Chapter 70: 2v2 – There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask for a long time: why do you wear an earring?

One tied up, one in uniform, and two on the bed…

There would never be a more awkward scene in this lifetime.

Whoever speaks first will be embarrassed!

This is a truth everyone understands.

Thus, the atmosphere between You Huo and Qin Jiu was tense, yet neither of them spoke.

But unfortunately, there were also two who weren’t quite human.

The one who was tied up broke the silence: “What kind of game is this?”

He paused briefly, his gaze falling on the balcony door, scanning the invigilator wearing the arm badge from head to toe, then turned to look at You Huo…

Going back and forth twice, he finally made a choice—

He sat on the desk, one foot propped against the chair’s edge as he leaned forward, raising a hand to You Huo on the bed and saying, “Shouldn’t we start by untying this, Grand Examiner?”

Grand Examiner…

That one address struck straight to the soul.

After he said that, the atmosphere became even more unbearable.

Examiner A on the balcony pressed his lips tightly together.

The invigilator on the bed, Qin Jiu, narrowed his eyes slightly, revealing a subtle, almost imperceptible hint of irritation.

You Huo’s expression was the most indifferent of all.

This confirmed that he had dreamt of himself tying Qin Jiu up, though what he intended to do after was anyone’s guess.

How embarrassing.

Just as silence was about to spread, Qin Jiu broke it.

He gestured with his chin toward his younger self from years ago and said, “I’m quite puzzled—did you really need help undoing a knot like this?”

The examinee at the table tilted their head slightly and glanced over carelessly, “Not necessarily, it depends on my mood. But who are you, exactly—did you ask for my permission before putting on that disguise?”

Qin Jiu let out a short laugh, hard to tell whether it held more amusement or mockery.

The bound “Qin Jiu” also started laughing along.

With a twist and pull of his wrist, in the blink of an eye, the leather cord had loosened and become a tool he toyed with in his hand…

He unhurriedly straightened the end of the leather cord.

You Huo: “…”

At this rate, if things continued, they’d have to fight first.

This wasn’t what they expected—

Those students had explained to them: “Manifested dreams only have surface-level substance, no soul.”

“Let me give you an example: You dream about going on a date with someone. In the dream, they smile a lot and have an exceptionally good temper. The manifested person will also always smile and have a particularly good temper. They’ll only exhibit these two traits—you won’t find a third personality characteristic in them.”

“Another example: You dream about going on a date again. In the dream, the person tells you that they performed exceptionally poorly in elementary school, didn’t learn anything, and only thought about how to have fun. But in the first year of junior high, they suddenly woke up, caught up all at once, and even turned things around spectacularly! The manifested person’s background and experiences would only include those details. What happened after turning things around? Which high school did they attend? Which university? They wouldn’t know any of that.”

“If you dream of a monster that eats people, it will keep catching people to eat. If you dream of a female ghost crawling under the bed, she will keep crawling under the bed. That’s more or less what it means.”

Those little spirits kept tugging at them, explaining in great detail.

You Huo and Qin Jiu summed it up: so-called ‘dreams coming true’ was just a bunch of replicas with generally low IQs and emotional intelligence.

You think it’s like what, and that’s exactly what it becomes.

The “Qin Jiu” tied up before them did not seem particularly subdued.

The same was true for the “Examiner A” wearing the arm badge.

* * *

The scene of eight eyes meeting in the room left “Examiner A” somewhat puzzled and slightly impatient.

Leaning against the doorframe, he maintained the detached demeanor of an observer. He shared the same habit as You Huo—rubbing his earlobe when lost in thought or deep in contemplation—though the difference remained: there was no earring.

Inside the room, tensions were high, and the “Examiner A” was no easy mark to deal with.

You Huan understood this best of all.

He didn’t know what Qin Jiu had dreamed, but it had amplified this “difficult” side of him so prominently.

“Give an explanation. Is this a BUG or an exam hall effect?”

“Examiner A” swept his gaze over the two Qin Jius, then settled it on You Huo.

As he spoke, his hand moved toward the small of his back. As if one wrong word from anyone would lead him to blast this place to the ground on the spot.

You Huo: “…”

He actually understood.

Without knowing the premise, seeing someone who looks exactly like you standing right in front of you…

There was no way to be happy about it.

At any rate, if it wasn’t a demon, it had to be a ghost.

Given his personality, it was already a great show of mercy that he hadn’t immediately forced the other to reveal their true form on the spot.

As someone who knows the backstory, You Huo managed to muster a shred of patience to explain, “Examination hall effect.”

“Go on,” said the “Examiner A” wearing an arm badge.

“The effect of dreams becoming reality—anything the people in this examination hall dream about will materialize.”

“And so?”

“I had a dream with some scenes in it. That’s why you’re here now.”

You Huo’s patience was gradually wearing thin.

“Examiner A” said coldly, “So you’re the real ones, and he and I are the fakes?”

“Exactly.”

“How do you prove it?”

“?”

“Examiner A” said: “I believe I am real, and you think you are. How do you prove it?”

You Huo: “…”

Forget it. Let’s just fight it out.

After beating them into submission, it wouldn’t be so hard to explain.

……

* * *

It was 2:23 in the morning, and the boarding school had turned into a combined hell.

Han Ling huddled in bed, pulling the blanket up to just below the tip of her nose, leaving only enough space to breathe.

She dared not move a muscle, hearing a series of dull thuds against the wall—

Thud—

Thump——

Thump——

It sounded as if something heavy was hanging outside the wall, swaying in the wind, bumping against the wall one impact after another.

Even her bed rattled and shook with the collisions.

She knew what it was.

Nightmares were always remembered particularly clearly——

It was a person hanging dead outside the wall, their body completely wrapped in burlap, the sack tightened around their neck, revealing only a pale, grayish-white head.

The thudding sound came from that head knocking against the wall.

Even after experiencing it many times, she would still tremble with fear every night.

She huddled under the covers and trembled for five minutes before hearing the sound of the side wall cracking.

She thought, “Today might be the end. I probably can’t escape.”

With a few cracking sounds, pieces of pale-pink wall plaster crumbled and fell.

Han Ling finally couldn’t hold back anymore, let out a heart-wrenching scream, and abruptly bolted out from under the covers.

With her long hair disheveled, she didn’t even have time to change out of her red pajamas.

She grabbed her roommate and rushed out the door, only to encounter a girl in the hallway also with long hair and wearing red clothes.

“Ah—”

“Ah—”

Two screams erupted simultaneously, and frantic footsteps echoed chaotically through the building.

The sound of the voice flared up, marking the beginning of the school’s nightlife.

This tiny place was teeming with diverse species and had everything one could need.

One by one, students rushed out of the dormitory and squeezed into the crowd.

The wall suddenly split open into a large hole, with a pale human face thrusting into it again and again. Its wide, unblinking eyes stared fixedly into the dormitory room.

A monster with eight hands swung an axe while chasing people, and there was also a female ghost missing half of her body, crawling along the corridor with her palms and stretching her neck as she moved.

Screams echoed one after another in the bathroom—

At some point, a plank was missing from the ceiling, revealing a one-square-meter-sized black hole. Inside the hole, something lay quietly watching with its eyes open.

Sometimes, long hair would hang down from above; other times, a head with blurry features would silently peek in through the door crack.

……

The playground had long been turned upside down, resembling a disorderly burial ground in the wilds.

Old, dilapidated tombstones stood crookedly everywhere, with graves from unknown eras dug half-open, coffin lids revealing cracks.

There were all kinds of deaths, all kinds of ghosts.

And zombies, ferocious beasts, monsters…

Gigantic like Godzilla, minuscule like insects and ants, but equally deadly.

Those students dreamed of such terrifying things that ants no longer carried food, but instead burrowed into people’s eyes and brains.

And some dreamed of natural disasters.

……

* * *

With a loud boom—

The dormitory building shook violently, cabinets toppled, water cups spilled, and half of a light tube fell.

Little Fatty Zhang Ming dragged his roommate desperately toward the door, shouting as he pulled, “Hurry! Run—”

Though his physique was nothing special, he was incredibly fast, sprinting like a bouncing ball.

The ball bounced its way to the stairwell first, then rolled back as if remembering something.

“What are you doing?” shouted his roommate.

“To the next room! I’m going to check out the next room—”

The little chubby kid had a very strong hero complex. At a time like this, he actually went against the flow, managing to squeeze up to the door of a certain dormitory.

He raised his fists and started banging heavily on the door.

The door suddenly swung open by itself.

He staggered in, thrown off balance.

“Go go go!! Why are you all—huh?” He nearly tumbled out onto the balcony. Someone blocked his path with a foot, while another person grabbed him by the back of his collar.

The one who had stopped him with a foot was sitting on the balcony windowsill. He remembered from Vice-Director Xiao’s introduction—this was Teacher Yi.

But as he turned to look, the person who had grabbed him from behind looked so familiar…

It was also Teacher Yi!

The little fatty gaped, looking ahead, then behind, wondering if he was seeing things.

Immediately after, he realized there were two Teacher Jia in the dormitory…

He is not a flower, he might be blind.

The little fatty was stunned for a few seconds before finally realizing that this was probably the fault of the dream-making.

* * *

You Huo, Qin Jiu, two… no, four people ultimately didn’t end up fighting.

Because at the critical moment, this school began its nightly spectacle of chaos and mayhem.

They briefly set aside other matters, deciding to handle the troublesome problem first before discussing further.

Examinee “Qin Jiu” sat with his legs bent on the windowsill, looking down outside the building and giving a real-time report: “A group of monkeys… Can’t see clearly what they are, let’s call them monkeys for now.”

“Get to the point.”

“Examiner A” also grabbed a tool and slipped out through the window.

“The main point is, that group of monkeys with corpse spots dashed past just five meters below me, and they’re now gnawing on the wall.”

“Gnawing on what wall?”

“The literal wall surface.”

Examinee “Qin Jiu” pointed downward and said, “There it is, like chewing on meat. If this keeps up, the building is going to collapse.”

“Examiner A” climbed onto the platform nearby.

There’s a platform on the rooftop of the dormitory building that used to be open for students to air their bedding. Later, it was locked to keep students away, with the excuse being fear of suicide.

“Examiner A” stood on the narrow edge of the platform, his tall and slender figure silhouetted against the flickering lights of the dormitory building—stately and cold.

Because they were so bold and moved so swiftly, the little chubby guy was completely stunned.

In the darkness, examinee “Qin Jiu” turned to “Examiner A” and said, “Can you stand steady? I don’t mind coming down to give you a hand.”

“Mind your own damn business.”

The examinee made a sound of understanding, then raised an eyebrow at the two people in the room and asked, “So, what exactly do we need to clear away?”

Qin Jiu gave a slight nod toward the window and said, “Everything.”

Two Qin Jius from different timelines locked eyes, their smiles curved in an identical arc at the corners of their mouths.

The examinee “Qin Jiu” pointed at “Examiner A” on the rooftop platform and said, “Our team versus yours, let’s see who finishes faster.”

With that, he turned and walked out.

The little fatty: “…”

He stared blankly at the windowsill, then at Qin Jiu and You Huo, saying woodenly, “He left.”

Pausing for two seconds, he then added with an even more wooden expression, “This is the sixth floor…”

Qin Jiu let out an “Oh” and said, “A bit dangerous.”

The little fatty: “？？？”

That’s not how the word “a bit” is supposed to be used in Chinese.

But as soon as he turned his head, he saw that the handsome guy on the platform had also vanished.

The chubby kid gulped loudly.

He finally started to realize that going against the tide might not have made him a young hero…

Maybe he was just here to be the bear.

Boom——

A sudden sound erupted from the dormitory building.

It was as if a massive whip had struck the middle of the structure. The dormitory shook violently, and both the roof and the floor began to collapse.

“Get out, get out!!” the chubby boy shouted, leaping to his feet.

“No hurry,” Qin Jiu said.

“I’m in a hurry!! You must be too!! Hurry up!”

Beside him, You Huo pulled the curtain aside.

He kicked the glass window twice, shattering it, twisted the curtain into a makeshift rope with a hook and pull, then fastened it with the leather strap he’d taken from the examinee “Qin Jiu,” testing its stability.

Qin Jiu looked at him in surprise, “Do you really need this?”

You Huo nudged the little fatty on the back with his foot and said, “He does.”

The little fatty wore a terrified expression.

You Huo tossed the other end of the curtain to Qin Jiu.

Qin Jiu held down the little fatty as he fastened his clasp. “What kind of grand scene did you dream of today?”

The little fatty wailed amidst the shaking and collapsing, “I don’t know! I forgot!! Something like Jurassic dinosaurs battling a zombie horde causing massive earthquakes—”

Before he could finish speaking, Qin Jiu wrapped him tightly in the curtains and placed him on the windowsill.

“It might get a little intense later,” Qin Jiu reassured the little fatty, “but if it’s not intense, you won’t make it downstairs in time.”

The dormitory building was teetering on the brink of collapse.

You Huo crouched halfway on the windowsill, one hand gripping the empty window frame.

He lowered his gaze, locking eyes with Qin Jiu’s line of sight.

After waking up in the middle of the night, this was the first time they looked at each other like this.

For a brief moment, their expressions became complicated.

Qin Jiu said, “Now that the irrelevant people are gone, I’ll take advantage of the chaos to ask you one question.”

You Huo said, “…Go ahead.”

“When did you figure it out?”

He spoke without context, but You Huo could follow along perfectly.

“Not long ago. I realized it in the exam that just ended.” You Huo paused, then added, “During confinement.”

After speaking, he looked at Qin Jiu.

Qin Jiu knew he was asking rhetorically and replied, “Surprisingly, it’s the same for me too—during solitary confinement.”

For some reason, he suddenly found it rather amusing and actually let out a laugh.

You Huo tilted his head away, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.

How curious—all the lingering awkwardness vanished in that very moment.

It doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

Qin Jiu wanted to say more, but the little fatty wrapped up in a cocoon couldn’t hold back: “I’m still here… I—I don’t mean to interrupt! But… the building is really about to collapse—”

You Huo straightened his body.

The figure was identical to the “Examiner A” who had stood on the platform earlier.

No, to be precise, it was the “Examiner A” from the dream that was identical to him.

He glanced into the night—grayish-white ape-like monsters swarmed in masses, pouncing toward the crumbling building, ravenously chewing on the wall surfaces and rubble.

In a flash, the side wall was gnawed into a huge gap.

You Huo wrapped the other end of the leather rope around his hand, then suddenly turned to Qin Jiu and said, “You can come up now.”

“Countdown from three.”

3, 2, 1.

The building collapsed, and the plump kid screamed.

When they jumped down from a great height, You Huo saw Examiner A not far away, having just dealt with a group of white apes. The metal buttons on his shirt and military boots were surprisingly conspicuous in the night.

Suddenly, he became very curious about what Qin Jiu had dreamed about.

Qin Jiu whispered in the wind, “Just some trivial things from years ago.”

* * *

While it was from years ago, it wasn’t too far back—at least not from the time when he was still an examinee.

He dreamed that he had already joined the ranks of the exam supervisors, using the initial codename Gin, and became a colleague of Supervisor A.

At that time, there were fifty exam supervisors in total, each with their own temperaments and stances. They often disagreed on the enforcement of exam rules, occasionally needing to hold meetings to argue.

What he dreamed of was one such routine meeting.

What exactly was argued in the meeting, he couldn’t remember clearly anymore. Moreover, arguments in dreams are often disjointed and unclear.

All he remembered from that routine meeting was himself and Examiner A sitting at opposite ends of a long table, locked in a tense standoff, forever at odds with each other.

They didn’t speak much, yet they clearly represented two opposing sides. Just one opening remark was enough for the others to dive into the argument.

There were a few peacemakers who alternated between smoothing things over for Examiner A and then for him.

Occasionally, between the back and forth, his gaze would cross the table and meet Examiner A’s eyes.

At such moments, the peacemakers would quickly jump in to intervene, afraid that the more they watched, the worse their relationship would become.

During the mid-meeting break of the regular session, some went to the restroom, others to fetch coffee or water, while most continued buzzing in the conference room.

After listening to them for a few sentences, Examiner A got up and left.

Not long after, Qin Jiu also left.

The corridor was long, with doors recessed on either side.

Qin Jiu walked unhurriedly, pausing abruptly after rounding a corner.

Out of the corner of his eye, Examiner A leaned against a doorway, seemingly watching this spot.

Qin Jiu’s steps shifted as he was about to turn and head over.

Just then, a few colleagues walked up behind him, and his shoulder was tapped. A certain peacemaker said, “Let’s save the arguments for the meeting. Sharing opinions often comes with some friction. Why not take a break? Come on, I have something I want to ask you.”

He looked up and noticed some invigilators also stopping not far away. Invigilator A turned to speak with someone, once again appearing aloof and distant.

Qin Jiu softly clicked his tongue in annoyance.

In the dream, he felt a wave of frustration in that moment.

But oddly, this negative emotion wasn’t directed at Examiner A at all.

He found the peacemaker beside him dawdling, making a mountain out of a molehill over trivial matters. He also felt that his colleagues talked too much, becoming extremely noisy.

The most annoying part was the system’s ever-present sense of intrusion…

Those people continued chattering without end, and as he touched his neck, he walked away with a few invigilators in tow.

Before leaving, Examiner A turned his light-colored eyes to look at him once more.

Then he woke up.

* * *

The building crashed down with a loud boom, raising clouds of dust.

The little fatty rolled all the way down to the bottom floor, the curtain-wrapped cocoon just unwrapping itself. Aside from feeling dizzy and nauseous and having a sore butt, he wasn’t really injured.

Beside him, You Huo touched down cleanly, using the momentum to cushion his landing.

When he half-stood from a crouch, Qin Jiu happened to land right next to him.

He felt someone suddenly flick his earlobe.

Qin Jiu’s low voice sounded beside his ear: “There’s something I’ve wanted to ask for a long time—why do you wear an earring?”