[Female lead + System + imperial examinations + a small ensemble cast]
Title: The Imperial Examinations: Heaven Keeps Throwing Up Roadblocks, but She Still Rises to High Office (I changed the title extensively after writing only a little because it didn't feel right, but the Tomato platform doesn't allow title changes until you reach 200,000 words.)
The dynasty has just opened the examinations to women, and fourteen-year-old Lin Yunzhi makes a glorious debut by taking first place in the county exam.
But it seems Heaven itself is determined to block her career in government.
First year of the provincial exam: floods block the roads.
Second year of the provincial exam: rain leaks into her examination cell and ruins her paper.
Third year of the provincial exam: an ancient tree falls and stains her paper.
People mock her, saying, "Women shouldn't enter the examination halls in the first place. These repeated disasters are Heaven's warning!"
Lin Yunzhi was born stubborn. If Heaven tries to stop her, she'll fight her way upstream.
Years later, Lin Yunzhi's achievements resound across the land, and she rises to the highest ranks of the court.
Everyone who once looked down on her bows their heads.
People praise her: "Lin Yunzhi was born to be an official. I always knew she'd make something of herself!"
Countless women have grand ambitions and aspirations that reach the clouds.
She says, "The eight windows frame autumn over the clouds and birds; my ambition towers over the forty prefectures of Western Sichuan."
She says, "Better to grow old on the branch, holding fast to my fragrance, than dance with the autumn wind like a yellow leaf."
She says, "Live, and be a hero among men; die, and be a hero among ghosts."
Countless women have had their wings clipped and their feathers broken, fading into obscurity.
She says, "How sad, the willows before the temple, competing in vain each spring to grow longer than painted brows."
She says, "A woman who writes is truly guilty, and to compose verses about the moon and wind is worse still."
She says, "I can only resent my silken robe for hiding my verses, while I look up in vain at the names on the examination list."
Their ambitions, their unwillingness to yield, their bitterness: at last, through generations of women's efforts, they are heard.
The roc rides the wind for ninety thousand miles. Let the wind never cease, but carry my boat to the Three Mountains!
