After the General Was Forced to Take the Imperial Exams

● New story in my collection: The Abandoned Son's Comeback as the Top Scholar. Feel free to add it to your pre-collection!

The imperial exams and business, a brother and sister working together to crush their competition!

One-sentence summary: My whole family is forcing me to take the imperial exams

In his previous life, Fu Wenzheng was born into a family of scholars. To avoid studying, he joined the army with his future father-in-law, won fame in battle, and eventually died for his country.

He opens his eyes and finds himself reborn as the mischievous youngest son of a family of readers in a small town in Jiangbei, with a frail build and no learning to speak of.

His grandfather studied all his life but never even passed the prefectural exam. His father is over forty and still only a licentiate candidate. His eldest brother is the best scholar in the family, and passed the licentiate exam at twenty, but was sabotaged by an old enemy and has no prospects in officialdom.

The whole family turns to look at him in unison.

And so Fu Wenzheng, who had resolved to join the army, is forced by his family to study and sit the imperial exams.

From then on, his classmates become comrades-in-arms, his sworn enemies become buddies, the officials become his brothers, and the powerful become his biggest fans.

He saves the day in a cuju match at the county school, turning defeat into victory.

At the Qionglin Banquet, he's plied with alcohol and drinks everyone under the table.

On the way to the capital, he encounters bandits and defeats them with a single move.

His classmates all give him a thumbs-up: "Brother Fu, you're a force to be reckoned with!"

Fu Wenzheng laughs it off: "Not at all, not at all. We're scholars, after all. We should still win people over with reason."

As he keeps studying, he makes his way to the imperial court and comes face to face with a group of old acquaintances from his previous life.

He discovers that the young crown prince, who used to follow him around calling him big brother, has become his "love rival" and now sits on the imperial throne.

● Entirely fictional setting. The romance is minimal and comes much later.

Theme: Keep your ideals, and take a different road. It can lead to a world of blossoming flowers all the same.