{"id":3272,"date":"2026-05-10T07:21:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T07:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/global-examination-23\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T07:21:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T07:21:56","slug":"global-examination-23","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/chapter\/global-examination-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Examination 23"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 23: Reading Comprehension

Qi Yang suddenly felt that something was missing from Proctor 001.

Yu Wen was taking pictures of the tombstones while Qi Yang held up the torch for light.

Suddenly, he felt someone lightly step on his right foot.

Annoyed, he asked Qin Jiu, \u201cWhy are you stepping on me?\u201d

Qin Jiu: \u201c?\u201d

He looked down.

A few fresh specks of dirt had indeed appeared on the tip of Qi Yang\u2019s shoe, exactly like someone had stepped on it.

Qin Jiu raised his eyes. \u201cDo I really look that bored?\u201d

\u201cWho knows,\u201d Qi Yang replied.

Everyone else stood several steps away.

Only Qin Jiu stood shoulder to shoulder with him\u2014one slight turn of the foot and he could easily reach him.

Besides, out of this whole group, who would have the guts to pull something like that?

Just as Proctor 001 was being saddled with blame, Yu Wen suddenly yelped too.

\u201cWho kicked me? The photo came out blurry!\u201d

Old Yu hurried to clear himself. \u201cWasn\u2019t me!\u201d

Yu Yao waved both hands. \u201cNot me either.\u201d

Yu Wen muttered, \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t either of you, then who else could it be?\u201d

\u2026

Everyone fell silent for two seconds.

Then, all at once, they looked down at the ground.

Qi Yang swept the torchlight across the area and realized the surroundings had changed somehow.

Several patches of earth had bulged upward slightly, the dead branches and leaves covering them pushed aside\u2014

As if, in those brief ten seconds, something had crawled beneath the soil.

Everyone froze in place, exchanging horrified looks.

The firelight made everyone\u2019s faces look deathly pale.

Yu Wen\u2019s lips trembled as he was about to speak, but Qi Yang raised a finger to his lips.

In the silence, rustling crawling noises began sounding one after another throughout the forest.

Mountain valleys naturally echoed sounds, layering distant and nearby noises together until it was impossible to tell where they came from.

Some sounded so close they seemed right beside their feet\u2026

Mike and the others instantly lost all feeling in their legs, too terrified to move.

Qi Yang turned and shone the torch toward a nearby bush.

Right before everyone\u2019s eyes, several pale white things flashed past and vanished in an instant.

Judging from the movement, they seemed to be heading toward the village.

\u2026

Chen Bin and Liang Yuanhao shared a room.

They thought wandering into the forest at night was unwise.

Wandering around the village was unwise too.

The safest approach was obviously to hide indoors and sleep until morning.

Standing by the window, Chen Bin said uneasily:

\u201cWe\u2019re really not going after them? Isn\u2019t that kind of bad\u2026?\u201d

\u201cYou\u2019ve taken several exams already. How are you still this indecisive?\u201d Liang Yuanhao leaned against the bathroom sink, splashing water onto his face.

\u201cThis exam uses team scoring. As long as the questions are answered correctly, everyone gets points.\u201d

\u201cSo why does everyone need to rush to the front?\u201d

\u201cIf they find clues and answers, great. We won\u2019t owe them anything\u2014we can repay them later somehow.\u201d

Chen Bin said, \u201cBut what if they don\u2019t find anything? What if something happens?\u201d

Liang Yuanhao paused, grabbed a towel, and rubbed his face.

\u201cThen\u2026 that\u2019s because they\u2019re too reckless.\u201d

\u201cPeople warned them already, didn\u2019t they?\u201d

\u201cThe driver who brought us here, the villagers\u2014they all said not to enter the forest carelessly.\u201d

\u201cThey knowingly ignored the warnings. They don\u2019t value their own lives enough.\u201d

Chen Bin still looked gloomy.

Liang Yuanhao continued:

\u201cTo be honest with you, after three exams, the biggest lesson I\u2019ve learned is this word.\u201d

\u201cWe need to value our lives.\u201d

\u201cNot everyone can charge forward recklessly together. You can\u2019t put all your eggs in one basket\u2014even children understand that.\u201d

\u201cThis is preserving a fallback plan.\u201d

\u201cIf someone gets into trouble, the rest of us can still step up.\u201d

He stared blankly for a moment before adding quietly:

\u201cThat gives us the highest chance of survival.\u201d

Chen Bin looked at him and said:

\u201cThe way you calculate survival probabilities\u2026 you\u2019re like a human calculator.\u201d

Liang Yuanhao scratched his buzzcut irritably.

\u201cEnough. I\u2019m going to sleep. You should too.\u201d

\u2026

Each of them wrapped themselves tightly in blankets.

Neither dared waste time, forcing themselves to sleep.

They originally thought they\u2019d toss and turn for hours.

But the incense in the room had an incredible sleep-inducing effect.

Very soon, snoring filled the room.

Suddenly, knocking sounds echoed from the neighboring room.

Very soft.

But in the dead of night, terrifyingly clear.

Chen Bin turned over.

Liang Yuanhao continued snoring, completely unaware.

The knocking spread from room to room, gradually getting closer\u2026

Several minutes later, the knocking finally reached their room too.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Chen Bin turned over again. His eyelids twitched twice.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The sound came again.

Chen Bin jerked awake in terror.

He didn\u2019t dare open his eyes.

He lay stiffly in bed, listening carefully to the direction of the sound.

Then cold sweat instantly poured down his back.

Because the knocking came from directly beneath the bed.

Right beneath him.

Knocking against the wooden boards under his back.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Whatever it was seemed to know he was awake now.

After another three knocks, a floating voice suddenly whispered:

\u201cI\u2019m looking for disobedient guests.\u201d

\u201cDid you sew the doll today?\u201d

Chen Bin nearly pissed himself on the spot.

He squeezed his eyes shut desperately, pretending to still be asleep.

But the voice refused to let him go.

\u201cTell me\u2026\u201d

\u201cDid you sew the doll today?\u201d

Beside him, Liang Yuanhao\u2019s leg twitched violently.

He seemed awake too.

The voice drifted closer and closer until it practically whispered beside their ears:

\u201cI\u2019ll ask one last time.\u201d

\u201cDid you sew the doll today?\u201d

The room fell deathly silent.

The voice sighed softly.

\u201cAh\u2026\u201d

Liang Yuanhao suddenly screamed:

\u201cI did! I did! We both did!\u201d

\u201cOh\u2026\u201d the voice said regretfully. \u201cSuch obedient guests.\u201d

\u201cThen I suppose you\u2019ll have to stay alive.\u201d

Liang Yuanhao and Chen Bin remained frozen in terror.

Only after two seconds did they fully process what the voice meant.

A wave of relief instantly washed over them.

Then the voice asked:

\u201cWho sewed more?\u201d

Liang Yuanhao immediately shouted:

\u201cMe! Me! I sewed two legs! He only sewed half an arm!\u201d

Chen Bin was utterly stunned.

\u201cThat\u2019s wonderful,\u201d the voice said.

Liang Yuanhao finally relaxed slightly and cautiously opened his eyes a sliver.

Then\u2014

A flash of cold light.

The final thing he ever saw was a pale white hand raising a bone cleaver high overhead and chopping straight down toward his legs.

At that moment, he inexplicably remembered the female villager chopping ice beside the river.

He thought:

That motion really looks alike\u2026

\u2026

Qi Yang and the others spent almost the entire night inside the forest.

Even after searching everywhere, they never found those crawling things again.

The traces of disturbed earth vanished almost immediately. Dead leaves and branches once again lay perfectly still, as if nothing had ever moved.

Only when the sky began faintly brightening did they finally emerge from the woods.

\u201cDoesn\u2019t seem that scary after all?\u201d Old Yu muttered. \u201cEveryone kept saying not to enter the forest, but we stayed in there all night and nothing happened.\u201d

Yu Wen looked emotionally dead.

\u201cBeing scared nearly killed me\u2026\u201d

\u201cBut we\u2019re still alive, right? None of us got hurt.\u201d

\u201cThat\u2019s true.\u201d

Yet remembering the sounds from the night before, they still felt things weren\u2019t so simple.

Those pale things crawling through the forest\u2026

It was more like they\u2019d found another target and temporarily spared them.

\u2026

Morning came quickly.

Yet the villagers\u2019 houses remained dark.

The windows looked old and broken, some doors even covered in cobwebs.

At first glance, they resembled abandoned ruins.

Qi Yang suddenly stopped in front of one particular house.

Everyone froze before remembering\u2014

This was the crazy villager\u2019s house.

\u201cYou\u2019re looking for that villager?\u201d Yu Wen asked. \u201cYou believe what he said yesterday?\u201d

He knew Qi Yang had memory loss, so he assumed the topic would affect him deeply.

After all, someone suddenly claiming they\u2019d met him before\u2014

Even if it sounded unreliable, maybe his brother\u2019s curiosity got triggered?

But Qi Yang simply said:

\u201cNo.\u201d

Yesterday, he\u2019d observed carefully.

The crazy man\u2019s gaze had been scattered and unfocused when looking at him.

But when he looked at Qin Jiu, something lit up briefly in his eyes.

Especially when he\u2019d said, \u201cYou know me.\u201d

That expression had been serious.

If there was any truth in the madman\u2019s ramblings, then the parts involving Qin Jiu were probably more genuine.

Unfortunately, Qin Jiu\u2019s view had been blocked at the time, so he\u2019d neither noticed nor reacted.

Besides\u2014

Whether Proctor 001 knew some NPC or ignored them entirely\u2026

What the hell did that have to do with him?

Qi Yang thought.

He\u2019d only come because crazy people blurted out things without restraint, making them easiest to extract information from.

\u2026

They knocked for five full minutes without receiving any response.

\u201cMaybe he\u2019s too scared to come out? Or still asleep? Didn\u2019t the village chief say all the villagers fear whatever appears at night, so they try to sleep deeply and wake late?\u201d

\u201cLet\u2019s come back this evening.\u201d

Remembering the village chief\u2019s words, nobody waited around any longer.

Collection time was getting closer.

They hurried back across the frozen river and gathered outside Black Granny\u2019s door.

The listening exam questions from yesterday remained clearly visible on the door.

The answer area was still blank.

Thanks to previous experience, they quickly found the answer-writing tool this time\u2014

An actual pen.

Except it had been carved from white bone.

Yu Wen held it with a numb scalp.

Question (1): What is Black Granny\u2019s name?

He pulled out the photos of the tombstones and copied a long string of ghostly symbols into the answer area exactly as written, not even missing punctuation.

Just as he was about to copy the second question too, Qi Yang stopped him.

\u201cDon\u2019t.\u201d

\u201cWhy?\u201d Yu Wen said. \u201cBlack Granny\u2019s family names should also be on the tombstones. That means we\u2019ve basically found answers for two questions.\u201d

Qi Yang looked at him with an expression that practically screamed idiot.

\u201cCan you save one question for tomorrow?\u201d

Yu Wen: \u201c\u2026Yes.\u201d

\u2026

The fully grown candidates crowded around the door, eagerly waiting for the results.

Qi Yang hadn\u2019t slept all night.

Leaning against the wall in the morning light, he drifted drowsily toward sleep.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Qin Jiu standing farther away, one hand in his pocket while casually playing with the help card in the other.

From this angle and distance, Qi Yang couldn\u2019t clearly see his expression.

But for some reason, he suddenly felt\u2014

Something was missing from Proctor 001.

Exactly what it was, he couldn\u2019t say.

After all, he\u2019d only known Qin Jiu for a few days.

\u2026

Nobody knew how long they waited before Old Yu suddenly said:

\u201cHuh?\u201d

Confused, he added:

\u201cIt\u2019s almost collection time. Why are Chen Bin and\u2026 what\u2019s his name\u2026 Liang Yuanhao still not awake?\u201d

\u201cNo idea. The crow already gave one reminder earlier. They should be up by now, right?\u201d

Old Yu said, \u201cYou guys wait for the door to open. I\u2019ll go wake them.\u201d

As he spoke, he turned and walked toward Chen Bin and Liang Yuanhao\u2019s room.

The knocking on the door and the crow\u2019s cry sounded almost simultaneously.

The first collection time had arrived.

On Black Granny\u2019s door, two words within the dense tombstone inscription were suddenly circled.

Floure Jaroka

+5 points.

Everyone let out long sighs of relief and instantly became excited.

A golden thigh was truly a golden thigh.

Then, new text gradually appeared on the lower half of the door.

Reading Comprehension:

The annual Witchcraft Festival of Chasu Village has arrived. Black Granny prepared gifts for the villagers long ago.

That\u2019s right\u2014carefully sewn dolls.

She wrote a long prayer letter, offering blessings to each villager within it.

Read the prayer letter and, according to the information in the letter, help Black Granny deliver the dolls to the correct villagers.

Under the gaze of the God of Witchcraft, careless people will always be punished.

As for careful people, the villagers will point them toward the road home.

Where the forest does not exist, there lies the road home.

Can you find it?<\/p>","protected":false},"parent":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"novel":[],"class_list":["post-3272","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3273,"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/3272\/revisions\/3273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"novel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/es_co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/novel?post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}