Room Assignments | Also, candidates and invigilators are prohibited from developing improper relationships. Please reassign the rooms.

He really admired how unflappable his older cousin was, sleeping so soundly.

You Huo ran a hand through his hair and glanced beside him with half-open eyes. The seat was empty.

With the lower half of his face hidden in his collar, he asked in a muffled voice, "Where is he?"

"Huh?" Yu Wen hadn't heard him clearly.

You Huo shook his head and woke up completely.

He stood and stamped his feet, which had gone numb while he slept, then looked down through the window. "Where are we?"

This time, Yu Wen heard him. "I don't know. The driver parked the bus here and ran off."

"What do you mean, ran off?"

Yu Wen pointed out the window. "Look, there's just that one dirt road. He ran down it."

They seemed to have stopped at the entrance to a village. Through the tangled branches, they could just make out rooftops at varying heights. Apart from a path leading into the village, there was nowhere else to go.

They were surrounded by a forest with no end in sight.

Yu Wen followed You Huo off the bus.

The candidates stood dumbfounded outside the door, exchanging bewildered looks.

The invigilator, Qin Jiu, stood some distance away in the woods, one hand against a tree as he looked up at something.

"Old Yu said that road earlier ran along the border. Could we be somewhere in the real world?" Yu Wen asked You Huo.

Chen Bin, who had just joined them, chimed in. "In my experience, probably not. But you'll see traces of reality here. You might even have seen certain things somewhere before."

Yu Wen said, "If this isn't a place that really exists, then is what they call dying really death?"

Chen Bin smiled bitterly. "I don't know. The only way to find out is to try it. But who would dare test something like that?"

Yu Wen hung his head. "True..."

You Huo didn't dwell on the subject. After getting off the bus, he made a circuit around the dirt road.

Before long, he nudged a spot with his foot. "There's a boundary marker here."

"I was just looking for it. Turns out it's over there with you." Chen Bin was experienced; after getting off the bus, he too had been looking around for information.

He walked over, crouched in front of the marker, and pulled aside the weeds covering it. "It should have the place name on it. It's not that useful, but at least knowing where we are would be some comfort..."

Hearing that, everyone gathered around.

A few strange-looking symbols were carved into the battered stone marker.

"What's that supposed to be?"

"Letters, maybe..."

Chen Bin took a tissue from his bag and wiped away the mud, and everyone strained to make out the writing.

Yu Wen said, "K... is that an a?"

Chen Bin said, "Lo... what the hell is this one?"

"A p, I think." Yu Yao held her belly and tilted her head as she read. "That looks like h... u... v."

Leaving aside the various other bits and pieces that might or might not be useful, the place name carved on the marker looked like this:

kalo phuv

Everyone said, "..."

What the hell was that?

Here was a joke: reading the boundary marker would tell them where they were.

Just as everyone was at their wits' end, the driver who had run off without a word came back. His feet were covered in black mud, and he had brought a middle-aged man wrapped in a military overcoat and wearing a fur hat.

Judging by his face, he was probably Chinese.

The driver said, "Here, these are all of them."

Old Yu stared. "You can talk?!"

The driver glanced at him and said in a hoarse voice, "He'll take you to that house. Remember, don't go into the woods."

With that, he waved to the man in the fur hat, turned, climbed into the minibus, and drove away.

The bus swerved into the woods, and in the blink of an eye, it was hidden by layers of branches and vanished from sight.

Even the sounds of the engine and tires disappeared.

The woods were unusually quiet, and the hair on everyone's arms stood on end.

"What are we here to do?" You Huo asked the man in the fur hat.

"Huh?" the man said. "Didn't you say you were here to see Black Granny? What, are you confused yourselves?"

"Black Granny? Who's Black Granny?" Chen Bin came over and asked.

For some reason, the man in the fur hat flinched. He closed the bottom of his hat around his face, lowered his eyes, and said in a muffled voice, "An old woman. She came here with the Russians during the war years. Seems she's some kind of Gypsy, anyway..."

He wrapped himself up even tighter and said quietly, "I'll take you over. Be careful. After she came here, our whole village stopped being normal. What were you thinking... coming here to stay for ten days?"

Everyone felt like crying but had no tears. Are we sick in the head? Why would we want to stay here?

Chapter 17: Room Assignments | Also, candidates and invigilators are prohibited from developing improper relationships. Please reassign the rooms.

The man in the fur hat leading them was the village chief. He said the place was called Chasu Village and had eighteen households in all.

The village was near the border. During the war years, Black Granny had ended up there with the Russians and stayed on as a lodger.

She had carved the boundary marker, but the village chief couldn't say what it meant.

Everyone followed him along the dirt road into the village.

A river ran along one side of the path, covered by a thick layer of ice. On the other side stood houses of varying heights. Some had cement walls, while others still showed signs of brickwork, but regardless of their construction, their roofs were all the same dark red.

"Didn't he say there were eighteen households?" Yu Wen muttered. "Even a quick count shows there are more than eighteen houses, right?"

The village chief acted as though he hadn't heard, wrapping his military overcoat tighter around himself and walking on with his head down.

"Hey, don't walk so fast! He's asking you a question, sir!" Even now, Old Yu hadn't forgotten to add a respectful "sir."

The village chief jumped when Old Yu patted him and finally paused. "There were definitely more than eighteen households before. Some people left, some died, and little by little there were fewer of us."

He pointed casually at two houses. "That one, and that one too. You can tell at a glance no one lives in them."

Old Yu was about to nod when You Huo cut in, his tone neither warm nor cold. "I can't tell. They all look unoccupied to me."

The village chief stared. "Why do you say that?"

You Huo said, "Too quiet."

As soon as he said it, everyone stopped in their tracks.