Transmigrating into an Ancient Imperial Exam Novel

[Preorder: Opening at 300 follows]

Born into a family of scholars, Ji Yingchen followed in the footsteps of his elders after graduation and stayed on at school as a teacher.

But after transmigrating, he couldn't even afford to go to school.

Fortunately, his grandparents were kind, his parents loving, and his siblings close to one another. His family owned fields, land, houses, and property, making them one of the wealthiest households in the village. If he lived a steady life, he could grow up in peace.

But was that enough?

Once you have seen a mountain, how can you be content with the lowlands?

In whichever world he found himself, Ji Yingchen wanted to see the vastness of the world and the countless facets of humanity.

The first step was to study.

Young Master, wait a moment. You lent me a book. Would you let me repay you with my hand in marriage?

"The Ji boy's gone crazy!" The villagers noticed that the pampered eldest grandson of the Ji family had stopped fooling around. Now he was always heading into town and making trips to the village school, saying he wanted to study.

Study? The villagers secretly scoffed. What would a dirt-poor peasant want with books?

But as they went on laughing, they saw this:

Ji Yingchen went to school.

Ji Yingchen passed the exams to become a licentiate, a graduate, a provincial graduate, and a metropolitan graduate, then became the top scorer!

The villagers were stunned. He had really done it!

A gentle, refined gong and an exceptionally talented shou

※ Gong-focused. The gong is a cultured and refined educator; the shou is a gifted, cool, and sickly beauty. There's a good chance of children, but not until many years into the story.

※ Everyday family life, studying, and schooling. There isn't much in the way of cannon-fodder villains getting humiliated. The story is fairly low-key. I'll try not to make it too boring, though I probably will fail.

※ The romance is a major focus. For the gong, studying matters just as much as the shou. Studying is what he wants to do for the rest of his life, and the shou is the person he wants to love for the rest of his life.

※ At first, he studies for the exams. In the middle, he takes the imperial examinations and becomes an official. Later, when he reaches middle age and has had enough of officialdom, the gong resigns and opens an academy, returning to his true vocation. He loves this work, and in the assessments of later generations, his identity as an educator is the most prominent.

(The gong's name comes from the saying, "A mountain turns away no dust, a river refuses no fullness." The shou's name means writings as plentiful as willow catkins.)

Theme: Life is about continuing to climb