[{"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-3":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},2315258,4528,"Chapter 3","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-3",3,"\u003Cp>It was like a question he had once seen on Zhihu before his Chuanyue :\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In theory, if one memorized the Four Books and Five Classics in ancient times, they could become a Zhuangyuan,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>then why did the vast majority fail even to pass as a Xiushai?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One highly upvoted answer stated: During the final imperial examination of the Qing dynasty, the palace examination question was:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Egypt relied on foreigners and fell; Japan relied on foreigners and rose—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>analyze the gains and losses, and propose solutions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regarding the imperial examinations, Zhang Jie also knew a joke he wasn’t sure was true or false:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Theory of Xiang Yu and Napoleon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In 1901, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered reforms to the imperial examination system, adding Chinese and foreign political history to the content.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To comply with this decree, one examiner once inserted Napoleon into the exam question.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because this examiner vaguely knew Napoleon was a fierce general who met a downfall, much like Xiang Yu of China,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he devised a comparative question: “On Xiang Yu and Napoleon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The examiner was chasing fashion, but the eight-legged essay candidates from across the empire couldn’t keep up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, a farce unfolded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One candidate began his essay thus:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiang Yu was a hero of unmatched strength, able to uproot mountains—how could he fail to pick up a broken wheel?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the broken wheel repaired itself, how could Xiang Yu possibly pick it up?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If one cannot even seize a whole wheel, how much less a broken one?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Translation: Xiang Yu was a hero of superhuman strength, able to uproot mountains—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>how could he fail to lift a broken wheel?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, if the broken wheel repaired itself, how could Xiang Yu possibly pick it up?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If one cannot even seize a whole wheel and win, how much less a broken one?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leaving aside the yet-unseen Jinshi, Zhang Jie’s current first goal is to pass this August’s autumn examination and become a Juren.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But with his current accumulation, he can no longer achieve it as effortlessly as he had when passing the Xiushai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally, he planned to wait a few more years until he had greater confidence before taking the provincial examination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But plans cannot outrun change; heaven’s winds are unpredictable, and human fortune turns in an instant,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and most importantly, one may have no ill intent toward the tiger, yet the tiger harbors murderous intent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was forced to be thrust into the fray and take this year’s autumn examination,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and now he was racing against time, frantically cramming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alas!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the Master and Lady had not both died suddenly three years ago, how could the Young Master be in such a rush?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And those damned bandits—why didn’t they do anything else, but rob my Zhang family’s caravan?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, with the Young Master’s natural talent, taking the examination three years later would have been as good as securing the Juren title in his pocket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now the Young Master suffers.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching the fleeting anxiety on Zhang Jie’s face, Pan Jinlian, just stepping out of the study,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>turned to close the door, her heart filled with sighs and pity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As his spiritual awareness grew sharper, and with their daily companionship,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie knew perfectly well what Pan Jinlian was thinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regarding the death of his parents in this life, Zhang Jie felt slight sorrow, but not deep grief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, in this Water Margin world without antibiotics, hormones,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>or any miracle medicines, parting and death were perfectly normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A simple cold or flu could bring down a strong, ox-like man within two or three days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second, his parents in this life were not young.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As previously mentioned, Zhang Jie was an old-age son born to Master Zhang,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and when Zhang Jie was born, Master Zhang was already over fifty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time Zhang Jie reached his teens, Master Zhang had passed away at over sixty, nearing seventy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In an era where men in their forties called themselves “old man,” Master Zhang’s age was considered long life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Master Zhang’s death was seen by all as a joyful passing—not mourned,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but celebrated with drums, gongs, and loud festivities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet for this, Zhang Jie had to observe three years of mourning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to Song Dynasty mourning rules, the period was typically three years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During mourning, one must wear mourning clothes, eat vegetarian food, abstain from entertainment, avoid marriage, and decline banquets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why must Zhang Jie, a modern man with no habit of mourning, observe it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie’s answer: he had no choice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The special rule for Xiushai: during mourning, a Xiushai cannot take the imperial examinations,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and must “conceal the death,” or risk disqualification.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie, powerless to resist, had no choice but to follow local customs and wait three years before taking the academy examination to become a Xiushai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because mourning was seen as a sign of virtue, directly affecting a Xiushai’s reputation and official prospects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie, who aspired to become a Jinshi and secure a modest official post,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to live out his hard-won second life in ease and comfort,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>how could he leave such a stain on himself?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, Zhang Jie’s urgency to pass the Juren examination stems from the fact that someone is watching him—or rather,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>watching his family’s considerable assets: over a thousand mu of land and dozens of shops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he took the academy examination, his Zhang family’s largest and most important caravan was ambushed outside the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not only were all goods lost, but several guards and martial instructors were killed!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This incident delivered a crushing blow to Zhang Jie:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had thought he fully understood the cruelty of this world,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but when he saw the corpses of those guards and instructors—limbs severed, faces unrecognizable—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he truly grasped the world’s cruelty:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this Water Margin world, a single misstep could mean sudden death!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the incident, Zhang Jie tried reporting it to the authorities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The magistrate of Yanggu County, the “Hundred-Li Lord” Wen Bin, who governed over a hundred thousand people,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>after accepting five hundred taels of “bandit-suppression sponsorship funds,” solemnly promised:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The bandits must be eradicated—there is no alternative!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only without bandits can there be peace!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he sent his county lieutenant, accompanied by over a hundred old, weak, sick, and unfit soldiers, to “suppress the bandits.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie had expected at least some results from this lieutenant, or at least some deterrence against the bandits,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but the man simply rode out, wandered aimlessly for a few days, and returned…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was utterly beyond Zhang Jie’s expectations:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he had suspected the incompetence of the corrupt bureaucracy,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he had never imagined the Song bureaucracy was this utterly broken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Heshen, the most infamous corrupt official of the Qing dynasty, knew to do at least something after taking money!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This made Zhang Jie realize others were unreliable;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to survive well in this corrupt world, the only person he could rely on was himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Previously, Master Zhang had shielded him from harm;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>now that his adoptive father had passed away, Zhang Jie must shield himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie’s only plan now is to pass the provincial examination and become a Juren,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>then seek revenge against the bandits with greater status.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, through his secret investigations, Zhang Jie discovered this was not merely a simple robbery and murder—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>someone in the city had colluded with the outside bandits to seize his Zhang family’s wealth!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This person, familiar to those who have read Jin Ping Mei and seen its illustrations,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>is none other than the Western Gate Official, who later became the adopted son of the powerful minister Cai Jing and ruled Yanggu County with near-total impunity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Zhang Jie was not particularly surprised:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Western Gate Official’s wealth was not all earned through honest enterprise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to Zhang Jie’s investigation, most of the Western Gate Official’s assets were acquired through trickery and force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This Western Gate Official had only recently seized the property of his friend Hua Zixu,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>taken Hua Zixu’s wife Li Pinger as his own, and now he was eyeing Zhang Jie’s fortune.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Western Gate Qing, you want my Zhang family’s wealth? Don’t choke on it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ximen Qing, you want my Zhang family's wealth—do you fear bursting from overeating?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sitting in the chair, Zhang Jie silently vowed revenge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pulled open a drawer on his desk and took out an object, examining it closely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The object was forged from high-quality metal, its surface finely treated, gleaming with a cold, eerie luster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If another transmigrator were here, they would instantly recognize what Zhang Jie held:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A complete short-barreled flintlock pistol—with barrel, lock, and stock all intact!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Over the years since arriving in the Water Margin world, Zhang Jie had never felt secure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he used knowledge from his past life to hire several master craftsmen,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>commissioning them to forge the barrel, hammer, striker, spring, and stock, then assembling the whole thing himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here, Zhang Jie silently thanked his pre-transmigration habit of browsing Douyin and Bilibili,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>which had given him at least some basic understanding of firearms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, even with his spiritual power greatly enhanced after transmigration,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and even with perfect recall of his past memories, he still could not make a meal without rice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for black powder, everyone knows: one saltpeter, two sulfur, three charcoal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Ximen Qing continued to press him,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie would not mind using this anachronistic weapon to send him to the Western Heaven!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And if the flintlock failed, Zhang Jie also had a passing knowledge of how to make nitroglycerin…\u003C\u002Fp>",1580,"2026-06-20T14:22:35.989Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","06bef4e1057fc7b4c3c68ffff9a258265cd33f434f9d21f35b04ecf76cf7e8c8","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-4","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-2",601,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsimultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-cover.jpg"]