The Second Male Lead's Road to the Imperial Exams

Gu Zhun was never a good man. He was ruthless and scheming, but he was also skilled at hiding his true nature, so everyone around him thought he was a perfect gentleman. Until one day, Gu Zhun encountered something calling itself a System. It told him: "You're the villainous second male lead in a book, destined to lose to the male lead. So give up." "Let this System reform you, and you might still have a chance to turn things around." "If you refuse to change, you'll end up like the character in the book: you'll never pass the imperial examination and become a jinshi." Gu Zhun didn't care about the first two lines. But at the last one, he suddenly smiled. "Say that again. Who's never going to pass?" System: ⊙▽⊙ Thanks to the System, Gu Zhun not only experienced the glory of placing first in the palace examination, he also discovered how much fun it was to become a high-ranking official. Born to a poor family, he rose swiftly through the ranks, taking first place in all three rounds of the imperial examinations and becoming the emperor's right-hand man. As for the so-called heroine the System mentioned, what did she have to do with Gu Zhun? New story: Building Infrastructure in Ancient Times. Please add it to your wish list! Blurb: Xiao Jin looked back on his miserable life. He hated studying, yet was forced to finish a doctorate. He hated taking certification exams, yet somehow ended up with over a dozen engineering certificates. But the worst part wasn't any of that. He'd barely graduated and hadn't even had a chance to celebrate when he died in a car accident and became the Crown Prince of the Xia Kingdom, a character with the same name as him in a rebirth novel! As far as he knew: Three days later, the old emperor of the Xia Kingdom would die suddenly, and he, the crown prince, would be thrust into the crisis and ascend the throne. A month later, his empress would have an affair with a court official and plot a rebellion, while secretly poisoning him. Two months later, the Qi army would invade, breach the city gates, and turn him, the emperor of barely two months, into a prisoner. He would soon die in prison. Xiao Jin: "..." He wanted no part of this mess. Born into a time of chaos, there was no escaping it. To save his own life, Xiao Jin had to pull himself together and return to his old line of work. Renovate the city walls! Build roads! Construct seagoing ships! Put up high-rises! Raise sows! Plant crops! Make looms! He was the undisputed king of infrastructure. Years later... The officials who had never believed in Xiao Jin: "Damn, you can do that?!" The people who had never believed in Xiao Jin: "Long live Your Majesty!" Theme: Education changes your fate.