A Deadly Question ┃ The End at the Beginning

"Global College Entrance Examination" by Musuli [Complete + Extras]

Synopsis:

The Global Large-Scale High-Risk Unified Examination, or Global College Entrance Examination for short. Answer the questions in person; pass to stay alive. The examination system changes every month, occasionally at random.

Summary: Two big shots try to outdo each other at being outrageous.

1v1, HE, nonsense from start to finish.

Content tags: Two strong leads

Unlimited flow

Love and hate

Sweet romance

Search keywords: Main characters: You Huo, Qin Jiu ┃ Supporting characters: Yu Wen, Di Li, Shu Xue, Wu Li

Work review:

Because of a small accident, You Huo was dragged into a strange examination. Physics was tested in a hunter's cabin amid a blizzard, foreign languages in a remote mountain village surrounded by graves, and history on a deserted rocky island in the vast sea. Each setting represented a subject. Candidates took the exams empty-handed, answering questions in person; those who passed stayed alive. The protagonist, You Huo, entered and left the invigilators' office three times, and in the process fell out with Invigilator 001, Qin Jiu. As they faced off against each other, he discovered that he seemed to have known Qin Jiu long ago, and that secrets lay behind the examination as well... With witty, humorous language, the author portrayed a thrilling world full of mysteries, making for a hilarious read well worth picking up.

Volume 1: The Last Supper

Chapter 1: A Deadly Question ┃ The End at the Beginning

The snow had been falling for four hours, with no sign of stopping.

It was a cabin in the remote mountains, its walls covered in hunting gear. A long, worm-eaten wooden table stood in the center, with a circle of people seated around it. There were men and women, young and old, and even a foreigner among them.

It was cold inside. Everyone was shivering with grim faces, but no one got up to start a fire, because the old-fashioned radio on the table was speaking.

[The time is now 17:30, Beijing time.]

[The examination begins in 30 minutes. Candidates, please enter promptly.]

The radio's voice was raspy, accompanied by the static characteristic of the nineteen-fifties,

relentlessly haunting them.

This was already its second announcement. The first had come three hours ago: [Welcome to Examination Hall 003712.] The greeting had knocked an old woman unconscious, and she still hadn't come around.

Another person had ignored the instructions and tried to force the radio apart... After dismantling the battery compartment, he had rushed outside as though possessed. Five minutes later, his corpse had slid down with the snow on the roof.

After that, no one dared touch the thing again.

[Candidates who have not entered, please do so as soon as possible. Do not linger outside.]

The entire announcement played on a loop three times. The cabin was deathly silent.

After a long while, someone asked quietly, "It gave another instruction... What do we do? How does it know someone's lingering outside?"

Everyone's faces were grim. No one answered.

A moment later, the person sitting at the head of the table asked impatiently, "So who's still out there?"

The man had a scruffy mop of slightly curled, muddy-yellow hair. He was lean and of average height. Both arms were tattooed into a zoo; it was impossible to tell whether the animals were donkeys or dogs, but the effect was intimidating.

The person beside him flinched and answered, "Old Yu."

"Which Old Yu?"

"The drunk who puked as soon as he came in, the one with his son and nephew."

The person who answered jerked his chin toward the wall and cautiously made a gesture for silence.

There was a battered sofa against the wall, and the nephew was lying on it.

He was a young man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, very tall and strikingly handsome. When he had entered, holding the top of the doorframe and ducking his head, he had looked like part of the scenery, with the mountain pines and white snow behind him. But he had worn a scowl ever since he came in, which made him seem a little arrogant.

According to Old Yu, who had been drunkenly spilling his family history, his nephew's name was You Huo.

"He'd only been back in the country for less than two months. He found some time during the National Day holiday to come see me in Harbin. I was supposed to take him to the airport tomorrow morning. Ah... It's all my fault! I didn't know when to stop drinking!"

Old Yu had gotten himself thoroughly drunk over a farewell drink and, counting on the streets being quiet at night, had zigzagged his way down the road.

Someone had left a pile of silver-foil spirit money on the sidewalk outside the children's hospital. As Old Yu snaked past, he lost his balance and stepped right into it. The world spun, and he, his son, and his nephew were all delivered here together.

When he entered the cabin, he still hadn't gotten over the dizziness and puked all over You Huo. That scared him sober, and he was so terrified and apologetic that he didn't dare speak to You Huo.

Everyone who had come here had encountered a ghost in broad daylight and was completely unprepared. Only the foreigner named Mike had a clean set of clothes in his backpack.

After changing into them, You Huo moved away from the others and curled up on the sofa without another word. He seemed to have fallen asleep.

Past the arm covering his face, a stud could be seen in his right ear. Reflecting the lamplight inside and the snow outside, it shone dazzlingly bright.

It should have been dark by now, but snow covered the mountains and fields, leaving it light outside.

A woman with a heavily pregnant belly looked at the cupboard in alarm. The time on their phones had become erratic here, and only the clock on top of the cupboard could tell them the time. "It's almost six. Do you think Old Yu might..."

Bang, bang, bang!

Before she could finish, someone suddenly pounded on the cabin door.

Everyone jumped and stared at it. Someone wiped the snow off the window, and Old Yu's broad face pressed against the glass. With exaggerated movements of his mouth, he said, "It's me. Open the door."

Everyone breathed a little easier.

Fortunately, he had made it back before six and hadn't lost his life.

The two snowmen who entered were Old Yu and his son, Yu Wen.

"What's it like outside?" everyone asked hurriedly.

Old Yu stood shaking for a while, rubbing and slapping his own face hard, then slapping his son as well. Finally, a little warmer, he said, "I went all the way around, but it was no use! No matter which way you go, within ten minutes you're sure to see this lousy house blocking your path. There's no way out!"

"Any people? Or other houses?"

Old Yu said dejectedly, "No. Don't count on it."

Despair showed on everyone's faces.

Their phones had no signal, the time was erratic, and the trees all looked the same. They couldn't tell which way was north, south, east, or west. There was nothing.

That was the situation they were in.

Oh, and there was a radio, clamoring for them to take an exam, an exam.

Fuck the exam.

No sooner had Old Yu entered than the radio began to hiss with static.

An afternoon was enough to give everyone a conditioned reflex. They immediately fell silent and looked at the radio.