The Last Supper | The examinee hands in his paper early, and the exam ends without a hitch

There was a crack.

Another piece broke off the base of the glass...

922's hand jerked, spilling beef down his pant leg.

Holding up the half-full box, he asked 154, "Can four violations get him recruited as a colleague? I don't want to invigilate for him anymore."

154: "..."

Anyone who does is a dumbass.

Chapter 11: The Last Supper | The examinee hands in his paper early, and the exam ends without a hitch

The examinees jumped in fright. Old Yu was hopping with anxiety. "You! How could you do it again! Didn't I tell you not to damage the tableware? Not to damage the tableware! You... ah!"

You Huo examined the glass base between his fingers and said without looking up, "I know what I'm doing."

922: "..."

Search your conscience and say that again. You know what you're doing???

Someone who racked up violations like they were meals had the nerve to say he knew what he was doing? Did he have no shame?

The room fell silent for several seconds.

Almost everyone thought You Huo had committed another violation. They stared anxiously at the answer wall, waiting for it to display a fourth violation notice.

No one knew what punishment four consecutive violations would bring. With the bald man's madness as a precedent, they didn't dare imagine it.

For a moment, the notice area on the answer wall seemed to flash red, but it returned to normal in the blink of an eye.

It went from red to white, then white to red, flickering back and forth several times before ultimately displaying nothing at all.

154 was dumbfounded.

922 rubbed it in from the sidelines. "Feels like the system's about to choke to death..."

In the end, You Huo himself broke the silence.

He handed the broken glass base to Yu Wen and said, "See if there's anything inside. My eyes are bothering me."

Yu Wen knelt on the floor, panicking. "Bro, damaging the tableware counts as a violation..."

You Huo moved out of the light and closed his eyes for a moment. His voice was cool as he said, "Which eye of yours saw me damage the tableware?"

Yu Wen held up the broken glass and thought, Am I blind?

You Huo: "The question said there are twelve sets of tableware in total now. Can you count?"

Yu Wen: "..."

You Huo: "Want me to teach you?"

Yu Wen: "..."

Everyone fell silent for a moment, then realization dawned.

That was right! The question clearly stated, "Only twelve guests and twelve sets of tableware remain in the hunter's cabin." Those twelve sets were neatly arranged on the wooden table, numbered, with not one missing. How could they include this shattered glass?

Whether or not the Examination System had meant to, it had already removed the glass from the tableware. What did it matter if it was damaged a second time?

"Bro, you're my dad!"

Yu Wen came back to life in an instant and excitedly held half the glass base up to the light.

Old Yu was just about to smack him on the forehead when Yu Wen exclaimed, "Hey! Would you look at that! I think there really is something!"

The base of the wineglass was a slightly concave circle, supporting a slender stem meant to be held. But You Huo had broken off part of the cylindrical stem, leaving it uneven.

Yu Wen shifted it at different angles in the light of the oil lamp and the fire, twisting himself into a spider spirit. Then he cried, "This angle! Look through it from here! There really is something!"

The examinees crowded around, heads pressed together, but couldn't get the distance or angle right.

"What is it, exactly? Where is it?"

The tattooed man tried for a while before finally giving up. "What do you see? Can't you just tell us?"

Yu Wen: "If I could see it clearly, would I need to twist myself up like this?"

He was about to get into an argument with the tattooed man when someone tapped him twice on the shoulder.

"Let me have a look."

It was You Huo.

He had closed his eyes and rested for a while, and his eyes seemed to feel a little better. He took the glass base from Yu Wen.

"Here, do it like this. Look from here." Yu Wen obediently turned the glass to an angle and pointed to where the stem joined the circular base. "Isn't there something here? I think there's a picture embedded in it. But I can't see what's on it. It's blurry, so I don't know whether it's a drawing or writing."

You Huo said, "Oh," and promptly struck it again.

With a crack, the slender stem and the base broke apart neatly at the join, as though it had always been easy to break there.

"There's something!" Yu Wen caught the thing that drifted down from the join and held it in his palm as reverently as an ancestor.

Everyone looked closely. It really was a thin disc, barely larger than a pea. Before You Huo smashed the glass, it must have been stuck beneath the stem.

Its back was blank, like a miniature mirror.

On the front were tiny letters:

Simon the Zealot

Mike, the foreigner, read it aloud softly.

The two old ladies frowned, their faces creasing with wrinkles. "What?"

Mike: "..."

The old ladies: "..."

Not being able to explain it in Chinese was a real pain in the ass.

While they were still at a loss, someone said quietly, "The Last Supper."

"Who are you cursing?" The tattooed man glared at him.

The speaker was the sickly beanpole. He always looked as though even speaking tired him out, and he was so quiet he seemed almost depressed. He had done plenty, but he had little presence.

For the first time, everyone waited for him to speak.

It took them quite a while to remember his name was Zhou Jin.

Zhou Jin gave the tattooed man a weary eye roll and said, "I meant Da Vinci's famous painting, The Last Supper."

The tattooed man was about to speak again.

Afraid he would ask another aggravating question like "Who's Da Vinci?", Zhou Jin quickly looked away and said to You Huo, "Simon the Zealot, one of the twelve disciples in the painting."

"You can name all twelve disciples?" Yu Wen cried out like the poor student he was.

Zhou Jin coughed for a while, then said softly, "I studied art, so I happen to know a little."

Supper and twelve—those key words fit the scene in the room perfectly.

Although the older people didn't know much about The Last Supper, even the twin girls in primary school called out a name: "Judas!"

"Right! Judas!" Yu Yao and Yu Wen weren't actually sister and brother, but they were closer than siblings, chiming in one after the other.