Chapter 15: Foreign Language

If your right to choose gets revoked, why are you everywhere?

“Yu Wen.”

“Huh?” Being called suddenly, Yu Wen immediately responded. “What’s wrong?”

Qi Yang said, “Do you see anyone standing at the crossroads?”

Yu Wen looked around blankly. “Anyone? What people?”

Qi Yang’s gaze landed in the distance. “For example, certain proctors who haunt people like ghosts.”

Yu Wen: “…Don’t tell ghost stories!”

The subject hadn’t even been chosen yet, so what would the proctor be doing here???

The others also turned to look around after hearing Qi Yang’s words, but the four crossroads were completely empty except for the signs.

“Forget it. Nothing.” Qi Yang said, “All four directions only show Foreign Language for me. I don’t have any other choice. You still want to follow me?”

Yu Wen replied honestly, “Foreign Language is actually my weak point.”

Qi Yang glanced at him.

Yu Wen added, “But after thinking about it, I realized every subject is my weak point.”

Qi Yang: “…”

Yu Wen clasped his hands together and worshipped him shamelessly. “Bro, wherever you go, I go! I’ll be your cow or horse if necessary. Please bless me to pass every subject and live a long life.”

Qi Yang: “…”

The entire group stared at him eagerly.

Qi Yang clicked his tongue, pulled his jacket zipper all the way up to cover his chin and lips, then muttered lazily, “Troublesome.”

“Bro, what’d you say?” Yu Wen didn’t hear clearly and leaned closer.

Qi Yang’s face looked like it could blend directly into the snow. “I said, which direction is Foreign Language for you people?”

Everyone pointed toward the left.

Qi Yang immediately started walking.

Inside the security booth, the loudspeaker began issuing death reminders again:

【Friendly reminder: 5 seconds remaining to choose.】

Everyone panicked and took off running.

The road marked Foreign Language was just like the other three—completely covered in dense fog. Nobody knew what might be waiting behind it…

【4 seconds】

【3 seconds】

【2 seconds】

【1 second】

【Right of free choice revoked.】

The moment the countdown reached zero, the final person barely managed to step into the fog.

…

Qin Jiu wore a black overcoat with a dove-gray cashmere scarf tucked beneath the collar. One hand rested in his pocket while the other held a black umbrella.

He stood there calmly, patiently waiting.

Qi Yang’s tall figure emerged through the fog.

His skin looked cold and pale, his expression lazy and tired. A black backpack hung loosely from his right shoulder.

Even from a distance, Qin Jiu could clearly see every detail. Qi Yang’s light brown eyes always seemed covered by a thin layer of fragile glass, carrying the same cold gleam as the earring on one ear.

Qin Jiu slightly raised the edge of the umbrella, allowing snow to slide off the taut ribs.

As Qi Yang approached, Qin Jiu politely tilted the umbrella to cover him as well and lazily dragged out his words:

“What a coincidence. We meet again. So, Mr. Hmm, have you been sleeping well these past few days?”

Qi Yang: “…”

The man clearly knew his name, yet insisted on using a nickname. Was he sick in the head?

Qi Yang stared at him for two seconds before saying coldly, “So revoking my right to choose means I run into you no matter where I go?”

Qin Jiu narrowed his eyes and laughed softly. “That’s not quite accurate. Revoking the right to choose means that rule-breaking candidates—in other words, you—lose the right to choose your next exam subject.”

“What subject you take depends on what the chief proctor—that would be me—is supervising next. Understand now?”

Qi Yang: “…”

The way Qin Jiu spoke sounded exactly like an adult patiently explaining reason to a tantrum-throwing child.

It was clearly deliberate provocation.

Qi Yang grew so angry his face nearly froze solid.

Watching his expression, Qin Jiu’s smile deepened further.

“As for what subject a proctor supervises, under normal circumstances we can choose. But I’m a little lazy, so I usually leave it random. This time it randomly landed on Foreign Language.”

“Although judging from your face, you don’t seem very happy about it. Next time—”

Qi Yang cut him off with a dark expression. “There’s still going to be a next time?”

Qin Jiu replied, “Hard to say. After all, your criminal record is extensive.”

Qi Yang: “…”

Qin Jiu added, “If there’s a subject you’d prefer me to randomize into, you can tell me in advance. If your behavior is good enough, I might consider it.”

Qi Yang wanted to say: I hope you randomize yourself directly into death. Can you consider that?

But after thinking about how insane this system was, he suspected the system might drag him down to die together with Qin Jiu.

So he swallowed all his anger, wore a funeral-level expression, and silently waited at the edge of the fog.

…

Not long later, Yu Wen dragged Old Yu out of the fog, followed by Yu Yao and Mike.

“Bro!” Yu Wen hurried over, only to slam on the brakes the moment he saw Qin Jiu. “Y-you… why are you here?”

His intense survival instinct forced him into using polite honorifics, but it still couldn’t hide the horror on his face.

Qin Jiu answered leisurely, “Keeping your brother company while waiting for all of you.”

Yu Wen looked even more horrified and immediately turned to stare at Qi Yang.

Qi Yang: “…”

If looks could become knives, Qin Jiu would already be dead.

Gathering his courage, Yu Wen asked, “Does the full-process monitoring from the previous exam carry over into this one too?”

Qin Jiu glanced at him.

Yu Wen: “Oh.”

In Yu Wen’s eyes, Proctor 001 was also a terrifyingly powerful figure.

Powerful people were always arrogant. Only someone equally formidable—like his brother—could attract their attention and make them speak a little more.

Yu Wen possessed strong self-awareness, so he didn’t dare continue the conversation.

…

“Zhou Jin and the others still aren’t here?” Yu Yao and Mike also walked over.

Old Yu said, “They were right behind us. Let’s wait a bit longer.”

But after waiting for a while, two unfamiliar faces emerged instead.

One had a square face and wasn’t very tall, but his body was packed with muscles. A sports bag hung from his shoulder.

The other was thinner, tightly wrapped in his coat while constantly blowing warm air into his hands.

“What’s going on? There are other people too?” Yu Wen exclaimed in surprise.

Qi Yang looked toward Qin Jiu.

Qin Jiu tilted his head slightly and asked, “Did anyone ever say exam participants remain fixed?”

Qi Yang: “…No.”

Qin Jiu said, “Choosing the same subject doesn’t mean you’ll end up in the same exam room. For example, Proctors 922 and 154 also randomly got Foreign Language this round, but they aren’t supervising this exam.”

“What does that tell you?”

Qi Yang replied expressionlessly, “It tells me they don’t want to see you either.”

“…”

Yu Wen glanced nervously at Qin Jiu, deeply afraid his brother would anger the proctor to death on the spot.

Unexpectedly, Qin Jiu merely narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Wrong. It means this exam has very few candidates, so only one proctor is necessary.”

“Very few candidates?”

Qi Yang frowned.

…

Sure enough, after waiting another five minutes beside the fog, no one else arrived.

Facts proved that Zhou Jin and the others had all been assigned to different exam rooms.

Although their previous group had contained every possible combination of old, weak, sick, injured, and troublesome people, they had at least spent time together and knew each other a little.

Now there were two complete strangers.

They would need to adjust all over again.

Whether that was good or bad remained unclear.

“Thank god Old Yu didn’t get split up,” Yu Wen said fearfully.

…

The two strangers seemed completely unsurprised about having new teammates.

The square-faced man kept his brows tightly furrowed, making him look fierce. He simply nodded at everyone once before ignoring them.

The thinner man was friendlier.

“My name’s Chen Bin. I’m from Chongqing. This guy’s Liang Yuanhao, from Hebei, right?”

He turned and asked Liang Yuanhao, who merely glanced around at the group and grunted in acknowledgment.

“From Chongqing? I was stationed there for several years when I was in the army. Guess that makes us fellow townsmen.” Old Yu, master of social interaction, managed to claim another hometown connection through several conversational detours and quickly became familiar with Chen Bin.

“Liang Yuanhao and I were in the same exam room last round, and now we got assigned together again. Guess it’s fate.” Chen Bin looked depressed while saying this. “This is already my third subject.”

“I barely survived the previous two exams by sheer luck. My scores are terrifyingly low. Passing feels hopeless.”

Old Yu was about to comfort him when Qi Yang suddenly interrupted.

“You know what score counts as passing?”

Chen Bin froze. “Sixty. You guys didn’t know?”

Old Yu shook his head. “No clue. The total score for our last subject seemed to be… twenty-four? Plus random bonus points and deductions. We couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t even a whole number, and we never heard how many points the other subjects were worth either, so we couldn’t calculate the passing line.”

Chen Bin asked, “You never met any experienced candidates?”

Old Yu replied, “No. Everyone from our last exam was taking it for the first time too.”

“Oh, that explains it.” Chen Bin said, “I happened to meet an experienced guy once. He told me the scores for individual exams vary slightly, but the five subjects together total exactly one hundred points.”

“So we need over sixty total to pass.”

“Sixty…” Old Yu muttered while counting on his fingers with a worried face.

Chen Bin looked even more miserable. “After two exams, I only have ten points. What kind of miracles do I need in the remaining three?”

Liang Yuanhao’s face turned greenish with frustration as he walked several steps farther away.

Chen Bin explained to everyone, “He’s actually a decent person. It’s just that after three subjects, his scores still aren’t ideal, so he’s anxious…”

Since this literally concerned life and death, everyone understood completely.

Yu Wen pointed at Mike and comforted them. “Don’t panic! Look, we have a secret weapon! Since this exam is Foreign Language, we have our foreign friend Mike!”

Chen Bin replied tactfully, “I noticed him the moment we arrived. But I also realized he doesn’t seem very good at speaking Chinese? If nobody understands each other, we’re still screwed…”

Yu Wen immediately pointed at Qi Yang next. “It’s fine! My brother lived abroad for a while too, so he can help. Although… he doesn’t really like talking.”

Chen Bin instantly looked revived. “That’s okay! As long as someone understands the language!”

Even Liang Yuanhao seemed to come back to life slightly.

Mike and Qi Yang became like two powerful stimulants, instantly improving the atmosphere of the group.

…

“So… where exactly are we supposed to go now?”

After chatting endlessly, everyone finally addressed the main issue.

Qi Yang expressionlessly pointed left.

Only then did everyone notice that about three meters away stood a bus stop sign.

It was the simplest kind possible, just a metal pole holding up a sign.

Fortunately, the words on it were Chinese:

Intercity Bus

Below that was a polite English translation.

As for where the bus went or what stops it passed through…

The sign was completely blank.

While everyone stood there blankly, a horn suddenly sounded through the snowstorm.

A vehicle emerged from the fog and rattled shakily to a stop before them.

The bus was so coated in dust that its original paint color was impossible to identify. Mud splattered across the wheels. Calling it a “bus” was honestly giving it too much credit.

It looked more like one of those shaky minibuses from the 1990s that sounded like they were dying every time they turned a corner.

This thing?

For a Foreign Language exam?

Everyone’s expressions became strange.

Even Proctor Qin Jiu looked unhappy.

The moment Qi Yang noticed Qin Jiu wasn’t pleased, he immediately felt better.

Carrying his backpack, he boarded first.

The inside of the vehicle wasn’t nearly as rundown as expected. The seats were reasonably clean.

Qi Yang sat in the back row by the window.

When he saw Qin Jiu board as well, he took out his phone, fiddled with it briefly, then plugged in a pair of white earphones and leaned against the window to sleep.

The driver was a dark-skinned middle-aged man who never spoke from beginning to end. Nobody knew if he was mute.

After watching everyone board, he simply stepped on the accelerator and drove off.

…

Just as Qi Yang was genuinely about to fall asleep, the bus broadcast system suddenly began announcing doom again.

【Current Beijing time: 6:30 PM.】

【There are 30 minutes remaining before the official start of the examination. The examination rules will now be announced.】

The familiar exam regulations repeated one by one.

With Mike and Qi Yang acting like stabilizing anchors, everyone’s emotions were relatively calm this time. Nobody shook as badly as during the first exam.

【If violations or cheating are discovered during the examination, candidates will be expelled from the exam room.】

【All other examination requirements will depend on the specific questions.】

As though deliberately playing a prank, the broadcast paused there for a moment.

Only after everyone had fully absorbed the information did it slowly continue with the final announcements.

【Due to the special nature of this examination, examination details will be announced in advance.】

【Examination duration: 10 days.】

【Examination subject: Foreign Language】

【Foreign language category: Gypsy】

【We wish all candidates excellent results.】

Everyone: “…”

Say that again???