Chapter 30: The Notebook
You Huo: “I’m done with this exam. Let’s deliver all the dolls tonight.”

“I’m a little confused…”

Chen Bin pointed at the gravestone and said softly,

“What does this mean?”

You Huo didn’t answer immediately.

He walked several steps to the side and brushed away another layer of mud along the tracks dug up by two other ghost hands.

A second gravestone emerged.

Name: Chu Xiaonan
Exam Registration Number: 860575-04221703-1124

I will always remember you.

Gravestone erected by: Yi
Address: Chasu Village No. 2

The photo showed an oval-faced girl with a high ponytail and no smile.

She looked delicate yet capable.

But if you let a few strands of hair fall loose…

wrapped her in a thick scarf…

changed her clothes into the ankle-length winter garments worn here…

and added pale cracked lips and dull eyes…

then she would become the woman who chopped ice by the river every single day.

Everyone’s expressions worsened.

They stood there silently for a while before all starting to dig through the mud.

Third gravestone.

Fourth.

Fifth…

The wider the area they uncovered, the more gravestones appeared.

So many that everyone’s scalp went numb.

One familiar face after another emerged.

The two villagers who fetched water by the river daily.

The village chief…

Chen Bin’s face turned deathly pale.

This time there was no need for confirmation.

He understood completely—

those dazed villagers had once all been examinees.

Those people now called “Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding” had not originally been NPCs of this mountain village.

They once had real names.

You Huo crouched before one gravestone and looked out into the distance.

The forest stretched endlessly.

There was no way they could dig through everything in one night.

Even if they never ate or slept, they could never uncover this entire mountain range.

No one knew how many people were buried beneath the woods.

…

Old Yu muttered fearfully,

“How could this happen?”

“Why did they become villagers?”

“And… and if all these examinees become villagers, why are there only eighteen households?”

“There’s something here!” Yu Yao suddenly called out.

She sat kneeling beside Zhao Wentu’s grave, holding up a transparent waterproof pouch.

“Where did you find that?” You Huo walked over.

“Buried here.”

Yu Yao pointed at the ground.

Her pregnancy made moving difficult, so she had simply dug outward little by little from the edge of Zhao Wentu’s gravestone.

Not long after, she uncovered the waterproof bag.

Inside was a pen and a leather notebook.

“It should be Zhao Wentu’s belongings,” Yu Yao said.

You Huo opened the bag and pulled out the notebook.

Just as he was about to flip it open, he paused.

Looking down at Zhao Wentu’s gravestone, he said quietly,

“Borrowing this for a look.”

His voice was very soft, almost like casual muttering.

Hardly anyone heard him—

except for the proctor who was required to follow him everywhere.

Qin Jiu’s gaze shifted slightly at those words.

He watched You Huo for a moment.

Meanwhile, the young man in the gravestone photo continued smiling silently.

…

A quick flip was enough to reveal that this was Zhao Wentu’s diary.

Or more accurately—

his exam record notebook.

Skipping the earlier entries, You Huo directly opened to this exam.


—

Foreign Language Exam — Day 1 — Sunny

This time my luck seriously sucks.
The language wasn’t English.

There probably aren’t many people left in the world who even speak Romani, yet this damned system actually dares test it.

Though I guess it’s not entirely unreasonable. One of the new teammates actually understands a little.

I think “a little” is just modesty. Anyway, she translated the listening questions perfectly.

She immediately wrote down the Black Hag’s name. Amazing.

She said the name “Floure” means “flower.” Pretty beautiful, actually…

Well. I honestly have no words.

Aside from her, the other teammates all seem unreliable
(hopefully future me comes back and slaps this sentence hard).

Maybe my standards are just too high.

After all, teammates as incredible as the previous ones are incredibly rare.

The villagers said we had to draw tarot cards before entering the Black Hag’s house
(thank you to my ex-girlfriend for teaching me tarot and making me memorize every card meaning. Never imagined it would become useful in real life.)

But my hands were cursed. I drew the Hanged Man…

Spent the whole afternoon trapped in the Black Hag’s house sewing dolls.

Handcrafting is literally killing me. I only managed one arm and one leg all afternoon.

Worried about what this means.

Definitely nothing good.

It’s 9 PM now. Going to sleep.

Hope I have good dreams.

P.S. This village is really creepy.


—

Foreign Language Exam — Day 2 — Cloudy

People died. Two of them.

One got their limbs chopped off because of the dolls.

I knew sewing dolls wasn’t anything good.

If you don’t sew, you die.

If you sew the most, you get chopped.

That much blood… and then the person disappeared.

Isn’t that basically death?

That unlucky teammate was pretty young. I think still in high school.

Only met him yesterday.

All I remember is that his dad’s surname was Lin and his mom’s surname was Tang, so his name was Lin Tang.

Sigh…

Too bloody.

Don’t want to remember it or write about it.

The other person died because we answered the question wrong and got forcibly sealed into a coffin.

We answered listening question two incorrectly.

But how?

I seriously can’t figure it out…

The girl translated the Black Hag’s story for us.

Apparently the previous village chief was a bastard who thought her corpse business was bad luck, so he constantly ostracized her until chaos eventually killed her husband and child.

(I honestly suspect the village chief hired someone to do it, then the Black Hag killed him afterward.)

She said she buried her entire family in the eastern forest.

Since then she became obsessed with making dolls, because in her people’s beliefs, dolls can carry all emotions.

She uses them to mourn her family.

The girl wrote “Eastern Forest,” and just to be safe added “inside the graves.”

Still wrong.

I can’t understand it.

Makes me want to visit the Eastern Forest myself.

But the villagers warned us never to enter the forest.

They seem absolutely terrified of it.

After last night’s lesson, we all agreed today to sew only left arms.

That way no one could be “the one who sewed the most.”

It’s 8 PM now.

Meeting later tonight to discuss answers.

Hope I have good dreams.

P.S. Still think the village is creepy. Especially the villagers.

The girl said the Romani words on the village boundary stone mean “Black Land.”

Black symbolizes death and misfortune, just like the “Black” in Black Hag.

This place is literally a “land of death.”


—

Foreign Language Exam — Day 3 — Cloudy

Another teammate died.

Still because of the dolls.

Sewing equal amounts didn’t work.

Turns out it calculates cumulatively across days.

Doesn’t that mean I’ve already sewn two arms and one leg total?

The only good thing is we finally answered correctly today.

The Black Hag’s prayer letter was really long. The girl only understood part of it.

We guessed half the answers.

We thought the doll in black clothes resembled Villager Jia.

The prayer letter said we had to knock three times at the door and say:
“I have a gift for you.”

And we absolutely couldn’t deliver the wrong doll.

We did exactly that.

The door really opened.

But when Jia saw the doll, he immediately went insane…

Forget it.

Too much killing.

Too exhausting.

Being alive is enough.

Today we discussed things again.

We’re maintaining equal doll-sewing totals.

It’s 8 PM now.

Another meeting later to guess answers…

There are fewer and fewer people left.

At this rate it can’t even be called a meeting anymore.


—

Foreign Language Exam — Day 4

Another death.

Equal sewing totals no longer mattered.

The chopping became random.

Also…

Something terrifying happened.

Someone new moved into Villager Jia’s house.

It was Lin Tang—the one who died on the first day.

It really was Lin Tang.

Not someone similar.

Even the mole on his face was identical.

He looked dazed, just like the other villagers, carrying an iron basin while chopping ice.

The most horrifying part—

he didn’t recognize us anymore.

Didn’t even remember his own name.

He said his name was Jia.

The previous resident had left, so the house became vacant.

He had moved in today and would live there permanently.

Could it be…

Receiving the doll means release?

And examinees who lose body parts become the next villagers?

It’s 7 PM now.

Only three of us remain.

I think…

I probably won’t survive this exam.

Though I’m mentally prepared every time, when it really comes to this point, it still hurts.

I hope the girl survives one more day.

This exam has been too cruel to her.

If there’s even a one in ten thousand chance we clear this exam successfully…

I hope someday we can meet again in some city.

Introduce ourselves properly this time.

Not like this miserable excuse of an introduction.

Alright.

I’m dreaming.


—

Foreign Language Exam — Day 5

I got chopped.

But I’m still alive.

I still have hands and feet.

But touching them feels strange.

Like cotton stuffing.

If this counts as living…

I can’t really remember yesterday anymore.

While I still have time, I need to dig a grave.

I hope by the time I finish digging it,

I still remember who I am.

Hope she has good dreams.

My name is Zhao Wentu.

My name is Zhao Wentu…


—

The true record ended there abruptly.

The final entry already showed signs of mental collapse.

And on the reverse side of that final page, the words:

My name is Zhao Wentu

were written over and over.

The handwriting became clumsier and clumsier toward the bottom.

The final line contained only a single word:

“I.”

…

After reading Zhao Wentu’s diary, everyone felt ice-cold inside.

From the diary’s contents, it was obvious that Zhao Wentu himself had erected this gravestone.

Before doing so, he repeatedly wrote his own name, desperately trying to remember it a little longer.

But by the time he truly carved the words Rest in Peace into the stone—

he had already become Villager Ding.

He remembered nothing anymore.

Maybe once in a great while, he would suddenly feel that he didn’t belong here.

Maybe he would suddenly think some passing visitor looked strangely familiar.

But he would never know why.

And so he became the village’s well-known madman.

The ghost limbs had once said:

“Obedient guests get to live.”

“Disobedient guests must die.”

Could this really be called living?

Losing limbs was like receiving a curse.

Examinees cursed this way became villagers forever trapped inside the mountain settlement.

Reduced to names like Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding…

Until one day, some future examinee delivered the correct doll to them.

Only then could they truly die.

…

No wonder the villagers feared the Black Hag so deeply.

Because they had once been examinees themselves.

And no wonder they refused to enter the forest.

Because their own graves were here.

…

After finishing the final page, You Huo’s expression did not change at all.

He stuffed the notebook back into the waterproof pouch.

Originally he intended to bury it again—

but halfway through, he changed his mind.

Holding the bag in one hand, he said:

“Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Everyone was still trapped in shock and confusion.

You Huo replied:

“Don’t feel like taking the exam anymore.”

“Let’s deliver all the dolls tonight.”

Although what the boss said was deliver dolls—

his face clearly said:

Burn the entire exam system to the ground.