Starting as a Peasant: Making Money and Nailing the Imperial Exam

Starting as a Peasant: Making Money and Nailing the Imperial Exam Plot:

Lin Xiaoman transmigrates into a starving peasant with a sick mother and a hungry little brother, and the landlord is forcing them to sell their land to pay debts. Using his modern financial wisdom, he grows off-season vegetables and sells braised food to earn his first pot of gold to save his mother. But the imperial exam is approaching—he has to run the stall during the day (guarding against rivals’ tricks) and study classics by lamp at night, even letting the hot congee from his neighbor Ah Zhu go cold. Worse, the landlord’s son, jealous of his business, frames him for selling “poisoned braised food,” almost ruining his stall. Lin grits his teeth: he uses account books to expose the frame-up and stays up late to study. Finally, he raises the exam fee, passes the scholar test, and wins Ah Zhu’s heart. When he holds the certificate by his mother’s bed, he understands—a peasant’s counterattack is never a choice between two—it’s “I want both!”