The Formidable Lady of the Poor Scholar’s Household

Chapter 26: Exam Routine

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

After the examiner set out the rules of the exam, the staff below shouted, “Sit!”

All the examinees sat down immediately. The examiners then checked the sealed papers and signed them. They then demonstrated to the examinees that this question papers were perfectly sealed.

With the demonstration, an hour passed.

The examiners opened the question papers in front of all the examinees. Then, the staff members paired up and began to distribute the papers.

When all the candidates received the questions, the main examiner rang the alarm and shouted, “Pick up your pens!”

After that, there was pin-drop silence, other than the occasional cough.

There were no plants or trees planted in the examination hall to prevent insects and birds from interfering with the examinees.

Of course, when it came to the natural forces, there was nothing anyone could do. One could only sigh and blame their own luck.

After that first announcement, the examiners stopped making any reminders. The examinees were free to write their answers, eat, or even sleep at their seats. However, they had to raise their hands to indicate that they were going to the washroom.

Shi Jinhua had not eaten the whole morning/ Now, it was already noon. He was not in a hurry to answer the questions and decided to eat his dry food first. Then, he took a sip of water and finally took an afternoon nap.

The examiners saw that some of the examinees were excited when they received the questions, some were frowning, and others were confused. However, none was like Shi Jinhua, who slept after eating.

The examiner didn’t care. It was up to the examinees what they wanted to do!

After sleeping, Shi Jinhua sat up in high spirits and raised his hand to ask to go to the toilet.

Coincidentally, when he came out of the toilet, his eyes met Zhao Qimin’s. Both Shi Jinhua and Zhao Qimin were speechless.

When Shi Jinhua finally started answering the questions, many examinees did not have much energy left.

On the other hand, Shi Jinhua continued to write until late at night. At this moment, his hands were a little sore. After thinking about it, he decided to go to sleep.

The next day, when everyone had already woken up, Shi Jinhua was still sound asleep!

How the examiner wished he could throw this kid out. When the other examinees heard Shi Jinhua’s snores, they were so frustrated that they wanted to punch him.

In the end, Shi Jinhua finally woke up from his hunger. When the other examinees saw him sit up, they heaved a sigh of relief. It was mental torture listening to him!

After eating his dry rations, he took another drink of water, went to the toilet, glanced at Zhao Qimin, and then began answering the questions yet again.

At noon, he once again took his afternoon nap. After waking up, he drank water, went to the toilet, glanced at Zhao Qimin, and answered the questions again!

He only fell asleep late at night. Once again, he snored and grinded his teeth, annoying both the examiners and examinees. Yet, they had no choice but to endure this torture!

The third day was also the last day of the exam.

Shi Jinhua got up for the last time, drank some water, went to the toilet, glanced at Zhao Qimin, and answered the questions yet again.

When most of the examinees put down their pens, Shi Jinhua finally put down his pen.

When the warning bell finally rang, the main examiner shouted, “Put down your pens! Stand up!”

All the candidates stood up and waited for the staff to collect the papers.

After all the papers were put away, they were sealed in front of all the examinees before they were officially put into a box.

Once the main examiner left, the examination hall was instantly in an uproar.

“Someone has fainted!” an examinee who went to the toilet saw that the person in front of them had fainted, and hurriedly shouted.

The staff was already used to it. They carried a stretcher over and quickly put the unconscious examinee onto the stretcher and carried him away.

Every year, the person in this seat would always faint after two days. This examinee was considered very impressive. He had only fainted after the whole three-day-long exam!

As they passed by Shi Jinhua, he caught a glance of the person on the stretcher. It was Zhao Qimin! But the young man had already reached his limit and couldn’t care less about Zhao Qimin. He quickly packed up so that he could return to the inn to rest.

When Shi Jinhua walked out of the examination hall, he saw many people surrounding the venue and straining their necks to look in.

When the people waiting saw the person they were waiting for, they would immediately wave excitedly. Shi Jinhua took a look and saw that there was no one waiting for him. It was more important to hurry back to the inn!

Master Zhao had prepared hot water and food for every examinee. As soon as they arrived, he didn’t ask how the exam had gone. He simply arranged for them to wash up, eat, and rest.

Zhao Qimin didn’t return to the inn until the afternoon of the next day. During that time, Master Zhao had gone to take care of him. But seeing that he was doing alright, Master Zhao had returned to the inn.

The exam results would be released three days later. In these three days, the examinees slept for a whole day and night. The remaining two days were spent comparing their answers.

Zhao Qimin found the helper at the inn and asked,

“Why is he fine?”

The waiter was also confused. “Young Master, I delivered the food according to your request. When I went in to collect the bowls and chopsticks, the plates were very clean, as though a dog had licked it!”

Zhao Qimin, who was exhausted from dehydration due to his diarrhea, thought, ‘You’re the dog. Your whole family are dogs!’

“Hmph!” Zhao Qimin flicked his sleeves and left.

The helper shrugged it off. “If such a person were to become an official, we as commoners will definitely suffer!”

He touched the five taels of silver in his pocket and smiled. He had not harmed anyone and had still earned money. Where else would he find such a great opportunity?

When Zhao Qimin came out, he saw Shi Jinhua walking out of the room. He smiled and greeted him from afar, “Brother Shi, you’re resting well!”

Shi Jinhua felt that Zhao Qimin’s smile was a little forced. “I’m alright. Brother Zhao, where did you come back from?”

The latter already cursed the other man in his heart. “I’m just taking a walk. It’s rare for me to be here in town.” As he spoke, they sat down together.

“Brother Shi, you must have done well this time, right? Did you get the right answer?” Zhao Qimin gritted his teeth.

Shi Jinhua found it strange. This other man did not usually interact much with him.

“Well, different people have different opinions. I wouldn’t be so rash to hazard a guess now. Brother Zhao, you should have done well, right?”

Shi Jinhua had no idea that the classmate sitting in front of him had poisoned his food before the exam.

“Brother Shi, there’s no need to belittle yourself. With your intelligence, there should no problem at all. You know very well where I was seated. This time, I can only rely on luck.”

I tried to poison you so that you’d get diarrhea, but you didn’t at all! On the other hand, I smelled feces and urine for three days! How ridiculous, Zhao Qimin raged inwardly.

For the past few days, his mind had been filled with curses! Even now, he kept feeling that he could smell a familiar smell. That was why he had vomited everything he ate for the past few days.

“I still have something on. Excuse me.”

How infuriating! Hurry up and leave or I’ll beat you up! Zhao Qimin thought.

At this moment, an examinee walked over. “Brother Shi, what are you looking at?”

Shi Jinhua turned around and saw Wang Qingchu from the same academy.

“Brother Wang, take a seat. I think Brother Zhao Qimin was gritting his teeth when he talked to me.”

Wang Qingchu replied, “Heh, he might have vomited too much. Ignore him. Let’s compare our answers.”

At this very moment, Zhao Qimin was bubbling with rage.

But Shi Jinhua didn’t think too much about it. Anyway, in Zhao Qimin’s heart, he was just a poor student and was not worth his time.

On the day the results were released, Shi Jinhua packed his luggage and waited for the results to be released.

The thought of going home was even more exciting than the thought of seeing the rankings. Early in the morning, the main door was opened. The hall was filled with scholars, all of them chatting loudly, but they were all ears!

When the sound of the gong was heard, the entire hall fell silent.

The official shouted at the entrance of the inn, “Congratulations to Zhao Qimin, Master Zhao, 215th place!”

Zhao Qimin was suddenly overwhelmed by joy. His mind was filled with what the official had just said.

The people around him clasped their hands in congratulations. “Congratulations, Scholar Zhao! This is great news!” It didn’t matter that he was in the last place,

nor the fact that there might have even been some pity marks counted into his score.

The scholar in last place… How infuriating! Zhao Qiming thought to himself.

Master Zhao quickly went up to the officers and said, “Thank you for your hard work. Have some tea.”

“Not at all! Not at all!”

There was money to be made doing things like that! Of course they didn’t mind it at all!