Because there were so many people at the school entrance, Xie Yanhai sent Xie Lin to a nearby restaurant to secure seats even before Song Jiawen came out. This way, she could immediately go for a meal after finishing her exam.
After three and a half hours of mental labor in the morning, anyone would certainly be tired and hungry.
While that might be true for others, for Song Jiawen... she followed her teacher's advice, didn't hand in her paper early after she finished, and thoroughly checked her answers four times. By the time she started her fifth round of checking, she finally heard the invigilator announce the last ten minutes.
Therefore, she was in quite good spirits when she came out and didn't complain like the other students that this year's classical Chinese reading and essay writing were very difficult...
Xie Yanhai didn't ask her how the exam went, and instead took her straight to the restaurant.
