[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m":3,"chapter-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-42":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Simultaneously Transmigrated: My Cheat Skill Is Myself",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2315297,4528,"Chapter 42: A Thousand Armies Cross a Single Plank Bridge","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-42",42,"\u003Cp>\"There really are a lot of these scholar-officials.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Song marveled at the thousands of scholars before him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn’t expected that scholars, so rare in a single county, would be so abundant here in the examination compound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside the current examination compound, if you threw a few bricks at random,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>nine out of ten you hit would be scholars of considerable standing in their county.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Pan Jinlian, gazing at the dense sea of scholars, felt dizzy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing their shock, Zhang Jie merely smiled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is nothing yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shandong is in the north, less prosperous than the Jiangnan region; otherwise, tens of thousands would take the provincial examination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some history he’d read before his Chuanyue  recorded how overwhelming the numbers were for provincial exams:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to a memorial submitted by Zhao Ruyu, prefect of Fuzhou in the tenth year of Chunxi under Emperor Xiaozong,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>that year, before the imperial examination, sixteen thousand candidates had submitted their household guarantee forms for the preliminary test.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet only sixty-two were selected—meaning one passed for every two hundred and seventy applicants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two hundred and seventy to one may sound generous, but remember,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a scholar-official was already one in every ten or even one in every hundred among literate men.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among this vast multitude of scholars, any one picked at random would rank among the top dozens in their county.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The difficulty of the imperial examination was truly no less than a carp leaping over the dragon gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to this, the modern phrase “thousands competing over a narrow bridge” paled in comparison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those who passed the palace examination were no longer merely skilled at balancing across a narrow bridge,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but could fly or leap over it like immortals!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had Zhang Jie not undergone a beneficial transformation of his mind after his Chuanyue ,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>achieving near-photographic memory, he would have abandoned the imperial examination path long ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rebel generals Huang Chao and Hong Xiuquan, the “Second Son of God” and rightful heir to the Vatican, told us:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For an ordinary man, the difficulty of passing the exam to enter Chang’an was greater than storming Chang’an itself!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Time passed as Zhang Jie wandered in idle thought,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and he took from Wu Song the examination basket specially prepared for the exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Young master, good luck!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As she left, Pan Jinlian gave Zhang Jie a spirited cheer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, Zhang Jie, positioned toward the middle and rear of the line, reached the entrance to the examination compound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here, not only were supervising examiners present, but also dozens of fully armed soldiers guarding the gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Zhang Jie of Yanggu County?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clerk checked the roll and found Zhang Jie’s name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie answered while handing over his examination credential.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Candidates for the provincial examination must verify their identity in advance: carrying a “permit” (called “yuan’an”) with their name,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>age, native place, and physical features,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to prevent impersonation (no photographs in ancient times—reliance on textual descriptions like “fair-skinned, beardless, black mole on left eyebrow”).\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clerk took the yuan’an and carefully examined it,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>occasionally raising his head to observe Zhang Jie, and after several checks, nodded:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm, correct. You’ve passed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having cleared the first stage, Zhang Jie quickly moved to the second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm, Scholar Zhang’s attire is plain and thin—no hidden compartments.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Zhang Jie’s natural posture and clothing with no unusual bulges or thickened areas,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the clerk responsible for checking for concealed materials nodded in satisfaction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The provincial examination was too important; some clueless scholars always tried every trick to cheat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From hair to shoe soles, people hid materials everywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some candidates copied scriptures onto the linings of clothes and shoes,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>often written with mouse-hair brushes on paper as thin as cicada wings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Court ministers had even proposed requiring candidates to remove all clothing, including shoes, and be searched naked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the emperor and other ministers deemed such measures too indecent,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>beneath the dignity of scholars, and thus discouraged them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Please open your examination basket, Scholar Zhang.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clerk added.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To prevent cheating, the examination basket too must be thoroughly inspected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie placed the basket on the table and opened it naturally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Scholar Zhang clearly understands the rules!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clerk smiled more warmly after glancing at the basket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One side of the basket held brushes, ink, inkstone, paperweight, water dropper, and other stationery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To prevent cheating, inkstones had to be thin,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>water droppers ceramic, brush handles hollowed out—this went without saying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the provincial exam lasted three days, the other side of the basket naturally held food.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What pleased the clerk was that Zhang Jie’s bing (steamed buns), shaobing (baked flatbread), pastries,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and pickled vegetables were all broken open; even the single roasted duck was sliced.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These foods clearly couldn’t conceal anything, saving them considerable effort.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With thousands of candidates and only dozens of clerks checking,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>cutting open every single food item would exhaust them completely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they could have refused, he wouldn’t have taken this job for anything!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie heard the clerk’s words but smiled without replying:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you didn’t want to end up with a pile of crumbled food,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>better to prepare it yourself or get it ready properly ahead of time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, who knew what the clerk checking his food had touched before?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, this was food going into his own body—Zhang Jie preferred caution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next, Zhang Jie was called by the order of the Thousand Character Classic (“Heaven, Earth, Dark, Yellow”),\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>then signed the “Personal Declaration Form,” similar to modern candidate signature confirmation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having completed all procedures, Zhang Jie took his examination number and searched for his assigned cell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cell was a miniature “private room” where candidates ate and slept for the three days of the exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire examination ground consisted of rows of long, narrow cells.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each cell was about two meters high, one meter wide, and one and a half meters deep—roughly the size of a modern bathroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No door in front, no window in back; only a cloth curtain hung to shield from wind and rain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good, good—I wasn’t assigned a cell near the latrine.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie, having found his cell by the sign, sighed with relief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since candidates couldn’t leave the compound, the latrines were naturally inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The smell of the dry latrines without flush toilets was how “pleasant,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie, having grown up in the countryside in his past life, knew all too well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even ten meters away, the stench made one dizzy, “euphoric”…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially now in Jinan, summer, over thirty degrees Celsius,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the fermented odor of thousands of people’s waste was unimaginable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was said the latrine fumes were so overpowering that many candidates preferred to hold it in…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, the incense pouch Pan Jinlian prepared for him—meant to refresh the mind and mask odors—was useless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Damn, this facility is too shabby!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie stared at the cell’s two wooden planks, speechless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The upper plank served as a desk, the lower as a chair; at night, they were joined to form a bed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No wonder they say the imperial examination is a dual test of body and mind.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie glanced at the cell’s width and realized tall candidates couldn’t even stretch their legs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, the cell’s floor was slightly lower than the surrounding ground; during rain,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>water would pool inside, forcing candidates to stand in water while writing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie first took out a cloth and cleaned the cell—though it might have been swept before use,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>it was still covered in spiderwebs and dust.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pan Jinlian had also prepared rolled cloth and oilcloth for Zhang Jie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pan Jinlian had also prepared rolls of cloth and oilcloth for Zhang Jie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cloth roll can serve as a mat when writing, and as a tablecloth when eating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The oilcloth must be used when necessary to shield from wind and rain,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>since the examination cell has only three walls, and the roof may leak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To be safe, completed exam papers can also be protected with oilcloth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the array of items Pan Jinlian had prepared in the exam basket,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie couldn’t help but appreciate the importance of having a virtuous wife.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The saying “Behind every successful man is a woman\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>who silently supports him” holds some truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then Zhang Jie took out a small stove, a small pot, and a few pieces of old ginger,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>planning to boil some ginger soup to ward off colds caused by sudden temperature changes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he already had inner strength protecting his body and was nearly immune to colds,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>this was still Pan Jinlian’s thoughtful gesture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, if one can be more comfortable, why suffer unnecessarily?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At night, Zhang Jie, who had once lived as a beggar under the sky and on the earth with the Dragon, slept soundly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the others were not so lucky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Scholars from poor families fared better—they could endure the hardship of the examination cells.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet for aristocratic young men raised in luxury, it was an unbearable torment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They tossed and turned, unable to sleep, each one groaning in misery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the provincial examination was an exam of great importance, second only to the metropolitan and palace examinations,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and their elders had specifically warned them of the rules of the provincial exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, though they suffered intensely, none of them abandoned the exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What made Zhang Jie feel fortunate was that among these thousands of scholars,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>no one had cracked under pressure and begun screaming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since ancient times, armies have feared not night raids, but camp riots and camp screams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A single camp riot could destroy most, or even completely shatter,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>even the most disciplined and elite troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, on Andy’s first night in prison,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a fat man, unable to bear the fear and pressure,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>screamed loudly, “I want to go home,” nearly sparking a prison-wide riot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man was immediately silenced by guard captain Hadley with brute force, and ultimately beaten to death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Dong dong dong~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next day, as the gong rang, this year’s provincial examination officially began.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first exam focused on classical meaning, centered on the Four Books and Five Classics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Candidates were required to compose tightly structured eight-part essays based on the original texts, including sections like the opening, expansion, and preliminary discourse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie, with his photographic memory, feared nothing about this—he wrote with torrential inspiration, as if guided by divine hands,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and in less than an hour, he had roughly drafted an entire essay on scratch paper…\u003C\u002Fp>",1740,"2026-06-20T14:22:35.989Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","89a9af4cfa1c8d4e77ff7034a48ae005c1edb48523cbe750d5bb23350f8a03cd","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-43","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-41",601,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsimultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-cover.jpg"]