The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

When Rin aced the Kemu, the Empire wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the academics, it was a shock to everyone to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war, orphan from Roost Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise, and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free to the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard, the most elite military school and the NIikan- was even more surprising.

Paperback edition