Declared Dead

The little girl's chin was small and sharp, but her body was quite meaty.

She still had baby fat that was common for children her age so when she stood there, her belly would always bulge forward like it was bloated. It was as if she had just had a large feast.

All the tears that she had accumulated disappeared because of You Huo's action. She angrily ran off.

Sali watched her disappear in the distance and turned back to glare at the group.

Like his sister, he also had a belly.

Yu Wen stood closest to Sali.

He stared at the brat from the side for a while and quietly muttered to You Huo: "I have to say, after looking at him for a while he seems pretty cute."

The next second, this 'cute' child did something that was very surprising——

He looked around at the people in the room and suddenly started drooling.

Paired with those pure and beautiful blue eyes, it was quite a disturbing sight.

Wu Li frowned.

Yang Shu's expression turned green with disgust.

Only Boss Chu was able to continue to joke around, "Who are you drooling at?"

When Sali heard this, he acted like she had hit the nail on the head.

He flinched and, with a look of embarrassment, he ran off after his sister up to the second floor.

Watching the two figures disappear into their room, Yu Wen quietly muttered: "With their stomachs so big, could it be that——"

"Stop! Don't say it. I feel a little sick." Yang Shu said.

Yu Wen obediently shut his mouth.

Everyone discussed a little more and finally decided on the room allocation.

The four women didn't want to separate so they decided to squeeze into the master bedroom. Because Old Yu's ankle was still swollen, it wouldn't be convenient for him to use the stairs so he and Yu Wen would stay in the small guest room.

As for You Huo and Qin Jiu...

These two great masters insisted on being the bully and had their eyes on the pair of siblings' room.

You Huo glanced at the clock on the wall, "It's still a while until eight. I'll go find some duvets.

Qin Jiu nodded, "Let's go. We can also have a heart to heart talk with those two brats. You guys——-"

"We will also go back to our rooms." Boss Chu patted Shu Xue, "You don't look well. Go get some sleep."

***

When You Huo and Qin Jiu entered the room, there were two small mounds on the bunk beds.

The one using the upper bunk was Shirley. She laid on the bed with her duvet wrapped around her only revealing the top of her golden-yellow hair.

A book was spread across her pillow and she was writing and drawing on it with a watercolour pen.

Hearing the door opening, she angrily glanced at You Huo and then proceeded to pull her duvet over her head.

Sali on the lower bunk didn't even reveal his head. He continued to play dead.

It was as if they were really the ones being bullied.

You Huo didn't pay them any attention. Together with Qin Jiu, they spread the duvet across the carpet.

As they did this, he saw through the corner of his eyes Shirley secretly lifting her duvet slightly to stare at him.

Without stopping his actions, Qin Jiu glanced over.

Shirley quickly hid herself in her duvet again.

The two of them looked around the room.

This place had just been checked by Yu Wen and Chu Yue, so the closet wasn't tightly closed and there was still a small gap.

You Huo closed it and saw that there was a piece of paper nailed to the door of the closet.

It was a timetable. It wrote:

8:00 Wake up

10:00-17:00 Playtime

18:00 Short nap

20:00 Study time

21:00 Sleep

The edges of the paper were torn and curled.

The writing was written using red watercolour pen which had faded slightly.

It could be seen that it had been nailed there for a long, long time.

"Is this for the two brats or for the guests?" You Huo pinched the paper and suddenly spoke up.

"I don't know. Maybe both." Qin Jiu answered: "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

You Huo: "Because I'm sleepy."

Qin Jiu: "....."

You Huo pointed at the cartoon styled clock on the wall and said in an extremely objective and calm manner, "It's almost six."

Qin Jiu: "...…"

"You sure that's not an after-effect of memory loss?"

"I don't know. Apart from easily getting sleepy, there's nothing else." You Huo casually responded, "Might have originally been like this."

"Probably not." Qin Jiu said.

You Huo pulled a cushion over and threw it onto the ground to use as a pillow, "I thought you don't remember anything? Why are you so certain?"

"I don't remember but that doesn't mean that I can't make reasonable guesses."

"How is it reasonable?"

Qin Jiu said: "If you sleep during your free time, when would you have the time to date?"

You Huo's lips twitched. He threw the second cushion at him, "....Why don't you sit there and try and remember?"

It turns out that the schedule on the closet was for everyone.

The moment the clock hit six o'clock, a wave of sleepiness instantly swept through the house.

Sali and Shirley had fallen silent a long time ago. They slept very deeply, and only occasional small grunts could be heard.

Chu Yue knocked on the door and gave them a reminder: "Exam centre effect. Try not to sleep too deeply."

As soon as she was done, she locked her room door and the four women slept next to each other.

Mr. Qin who had just teased someone for constantly being sleepy felt that he would be slapping himself in the face if he said that he was also sleepy. He leaned on the table and searched the drawers in his attempt to keep himself awake.

You Huo was lying on the floor with half the duvet over him. His breathing was long and even.

Qin Jiu held a diary but was no longer able to continue reading after reading less than three lines on the page.

He struggled on for another five minutes and, when he felt that a certain someone should have truly fallen asleep, he went over and laid down.

Just as he covered himself with the other half of the duvet, the "sleeping" You Huo suddenly spoke up. Without opening his eyes and, with a voice that carried strong sleepiness, he mocked: "Invigilator 001 also has an after-effect?"

Qin Jiu: "...."

He let out a snort and no longer pretended. He rolled over and hummed vaguely with a tone that carried some laughter. "I was infected. I'm so sleepy."

Just as their minds were about to be completely clouded by sleep, the system suddenly sounded in the small house.

It reported succinctly:

[Examinee Christina of the 298th exam centre has made Shirley cry. Declared dead.]

Dead?

How?

A girl crying can cause death?

This exam would actually report the results globally?

Countless questions arose but they were unable to withstand the exam centre effect.

Qin Jiu struggled a little but soon fell asleep.

***

The clock on the wall pointed to 7:45pm. There was still another 15 minutes until 8 o'clock. The small house was still completely silent.

Old Yu waking up was an accident. It was because his sprained ankle was in a lot of pain.

The air conditioner in the was running and the air was very dry.

He coughed a few times to get rid of his itchy throat.

Yu Wen was sleeping next to him. Just to be safe, he shook him a few times and whispered, "Son? Xiao Wen?"

His light snoring continued. Yu Wen showed no signs of waking up.

Old Yu laid back down.

The situation in the exam can be very unpredictable. As someone who wouldn't blindly take risks, he didn't want to leave the room just because he was bored.

Moonlight filtered in through the window. From his position he could only see the fence surrounding the backyard.

Suddenly, he heard a thud——-thud——thud sound from outside.

It sounded like one of the siblings was outside bouncing a ball.

But to do it at a time like this....It was too strange?

Old Yu closed his eyes and played dead. He didn't forget to grab Yu Wen's arm in case anything happened.

The sound of the ball bouncing sounded for a while and he soon realised that the sound was getting closer and closer. It was as if the other party was bouncing the ball while slowly moving closer to the window.

That sound came from right outside the window. It continued to sound at an extremely steady pace.

With his eyes closed, a scene like this appeared in Old Yu's mind——–A little girl or boy with golden-yellow hair and blue eyes standing expressionlessly outside the window.

Even if he was once a soldier, he felt a little uncomfortable.

After a while, the ball bouncing suddenly stopped. It rolled across the leaves and hit the corner of the wall.

Old Yu continued to play dead.

Just as he decided that he would continue playing dead until the very end, he suddenly felt breathing from another source nearby.

It was extremely close, right next to where Yu Wen was sleeping.

Worried about his son, Old Yu finally couldn't continue pretending.

He braced himself and quietly peeked out.

A pair of big blue eyes was staring at him. Like a glass ball, it stared at him from above and showed no signs of life.

Old Yu was startled. He immediately sat up.

The little girl Shirley was kneeling on the edge of the bed looking at him with her head tilted.

It was clearly a very normal action, but he felt that something about this little lady wasn't right.

It felt...strangely fake.

Old Yu stiffly smiled: "Young lass, what's the matter? Why did you enter the room without making a noise?"

Shirley continued to stare at him without saying anything.

After a while, she suddenly asked, "Do you think I'm loveable?"

Old Yu: "..."

Loveable my ass.

But that was something that couldn't be said. He was afraid that if he said it, he may be sent to heaven.

And so Old Yu just scratched his nose and said with a kind smile: "Very loveable. I had always been thinking that if anyone had a daughter who looks like you, they must be blessed by their ancestors."

I'm sorry ancestors.

Old Yu internally gave them a kowtow.

Shirley cared a lot about something he had said. She tilted her head again and asked, "You think I'm a pretty little girl?"

Old Yu quickly nodded his head, "Definitely."

"Because I'm very pretty, I'm very loveable..." Shirley reached this conclusion and asked to confirm, "Is that right?"

Old Yu decided to follow the routine of speaking less to avoid making a mistake.

So, he just nodded and said, "Yes."

Shirley suddenly approached him revealing her fine, sharp teeth.

Old Yu was startled. He hid Yu Wen behind his back.

Shirley giggled like her prank was successful. She then continued to stare at Old Yu and said expressionlessly after several extremely long minutes, "I look very loveable but you're afraid of me."

Old Yu didn't know what he had done to have to suffer through an interrogation like this.

"It's alright. Not scared." He tried to explain.

But the next second, Shirley pursed her lips into a line and cried.

When she cried, her eyes were wide and round. It looked very fake.

Beads of tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I want to hide you."

Shirley said.

Old Yu was stunned for a moment, "Hide what? Hide where?"

The clock on the wall moved another notch.

In the silence, the system once again sounded.

The content was similar to the one from earlier:

[Examinee...]

The system stopped here for a moment. It seemed to be having difficulty figuring out who the party was.

After the short pause, it reported the result according to the name of the person bound to the exam centre.

[Examinee You Huo of the 197th exam centre has made Shirley cry. Declared Dead.]

After this sentence was reported, it fell silent for a few seconds and then let out small static sounds. It seemed to be belatedly surprised.

***

Second floor.

As a bug, Shu Xue wasn't very affected by the effect of the examination room.

She heard this report in a half dreaming-half awake state and it took her a few seconds to react. She immediately sat up.

She tried to shake awake the people next to her, but no one woke up. Their breathing was still even.

Because of her special identity, she wasn't very afraid of most of the punishments in the exam centres, especially when compared to the others. In a sense, she was quite brave. She didn't hesitate to jump off the bed and ran over to the room across from hers.

When she saw You Huo sleeping comfortably on the ground, Shu Xue let out a long sigh of relief.

Was it a bug? Or did she hear wrong?

Just as she thought this, she suddenly felt someone gently patting her back.

She turned and was met with Shirley's big blue eyes.

Shu Xue was startled but she quickly calmed herself down.

Shirley asked softly: "Big sister, do you think I'm a lovely girl?"

Shu Xue took a deep breath and said, "Yes you are."

Shirley lowered her gaze and let out a quiet 'oh'.

Two minutes later.

Another report sounded:

[Examinee You Huo of the 197th exam centre has made Shirley cry...Again declared dead.]

At the joint exam invigilator's place.

Invigilators: "???"