Chapter 199: What Happened in the Imperial Examination Hall

"Brother Lin, you are too polite. It's just a few eggs. It's getting late. Go to the dormitory and put them away." After Su Jin put the eggs away, he returned the bamboo basket to Lin Xiangzhi.

Zhen Jingxiu put his things in the dormitory, chased after him with a few eggs in his hand, and put them into Lin Xiangzhi's bamboo basket without saying anything.

He patted Lin Xiangzhi on the shoulder and said, "Do the questions well and try to make it on the list."

Lin Xiangzhi smiled confidently, "No problem."

He had finished reading the essays Xiao Jingzhao gave him in the past few days, and the two of them talked about their feelings after reading them. Although he was not 100% sure, Lin Xiangzhi was at least 70% sure.

Not long after Su Jin returned to the dormitory, the invigilator shouted, "Listen carefully, candidates. The test papers will be distributed in a quarter of an hour. Hurry up if you have to go to the bathroom."

Su Jin didn't even have time to open the quilt, and quickly stuck his head out to look at Zhen Jingxiu's dormitory diagonally opposite.

"Brother Su, stop looking, go to the bathroom." Zhen Jingxiu waved his hand and ran quickly to the bathroom closest to them.

"Okay, go quickly and come back quickly."

Su Jin looked around and saw that the scholars were running in both directions, so he ran away.

Fortunately, the bathroom in the Imperial Academy was quite large. After the people in front left, he and Zhen Jingxiu quickly solved the three urgent matters in life and returned to the dormitory.

The dormitory was not big, just like a grid room, not even as big as the gatehouse of Jiang Mansion.

A fixed wooden board was placed horizontally at the door of the dormitory, serving as a desk. The examinee sat there, and every move could not escape the eyes of the invigilator.

There was a three-foot-wide wooden board inside, which was the bed in the dormitory.

In the innermost corner was a stove and a pile of chopped wood. These days, each scholar had to cook by himself.

There was a bucket of water and cooking utensils at the foot of the wall.

Su Jin quickly lit the firewood and boiled water to make tea. Sister said that drinking tea properly can help refresh the mind.

In order to save space, he did not make the bed. He took out the tea and put it on the wooden board and stuffed the lunch box under the board.

While boiling tea, he glanced at the room opposite and saw the scholar inside slowly making the bed, and he had no intention of boiling water at all.

Looking at the man in gorgeous clothes, he was definitely not a young master from an ordinary family.

Before Su Jin's tea was cooked, the invigilator came to distribute the test papers.

This time the imperial examination lasted for nine days, and there was a whole pile of test papers.

Put the pen and ink, and then spread the test papers. The wooden board was full. When the tea was cooked and the fire was turned off, Su Jin put the teapot on the stove.

The conditions here were limited. There were no tea cups, so he used bowls instead of tea cups.

The mint scent of the tea filled the air. Su Jin poured half a bowl of tea and placed it on the wooden board behind him. He took a deep breath, sat down, picked up the top test paper and started to read.

The rooms opposite were more than two meters away. Looking across, you can see the scenes in the three rooms opposite.

If you want to see Zhen Jingxiu's room, Su Jin has to lean forward.

In order not to attract the special attention of the invigilator, Su Jin only glanced at the opposite side and began to grind the ink.

The sound of flipping the test paper came to his ears.

After a while, the ink was ground, Su Jin concentrated and calmed down, and began to answer the questions attentively.

Strike while the iron is hot, he first answered the test paper about poetry.

When he saw the questions, Sister guessed two questions correctly.

After he quickly wrote them, he wrote two poems by himself.

Guessing that the tea had cooled down, he put down the brush, turned around and drank it all.

The student opposite him saw that he was doing the questions too fast. When he saw the invigilator passing by, he stretched his neck and asked Su Jin, "Hey! The student opposite, are the questions easy?"

Su Jin looked up and smiled at the student opposite him, and answered silently with his lips: "Not bad."

The invigilator heard someone talking behind him, turned around and walked back, looked around and said seriously: "Be quiet, don't make loud noises, if you do it again, it will be considered cheating!"

Su Jin didn't even raise his eyelids and continued to look at the following questions.

He made up his mind not to look at the person opposite him, and he couldn't let an irrelevant person ruin his future.

The student opposite flipped the test paper, found the one he was best at and started to do it.

On the other side, Zhen Jingxiu also answered the test paper of poetry and songs first, and he deliberately saved the article for later.

Zhen Jingxiu had long discovered that every night when it was quiet and silent, his thoughts would flow like a spring, and the articles he wrote at that time were good and fast.

The examinees were all working hard, and time passed by bit by bit. It was past noon, and some examinees put down their pens and ink to prepare to cook.

Each room had a stove, a teapot and a pot, and there was no condition for cooking.

All examinees did not bring vegetables, so they cooked porridge with pickles.

Su Jin had eaten meat buns and vegetable porridge in the morning, and now he felt empty in his stomach.

He put down his pen and stretched his arms, then stood up and stretched his legs.

He washed the rice first and put it in the pot, estimating the amount of water to cook two bowls of porridge.

He took out a bottle of pine oil from the food box and poured a little on the firewood, picked up the fire starter and blew it, and it lit up at a touch.

Seeing that he lit the firewood in an instant, the scholar opposite was stunned. He wanted to ask Su Jin what he poured on the firewood, but the sound of the invigilator's footsteps sounded outside, so he had to hold back his words.

When Su Jin saw the invigilator coming over, he bowed and said, "Sir, may I trouble you for a favor?"

The invigilator stopped and looked at Su Jin, saying righteously, "Except for going to the bathroom, all other requests are off the table."

"Sir, when we check the items today, I and Dormitory No. 17 put the food in the inspection room temporarily. Please be flexible and send us a can after opening the can for inspection."

Su Jin explained patiently. He had prepared himself mentally. If the invigilator was not flexible, he could pass by eating dried radish for a few days.

Nothing was more important than the exam.

The invigilator thought for a moment and nodded, "I'll go ask."

Seeing that he agreed, Su Jin hurriedly bowed: "Thank you, sir. Can you open one more can and send one to Mr. Lin in Dormitory No. 66?"

The invigilator looked Su Jin up and down with a scrutinizing look, did not answer, and walked out quickly.

Zhen Jingxiu, who was diagonally opposite, heard the voice and stretched his neck to look. Although he did not hear clearly, he knew that Su Jin was talking to the invigilator about the ceramic can.

He also put down his pen and started a fire to cook porridge.

Zhen Jingxiu usually did not go into the kitchen at home. He learned to cook porridge recently.

Fortunately, Su Jin had talked to him about how to start a fire that day, and he quickly lit the firewood with pine oil.

In order to make it easier for scholars to cook, the firewood in the Imperial Academy was very dry.

Some scholars used waste paper to light the fire, while others were so dirty that they couldn't light it for a while.

This person was the young man opposite Su Jin.

Su Jin looked at the smoke and fire in the room opposite, and the young man stuck his head outside the room and coughed violently.

Su Jin saw that he had seen it, so he raised the used waste paper in his hand and blew on the paper.

The young man suddenly realized and bowed to Su Jin in the air.

The young man's face was white and black, and when he smiled at Su Jin, he showed a mouthful of white teeth, which looked very funny.

Hearing footsteps, Su Jin quickly put away the waste paper in his hand.