The Crossroads ┃ You Huo sneered, his face green with anger.

You Huo took the room card.

The room number was written on the front. You Huo was in room 404.

The owner craned her neck to take a look and added, "Oh, right. We don't have any number taboos here, so if you're assigned a room like 404 or 414... that's fate. Don't take it too seriously. Besides, not staying in a room with a four in it doesn't mean you won't die in an exam, right?"

With those comforting words, she turned everyone's face green.

Without looking up, You Huo flipped the card over.

The first line on the back read:

Examinee rest stop, proprietor: Chu Yue

Below that was an exam admission ticket laid out as a table:

Name: You Huo

Admission ticket number: 860451-10062231-000A

Subjects completed: physics

Total score: 19

The owner, Chu Yue, finally looked surprised. "You got 19 points from a single subject? I wouldn't have guessed!"

You Huo looked up at her coldly.

Chu Yue said, "Oh, no, I was complimenting you! I was saying you've got a face that spells trouble for people. What a fitting name!"

You Huo: "..."

Before You Huo could speak, she laughed and ducked back inside with her cleaver.

After a moment's thought, Xiao Hu dutifully recited his lines to You Huo. "There's hot water, and the heating's working. If you've just come in, don't rush to warm your hands, take a bath, or crawl under the covers. I'll bring you a bucket of snow and liquor in a bit. Rub your exposed arms and legs warm before going farther inside. Three meals are served on time at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., and 5 p.m. The dining hall is on the first floor, just around that corner. Each meal lasts two hours, which means food service stops at exactly 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 7 p.m. The cook has a monstrous temper, so watch the time. Miss it and you're out of luck."

After listening, You Huo nodded and asked, "Is there anything to eat?"

Xiao Hu: "...Miss it and you're out of luck."

You Huo looked at him.

He looked at You Huo.

Two seconds later, Xiao Hu turned his head and shouted, "Boss! The guest wants food!"

Boss Chu claimed she was a shallow person who judged people by their looks.

Luckily, this group of examinees had You Huo.

So before long, everyone had warmed up and was sitting together in the dining hall, eating dumplings Boss Chu had wrapped herself.

Yu Wen kept saying he had no appetite, but ate a ton.

With hot food in their stomachs, their taut nerves finally eased a little.

Everyone was getting drowsy, leaning against one another and staring blankly from their seats.

Chu Yue said, "Your group of examinees is really interesting."

You Huo looked at her.

Despite the heavy snow, Chu Yue was holding a glass of iced beer. She took a sip and explained, "The group that came to check in yesterday morning only had three people, I think. Look-"

She pointed at the ceiling. "They never come out except at mealtimes. Even then, they don't always come out, and they're full after just a couple of bites. They either stare into space or cry."

"Three people? What exam did they take? How many went in?" Yu Wen asked.

"The same as you," Chu Yue said as though it were obvious. "Everyone who's checked in here lately has taken the same exam."

Yu Wen said, "...The same exam? The one with Hunter A? Only three of them were left?"

"Three is a little low, but even the bigger groups only have five or six," Chu Yue said. "Their numbers are the norm."

"How many groups have you received?" Remembering the bald man who had turned into Hunter A, Yu Wen rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and asked, "Wouldn't that mean there are lots of Hunter As?"

"Of course not," Chu Yue said. "When I say the same exam, I mean the very same exam site. You can only go in after they finish the exam and leave."

She lowered her voice and said mysteriously, "You know what? In some exam sites, you can even find traces of previous examinees. Last time, I heard someone picked up a finger bone. Someone else found a ring."

"You can give it a try."

Chapter 14: The Crossroads ┃ You Huo sneered, his face green with anger.

People really were creatures with an incredible capacity to endure.

By the next day, everyone had adjusted to life at the examinee rest stop.

Though this place wasn't a town, it was so much better than the hunter's cabin.

There was food to eat and a place to sleep. Going outside wouldn't kill you, and there weren't two chickens chasing you around to remind you it was time to hand in your exam papers.

Across from the rest stop stood a three-story building with a heavy plastic curtain over its door. The plastic had yellowed and was no longer transparent, allowing only a faint halo of incandescent light to show through.

A wooden sign hanging outside read "Cangmai."

"What's a cangmai?" the twin girls asked in unison.

Old Yu was quite patient with children. "It's a general store. They sell all sorts of things. Haven't you seen one before?"

Not just the girls, but several others shook their heads and said, "We don't call them that where we're from."

"Is that so?" Old Yu muttered.

He was a little more cautious. When he went shopping with everyone, he pulled the shopkeeper aside and made him chat for a bit. As it turned out, the man really was from his hometown.

The shopkeeper's surname was Zhao, and he was a rather unfriendly fellow townsman.

"Brother, I'll just call you brother," Old Yu said without ceremony.

Shopkeeper Zhao was forty at most, definitely younger than Old Yu, with a sturdy build and a ramrod-straight back. Yet he shamelessly accepted being called "brother." With a cigarette dangling from his mouth, he said listlessly, "Suit yourself."

"You've been away from home for a lot of years, haven't you, brother?" Old Yu said. "Your accent's gone. Mine's already pretty faint, but yours is even fainter. If I hadn't seen the word 'cangmai,' I wouldn't have dared assume."

Smoke came puffing straight out of Zhao's mouth. "Something like that."

"Have you been running a shop here the whole time?"

Zhao said, "More or less."

"Oh," Old Yu said, then ventured, "The way you stand, brother, I'd say you used to be a soldier. How did you end up running a shop here?"

Zhao finally glanced at him through the smoke and gave him a long reply. "I wasn't. But judging by how you stand, you really were a soldier, weren't you? How did you get so fat?"

Old Yu: "..."

Zhao took several deep drags in succession, smoking the cigarette down to the butt. As he ground the ashes, he said, "Stop trying to get close to me. That fellow-townsman stuff doesn't work here. You might be all teary-eyed today, and then dead tomorrow."