Becoming You

Everyone praises literary achievement as impossible to rank, yet they alone place Xue Jin at the very top, claiming he stood out among the stars of literature and that no other top scholar could match his credentials. Zi Shou gave a cold laugh, tapping the keyboard without mercy: "His family produced several prime ministers, and the chief examiner back then was his own uncle. Getting that top scholar title sure came easy." Others praised Xue Jin for disguising himself as an ordinary man to serve the people, slaying hundreds of corrupt officials in Jiangnan and rescuing a million refugees from disaster, making him a virtuous minister remembered for generations. Zi Shou rolled his eyes, each word cutting to the bone: "His clan was already the biggest landowner in Jiangnan, and its patriarch was both a literary leader and the head of the Apricot Grove faction. He killed a few unruly household slaves to give the court an answer, and that's worth all this praise? It's just a show put on by the privileged!" After venting to his heart's content on the keyboard, Zi Shou's vision went black. When he opened his eyes again, he had actually become the person he'd just been mocking: Xue Jin, heir to a family that had produced three generations of high ministers across four generations, and the top scholar! "Sorry, I was a little too loud just now! Heir to a family of high ministers across four generations, here I come!" Theme: