Chapter 27: About to Die

“Bro, how do you write ‘forest’ or ‘graveyard’ in Gypsy?”
You Huo: “…I don’t know.”

That hand moved insanely fast.

Its five fingers clawed against the ground, flipping and scrambling wildly.

Unfortunately, a leather cord limited its range of motion. During its struggles it repeatedly tried swinging the cleaver in retaliation—

and got suppressed every single time.

The whole scene was so visually shocking that everyone watching was utterly stunned.

Originally they’d all been terrified out of their minds. Even with exhaustion crushing them, they’d forced their eyes open to stay alive.

But after You Huo’s stunt, everyone instantly became fully awake.

“Bro, you…”

Having fun with it? Yu Wen wanted to ask.

But seeing his brother wearing a dead-inside expression that clearly said “Fuck, I lost another night of sleep,” he swallowed the question.

You Huo walked closer and forcibly made the pale ghost hand stop.

The hand swung its cleaver in a frantic circle, struggling madly.

Everyone jumped backward in fright to avoid the blade, then hurried back over to pin it down with all eight hands.

Chen Bin asked You Huo with a complicated expression:

“How did you catch this thing?”

Last night it had been a murderous monster.

Today it had become a joke.

Anyone would be dumbfounded.

Especially since Chen Bin himself had almost become one of its victims. The terror of surviving by pure luck hadn’t even faded yet before witnessing this absurdity…

“Didn’t catch it,” You Huo said, jerking his chin toward Qin Jiu.

“He handed it to me.”

Chen Bin: “……”

Handed…

Qin Jiu generously added,

“You’re welcome.”

You Huo replied,

“Did I thank you?”

Qin Jiu smiled and nodded.

“I can reluctantly interpret it that way.”

Nobody had expected the proctor to be the one who subdued it.

Everyone froze for a moment before cautiously asking:

“Then… the help card has already been used up?”

Qin Jiu pulled the card from his pocket, sounding extremely regretful.

“Not yet, unfortunately.”

Everyone was shocked.

“Huh? Why?”

You Huo answered first:

“That was self-defense. Why would he waste the help card?”

Qin Jiu stared at the back of his head for a moment.

Then nodded.

“…Fair enough.”

Self-defense?

Everyone got even more confused.

“This thing can attack proctors too? Is it insane?”

You Huo briefly explained what had happened.

Yu Wen smacked his palm.

“If that’s the case, then when the monster comes, as long as you don’t wake up, you’re fine?”

“I knew it! There’s no way every option leads to death. There has to be some survival condition.”

“Hah, easy for you to say,” Old Yu snapped.

“How are you supposed to control whether you wake up? It’s not like just keeping your eyes shut works.”

Yu Wen thought for a moment.

“What about sleeping pills?”

“Idiot son, go find me a sleeping pill first.”

Yu Wen: “……”

After analyzing everything, everyone still felt this exam was outrageously unreasonable.

It wasn’t that there was truly no way to survive.

As long as You Huo was around, there was always some path forward.

But…

whether it was the Black Hag or the ghost hand, their behavior contained elements that simply didn’t make sense.

For example, beyond the requirements written in the questions, the Black Hag had added extra obstacles like card-drawing and doll-sewing.

And the ghost hand had somehow lost track of its target, sparing You Huo the examinee and attacking the proctor instead.

…

“This really is strange…” Yu Yao said hesitantly.

“Could it be that older exams weren’t like this, and they added more complications to make later exams harder?”

The girl had improved a lot.

In the previous exam she’d cried from start to finish.

This time she was much better.

For a while, no one had any leads.

Besides, the exam questions themselves held all the initiative.

Even if they figured things out, nobody could guarantee how long they’d survive.

…

“Did anything happen in the forest tonight?” You Huo asked.

“Pretty much the same as last night.”

“A bunch of things crawling around, but they were too fast, so we didn’t chase recklessly,” Yu Wen said.

“They vanished in a flash. Looking at it now… they were probably all this kind of thing.”

He glanced nervously at the pale ghost hand.

You Huo gave an “oh,” then gestured for everyone to let go.

He tugged the leather cord.

“Come on. Keep running.”

Ghost hand: “……”

The thing had probably been bullied too hard.

It collapsed limply into the dirt and pretended to be dead, refusing to move.

After waiting a moment, You Huo lost patience.

He kicked it.

“If you won’t move, then we’ll just drag this out till dawn.”

“At sunrise I’ll haul you outside the forest.”

These things only appeared at night and vanished during the day.

There had to be a reason.

You Huo guessed perhaps they couldn’t tolerate sunlight?

Or feared something else…

Sure enough—

the moment he said that, the ghost hand suddenly sprang up and twisted frantically.

“It’s scared, right?”

Once everyone realized threats worked, they all started piling on.

“It’s almost four o’clock already. Dawn comes fast.”

“We can even let the villagers see what’s been threatening them every night. Go knock on every door one by one—”

Yu Wen was halfway to suggesting a “mountain village one-day tour” when the ghost hand suddenly froze.

It crouched there, its gray-white rotten fingers scratching weakly against the dirt.

The rhythm resembled breathing.

Or perhaps an expression of fear and unease…

Fear of what?

The villagers?

You Huo frowned in confusion.

Just as he was about to yank the cord and say something else, the ghost hand suddenly exploded into motion.

Its fingers clawed wildly through the dirt as it shot deeper into the forest.

It seemed desperate to return to its nest—to bury itself beneath damp soil before sunrise.

Everyone grabbed the cord and followed it through the woods, quickly losing all sense of direction.

Morning fog filled the depths of the forest.

It was freezing cold.

The heavy damp air smothered the torchlight until it flickered weakly, as though it might extinguish at any moment.

“What’s that smell?” Old Yu sniffed the air.

The deeper they went, the stronger and clearer the scent became.

Chen Bin’s expression changed immediately.

“This smell… it smells just like our room.”

“Last night Liang Yuanhao and I fell asleep because of this.”

Mentioning it instantly brought everyone back to that heavy incense scent.

Slightly different from the Black Hag’s house—

more sleep-inducing.

Mike was overweight and physically weak.

After staying awake all night and running around this much, the smell hit him hard. He stumbled and nearly collapsed.

The others started reacting one after another too.

As chaos broke out, the ghost hand seized the opportunity to dart around a tree trunk.

The cord snapped tight.

Then the blade sliced downward.

The rope broke instantly.

The ghost hand plunged straight into the wet earth and vanished in the blink of an eye.

By the time everyone recovered and started searching again, there wasn’t a trace left.

“Fuck—! We were so close!”

Everyone was extremely frustrated.

But gone was gone.

No matter how annoyed they were, they could only return defeated.

…

Soon dawn arrived again.

Five minutes before 7:30, the crow began screeching reminders for collection time.

Yu Wen hugged his phone and practically kowtowed to his brother.

“Thank god, thank god…”

“Good thing you stopped me from writing the second answer yesterday, otherwise we’d be dead today…”

Strictly speaking, they had gained something during the night.

Just nothing immediately score-worthy.

Fortunately, You Huo had been cautious enough to save Listening Question (2) for today.

Otherwise someone would’ve died on the spot.

Where are the Black Hag’s family members? Please find them.

The answer was simple.

Writing “forest” or “graveyard” would both work.

After all, those family members were already buried underground, reduced to gravestones.

Yu Wen grabbed the bone pen and wrote the character for “tree.”

Just as he was about to write “forest,” a lazy drawling voice sounded nearby.

“I have a question.”

Qin Jiu raised two fingers.

“Write first,” You Huo urged Yu Wen before turning toward Qin Jiu.

“What question absolutely has to be asked right now?”

Qin Jiu replied,

“I tried holding it in. Couldn’t.”

You Huo: “Say it.”

Qin Jiu tapped the door panel.

“You’re taking a Gypsy language exam and answering in Chinese?”

“And you’re even urging him to hurry up?”

“You really are a once-in-a-lifetime genius.”

You Huo: “……”

Everyone erupted with curses.

Holy shit—they’d overlooked that!

The questions themselves were written in Chinese, which subconsciously tricked everyone into answering in Chinese too.

The moment Qin Jiu finished reminding them, the red light on his wrist flashed three times in succession.

The crow responsible for announcements had barely opened its beak before Qin Jiu interrupted:

“Invigilation Rule Number 7: when examinees make obvious conceptual mistakes regarding answering rules, proctors are obligated to remind them.”

“Aren’t they being obviously stupid right now?”

After mocking them thoroughly, he lazily added to the examinees:

“My apologies. That was a personal attack.”

Everyone: “……”

The wording sounded polite.

But his teasing tone carried such shameless amusement it made people want to hit him.

After tormenting the examinees, Qin Jiu calmly turned back to the crow.

“I’m simply fulfilling my duty.”

“Full-time invigilation is boring enough already. Don’t nitpick.”

Nobody dared breathe too loudly.

Everyone felt this proctor was one second away from dying.

Unexpectedly, after opening and closing its beak silently for a moment, the crow actually shut up.

Qin Jiu remained leaning against the doorframe the entire time without even changing posture.

He withdrew his gaze and said to the group:

“Two minutes until papers are collected.”

“Do I have answers written on my face?”

Yu Wen clutched the bone pen in total panic.

“Bro, how do you write ‘forest’ or ‘graveyard’ in Gypsy?”

You Huo: “…I don’t know.”