[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m":3,"chapter-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-2":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Simultaneously Transmigrated: My Cheat Skill Is Myself",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2315257,4528,"Chapter 2: The Examination They Had to Take","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-2",2,"\u003Cp>Young Master, why not take a rest for a while?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You can review your lessons tomorrow—it’s not too late.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pan Jinlian, seeing Zhang Jie’s face still pale despite having taken his medicine,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>felt deep pity and spoke to persuade him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s already June; the autumn imperial examination is only two months away, and time is tight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I must seize every moment to thoroughly review poetry, prose, and classical interpretations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie shook his head and rejected Pan Jinlian’s suggestion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Great Song, where all professions are lowly except scholarship, even as a reincarnator,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>if he wished to rise above others, he must enter the imperial examination system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for martial arts—joining the military for a rank, or joining Liang Shan for a seat—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>then later seeking amnesty through “kill, burn, and be recruited,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>joining Song Jiang and serving the court as a minor official?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Don’t joke. Even reincarnators are human.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least this reincarnator still has a mortal body—he bleeds when cut, cries when punched.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the battlefield, swords and arrows show no mercy; a single stray arrow could end his life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Worse still, since his reincarnation, he’s been cursed with a weak constitution,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>unable to even mount a horse and strike a blow—just marching a hundred li might cost him half his life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could he, then, use fragments of memory from his past life to follow other reincarnators’ paths—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>invent soap, make glass, become a wealthy merchant, and live a carefree life?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After careful research and reflection, Zhang Jie found the answer: no, absolutely not!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Great Song’s commercial economy ranks among the highest of all feudal dynasties,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>this prosperity is recorded in the timeless painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>while nobles in Paris still struggled with sewage flowing through streets,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>forced to wear high heels to cross filthy alleys,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and don hats to avoid flying excrement from above,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bianliang in Great Song was already a metropolis of a million people, with curfews abolished,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>arguably the most prosperous city in history since before Great Song.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Bianliang’s splendor did not mean Great Song’s splendor—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>rather, it was built by exploiting the entire empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Great Song emperor was known as the King of Bianliang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie was born in Shandong—could he truly puff out his chest in pride at Bianliang’s glory?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a merchant or laborer entering Bianliang, locals would only say:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh! Another dirty outsider comes to beg in our Bianliang!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To gain a foothold in Bianliang, the best and easiest way is to hold an official post.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And official status—aside from inheriting it through family ties to high ministers—can only be gained through the imperial examination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Buy an office?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without even a scholar or juren degree, you think you can buy an office?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Do you think Great Song is the Qing?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Well, truthfully, both are brothers who shouldn’t mock each other—they’re much the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Secondly, can you simply decide to enter big business—or any highly profitable trade?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Running small trade, like Wu Dalang selling steamed buns to feed your family, is fine,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but to engage in large-scale commerce spanning multiple provinces or even nations—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>like Liao, Western Xia, and others—you absolutely need “connections”!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This “capital” isn’t about sufficient funds or unique technology—it’s about having powerful patrons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Take a simple example: why did the late Qing produce wealthy merchants like Hu Xueyan and Sheng Xuanhuai,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>men whose fortunes rivaled nations and who rose to second-rank officialdom?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Were they the top merchant geniuses, once-in-a-millennium business prodigies?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their talent certainly played a role,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but what mattered most was who stood behind them:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Xueyan’s patron was Zuo Zongtang, one of the Four Great Ministers of late Qing,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>founder and leader of the Xiang Army, who carried his coffin into Xinjiang, reclaimed Tibet, and secured territorial integrity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Old Master Zuo died, Hu Xueyan was immediately stripped of his wealth and reduced to poverty overnight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sheng Xuanhuai’s patron was Li Hongzhang—the “Chancellor of Hefei, whose wealth made the empire thin”—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the man remembered as “you don’t know Li Hongzhang till you’re old, then you realize he’s a bastard.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Likewise, in Great Song, great merchants were all backed by high officials, acting as their white gloves for profit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In “The Theft of the Birthday Tribute,” the acting governor of Great Ming Prefecture, Liang Zhongshu, sent Yang Zhi to escort\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a birthday tribute worth one hundred thousand copper cash for his father-in-law Cai Jing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remember, the famous phrase “a waist tied with one hundred thousand cash, riding a crane to Yangzhou” is also just one hundred thousand cash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This verse first appeared in Yin Yun’s “Novels” from the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The text records guests discussing their ambitions:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>one wished to become Inspector of Yangzhou,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>another to possess great wealth (one hundred thousand cash), another to ride a crane and ascend to immortality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One proposed, “A waist tied with one hundred thousand cash, riding a crane to Yangzhou,” aiming to achieve all three.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet our Governor Liang Zhongshu, for his father-in-law’s birthday alone,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>gifted a dream no ordinary man could ever hope to realize.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These funds certainly didn’t come from Liang’s salary alone:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>his annual salary was only a few hundred cash,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>even if he lived without eating or drinking his entire life, he could never save one hundred thousand cash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The money came from embezzled public funds and bribes from wealthy merchants under him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie had no patrons; if he wanted to trade,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he’d either have to find a “Yang Jinshui” like Shen Yishi in the Ming Dynasty and adopt him as a godfather,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>or be completely drained by officials like Liang Zhongshu, “Zheng Bichang,” and “He Maocai,” who wanted both profit and virtue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no third option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie: My knees—they’ve somehow grown stiff.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They won’t bend anymore!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And even if Zhang Jie’s knees were perfectly flexible,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>able to switch effortlessly between stiff and supple,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>where would he even find a godfather?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though born into a family called “Big Master Zhang,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to ordinary commoners this Zhang family seemed wealthy, but to officials and gentry, they meant nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A family with great wealth and strong influence within a county was called a county magnate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A clan with prominent reputation and power across a commandery, often hereditary in office or holding high local status, was a commandery clan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only families that endured for centuries, producing successive high officials like the Three Ducal Ministers and Nine Ministers, were true aristocratic lineages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” the phrase Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu most proudly cited was “Four generations, Three Ducal Ministers.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This didn’t mean Yuan’s family produced three Three Ducal Ministers over four generations—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>it meant that for four consecutive generations, someone from the Yuan family held the rank of Three Ducal Minister!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The power such lineages held was not merely enviable—it was terrifying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With disciples and former subordinates scattered across the land, Yuan Shao could rally a hundred responses from a single call in Hebei, becoming one of the Three Kingdoms’ greatest warlords.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yuan Shu, based in Runan, even declared himself emperor, styling himself “Emperor Zhongshi!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, we all know his emperorship was nothing but a skeleton crown.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So where did Zhang Jie’s family stand?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The answer: Zhang’s family wasn’t even a county magnate, let alone a commandery clan or aristocratic lineage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without control over a county’s economic, political, or military lifelines, how could you call yourself a county magnate?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just see what the county magistrate does to you.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>County magistrate: I can’t control a county magnate—can’t I control you?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie, with no connections, couldn’t even find a doghole to crawl into as a dog…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With no other choice, Zhang Jie thought and thought—he still believed the imperial examination path was safest and most reliable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie, with no connections, couldn’t even find a doghole to crawl through if he wanted to be a dog…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With no other option, Zhang Jie pondered long and hard, and still decided the imperial examination path was the safest and most reliable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Northern Song minister Han Qi once said to the general Di Qing:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Those who are named as top scholar at the East Huamen Gate are true sons of merit—how could a warrior possibly be called a true son?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meaning that only literary scholars who passed the imperial examination and became top scholar at the East Huamen Gate were genuine “fine sons,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>while warriors, no matter how glorious their battlefield achievements, were not valued.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From then on, the saying “Only those named at the East Huamen Gate are true heroes” spread throughout the land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Emperor Zhenzong of Song, Zhao Huan, once wrote “Poem on Encouraging Study”:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A wealthy family needs no good land—books hold a thousand bushels of grain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A peaceful home needs no grand hall—books hold golden chambers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Don’t lament having no attendants when you travel—books bring carriages and horses in abundance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Don’t grieve over lacking a good matchmaker for marriage—books hold beauties as fair as jade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If a man fulfills his life’s ambition, diligently study the Six Classics before the window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With no other option, Zhang Jie reluctantly went along with the flow,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>joining the narrow, winding path of the imperial examination, the only road to heaven.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Young master, you passed the scholar exam on your first try last few months—this autumn’s provincial exam, you’ll surely become a juren!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pan Jinlian confidently cheered Zhang Jie on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In her eyes, her young master was a prodigy with perfect memory,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>able to compose poetry on the spot and understand all the truths of heaven and earth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he not been so frail in health, and had his master and lady not passed away, delaying him for years,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he would long ago have been listed on the golden roll as a jinshi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He might even have been named top scholar by the emperor, his name echoing through eternity!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thank you for your good wishes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, Zhang Jie could not help but show a faint bitter smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had not expected Pan Jinlian’s faith in him to surpass his own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though perhaps due to his second reincarnation, the superposition of two souls had\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>made his spirit exceptionally strong—he could go days without sleep or rest and still remain sharp,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>read books almost without forgetting, needing only a few repetitions to recite them backward flawlessly,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and with his past-life knowledge, he had a modest talent for poetry and prose (borrowed).\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet he had no confidence he could pass the juren exam in one attempt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Passing the scholar exam this year already felt like exhausting all the accumulation of these past years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Zhang Jie did not know why, in the Song Dynasty, which should have had only three levels of examination—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the provincial exam (for juren), the metropolitan exam (for gongshi), and the palace exam (for jinshi)—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>there now appeared the yuan-shi exam, a level that should have existed only after the Ming and Qing dynasties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Song imperial examinations, “xiucai” had originally been merely one subject,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>later gradually replaced by other subjects, until “xiucai” became a general term for scholars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Song-era xiucai did not equate to the Ming-Qing xiucai who passed the yuan-shi exam to become a shengyuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ming-Qing xiucai required strict examinations and held official scholarly status,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>while Song-era xiucai was more a general term for candidates taking the imperial exams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps because the author of Water Margin, Shi Nai’an, lived at the end of the Yuan and beginning of the Ming?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the first leader of Liangshan was Wang Lun,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a failed xiucai who had repeatedly failed the juren exam,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>known among martial heroes as the “White-Robed Scholar.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, this might also be due to Zhang Jie’s own misremembering or misunderstanding of Water Margin and the Song Dynasty before his transmigration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, back then, with his ordinary memory and comprehension, he had cared most about heroes like Wu Song\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and Lu Zhishen, who upheld justice and settled scores with swift vengeance,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and the foolish emperors Huizong and Qinzong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Zhang Jie thought about these things for a moment and let them go—whatever exists must have its reason.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Zhang Jie’s plan, if he could pass the jinshi exam within ten years, he would thank heaven.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the difficulty of the imperial examination far exceeded his imagination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If judged by modern standards, passing the xiucai exam was as hard as entering Tsinghua or Peking University.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tsinghua and Peking University admit nearly ten thousand students yearly; the Song Dynasty did not produce ten thousand xiucai annually.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though modern students compete against millions for a few thousand spots,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>nearly one in ten thousand, while the Song had only several hundred thousand scholars total.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the Song imposed no age limit—children with silver hair and elders with white beards,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>as long as they were not already xiucai, all came to take the exam, and their numbers accumulated into something terrifying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most terrifying was competing against seasoned candidates who had studied for decades,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>taken the exam ten or twenty times, while still a teenager—just imagining it made Zhang Jie’s scalp tingle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie had a clear self-awareness:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had his spirit not improved after transmigration, with memory and comprehension vastly enhanced,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he believed passing the xiucai exam would have been his absolute limit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even that would require Fan Jin’s relentless perseverance, studying until his hair turned white—unless death came, he would study until he dropped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for juren, gongshi, jinshi, let alone top scholar, runner-up, or third-place finisher—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>better wash up and go to sleep early; after all, in dreams, everything is possible…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, Zhang Jie suddenly understood Fan Jin—he sighed inwardly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In the torrent of mortal life, merely holding one’s ground is already a Herculean task;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to rise above others is surely harder than climbing to heaven!”\u003C\u002Fp>",2295,"2026-06-20T14:22:35.989Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 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