How to Stop the Male Supporting Character from Taking the Imperial Exam

[Rebellious, spoiled, quirky heroine * Tsundere, scheming, dark-hearted hero]

As a member of the quick transmigration world, Zhi You was born with a tutoring System.

Even though she spent her childhood climbing mountains to shoot birds and diving into rivers to catch fish with her nemesis, Jiang Jue, doing all sorts of shameless things, she could still transform herself into a teacher who opened a private school at fourteen and became the darling of the capital's nobility at sixteen!

Zhi You counted on her fingers all the perks of this assignment.

First: She only had to make sure the male lead passed the imperial exams and became the top scholar, and then she could retire.

Second: Her parents were powerful and influential, and doted on her to no end.

Third: She could take on lots of handsome students.

Fourth: She didn't have to study. She could lie flat in comfort and still spot her students' mistakes!

But she never imagined that she would go from being the male lead's outstanding tutor to a vicious woman who would stop at nothing to keep the male supporting character from taking the imperial exams.

All because the nemesis who had opposed her since childhood was destined by the Book of Fate to become the top scholar.

“Jiang Jue, the male supporting character, is unruly by nature, but he's a genius at the imperial exams. You have to poison him blind so he can't read, poison him deaf so he can't attend lessons, and poison him mute so he can't recite poetry.”

Zhi You secretly did as instructed.

The result was a System bug that made Jiang Jue see only her. She was stunned.

Her old adversary had gone blind, yet his gaze still followed her like a shadow, scorching her. “And you still say you didn't poison me?”

She had no way to deny it. No one knew that, in the schoolhouse where she taught and nurtured her students, her cheeks were flushed pink as she said:

“Excellent Teacher, could you settle the medical bill?”

“You're so enthusiastic about tutoring other people. Surely it isn't too much to tutor me in a little bedroom fun, is it?”

The System covered its eyes. “Well, I suppose this works too. At least it'll poison his mind!”

Then came the day the imperial examination results were announced, with everyone watching.

The male lead she had personally cultivated failed to make the list.

And at the very top, in clear black characters, was the name of the male supporting character, Jiang Jue.

Knowing she couldn't complete the mission, she stuffed her bags with gold bars and prepared to wander the world.

But he caught her and brought her back.

He knelt on the ground, brimming with affection. “Teacher, don't you love tutoring people until they become top scholars? Now I'm the top scholar, so you can teach me to your heart's content.”

Jiang Jue had been Zhi You's enemy since childhood. They fought on the mountain, fought in the water while catching fish, and fought everywhere else too. But he was certain she was a good person.

During one of their most ordinary scuffles, he was poisoned blind. From then on, when he opened his eyes, he saw nothing in the world but one person.

He even grinned to himself. “I give up. When are you going to cure me?”

Her eyes glittered with mischief, but her tone was cool. “Only if you voluntarily give up the imperial exams.”

His smile stiffened.

The only color he could see suddenly smiled at someone else. “I'm going to help Chao Yunge win the top spot in the imperial exams. You're useless at studying anyway.”

“So give up the exams.”

He didn't understand. Who was Chao Yunge?

And had she really fallen for someone else in such a short time?

He wondered what that man had that he didn't.

Their long rivalry proved that Zhi You only wanted to help Chao Yunge. She was even willing to ruin Jiang Jue to do it.

He sneered as he watched her rise high and then fall. Behind her back, he furiously slapped the students who cursed her, only to see her secretly wear out her books preparing lessons for those ungrateful students. He called her blind.

Until he was little more than a cripple, and she dragged him into the examination hall.

Looking at the sincere heart Zhi You held out to him, he couldn't help trembling. “If I beat Chao Yunge, I want to be the only person in your heart and eyes.”

That day, firecrackers celebrating the new top scholar rang throughout Chang'an Street. He thought the sedan chair was too slow and had someone carry him back to share the news. But when he pushed the door open, the house was empty.

He couldn't understand what this woman meant.

The day he finally caught her, he threw away his crutch and shut the door.

She had made him deaf, and blind so that he could see only her. As long as he looked away from her lips, he could pretend not to know she was begging him to stop.

“Jiang Jue, you bastard!”

“Jiang Jue, please, let me go.”

Rain fell steadily outside. There was only one thought in Jiang Jue's heart: he wanted to win her heart.

Content warnings:

1. The heroine regrets what she did later. She defies the System and, when she sends Jiang Jue into the examination hall, he has temporarily recovered.

2. The heroine has been spoiled too much, and she never quite regarded the world in the book as real. That's why she was so ruthless in going after the male lead. She regrets it later, but the hero won't forgive her quickly.

3. While the heroine is trying to make amends, the System is destroyed. She fears the hero won't forgive her, and she can no longer return to where she came from. She decides she'd rather make her own way in the world, so she runs away.

Theme: Why not try one more time? What if it works?