Female lead's version
The best decision Xu Qingqiu ever made was to leave home and travel to the capital as soon as she learned that the Empress Dowager had founded a women's academy, allowing women to take the imperial examinations and serve in the court.
When Xu Qingqiu was born, a fortune-teller said she was born rebellious, destined to defy convention. Sure enough, she could hold a brush and write by the age of three, recite Tang and Song poetry by five, and read the Four Books and Five Classics by seven. The Xu family rules said women should only follow the Three Obediences and Four Virtues, and remain illiterate, so everyone in the family treated her like a disaster to be avoided. Her parents held their noses and raised her until she was fifteen, intending to marry her off in a sedan chair and be rid of her once and for all.
She believed only in a destiny she wrote for herself. Since she was born rebellious, she would make these people watch as she climbed into the clouds, then trampled them into the mire.
Male lead's version
The second son of the He family had always been an idle layabout. Sometimes even Marquis He wondered whether the boy was really his. He had enjoyed a lifetime of renown and remained steadfast through every upheaval at court, so how had he ended up with such a good-for-nothing son?
When the Empress Dowager opened an academy and set aside a school for boys, Marquis He kicked his son inside. "Study hard. Look at all those young ladies nowadays. They're a hundred times more capable than you."
A fiery little pepper who defies fate x A mischievous young scoundrel who turns over a new leaf
Theme: Women standing on their own feet and forging careers in government
