Rank A ┃ "Can't you tell? It's squirming like that, so it must want to go. I'm walking it back," You Huo said. (continued)

Perhaps it was the tea boiling in the pot, sending steam into the air.

When You Huo heard "rank A," his mind wandered for a moment.

Qin Jiu rubbed the rim of his cup and raised an eyebrow. "I've noticed you're quite interested in that predecessor of mine."

You Huo came back to himself.

He had long since tossed the bread aside. Resting his fingers against his chin, his expression returned to its listless coolness. "I was bored waiting for the tea, so I just asked a couple of questions. Where's that invigilator who outranked you?"

"That's not quite accurate." Qin Jiu corrected him with a mixture of sincerity and jest. "When he was an invigilator, I was still a examinee. I became an invigilator later, and we didn't actually work together for long. It's hard to say which of us outranked the other."

You Huo gave a snort.

"As for where he is now..." Qin Jiu said, "Dead? I'm not really sure. In any case, the system has removed him from its roster."

You Huo noticed the subtle change in his tone and looked up. "You don't like him."

Qin Jiu gave a laugh, then let the corners of his mouth droop lazily again.

Because the system had accidentally harmed him, Qin Jiu had gaps in his memory. He couldn't clearly remember the people or events from those years, naturally including Invigilator A. To check itself for faults, the system had sealed the records relating to those years, and no one could access them now.

Everything he knew about Examiner A came from other people.

According to them, he had always picked fights with A when he was an examinee.

According to them, their relationship had remained just as bad while they worked together. They were like fire and water.

According to them, during that system malfunction, he and A had been the only two chief invigilators in the affected area. Even under those circumstances, the two had failed to make peace, and the losses had been severe. Qin Jiu had come close to death, while Examiner A had been removed from the system's roster.

There was no way to know how much of what people said was true and how much was false.

Qin Jiu had forgotten almost everything about that system malfunction, retaining only a vague impression of one scene.

It must have been a stretch of ruins, surrounded by protective fencing jutting into the air, scattered rusting vehicles and machinery, and severed cables...

He sat on an overturned metal pipe with one leg bent, his elbow resting on his knee and the front of his shirt covered in blood.

Coughing, he gave a low chuckle.

There was another person in front of him.

He couldn't remember what the person wore or looked like at all. Instead, he remembered the endless windbreak forest far in the distance behind them.

Judging by what people said, the other person must have been Invigilator A.

It was the only trace of those years left in his mind.

And whenever he thought of that scene, his mood would turn very bad.

How bad?

It was as if... he could never feel carefree again.

But it didn't seem quite right to say he hated the man, either.

The scent of old tea spread through the room. It wasn't especially fragrant, but it was refreshing enough.

You Huo watched Qin Jiu for a moment, then stood up, rummaged through the cupboard for a reasonably decent-looking cup, and helped himself to a cup of tea from the pot.

After a few sips, the feeling of dry bread lodged in his chest finally went away.

He must have been out of his mind to chat with an invigilator just now. Feeling better, he returned to normal, left the cup behind, and went into the bedroom.

The bedroom was fairly tidy.

Several quilts were stuffed into the cupboard, expressly for guests who came to their deaths to take with them to the underworld.

You Huo pulled out a quilt, intending to pull it over his head and go to sleep.

But before closing the door, he caught sight of the stiff-backed sofa in the living room and paused.

A minute later, the big shot shoved another quilt onto the sofa. He was so rough about it that he nearly shoved it into the invigilator's face.

Qin Jiu held his teacup out of the way of the sneak attack and looked at the quilt in surprise, then at You Huo.

Wearing an expression that said, Why the hell hasn't this invigilator dropped dead yet? You Huo went sleepily into the bedroom and shut the door without ceremony.

It slammed with a bang.

The village was quiet for the first half of the night.

Neither the expected monster nor the cleaver appeared.

You Huo forced his eyes open for two hours before finally giving up. He pulled the quilt over himself, turned over, and fell fast asleep.

At last, in the early hours, the clock on the wall ticked through its final few notches and reached exactly three.

The familiar knocking came again...

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound started outside the wall, then quickly moved inside it.

Knock, knock, knock.

Within minutes, it had reached the space under the bed. Pressed against the bedboard, it knocked right beneath You Huo's back.

You Huo noticed nothing. He was always difficult to wake once he fell asleep.

Knock, knock, knock.

You Huo still didn't move.

His cheek was pressed against the pillow, one hand outside the quilt shielding his eyes. He slept soundly.

It had been haunting the room for nearly five minutes, and no one paid it any attention.

"..."

The knocking finally stopped. It seemed very confused, and a little annoyed.

The bedroom was quiet for a while. Then a soft rustling suddenly sounded, just like the noise in the woods the night before, as though something were crawling across the wooden floor.

The thing crawled from the bedroom into the living room and found the other living person in the house.

Knock, knock, knock.

The knocking finally sounded again...

Just as it finished knocking the first time, the invigilator sleeping fully clothed on the sofa stirred.

With his eyes closed, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

A woman's voice came faintly from the coffee table. "I've come to find the disobedient guest. Did you sew a doll today?"

The invigilator: "..."

The question must have gone mad.

Was it really so desperate that it had come to chop up an invigilator?

Without even opening his eyes, Qin Jiu answered perfunctorily, "No. What are you going to do about it?"

"Oh... that's such a shame. I'll have to take your head, then."

The woman sighed softly, sounding as genuinely regretful as could be.

The next second, a deathly pale arm shot up, swinging a cleaver down to chop.

But the moment it came down, another hand seized it.

It couldn't move an inch closer.

Still gripping the monster, Qin Jiu sat up, somehow finding the attention to switch on the floor lamp with his right hand.