The Days of Being Pushed to Excel by a Villainous Power Minister

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The beleaguered senior-year high school student Xie Tiao transmigrates into an imperial-examination novel and becomes the adopted child of a future villainous power minister.

Her adoptive father has no idea she is a girl and is extremely strict with her.

From then on, Xie Tiao's days turn darker than ever: she enters the Imperial College, studies from five in the morning, sleeps at ten at night, and writes essays on schedule for her adoptive father to review.

Whenever she displeases him, she gets beaten and made to kneel in the ancestral hall.

Xie Tiao: Heavens above! Who will stand up for her and see justice done?

Her powerful minister of a father is devastatingly handsome, but his presence is so cold and stern that even the dogs by the roadside tuck their tails between their legs when they see him.

While being pushed to study until she's numb, Xie Tiao is also hurried into the examination hall before she's ready.

Later.

Her cousins, who think Xie Tiao spends all day doing nothing: What?! She passed the exams?

Seeing her name on the list, Xie Tiao lets out a sigh of relief: Now I won't have to be pushed to study anymore, right?

But she is being far too optimistic.

In the Hanlin Academy, Xie Tiao sees a man approaching in official robes, his expression cool. She rises nervously and lowers her head to call him, "Father."

"What do you call me when we're outside?" He glances at her indifferently.

"...Sir."

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Xie Qi adopted Xie Tiao all those years ago because of a secret matter no one knew about.

But over the years, he was away on inspection tours and paid little attention to her. After returning to the capital, he tried to make up for it by personally teaching and raising her in every way, devoting himself to the task and keeping her under strict control.

He had thought that raising a son would be much easier than governing a country.

He didn't know whether he had cultivated a pillar of the state.

But he certainly found himself at a loss with her time and again.

She got into fights at the Imperial College, slacked off when writing essays, found all sorts of ways to play hide-and-seek with him around the residence, and hid a soft cushion under her backside to avoid getting beaten.

Once she became an official, things got even worse. She kept getting entangled with all sorts of people, leaving the entire Hanlin Academy in a state of scandalous disorder.

Rumors even spread that she was a homosexual.

In the ancestral hall.

To refuse an arranged marriage and conceal her gender, Xie Tiao has decided to make the rumors about her homosexuality come true. She kneels upright before her father, letting him punish her as he pleases.

The man holds a disciplinary ruler and looks at the young man he has raised and nurtured with his own hands.

Her face is as flawless as jade, and her slender back already has some of a scholar's strength of character.

His gaze grows deep and dark, and for a long time he cannot look away.

As her father stares at her, Xie Tiao, who's pretending to be a homosexual, suddenly shivers.

Reader's Guide [Must Read]:

1. [Highlight] This is not a child-rearing story. The father is the male lead. The female lead will be strictly disciplined by him early on. He is a truly old-fashioned, domineering father. There is a 12-year physical age gap between the leads. Please proceed with caution if this bothers you!

2. The male lead is chaste in both body and heart. The leads are not related by blood, and the male lead did not personally raise the female lead. At first, he doesn't know her gender and treats her purely as a son, pushing her to study (the reason for this and the female lead's background are revealed in Chapter 68). Their relationship is purely a feudal, unequal father-son relationship, with no other feelings whatsoever. The story focuses on the female lead's growth. The romance comes much later, and only develops after they reveal her gender and begin interacting outside the father-daughter dynamic.

3. The female lead is timid and ineffectual, and often throws little tantrums. From the start, while she is still studying, she gets into trouble, slacks off, is timid and insecure, and is a mischievous troublemaker. She has many flaws, but grows rapidly after becoming an official and gradually learns to stand on her own.

4. The female lead has an innate temptress quality, and is surrounded by one-sided admirers.

Blurb written on August 2, 2026

Theme: Accept your imperfect self and face life with a positive attitude.