Transmigrated as an abandoned child in a mass grave, with only a broken bowl from the start.
Shen Ting thought he was done for.
No household registration, no family, not even a travel permit. In this dynasty, he didn't even count as a “person.”
The old beggar said, “Stick with me, and you'll be a little beggar.”
Shen Ting said, “All right.”
But he had something else in mind: he was going to take the imperial examinations.
No books? He eavesdropped outside a private school for three months and memorized the entire Analects.
No household registration? He helped the county yamen solve three unsolved cases in exchange for a “special exemption.”
On the eve of the county-level exam, his enemies came to silence him.
He promptly sent a petition to the county yamen, accusing them of hiring assassins to kill him.
Years later, he became the first person in the history of the Great Liang dynasty to place first in all three levels of the imperial examinations.
At the honor banquet, someone mocked him for not knowing proper etiquette.
He retorted in front of everyone, “Under Great Liang law, anyone without an official degree is forbidden from attending this banquet. What degree do you have?”
The entire hall fell silent.
Later, he tamed the Yellow River, reformed the salt trade, and won the battle to defend the capital.
Later still, he sent a prince's head to the imperial prison.
The officials of the entire court knelt and begged him to stop investigating.
He said, “There are still 132 more.”
From a broken bowl to a place in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, he did only one thing:
He stayed on his feet and saw the road through to the end.
