You Wanted Me to Take the Imperial Exam, So Why Am I Mass-Producing Test-Takers on an Assembly Line?

[Behind-the-scenes scheming + overwhelming advantage + ensemble cast of poor scholars + uncompromising pragmatism]

The Ming Dynasty’s imperial examinations appear to offer poor scholars a path to rise in the world, but in reality, they’re a con entirely controlled by the great clans.

Past exam papers are locked away in mansions, grading standards depend entirely on the word of a Confucian scholar, and even the right to submit an answer sheet depends on the favor of the powerful. Poor students can spend their whole lives studying, yet they’re destined to be nothing more than also-rans for the aristocratic clans.

Gu Mingshu transmigrates into this world and faces its suffocating class barriers. With a cold laugh, he opens the [Examiner Preference Big Data Dashboard] in his mind.

You want to compete on scholarly foundations? I’ll invent movable-type printing and turn knowledge monopolized at a hundred taels into Five Years of Provincial Exams, Three Years of Mock Tests, a book costing just three hundred copper coins!

You want to compete on connections? I’ll pinpoint the chief examiner’s political weak spots, tailor model answers to his preferences, and climb the rankings by trampling all over your aristocratic sons!

From a remote county to the emperor’s capital, Gu Mingshu uses the sharpest tongue and the most grueling closed-door training to turn a group of impoverished scholars who have repeatedly failed the exams into emotionless “test-taking assassins” and “ruthless officials,” by the hundreds.

At the palace examinations, the grand secretary sees that the new imperial scholars on the list all come from poor backgrounds and write in nearly identical styles. His hands and feet go cold.

“Investigate! Who’s been instructing these country bumpkins?!”

Meanwhile, in a residence in the capital, Gu Mingshu addresses hundreds of poor students who are about to become officials:

“Don’t talk to me about lofty ideals. That’s a luxury only the great clans can afford.”

“I taught you how to answer exam questions and got you into office. From today on, the rules of the Ming court will be set by our Gu clan!”