Second Time in Lockup | Are You Planning to Live Here? (continued)

922 muttered something under his breath.

He tugged his slipping bald cap back up, but had no time to argue. Tilting his head toward the door, he said, "Come on. I'll take you back to the exam room."

On the second floor of the mansion.

Qin Jiu leaned lazily against the window with his arms folded, his gaze lowered.

Light from the room fell across the woods. 922 led the two examinees through the shadows, and they soon disappeared into the snowy mist.

Qin Jiu narrowed his eyes and stared after them, lost in thought.

The black bird suddenly gave two hoarse calls.

A while later, Qin Jiu clicked his tongue and straightened up.

He walked back to the table, fiddled with the black bird's pointed beak, and casually fed it a pellet. "Doesn't it feel like something's missing?"

The black bird gave a remarkably lifelike sneer. "Heh."

Qin Jiu said, "An invigilator?"

The black bird said, "Heh."

Qin Jiu tapped its beak, opened the door, and went downstairs.

He had barely taken two steps when the black bird flapped after him.

He looked around the hall, then turned into the corridor. The faint sound of a chair scraping came from one of the confinement rooms—the same one You Huo had just been locked in.

Qin Jiu raised an eyebrow and knocked three times on the door at his leisure. "Anyone there?"

A chair slammed heavily against the floor several times inside.

Qin Jiu asked, "Is it all right if I come in?"

The chair was practically smashing through the floor.

Qin Jiu removed the lock.

When the door opened, it revealed the missing invigilator 154.

He was slumped exhausted in a chair, his hands behind its back, his body bound with rope, and a huge wad of paper stuffed in his mouth.

Someone had calmly written a few words on the paper in marker:

Fuck off with your little girl.

Qin Jiu suddenly laughed.

154 was about to hop with the chair to remind Qin Jiu to free him first.

But when he saw him laughing, he lost his nerve and gently set the chair back down.

Fortunately, Qin Jiu didn't spend too long admiring the insult.

A moment later, 154 finally shook off the ropes and regained his freedom.

He rubbed his reddened wrists and ranted, "I've been an invigilator for three years, and I've never seen an examinee like that! Other people cry and wail, and he sleeps? Other people are so terrified they don't dare provoke an invigilator, and he ties me up the moment he gets here?"

Qin Jiu leaned against the table and listened, then drawled, "That rhymed pretty well. Go on."

154 said, "..."

If he could, he wanted to show the boss the "fuck off" on the wad of paper.

"As an invigilator, getting tied up by an examinee in a confinement room-embarrassing, isn't it?" Qin Jiu asked, narrowing his eyes.

154 kept his face as stiff as a coffin. "It is. Luckily, 922 didn't see it, or he'd laugh about it for two years."

Everyone familiar with the system knew that invigilators were selected from past examinees. Only the most outstanding could make the transition.

Those people were ranked by their effectiveness and strength, giving them their current invigilator numbers.

Those with single-digit numbers were the big shots among big shots. No one dared mess with them.

001, for example.

"You said that..." Qin Jiu paused, apparently weighing an adjective. In the end, he merely raised an eyebrow and said, "That examinee was sleeping in the confinement room?"

"Yes. When I came in, his nose was still a nose, his eyes were still eyes, and the confinement room looked just as it should. Nothing had changed. There's nothing he's afraid of."

154 thought for a moment, then asked in puzzlement, "But is that possible? How could anyone be like that? I've only ever seen one person like that in my life."

Qin Jiu narrowed his eyes, his fingers playing with the neck of the black bird on his shoulder.

"Maybe his life's been too smooth, and he's never encountered anything frightening?" 154 guessed. "Though whatever good fortune he had ends today. This group of examinees must have blessed luck to draw a toothpaste question on their very first try."

Qin Jiu glanced at him.

"The question's like squeezing toothpaste: squeeze once, and one line pops out. Who knows if it's some kind of bug?"

Qin Jiu asked, "Who came up with that random name?"

"That idiot 922 did. Nothing to do with me," 154 said solemnly, keeping a straight face. "But it's pretty fitting. When I took the exam, I hated that kind of question most! It wasn't really that difficult, but the initial information was practically zero, and there was no way to find an opportunity to score points. So the first collection was always treated as a write-off. One of your companions was bound to be sacrificed to the heavens."

154 thought back for a moment, then murmured as if still shaken, "Luckily, I only ran into one, and I was fortunate enough not to be chosen... I wonder who'll be sacrificed to the heavens in today's group?"

He checked the time. "Only a few seconds left."

Outside the cabin on the snowy mountain.

922 was exhausted as a dead dog, but for the sake of appearances, he kept a straight face and didn't pant. Before leaving, he called out to You Huo again.

"Something else?" You Huo looked impatient.

The first collection was about to begin. Even through the howling wind and snow, he could feel the panic inside the cabin.

There really wasn't a second to waste.

922 said, "There's one more rule. Since you've been in confinement, neither of you can answer the question this round."

You Huo's expression grew even colder.

922 waved a hand. "Don't glare at me. The first round of this kind of question always costs someone their life anyway. There's no way to hit a point-scoring opportunity-"

Before he could finish, You Huo had turned and opened the cabin door.

The moment the warm air hit him, a rooster crowed without warning.

It was time to collect the answers.

Baldy was so frightened that he dropped to his knees, then scrambled on all fours into a corner, trembling with vacant eyes.

He set an example, and several of the people standing dumbfounded in the cabin promptly collapsed after him.

Yu Wen was half-kneeling on the floor, pinning the fallen tattooed man down with one knee. He held something in his hand, as though he had just snatched it away.

He looked over blankly amid the crowing and raised his hand. "Ge, I found the knife, but time... is up?"

Then what?

Everyone slumped blankly on the floor, too terrified to breathe.

The rooster's crowing made their hearts race.

"Will we really... be expelled from the exam room?" someone murmured very softly.