Xu Qingliu, a boy of low status in the Great Liang dynasty, is ostracized because his ancestors were executioners. Just as a malicious neighbor shoves him into a river and he drowns, a modern prodigy with dual degrees in engineering and Chinese literature transmigrates into his body.
The seven-year-old child survives against all odds, with a mind far beyond his years. Using peerless wit, he deftly foils the clan elders' attempts to bully him. Without drawing a blade, he makes the neighbor who seized his family's ancestral land suffer the consequences, revealing his astonishing talent for the first time.
Knowing that the imperial examinations are the only way for people of low status to change their fate, Xu Qingliu swallows his pride and becomes a servant boy in a prestigious household.
As he studies the sages' classics to build a solid foundation, he secretly uses his previous life's engineering knowledge to improve farm tools and solve practical problems with ingenuity, earning renown across the countryside as a child prodigy and scholar's servant.
On the road to the imperial examinations, he overcomes discrimination, old enemies' schemes, and pressure from the powerful. His literary talent, policy essays, and practical innovations amaze the examiners, breaking the ironclad rule that people of low status could never make the honor roll. He earns one of the top three honors at a stroke.
From an orphan of low status whom everyone despised to a newly minted jinshi whose name appears on the honor roll, he writes the legend of a poor scholar who defies fate and transforms his life!
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