An Inexplicable Exam

Northern summer mornings were often shrouded in a thin mist.

Zheng Qing pressed the phone in his armband pouch and switched to a more relaxing song.

It was still early, but quite a few people were out running. Along this track built beside the river, morning exercisers in sportswear could be seen everywhere.

The track was located in Fen River Park, one of the city government's urban beautification projects in recent years, and it had been built with considerable care. On one side of the rubberized path lay the placid Fen River; on the other stood a lush grove of willows. Together, they filled the air with the scent of nature. These scarce elements of city life held an enormous allure for urbanites out for morning exercise.

A black figure flashed past Zheng Qing and stopped on a stone platform not far away.

That black cat!

Zheng Qing sniffed, tightened his armband pouch, and glanced at it.

The black cat had white paws, making its coat especially striking. Though it looked like an ordinary domestic shorthair, it lacked the usual sensitivity and suspicion of house cats. Instead, it was remarkably bold. Since entering the track, it had been wandering a short distance ahead of Zheng Qing.

Neither hurried nor slow, seemingly near yet always distant.

It never vanished from Zheng Qing's sight, yet it always kept a distance of over a hundred meters from him.

That made Zheng Qing, who had been trailing behind it, rather curious.

He was not running slowly, and the other morning joggers around him had changed several times. There was no sign of anyone who might have been the black cat's owner.

Maybe the cat simply thought it was fun.

After rounding the bend ahead, the black cat suddenly disappeared from sight. Zheng Qing slowed down and looked around, quickly spotting it among the dense Tree.

It had left the main path and run onto a quiet little trail beside it.

Compared with the main running track, this side path was only three or five meters wide. Its surface was not rubberized either, but paved with ordinary stone slabs. The black cat ran several dozen meters down the trail, then stopped and turned back to stare at Zheng Qing with its emerald-green eyes.

Zheng Qing hesitated at the fork for several seconds before following the black cat onto the side path.

Running after a cat was not all that different from running after a person. Either way, he was the one doing the running. Zheng Qing thought silently. Besides, this path looked so peaceful. It would definitely be more comfortable to run here than outside.

The black cat padded lightly along ahead. The ground beneath Zheng Qing's feet changed from stone slabs to asphalt, then from asphalt to hardened dirt, until finally even the dirt road disappeared, leaving only a wild trail carpeted in dead branches and fallen leaves.

Zheng Qing decided he would turn back once there was no path left.

He was running to his heart's content now, even ignoring the black cat not far ahead of him.

His nose greedily breathed in the scent of rotting grass and Tree leaves from the woods, mingled with pine resin and morning mist. It cleansed the stale city air settled in his chest and carried away the faint unease in his heart.

The sky gradually brightened, though the sun had yet to rise. The mist among the trees grew thicker and thicker.

After passing a thick ancient Tree, Zheng Qing's eyes lit up. A vast grove of emerald bamboo appeared before him. The green was so dazzling that even the morning mist could not conceal its splendor.

Bamboo leaves rustled, and bamboo stalks clattered together. Jogging through the bamboo grove was intoxicating.

Zheng Qing had completely lost his sense of direction and could only slowly follow the black cat wandering ahead.

The bamboo grove in the distance gradually thinned, and light from outside slowly seeped in.

They were about to come out. Zheng Qing felt a little reluctant, and he decided that he would come here for his morning run again tomorrow.

After running out of the bamboo grove, the suddenly open view and bright light made Zheng Qing squint.

When he opened his eyes and swallowed, he could not help squinting again.

Before him lay an open lawn. Several hundred meters away, a six-story ochre building sat solidly in the middle of the grass. Flower beds, artificial rockeries, and fountains surrounded the building. Tall, silent bamboo groves encircled the lawn.

There was a building like this by the Fen River? Zheng Qing could not help touching his armband pouch.

As though sensing Zheng Qing's hesitation, the black cat not far ahead let out a loud "Aow!"

Cats did not sound like that. The corner of his mouth twitched.

The black cat paid no attention to his thoughts. It flicked its tail, turned, and ran toward the ochre building.

Zheng Qing looked behind him. The bamboo grove that had once felt fresh and pleasant suddenly seemed imbued with a profound, unfathomable air. That distant, secluded feeling made him hesitate to approach it.

Without the cat leading the way, he would definitely get lost in there.

With a sigh, Zheng Qing pulled a small gray cloth bag from his armband pouch and quietly clenched it in his palm.

The black cat leading the way occasionally encountered other small animals, such as squirrels, rabbits, foxes, and even a milky-white piglet. Every time it met one, the black cat stopped to greet it. These little animals were strange too. Not only were they unafraid of Zheng Qing, but they even circled him curiously, as though examining something.

Human figures could faintly be seen at the building's main entrance.

The black cat stopped beside a flower bed at the entrance, flicked its tail, and indicated that Zheng Qing should go inside.

"You're not going in?" Zheng Qing glanced at it.

The black cat snorted, leaped up, and nimbly slipped into the lush flower bed, vanishing from sight.

From the outside, the building looked compactly laid out. But after entering, Zheng Qing discovered that the interior was remarkably spacious.

Directly opposite the entrance was a hall roughly a hundred meters across. On either side of the hall were two deep corridors, unlit, pitch-black, and silent. Eight pillars stood at the four corners of the hall, with a tightly shut black door between every pair of pillars.

Several people in black robes moved back and forth through the hall. Most wore stern expressions and hurried along, seemingly taking no notice at all of the stranger who had entered through the main doors.

After looking around for a moment, Zheng Qing picked out a delicate-looking girl with a ponytail. He hurried over, stopped her, and asked with an embarrassed expression, "Hello, I Don't Know if this place is..."

"New here?" The girl seemed to be in a hurry and cut him off rapidly.

Zheng Qing nodded repeatedly.

"Here for an exam, a Talent Test, a Faith Appraisal, or Simulated Combat?"

Zheng Qing looked completely bewildered. "An exam?"

That was the only term he had caught.

"The exam is this way." The girl grabbed Zheng Qing by the arm, brought him to the black door between the two pillars in the northeast corner, opened it, and pushed him inside.

The girl's strength was astonishing. Before Zheng Qing could even understand what was happening, he was already standing inside the black door.

It was a huge tiered classroom, with nearly a hundred rows from front to back. Light streamed through eight tall glass windows around it, making the room exceptionally bright. At that moment, several hundred people sat packed inside, heads lowered as they worked on their exam papers. The soft scratch of pens made the classroom seem even quieter.

Zheng Qing turned around, only to find that the door behind him had somehow quietly shut.

He tugged at it gently, but it would not open.

"You're late!" A stern voice came from the podium far away. At this distance, Zheng Qing could only make out a tall figure, also dressed in the same standard black robe as the people outside.

Several people answering questions nearby secretly glanced at him, making Zheng Qing swallow the words that had been about to leave his mouth.

Making noise during an exam was the biggest taboo.

"The exam paper is in front of you. You're about fifteen minutes behind everyone else. Stop standing there and start answering!"

Zheng Qing saw that there was indeed an empty seat not far ahead, with a set of exam papers and all the necessary paper and pens laid out on it.

He definitely had not signed up for this exam. Zheng Qing knew that very clearly.

Maybe someone really was late? Once they came, I could give the seat back to them.

He silently sat down, gently picked up the paper, and curiously wondered what kind of exam this was.

The enormous bold words on the front page were exceptionally clear:

2008 Global Unified Entrance Examination for Higher Wizard School (Nine-Lives Scroll)

Zheng Qing shook his head and blinked. He felt as though he were hallucinating.

He tried to open the Gray Cloth Bag in his hand, only to find that its opening, which he could usually untie easily, had been tied shut tight and would not come undone no matter what he did.

Knock! Knock! Knock! A slender hand curled its index finger and lightly tapped the desk before Zheng Qing.

Zheng Qing looked up and saw only a pair of dark red eyes.

It was an invigilator.

"Only the paper and pens issued by the examination hall may be used. If you have any other special needs, you may state them."

Zheng Qing gave an awkward laugh, stuffed the limp Gray Cloth Bag into his pocket, and opened the first page of the exam.

Instructions: This examination paper consists of two sections, Section One and Section Two, totaling twenty pages. Section One contains required questions, while Section Two contains optional questions. The full score is 500 points, and the examination time is 300 minutes. Please use the uniformly provided 0.57-millimeter signature pen when answering; it is strictly forbidden to bring your own writing brushes, Quill Pens, or pens of any other specifications. Before answering, please sign your True Name on the front page. After answering, the examination papers will be collected by the invigilating teaching assistants.

Please observe the examination hall rules set by the invigilators.

Cheating is strictly forbidden!

After opening the second page, Zheng Qing scratched his head.

The contents of the paper were surprisingly ordinary. Zheng Qing discovered that much of it came from the calligraphy copybooks he practiced with every day.

Maybe once I finish the exam, I can leave. He looked up at the people around him bent over their papers, sighed, and picked up the signature pen beside his exam.

Who knew how much time passed? After finishing the exam, Zheng Qing dozed with his head on the desk, waiting for the invigilator to collect the papers.

Once I get out, I have to find that black cat and poke its little asshole a hundred times, he thought hazily.

"Wake up! Wake up! It's time for you to go home!" A violent shaking jolted Zheng Qing awake.

"Hand in the papers!" Still groggy, he reached forward and grasped at empty air.

A burst of uproarious laughter exploded beside his ears.

He opened his eyes and looked around. The spacious, quiet classroom from before he fell asleep had completely vanished. In its place was a cramped, noisy KTV private room.

"The college entrance exam is over! You're free now! No more exams!" A dark-faced fat man yelled beside his ear, making it ring.

Zheng Qing stared around blankly, his mind still only half awake. He vaguely saw more than a dozen figures with their arms around one another, singing at the top of their lungs.

"Friends walk through life together, those days will never come again..."

As though in one final outburst, the mood in the private room instantly reached its peak, and a large glass of beer was shoved into Zheng Qing's hand.

After the beer went down his throat, the strange exam from not long ago was soon forgotten. Zheng Qing's memories reconnected with normal life: he was attending a gathering with his classmates after the college entrance exam.

As for the running and the exam?

It had only been a dream.