"Here, is this it?" the proctor's voice rang out.

"Yes, thank you, sir." Su Jin took the ceramic jar and quickly expressed his gratitude.

The proctor still had two ceramic jars in his hand. Su Jin only looked away when he saw the proctor walk towards dormitory number seventeen diagonally opposite.

When Zhen Jingxiu saw the proctor approaching, he stood up, cupped his hands, and said, "Thank you for your trouble, sir."

The proctor glanced at the number plates hanging in the cells and asked, "What is your relationship with the people in cell number 66?"

This was the first time I'd ever encountered someone offering food to another candidate in the examination hall. If I didn't ask clearly what was going on, and the candidate got sick or something went wrong, the invigilator would be held responsible.

If it weren't for special instructions from above, and the Emperor's high expectations for this year's examinees, the ceramic jar would never have been returned to the two of them.

Zhen Jingxiu understood the proctor's thoughts perfectly well, and he replied, "Friend, classmate friend."

The proctor, expressionless, grunted and turned to walk towards number sixty-six.

"Sir, remember to tell him to heat it up on the stove."

Zhen Jingxiu couldn't speak loudly, and he didn't know if the proctor had heard him.

"Number 66, someone has brought you food."

Lin Xiangzhi found the shouting extremely grating, as if it were calling out to prisoners.

The proctor placed the ceramic jar on his desk, and Lin Xiangzhi was completely bewildered. "This is..."

"It was given to you by your classmate. He told you to heat it up before eating it." After saying that, the proctor walked to the other end.

Lin Xiangzhi eagerly opened the ceramic jar, and a tempting sweet aroma wafted out.

Seeing the dark red meat strips inside, Lin Xiangzhi had a sudden inspiration. He poured the whole can of beef strips into the pot and cooked it together with the porridge.

He thoroughly enjoyed that meal.

Su Jin wouldn't be foolish enough to put beef strips into the porridge.

He cooked the porridge and set it aside. When the open flame in the stove went out, he put the ceramic jar in the stove to warm it up with the residual heat.

During the meal, he ate half a can of beef jerky before picking up his porridge and eating it with dried radish.

He ate with such relish that the people in the three cells opposite him were watching and drooling.

They all craned their necks to look at him, wondering why the proctor was only giving them food. Did they have some kind of special status?

That shouldn't be the case! His clothes weren't much different from those of an ordinary son of an official.

The scholar opposite was even more confused. Judging from the crown Su Jin was wearing, his status was no higher than his own. Why did he receive such special treatment?

It wasn't until the next day that everyone realized these people didn't have any special relationship.

This story begins with Prime Minister Lin's fondness for stinky mandarin fish.

Everyone was enjoying their porridge when a nauseating smell filled the cell.

"Who brought in meat that smells bad?"

"Could someone have taken a dump in the cell?"

The candidates covered their noses and peeked out of their examination cells.

Some candidates reacted too strongly to the smell and vomited in their cells.

Several proctors were also drawn over by the stench.

"Did any of you eat stinky tofu? It's stinking!" The proctor raised his wide sleeve to cover his mouth and nose, glaring at him as he asked.

One of the test takers pointed ahead and said, "The stench is coming from over there."

Su Jin cooked noodles for this meal, and he was washing the dishes after he finished eating.

Seeing several proctors appear at the same time, he put down his bowl, leaned out, and looked ahead.

Seeing that the proctor was standing at around number seventy, he turned his head and looked at Zhen Jingxiu.

Zhen Jingxiu understood the meaning from his gaze and shook his head slightly, looking completely bewildered.

When the examiner arrived in front of Lin Xiangzhi's cell, the culprit was squatting by the stove, eating with relish, completely unaware of the angry glares cast at the people in the opposite cell and the examiner's disdainful expression.

"Young master, did you eat shit? You know you've made the entire examination hall stink!"

One of the proctors angrily questioned him, using extremely harsh language.

Lin Xiangzhi turned around, looked at the half-eaten stinky mandarin fish again, and awkwardly twitched the corner of his mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't think it through. I ate pickled mandarin fish. This fish smells bad, but it tastes delicious."

Since he only brought one, he couldn't share it with Zhen Jingxiu and Su Jin, and he felt quite guilty about eating it.

Only after being reprimanded by the proctor did he belatedly realize that the smell of the stinky mandarin fish had really affected everyone, and suddenly the fish in his mouth didn't taste good anymore.

"You can't eat anymore, the stench is affecting everyone's eating." An invigilator stepped forward and spoke, and the others backed away because of the stench.

Lin Xiangzhi quickly swallowed the fish in his mouth, put down his chopsticks, and looked at the remaining stinky mandarin fish, saying, "Please help me throw it away, sir, or I can throw it away myself."

The proctors couldn't let the candidates out. The proctor at the front covered his nose with one hand and reached out with the other to pick up the still slightly warm, stinky mandarin fish.

As the proctor carried the stinky mandarin fish past Zhen Jingxiu and Su Jin's cells, he stopped and said, "If I find any of you three eating this stuff again, I won't be so lenient."

Zhen Jingxiu quickly shook his head: "We don't have any."

Seeing the invigilator's unfriendly gaze, Su Jin quickly shook his head, "Student understands."

The other invigilators cast warning glances at Su Jin and Zhen Jingxiu as they passed by their cells.

After the invigilators left, the candidates in the two examination cells realized that they were just ordinary candidates and not people with any special background.

The proctor threw away the rotten mandarin fish and returned to his room, where he took out the remaining ceramic jar and began to examine it.

One of the proctors took the ceramic jar, looked at it, and then smelled it.

He asked doubtfully, "Could there be any rotten mandarin fish in here?"

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