Asking Modestly

Qin Jiu originally said it to tease You Huo so it wasn't spoken loudly.

But unexpectedly, Old Yu's ears were very good. With this attack of Qin Jiu's, he was left with glorious wounds.

The worst was Yu Wen....

He was standing under the wall in shock and his father's heavy body had smashed straight onto him.

The two fell on the ground groaning and shouting in pain.

Qin Jiu no longer paid any further attention to the little brats. Together with You Huo, they went over to help them up.

Old Yu displayed agility that was rare for a middle-aged man and immediately grabbed the two involved. He looked at them with wide eyes, "What friend?"

In any case, the Yu father and son duo are You Huo's family.

Qin Jiu: "Just a joke."

You Huo however said: "Boyfriend."

The two spoke at the same time. When they heard each other's response, they both paused.

You Huo patted the back of Old Yu's hand to indicate for him to let go first. He then checked Yu Wen's twisted wrist and helped straighten it back up.

He was half kneeling on the ground as he did this. When he was done, he patted off the dirt from his hands and looked back at Qin Jiu with his light-coloured eyes, "You were just joking?"

Before Qin Jiu could speak, he turned back and said to Old Yu, "Anyway, I wasn't joking."

"....."

Old Yu looked at him with his mouth open with shock and fell back down.

He laid on the ground with a complicated expression and then bounced back up like a resurrected corpse, "You...…."

It could be seen that Old Yu had a lot to say but after a lot of struggling, he could only spit out that one word.

Very soon, the father and son duo were helped into the house. Once inside, Yang Shu and Wu Li gave them a simple check and, along the way, they found a towel and used it to wrap some ice to ice Old Yu's ankle that was injured again.

Shirley and Sali didn't expect that after aggressively threatening the guest, they would accidentally threaten out eight of them.

They sat in a circle on the sofa surrounding the two brats in the centre. It almost looked like they were unfortunate children forced to perform a show for the family every New Year.

Sali's light blue eyes swept around. He gripped his sister's hand tightly and said loudly: "Mum said that there can only be one guest. Why are you all here?"

Chu Yue said, "Because we are a team, silly boy."

Sali still didn't understand, "What is a team?"

"It means that you can pretend that we are one person."

"I can't pretend."

Chu Yue laughed, "Then I can't do anything about it."

"I thought this stage was independent."

"I thought so too." Yang Shu said.

"Fortunately, Boss Chu caught me in time." Shu Xue explained, "We came out of the fog together and then we heard the system say that the first stage is done individually. Generally, these kinds of rules are absolute. I have seen it before. It would forcibly evict one out, but Boss Chu and I were still standing there without a problem. That meant that we're special."

Chu Yue nodded, "The system may trick others, but it won't trick me. I haven't lost my memories. The teaming ability should theoretically regard us as one person and the one who registered the team is the team leader. This is absolute. There was a possibility of a bug separating us when assigning examination centres but fortunately we have this young lass here."

She patted Shu Xue's shoulder and said, "She picked everyone up one by one."

Shu Xue smiled shyly.

"But why are there so many bugs in this system? Where are they all from?" Yang Shu went straight to the point and asked the question everyone was thinking.

The others agreed with this observation of hers.

Chu Yue however just smiled. She looked at Qin Jiu and You Huo and gave them a wink.

You Huo froze for a moment before suddenly understanding.

If there were so many loopholes in the early stages, the system would not have been able to develop into its current state and be able to drag more and more people in each year.

These loopholes and bugs have either appeared later or they were created by someone.

It wasn't hard to guess who was involved.

He, Qin Jiu, Chu Yue and the others who have been punished accordingly must have done something.

It was just that they themselves had forgotten.

But in addition to that, there should be something more critical——

He thought about the message 021 passed to him——-

[Go to the rest stop. Find a thing and a person.]

He had now recovered a part of his memory and he was certain based on his intuition alone that the person he should be looking for is Chu Yue.

But what about the thing?

Seeing Chu Yue's action, she should probably know.

"Where is this place where you can talk without a worry?" Qin Jiu asked out loud.

He was sitting on the arm of the sofa next to You Huo and he took in the room's layout.

You Huo noticed that he was looking very carefully; the floor, tabletop, corners…..Not a single spot was missed. Most of that action was out of curiosity.

It was as if he could better understand the owner of the house by looking at these small details.

He suddenly lowered his head and asked You Huo, "This is where you used to live?"

You Huo made a sound of confirmation and immediately added: "The layout is different."

"Those messy toys and marbles weren't there, there also aren't any of those extravagant mirrors." You Huo furrowed his brows and said with distaste, "The sofa wasn't this colour and those cushions didn't have those flowers."

He harshly picked out the differences and let out a low sound of disapproval but when he looked up again, he saw that Qin Jiu was laughing.

You Huo: "...…"

You Huo face gradually turned cold. Qin Jiu finally said, "Your harsh criticisms just now gave me a feeling——-"

"What?"

"It's as if you're worried that I would misunderstand your taste."

"...….."

You Huo carried a cold expression and looked at him with a "how can you be so narcissistic" gaze before crossing his arms and leaning back in the sofa. He no longer wanted to talk about his "review of the interior home design."

He said to Chu Yue, "There is a room in the basement. Were you referring to that?"

"Basement?" Chu Yu was stunned for a moment, "You mean your confinement room?"

The moment he heard the word confinement room, Qin Jiu looked back at You Huo.

"There's a confinement room downstairs?" Shu Xue was surprised.

"There is one."

"Why is there a confinement room here?" Shu Xue pointed at You Huo, "Didn't you say that this was...where he lived before? Wait a minute, why would he have a place in the system?"

Time was tight earlier, and they were in too much of a hurry.

Shu Xue was only focused on remembering the villa's appearance and didn't think much about Chu Yue's words.

As for Old Yu and the others, they didn't hear the majority of the conversation, so they also didn't think about it.

But now, they suddenly remembered.

Chu Yue looked at the person with memory loss and sighed, "Let me explain. It's like this...The two of us can be considered to be the very first people to come into contact with the system and were in the first batch of invigilators. His rank was A, I was Z; one at the front, and one at the end. We held the highest authority. He was an invigilator and was responsible for matters in the examination rooms while I didn't invigilate and was mainly responsible for matters behind the scenes, so I didn't encounter too much trouble. It was different for him. He would often run into some troublesome examinees and would need to ensure the safety of others while handing out appropriate punishments according to the systems rules."

Chu Yue said: "Some examinees were particularly difficult to deal with and would dare to do anything to violate the rules. They would always violate the rules just as the exam ends and would even finish their punishment tasks in advance. In the end, the system was left with no choice and could only forcibly establish a confinement room in the main invigilator's basement to meet the punishment requirement and to prevent them from being let off too easily. That's why there is such a place."

She pointed at a wooden staircase not far away and said, "There——It's over there. Back then, anything that had to be added, changed or removed in the invigilator's district will have to go through me so I am very clear about it."

No wonder she knew where this house went.

You Huo thought this.

But he then thought of something else....

Then when adding a separate bathroom in the confinement room, it also went through Chu yue???

You Huo's expression instantly turned wooden.

After Chu Yue answered straightforwardly, Shu Xue and the other two ladies were very surprised, but they quickly accepted it.

Yu Wen was different.

This classmate who had just been struck down by "his brother has a boyfriend" had not yet recovered and was once again struck down by "his brother used to be the head of the invigilators".

As for Old Yu, perhaps it was because it was too much of a shock, he didn't have much of a response from the second attack.

The father and son due laid on the sofa like a corpse.

Chu Yue however said to You Huo, "But the place I'm talking about isn't the confinement room. Who would want to sit in there to chat? Even if the system moves the house here, a confinement room is still a confinement room. The effect may be a little weaker but as soon as you go in you would be too busy crying to talk."

You Huo only now remembered that the confinement room was an exception only for himself and Qin Jiu.

But it wouldn't be so peaceful for the others.

"Then what place are you talking about?"

Chu Yue said, "It's not a confinement room, but it does have something to do with it. Do you know that street we were all just on? Every street would have a house like this. This means that there will be more than two thousand copies of your place in this exam centre. The larger the number, the easier it is to make a mistake...."

When the system moved the house over, Chu Yue had yet been completely stripped of her authority. She secretly did something to it just like how You Huo and Qin Jiu had tried to in the past.

"There is a rather special place in this examination centre. It was caused because there were too many confinement rooms in one place when the building was moved and replicated." Chu Yue described it, "It should be a small space hidden inside the house....For example when you open a wardrobe and instead of hangers there are tables and chairs. It's something along the lines of that. Do you understand? It's a place that looks like a confinement room but doesn't function as one."

".....Is it okay saying this now?" Wu Li was concerned about other matters.

"The exam has already started so according to the rules the exam centre cannot be changed." Chu Yue said, "So it doesn't matter for now, but we might suffer once the exam is over."

"Alright then." Qin Jiu said, "Let's look for that place."

Everyone got up and started rummaging through the house with clear division of labour.

You Huo and Qin Jiu were in charge of the east side of the first floor and the basement.

They turned over the cabinets, fridge, cupboards and searched through anything that looked like they could pass through, but they found nothing.

After wandering around, they found themselves standing at the door to the confinement room.

The confinement room here was different to those in the invigilator's place. It didn't require keys to open and there was instead a fingerprint lock next to the door.

The so-called hidden space could possibly exist somewhere inside the confinement room.

So, they still have to check it.

Shirley and Sali closely followed them down. Standing on the last step, they said unison, "That door won't open. Don't bother wasting your energy."

You Huo glanced at them and pressed his thumb on the fingerprint scanner.

Then with a "beep", the sealed room opened without a hitch.

"It didn't take much energy." Qin Jiu commented.

He and Qin Jiu walked in one after another and closed the door behind them.

The two question subjects were left standing outside without a shred of dignity.

Qin Jiu stopped before the door and his eyes scanned across the bed by the wall, the simple arrangement of table and chair.…..He took in every detail.

Unlike those years back then, the confinement room now would gradually change into another scene soon after they enter – for example Qin Jiu would always see that ruin site – so they didn't have much time.

You Huo walked straight to the separate bathroom and opened the door to look in.

"Not here. We can go."

His expression was the same as usual. He turned around to leave.

But Qin Jiu didn't move.

You Huo walked past him and moved to open the door.

Qin Jiu suddenly turned his head and said, "Mr. Invigilator, I have a question."

"...…What?" You Huo's action stopped.

"When I came here before, was it really only confinement?"

KK has something to say:

*Ahem* Allow me to answer that for you Qin Jiu: NOPE. It wasn't just confinement hehehehe ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)