I Too Rose Through the Imperial Exams

Huan Ying, son of the Prince of Qin, was engaged to a woman who became pregnant by someone else. Huan Ying nearly became a father to another man's child, and fell ill. When he woke, memories of his past life returned. In his previous life, he had been a modern female university student. After living as an ancient man for more than a decade, he was suddenly told he had been a modern woman! He might as well make the best of it. His father was the Prince of Qin, a powerful prince granted the rare title of peerless prince, and his mother was a princess of the Kingdom of Linglan. Huan Ying himself was a promising young talent, so beautiful that it was hard to tell whether he was male or female, and a refined, graceful young man. At just twelve, he had already passed the provincial imperial examination. Yet he was never appointed heir and had no fief, so he could only take the civil service examinations. He overcame one challenge after another, made it to the palace examination, passed the jinshi exam, and became its top scorer.

Huan Ying planned to reform the court and restore fairness to the civil service examinations. But the realm was in turmoil, and the strongest military leader was the one who became emperor. Then his whole family was suddenly swept into a case involving the murder of an imperial heir. They were stripped of their titles and wanted by the authorities.

The Prince of Qin feared the civil officials would target his son, so he struck first. He never expected his heir to ascend the throne directly!

Years later, Huan Ying told the realm's impoverished scholars, "I, too, came up through the civil service examinations."

"You are all my students." Students of the Son of Heaven. And that's right, I was once the top scorer. What do you mean, the top scorer wasn't born into an upright scholarly family? I'm emperor now, so why should I care whether I came from a family of upright scholar-officials?

The male lead lies flat in the early part of the story, then ascends the throne later. No harem.

This is a slice-of-life story with a large ensemble cast.

Upcoming novels: After Being Exiled to Lingnan, I Turned My Life Around Through the Imperial Exams; Marrying the Future Emperor; The Evil Prince's Personal Palace Maid

Completed novel: The Nineteenth-Century Village Apothecary, a Western farming story about family life.

Theme: Freedom in life