A Scholar's Journey from the Countryside: I Write Stories to Pay for the Exams

When Gu Hanzhou woke, all that remained in the drafty thatched hut was an almost-empty rice jar. He couldn’t even scrape together the few coppers needed to buy a sheet of cheap paper. His fellow students at the academy laughed at his poverty and declared that he had no chance of passing the imperial exams. After reading the books of this world, he found its popular fiction dull, and the memories of his previous life as an online novelist came flooding back. To raise the travel expenses for the exams, he studied the eight-legged essay with one hand and wrote Journey to the West with the other. His story took the prefectural city by storm. Wealthy and powerful patrons paid huge sums for new chapters, and the publishing house was besieged by readers. His fellow students accused him of wallowing in the vulgar pursuit of money and disgracing scholarship. At the provincial academy exams, he wrote an expansive essay on statecraft. When the results were announced, his name was at the top of the list. The faces below that had mocked him could only look up as he donned the scholar’s cap. From then on, this poor farmer’s son rose step by step, achieving the rare honor of Sixfold Laureate and stirring the whole realm.