Five Years of the Imperial Exams, Three Years of Practice Tests

Meng Jingshuo transmigrates and becomes a rural examinee who was beaten until both his legs were broken on his way to the capital for the imperial exams, then returned home in disgrace.

At home, he has a blind widowed mother bedridden with illness, two younger siblings crying to be fed, and a sweet, naive wife.

To pay for his treatment, his family spent every last coin and went heavily into debt.

Just when it seems they won't be able to get by, the county school invites Meng Jingshuo to work as a teacher.

Meng Jingshuo, a science genius and humanities dunce, reaches out with a trembling hand... and accepts the appointment letter.

What can he do? They're paying too much.

He has no logical argument, but he's still confident.jpg

*

After taking up his post, Meng Jingshuo discovers that the students at the county school have wildly varying abilities and little enthusiasm for studying.

A former small-town test-taking ace who made his way out of the mountains by studying day and night, Meng Jingshuo can't stand for it.

What can cure his worries? Nothing but practice problems!

Meng Jingshuo plans to put together a hundred or so problems to warm them up, but he's told that books for preparing for the Great Zhou imperial examinations are scarce, and the few available copies have been read to tatters.

Meng Jingshuo smiles faintly. "Have you done Five Years of Imperial Exams, Three Years of Mock Exams, Meng Jingshuo's Complete Textbook Guide, or the Meng Jingshuo Mock Exam Collection?"

The students: ?

*

Everyone knows that Mr. Meng Jingshuo is Great Zhou's most famous study-workload fanatic.

He doesn't just compete with his fellow teachers; he gets his students to work themselves to the bone too.

From county-school teacher to Director of the Imperial Academy, and then a close aide to the emperor, it takes Meng Jingshuo just ten years.

He single-handedly drives the entire imperial exam-prep industry forward, and the exam guides he writes himself spread across every inch of Great Zhou.

One examinee says, "If you haven't worked through the Meng Jingshuo series, you don't deserve to call yourself an imperial exam candidate!"

★September 2023★

Theme: Education is the foundation of a hundred-year plan.