The Cannon-Fodder True Young Master’s Daily Life of Passing the Imperial Exams and Rising Through the Ranks

Xu Jinyu transmigrates into a book as the real young master, who's about to be brought back to his family. In the book, the real young master has an awful lot to suffer. His family says he grew up in the countryside, uncouth and vulgar, and unfit to appear in polite society, so they take him in as a distant cousin and keep him in a side courtyard. When his biological parents learn that he has a photographic memory, they go even further and force him to ghostwrite an astonishing essay for the fake young master before the imperial examinations. Thanks to that essay, the fake young master is named top scorer in the imperial examinations, becoming a favorite at court and enjoying a dazzling rise to fame. The real young master, meanwhile, is abandoned in the side courtyard after the exams and freezes to death on a bitter winter night. Xu Jinyu, who has inherited the original owner's photographic memory and extraordinary writing skills: Excuse me, make way. I'm about to go all out! At the time, the Marquis's household has just sent people to bring him home. So Xu Jinyu delivers a blistering response, then coughs every few steps as he shuts the rickety courtyard gate, leaving the steward staring in shock. When word reaches the Marquis's household, his biological parents and the fake young master are both furious and shocked. “If you won't come back, then don't ever come back! What an ungrateful wretch!” “Of course he doesn't feel close to us. We didn't raise him ourselves.” “I hear my elder brother is sickly. He probably won't survive the winter in that household. How could he be so childish as to take his anger out on our parents?” Everyone in the Marquis's household is certain Xu Jinyu will come crawling back sooner or later. They never expect that, despite looking sickly enough to drop dead at any moment, he will rise swiftly through the ranks, earn the top honors in all six imperial examinations, and become a young but indispensable minister whom the emperor relies on. Years later, after the Marquis's household is stripped of its title and property, the family sees the frail young man in a second-rank official's robe sitting in the sedan chair at their front gate, and they are terrified out of their wits. The curtain is half-open. A faint, carefree smile touches the young man's pale face. “Excuse me, make way. His Majesty has just granted me this residence.” This novel has a romance. It is not a no-romance story! Theme: Hard work never lets anyone down.