The Exiled Young Lord's Everyday Life as an Exam Candidate

New serial, The Concubine-Born Son’s Daily Life of Doting on His Wife After Passing the Imperial Exams: He’s a doomed concubine-born son, but he wants to become prime minister.

[Synopsis]

Guan Qiuyu, a gifted engineer, unexpectedly transmigrates into a political intrigue novel as his short-lived namesake, a young lord condemned to exile.

In the book, his father, a founding general, becomes a casualty of factional strife and is executed. The original Guan Qiuyu, his frail mother, and his younger brother and sister are exiled to reclaim wasteland.

That winter, the original Guan Qiuyu also falls victim to the villain’s machinations, and the whole family dies.

Having transmigrated into the book, Guan Qiuyu decisively chooses the survival route.

He finds ways to ease the local labor conscription, redesigns farm tools, and leads everyone in reclaiming land and planting crops. First, they have to stay alive.

At the same time, he waits for an amnesty.

Five years later, Guan Qiuyu meets the novel’s protagonist in the imperial examination hall. With the protagonist’s help, he breaks through the villainous faction’s hold on the capital and earns the top spot in the examinations.

To build his influence, Guan Qiuyu joins the Ministry of Works, studying agricultural tools, improving waterworks, and upgrading weapons, while fulfilling his late father’s wishes one by one.

His old “friends” in the capital are amazed, but they all assume Guan Qiuyu will never be given an important position, no matter how talented he is, because he’s the son of a convicted official.

What they don’t expect is this:

Five years later, Guan Qiuyu topples the novel’s greatest villain, clears his late father’s name, and is appointed to the Grand Secretariat by the new emperor. In the end, he rises to the highest position in the realm.

This is the story of a young man who steadily and diligently grows into his own, wins justice for his father, restores his family, and strengthens the country.

[A few content notes]

1. The story focuses on the imperial examinations and court politics, with a romance plotline. The heroine is a doctor from a border town with remarkable medical skills.

2. The setting is entirely fictional. The imperial examination and court systems are based on the Ming dynasty; everything serves the story.

3. The story will go behind a paywall on Wednesday, December 13. The paid chapters begin with Chapter 22, so please don’t buy them twice if you’ve already read them. I’ll post three chapters when it goes premium. Thank you for all your support so far, and I hope you’ll continue to support my future work.

Coming next: Raising a Son Together as the Doomed Couple in an Imperial Examination Novel

[Synopsis]

Landlady Rong Zhi is on her way home after finalizing her divorce when she and her ex-husband both transmigrate into a book, becoming a middle-aged marquis’s-house couple who have lost their only child.

In the book, after their only son dies of illness, the original couple abuse their six-year-old nephew from the second branch, whom they adopted, day after day. They don’t know that their adopted son is the protagonist of the book. Ten years later, he passes the imperial examinations and takes revenge a hundredfold, leaving the original couple disgraced and wishing they were dead.

Thinking about the miserable future ahead...

Rong Zhi is secretly relieved that she’s pregnant and her own child hasn’t been born yet.

If they start planning now, there’s still time to put everything right!

In her previous life, Rong Zhi was a landlady. She didn’t have any particular talents, but she was very good at dealing with people.

This time around, she can gather intelligence about the capital in advance and make sure her son finds a renowned tutor and gets into a prestigious school. She’s even picked out a marriage prospect for him.

But she’s overlooked one crucial move...

In his previous life, You Lianshan was a workaholic.

At the height of his career, he gave up on his family, divorced Rong Zhi, and agreed that they should go their separate ways.

He never imagined that after death he’d be stuck with Rong Zhi again.

As the marquis’s legitimate eldest son, he already has a position in one of the Six Ministries. If he “divorces” his pregnant wife, what will other people think? What will the elders think? Will he still be able to make a living in the capital?

As he struggles to figure out what to do, the divorced couple make a new agreement:

Until their child is grown, they’ll keep pretending to be a loving couple in public.

In private, each can do as they please.

For the next twenty years, Rong Zhi supports and encourages their son, You Yu, helping him focus on his studies until he becomes the top candidate in the imperial examinations.

But then the throne changes hands, and the court falls into turmoil.

The Marquis of An Ding’s family gets caught in the crossfire and falls into decline. Before long, Rong Zhi’s parents-in-law pass away.

As the storm rages and everyone turns against them, people urge Rong Zhi to split off from the family with her husband and child.

She refuses. “You have to nourish the roots to keep the tree alive.” She does whatever it takes to hold the whole family together through the hard times, until the marquis’s house rises again.

[A few more content notes]

1. A doomed couple raising a doomed child. The story focuses on the main plot but also has a romance. The male lead is the heroine’s ex-husband from before they transmigrated into the book.

2. The setting is entirely fictional. The imperial examination system is based on the Ming dynasty; everything serves the story.

Theme: When you’re poor, look after yourself; when you prosper, help the world.