A Deadly Question | The End at the Beginning (Continued)

[All examinees have entered. The examination rules will now be read.]

[All examinations shall be conducted within the allotted time.]

[Once the examination has officially begun, examinees may no longer enter the examination room. Examinees may not leave the examination room without permission during the examination. In the event of an emergency, they may temporarily leave only when accompanied by an invigilator.]

[Except during open-book examinations, the use of cell phones and other communication devices is prohibited. Examinees are expected to keep them switched off.]

[Points are awarded for key points in the answer. Examinees must write their answers on the designated answer sheet, except under special circumstances. Otherwise, their answers will be invalid.]

Old Yu and Yu Wen, who had just entered, swallowed one after the other.

The radio fell silent again after it finished speaking.

A moment later, a buzz of discussion swept through the room.

"Who's the invigilator?"

"There are open-book exams, too?"

"And what the hell is the answer sheet?"

"You're actually trying to figure this out? Are you crazy?" The tattooed man fiddled with a Swiss Army knife, who knew what he was plotting.

"What else can we do?" The woman with the big belly spoke softly, her eyes still swollen from crying. "Don't forget the one from before..."

She pointed at the roof.

The tattooed man's face went pale as he remembered the corpse. He froze for a moment before finally accepting the situation. Holding the Swiss Army knife, he beckoned in their direction. "Kid."

Yu Wen looked around, then pointed at his own nose. "Are... you talking to me?"

"Yeah, you. Come sit here." The tattooed man patted the empty seat closest to him.

"Fuck, I..." Yu Wen turned to glance at his cousin and found him still dead on the broken-down sofa. Sensibly, he swallowed the curse and said, "I'm eighteen."

Besides, the tattooed man was twenty-five or twenty-six at most. What gave him the nerve to call anyone else a kid?

"Doesn't matter what I call you!" The tattooed man was getting impatient. "Come sit over here. Let me ask you, are you a student?"

Yu Wen said, "I guess so."

The tattooed man frowned. "Do you know how to take exams?"

Old Yu answered reflexively, "Of course he does! He grew up taking exams!"

"Oh, shut up." Yu Wen was never polite to his drunkard of a father.

But after snapping at his own dad, he turned around to find everyone in the room staring at him expectantly.

Yu Wen: "..."

He considered his words, then said, "I just finished the college entrance exam in June. I spent over three months partying like crazy, so I... uh, I'm not really that good at taking exams anymore."

The woman with the big belly had spent the whole afternoon in a panic, but she managed a smile. "Even so, you're better off than us. It's only been three months for you. We forgot everything ages ago."

"No." Yu Wen found it so absurd that he even forgot to be scared. "Don't you guys read novels or watch movies? Do you really think an exam in a haunting is going to be an actual exam? It's definitely a code word for something!"

"For what?"

Yu Wen rolled his eyes. "How should I know? Anyway, people die left and right in horror movies. Who the fuck would test you on math, physics, and chemistry here? Did the Ministry of Education build this house?"

Still not satisfied after saying that, he added, "Ha."

That "ha" finally woke the cousin who was dead on the sofa.

Yu Wen turned to look at him.

You Huo sat up and swept a half-awake gaze over everyone, then bowed his head and rubbed his neck. His long legs stretched down to the broken wooden floor, making the sofa look even lower and older.

As if the timing had been calculated, the clock on the cabinet chimed just as he finally lowered his hand and raised his head.

Six o'clock sharp.

The radio crackled with static again.

[The current Beijing time is 18:00. The examination has officially begun.]

[A reminder: once the examination has begun, examinees may no longer enter the examination room. Examinees may not leave without permission during the examination. Otherwise, they will bear the consequences.]

[Anyone found violating the rules or cheating during the examination will be expelled from the examination room.]

[All other examination requirements are subject to the specific questions.]

It rattled off its threats, paused for two seconds, and said:

[Examination duration: 48 hours.]

[Examination subject: physics.]

Yu Wen: "..."

[The examination paper and answer sheet will now be distributed. We wish you a good result.]

After that final sentence, the radio died again.

Yu Wen: "..."

Weren't the fucking exam paper and answer sheet supposed to be handed out first???

The woman with the big belly gave a low cry and said in panic, "That wall!"

She meant the wall above the stove. Before, it had been bare except for a few knife marks. Now several lines of text had appeared on it-

Question: A group of travelers arrived at a snowy mountain...

Requirements: Papers will be collected every six hours. If no scoring points are earned within six hours, one examinee will be disqualified and expelled from the examination room.

Below the two lines was a large blank space, just like the area left for answers on an exam paper.

What kind of question was this? What were they being asked, and what were they supposed to answer?

Everyone was baffled.

Forget six hours-even with six hundred, they wouldn't know how to earn any points.

Just then, a gust of cold wind swept snow pellets into the room, hitting everyone in the face and making them shiver.

They looked toward the wind and saw that You Huo had somehow made his way to the window and opened one half of it.

"What are you doing?!" the tattooed man demanded angrily.

You Huo had one hand in his trouser pocket and was just about to reach out with the other. Hearing him, he glanced back. Perhaps because of how indifferent his gaze was, it always seemed coldly mocking and arrogant.

The tattooed man was even more annoyed. "Don't you know to ask before opening a window? What if something happens? Can you take responsibility?"

"Who are you?"

With those three words, You Huo ignored him and reached his left hand outside.

Old Yu couldn't hold back. He nudged his son and urged him in a low voice, "Ask him."

For some reason, Old Yu always seemed very afraid of his nephew.

Yu Wen called out, "Hey, what are you doing?"

You Huo withdrew his left hand and waved it at him, finally giving him an answer. "Seeing what happens if you're expelled from the examination room."

Everyone sucked in a breath. Bright red blood was running down his fingers toward his palm, made all the more shocking by his pale skin.