"Dong, dong, dong!"
The lingering toll of a bell drifted in from outside the window. Liu Yuanzhou opened his eyes to see blue light streaming through the window into the Cave Dwelling. Dawn had only just begun to break.
He sat up in bed and looked around. The other four people in the room were still asleep.
"Dang, dang, dang!" Urgent gongbeats suddenly rang out from outside, followed by someone shouting, "Everyone get up! Everyone get up! Assemble in the courtyard in the time it takes to burn one incense stick!" Another burst of gongbeats followed.
The people in the Cave Dwelling were all jolted awake, while a clamor rose outside as well.
Liu Yuanzhou jumped out of bed. He had already dressed himself in the uniform issued the previous night: a gray short jacket and shorts, along with two pairs of black cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles.
"Hurry up. We'll be assembling soon," Liu Yuanzhou reminded them as he folded his blanket.
Everyone hurriedly got up and fumbled into their clothes, afraid that being late would bring trouble down on them.
Still, someone was unhappy, muttering under his breath, "Gathering before the sky's even fully light... are they trying to work us to death?"
No one paid him any attention.
Once Xing Youqing and Luo An had dressed neatly, the three of them pushed open the door and walked out of the Cave Dwelling. Quite a few people were already standing in the courtyard. People gradually emerged from seven or eight Cave Dwellings; some greeted acquaintances, some yawned endlessly, and some fearless fools were still grumbling.
Liu Yuanzhou found Team C's formation and led Xing Youqing and Luo An over. After greeting Peng Shi'an at the front of the line, the three joined the ranks.
"I should've brought a