brother, Shen Bai, is one of the village’s few licentiates, and the whole family has high hopes for him. His second brother, Shen Song, is an honest, hardworking man and the family’s main source of labor. Shen Xie is frail, sickly, and dull-witted. His father, Shen Huaishan, considers him a useless freeloader, and even the other children his age in the village bully him.

After transmigrating, Shen Xie discovers that he has inherited not only the original owner’s frail body but also his reputation for being useless at everything. The family is so poor they can barely put food on the table. Supporting his eldest brother’s studies has already drained their savings, so there’s no way they can afford to support him too. Worse still, the original owner was beaten by the private school teacher’s son for secretly watching the teacher’s lessons, and he is still bedridden, unable to get up.