Thirty years ago, a young boy was born into the family of Zhang Sancai, a fisherman.
His father was a down-and-out Scholar with some literary talent but nothing remarkable. In order to make a living, he had to resort to fishing and ferrying.
His father was talented and named him Wuji. He hoped that he would grow up to be a man that was born in the world without any taboos to his name.
Zhang Wuji, burdened with the weight of his father's unfulfilled dreams, poured himself into his studies with an unrelenting fervor to obtain scholarly honors. He passed the Elementary Scholar examination in his ninth year, but failed the Imperial Scholar examination every time afterwards.
He then started a family but continued on the path of imperial examinations. At the same time, like his father, after starting a family and starting a career, he also gradually placed his hopes of passing the Imperial Examination on the next generation.