A Farmer's Son on the Road to Success

[A new novel is now out: "The Kid Sees Bullet Comments at Crime Scenes." Thank you to every reader who supports the official release!] Gu Zhang transmigrates. He goes from the fifty-fifth year of the apocalypse to a dirt-poor country family, as a premature baby born with a weak constitution. Born after the apocalypse, Gu Zhang thinks this world couldn't be better. Green mountains and clear rivers, fragrant rice fields, and endless food, all flavors he's never tasted before. Maybe he was destined to have a connection with plants. His plant-based ability vanished after he transmigrated, but he got a Plant System instead. The only problem is that the System seems a bit dim-witted. Its exchange menu is full of plant-related items, but all its assigned missions are about studying and the imperial examinations. It even calls itself a Dream Fulfillment System? Isn't his dream to sample every delicacy in the world, see all the world's beautiful sights, and enjoy this wonderful life? Oh, well. With the wars still raging and human life treated as worthless, ordinary people at the bottom of society have a hard time getting by. Becoming an ordinary low-ranking official through the imperial examinations and living freely in one place doesn't sound too bad either. But the farming instinct engraved in his bones seems hard to deal with. He keeps getting itchy hands whenever he's serving as a perfectly good official. His first assignment as an outposted official is the dangerous border region. He wasn't afraid when zombies surrounded a city, so why should he fear a war? Rely mainly on the court to send grain and supplies? Gu Zhang, former grain-field manager at a survivor base, hears this and immediately goes into emergency mode: How can that work? It's far too vulnerable to risk! When he leaves office, the soldiers, now well-fed and warmly clothed, bid him farewell with tears in their eyes, praising him as a rare talent in both civil and military affairs and a powerful pillar of support for the army. Officials of the Xuan Dynasty are assessed on their achievements: a minor review each year and a major review every three years. Whenever Gu Zhang is assessed, he gets promoted. People call him the man who gets promoted at every review. The common people spontaneously give him a ceremonial umbrella and walk for a thousand miles to see him off. Those whose wrongful convictions are overturned call him a just magistrate, and erect monuments and write biographies to express their gratitude. The Yellow and Huai Rivers are brought under control, the waterways run smoothly, and the downstream regions enjoy bumper harvests year after year. Writers and scholars alike write poems and songs in his honor. Everyone says that Lord Gu loves the bustling city, the presence of people, delicious food, and fine horses, and that he is a practical genius rarely seen in a thousand years. But they don't know that beneath his carefree exterior lies a soul covered in scars. He must spend a lifetime healing from the misfortunes of his previous life. Until at last, every household has full granaries and the whole realm enjoys bumper harvests! Gu Zhang also rises steadily through the ranks, reaching the highest position a subject can hold! P.S. 1. The dynasty is fictional. 2. The early story focuses on the imperial examinations, and the later story on officialdom. Farming runs throughout. At its heart, this is a lighthearted, satisfying farming story. ---Coming soon: "The Kid Sees Bullet Comments at Crime Scenes"--- Three-year-old Di Zhaozhao, whose grandfather is an Assistant Minister of Justice, suddenly starts hearing strange voices. (The thoughts of artifacts.) "Why are you using me to stab someone? I'll be treated as the murder weapon and locked in a dark room, boo-hoo!" "Good thing the blood splattered onto the ceiling. Otherwise, my gorgeous landscape painting would have been stained." "Murder! How terrifying!" Raised on his grandfather's lessons in criminal law, the justice-loving child turns red with anger. Like a little cannonball, he charges out and shouts at the top of his lungs, "Grandfather!!! Catch the bad guys!!!" Grandfather: Di Gongshi is forty years old, an Assistant Minister of Justice of the fifth rank. Looking back on his life, he passed the imperial examinations at twenty-six. In the fourteen years since, he may not have achieved anything spectacular, but he's always worked diligently and upheld justice without bias, clearing the names of the wronged. He has nothing to be ashamed of. His only regret is that his second legitimate son is mediocre and dull, with a lazy disposition. He's already twenty, yet has accomplished nothing. He's still studying in the Outer College at the Imperial Academy alongside students several years younger than he is. What a disgrace! Until at last, his clever and beloved grandson, with a natural gift for solving cases, is born! "Grandfather, Father is super amazing!" "Grandfather, Father says he has a plan!" Assistant Minister Di holds his beloved grandson and eyes his lazy, dim-witted second legitimate son with suspicion. The transmigrated father: In his previous life, Di Xianyu worked himself to death doing overtime on a 996 schedule. The bad news: he studied computer science. After transmigrating to ancient times, he knows nothing! The good news: his father is an official and his family is wealthy, so he can lie flat and rely on his father. There's no shame in that! Di Xianyu sticks to his slacker-life principles: don't stand out in his studies, don't outshine his elder brother, and absolutely don't use his memories from his previous life to make trouble! But his little boy looks at him with stars of admiration in his eyes! And they really do seem to be connected as father and son. He can read his son's expressions at a glance, and the little one can somehow guess what he's thinking from a few words??? Knowing is one thing, but the kid trusts him without question and praises him to the skies! Right in front of a crowd, he loudly boasts, "My dad can do it!" "Dad, I already told Grandfather how amazing you are." The slacker, halfway through turning his life around and already in tears, says, "Son, stop praising me, please. Your dad really can't do it!" Everyone in the capital knows Di Zhaozhao has three catchphrases: "My grandfather is the most amazing!" "My dad is the most, most amazing!" "I'm just a perfectly ordinary little kid." He says them all the time, and hasn't changed in more than a decade. At first, no one believed the first two. They only believed that the kid was ordinary. As a grandfather, Di Gongshi could only be praised as diligent and experienced. Was he really the most amazing? As a father, Di Xianyu was mediocre and useless, and couldn't even graduate from the Imperial Academy. Was he really the most, most amazing? Later: "So it was the first two lines that were true. That last one is downright outrageous!" "Di Zhaozhao is ordinary? Not even a dog would believe that!" #Turn Grandfather Into the Bao Qingtian of His Age #Praising Dad in Every Possible Way Makes Him Famous Across the Land #I'm Just an Ordinary Little Kid, I'm Not Lying! Everyone roars in anger: "You're obviously the mastermind behind it all!" A tiny, justice-loving, milk-drinking firecracker of a child, the original person, a real kid, and adorably overpowered without realizing it. P.S. He can hear his dad's thoughts because his transmigrated father has been shaped by the passage of time and also meets the criteria for being an artifact. Core message: Keep hope in your heart and always strive to move forward.