Rin enters the Keju examination under strict anti-cheating procedures: she is searched, made to wear an exam smock, and seated among other anxious students in Tikany. As the twelve-hour test begins, she writes her full name, Fang Runin, and tries to control her fear by focusing on the work before her.

The narrative then shifts back two years. Rin's foster parents, the Fangs, summon her to meet Matchmaker Liew, who has arranged for Rin to marry a wealthy, much older import inspector. Rin realizes the marriage is a business exchange: the Fangs will trade her for easier access to Tikany's opium black market. Seeing no future in marriage or flight, Rin steals opium from the shop and takes it to Tutor Feyrik.

Rin persuades Tutor Feyrik to prepare her for the Keju, despite his insistence that a poor shopgirl cannot catch up to wealthy students who have studied for years. Rin proves her talent for memorization, appeals to his need for reputation and income, and bribes him with stolen opium. She then confronts Auntie Fang, using her knowledge of the family's drug trade and Kesegi's love for her as leverage until Auntie Fang allows her to study, though only because failure would still leave Rin available for marriage.

For the next two years, Rin studies obsessively while still working in the shop. She learns history, mathematics, logic, and especially the Classics, memorizing difficult old texts through relentless repetition. Her fear of the arranged marriage drives her forward, but the pressure becomes extreme; when exhaustion threatens her progress, Tutor Feyrik tells her a story about a scholar who used pain to stay awake, and Rin begins burning herself with candle wax to keep studying.

After the exam, Rin remembers almost nothing of the test and spends the week awaiting results in a state of near panic. In desperation, she even prays awkwardly at the village temple. When the scores are posted, Rin first cannot find her name, then realizes from Tutor Feyrik's tears that she has placed first not only in Tikany but in the entire province. Her sacrifices have worked: she has earned a place at Sinegard.