Exam Record

Everyone lightened their footsteps as they hurried upstairs.

You Huo asked Chu Yue with a low voice, "Have you looked at those drawers?"

Chu Yue answered: "Went through it when we first got here because we were looking for the hidden space, but I haven't checked it after that. The smell was a little strange."

Qin Jiu: "What was the smell like?"

"I didn't pay attention at that time and just found it unpleasant. It wasn't the smell of blood. If it was like that, I would've noticed it straight away." Chu Yue's expression wasn't very good.

Shu Xue and the other girls also had poor expressions.

Having slept with something hidden under their bed, who wouldn't feel uncomfortable?

As soon as they entered the master bedroom, Chu Yue pointed to one side of the bed, "There, that one. Two doors on each side and a total of four compartments."

It was indeed a good place to hide a person.

The cabinet doors were completely flat, not a gap was visible.

"How to open this door?" Yu Wen gestured with his hand, "There's no handle or a place to pull it out."

Just as Chu Yue wanted to answer, You Huo had already bent down. He knocked on the cabinet door and said, "Opens with both sides. Push them in."

"How did you know?" Chu Yue asked with surprise. "We only found out by accident that day."

You Huo answered, "Written in the diary."

The parents had left behind a thick diary. Except for the pages that were torn off, most of the content written were mundane and trivial.

You Huo had quickly glanced through it and they had happened to mention this cabinet in the diary.

They wrote in the diary soon after moving to this town that their neighbour was a craftsmen couple who are very good at their job and are very enthusiastic. The only drawback was that they can be a little hasty and a little careless.

This bed with cabinets, the bunkbed in the children's room as well as the wallpaper in the house were done by that couple.

But unfortunately, they had accidentally installed the cabinet doors inside out, and the wallpaper was also flipped.

[Mill and Walkey came over and apologised. They said that they would take it down and redo it for us but neither Matthew nor I thought it was necessary since those cabinets wouldn't be used often and the wallpaper will be replaced once it's worn. They still felt very apologetic and installed a spring shaft into the cabinet to allow it to open on both sides and they even bought a lot of small gifts for my soon to be born children. What lovely people!]

This was an excerpt from the diary. You Huo could still remember most of it.

After pushing open the cabinet door, a strange smell drifted out.

Everyone standing there smelt it. They covered their nose and stepped back.

"This is the smell." Chu Yue said, "Not pungent, but very unpleasant."

It was like old rubber and wet mud that had been left there for a long time.

The cabinet was very deep and the inside was completely dark.

Qin Jiu turned on the torch function on his phone, "Anything?"

"No, it's empty."

You Huo loosened his grip. With a sound, the spring shaft acted, and the cabinet door slowly closed on its own.

Yu Wen looked at the sisters who all have horrible expressions and felt the urge to protect them surge inside him. He walked over to the other side of the bed and said, "I'll take a look at this side."

Qin Jiu went over to the second set of cabinet doors and continued to illuminate it with his phone torch. He glanced at Yu Wen and asked, "You're not scared?"

"What's so scary about a rubber ball?" Yu Wen was full of confidence.

But when You Huo opened the door, his brother who was standing opposite the bed fell onto the ground with an alarmed cry.

Player Yu Wen performed a stunt as soon as he got online. As soon as he made an attempt to find the ball, he found one.

The ball sat inside the cabinet with a cartoon styled face drawn onto it. As the white light from the phone swept across, that face was seemingly looking straight at him.

When Yu Wen collapsed to the ground, the ball suddenly rolled out on its own.

Only then did he notice that there was more than one. There were actually two identical ones, both coming out of the cabinet one after the other.

"Where's the ball?"

You Huo came over to check. The cabinet was already empty.

"It went behind the curtains!" Yu Wen quickly jumped up and reached for it.

You Huo and Qin Jiu had already moved to pull aside the curtains.

There were two layers of curtains in the master bedroom; a white sheer curtain and dark green velvet curtain on the outside. The balls sat behind the curtains with only a small part of it revealed. In a blink of an eye, it once again disappeared completely behind the curtains.

It was like a child playing hide and seek. After sticking their head out and seeing that they were found, it quickly hid itself again and ran.

You Huo and Qin Jiu very simply held half the curtains each, preventing any of it from touching the ground.

The exposed parts of the wall had dirty handprints as well as ball prints, but there was nothing on the ground.

The ball was gone.

The building was suddenly filled with the sound of a little girl giggling.

It was clearly Shirley's voice, but it sounded more coquettish.

"Why does it sound like it's coming from downstairs, not here?" After Chu Yue said this, she rushed downstairs.

"It sounds like it's from the corridor." Qin Jiu said.

You Huo: "I hear it coming from here."

The laughter echoed from all parts of the building.

Everyone searched separately but even after running up and down the stairs several times and searching very single corner of the building, there was no trace of the balls.

But they had found something else instead.

They were all small bits and pieces but very detailed.

You Huo held up a tin of candy. There was a note stuck under the tin with Shirley's messy scrawl:

[Gift to Sali]

There were all kinds of candy inside. It was as if the candy was slowly accumulated and saved over time.

The tin was found behind their closet. There was an excessively large pink bow attached to it and a cartoon birthday cake.

It was unknown now long it had been left there. The tin had already rusted, and the note had faded. Some of the candy inside had also melted slightly so the sweetness could be smelt the moment the lid was opened. To You Huo it was rather sickening but it was something children would enjoy.

There were also toy building blocks which also had something written on it by Shirley.

[Sali 1]

[Sali 2]

[Sali's favourite]

[I like it too but depends if Sali wants it.]

....

Sali, Sali, Sali.

She was like an excited puppy. Marks were left everywhere but 90% of them were related to Sali.

Recalling the contents of the earliest diary they found…..She seemed to be very fond of this brother who had suddenly appeared.

But Sali didn't seem to like her that much.

When Qin Jiu went to search the cabinets a second time, he found a small message exchange.

The colours used were different and the writing was also different. The pair of siblings probably took turns hiding in there.

[Sali, are you still angry at me?]

[Angry.]

[Sali, can you not be angry?]

[No.]

[Sali, why are you angry again?]

[Because you took my place. You're always taking my place.]

[I haven't.]

[You have.]

[Haven't.]

[You have! You just don't know it. You always know nothing.]

[No, I don't.]

Qin Jiu: "..."

"What are you looking at?" You Huo had returned upstairs after looking around the house.

"Looking at a pair of repeating machines arguing." Qin Jiu got up.

"Found anything?"

"One is repeatedly saying that the other is in the wrong, the other is repeatedly saying that they're not." Qin Jiu straightened up and said, "Checked the three cabinets and didn't find anything. And you? Found anything?"

"Just went through the diary again." You Huo opened the book and turned it to a few pages he had folded the corners of, "I have been puzzled since before——-"

"You have times when you're puzzled?" Qin Jiu said.

You Huo clicked his tongue and looked at him.

Qin Jiu touched the corner of his mouth as he grinned, "I'll stop interrupting. You're puzzled and then?"

You Huo usually didn't speak much and would only speak a little more in front of him.

Qin Jiu enjoyed this treatment very much. He would always like to tease him to make him speak a little more and reveal more expressions.

"Occasionally puzzled." You Huo changed his words with a cold expression before continuing, "The reflection Shirley sees in the mirror turned out to be a brother. Don't you think it's strange?"

Qin Jiu actually understood what he meant but he wanted to tease him, so he continued to act dumb, "How is it strange?"

You Huo said expressionlessly, "You look in the mirror and see Qin Jiu No. 2 who has long hair and believe that is your younger sister. What do you think is strange about that?"

Qin Jiu: "..."

That example was too shocking. He couldn't continue with his teasing.

Only after seeing the colourful expressions on his face did You Huo feel satisfied enough to pass over the diary.

Several of the pages had been folded by him so he could turn to them immediately.

It was from a while back. Shirley's parents recorded:

June 6th

Mill and Walkley are still feeling bad about their mistakes and they sent some small gifts again. After learning that I have a boy and a girl due, the gifts they gave were all in pairs; clothes, building blocks, strollers, rubber balls…..There's too many of them. I have to make a list to record it all.

They're very lovely people.

June 27th

The doctor said that the boy in my stomach is not in good condition. I couldn't sleep all night. It was the same for Matthew.

July 8th

My little boy is in a bad state, but my little girl is very healthy. The doctor told me to mentally prepare myself.

I don't want to know what I should prepare myself for.

August 16th

My little boy disappeared.

August 30th

I have been having nightmares for the past half a month about my little boy crying.

The doctor told me not to be too upset.

How can I not be upset?

September 21st

I cried a lot this month.

The doctor said my little girl looks good and will be born smoothly.

It gives me some comfort hearing this.

September 27th

Matthew and I have reached an agreement that we won't mention the other child in the future lest Shirley finds out and becomes upset.

Shirley is the name Matthew chose yesterday hoping that she is a cute and beautiful little angel.

My little boy, I will keep you in my heart forever.

But sometimes…..

Only sometimes, I would remember the doctors words. He said that the little boy was absorbed by Shirley. I feel uncomfortable thinking that.

I still love her very much and so does Matthew.

....

The last folded page was much later, about three years later.

February 17th

Today the house is very messy. When Matthew was reading a story book to Shirley, Shirley suddenly grabbed his finger and said that she wanted an older brother.

Matthew fled back to the bedroom without finishing the story book.

I suddenly noticed that I haven't been very close to Shirley, neither was Matthew.

Perhaps Shirley felt too lonely and that's why she wanted an older brother.

After reading these entries, Qin Jiu suddenly understood what Sali meant by "You always take my place".

Why would Shirley suddenly reflect out a brother?

It was because Sali has always been with her.

Some say that mirrors can reflect your soul. It had managed to give Shirley an older brother…

And it also killed her.

They followed the laughter and searched around all afternoon before suddenly realising that Shirley was guiding them.

As she led them around, little by little, information about what happened to her was slowly revealed.

For the entire day, the system's broadcast had been very quiet. Only a series of death reports were made one after another late in the evening.

There were quite a lot of clues hidden in the building, so it wasn't difficult uncovering the answer. As such, there weren't many deaths due to answering the questions incorrectly. Most were from accidentally angering those two brats during the day.

The triggering factors for the fake Shirley to cry were very strange. For example, right now:

She and Sali who was nowhere in sight for the day had somehow soundlessly appeared on the stairs. Holding hands, they reprimanded the guests: "Why didn't you come looking for us?!"

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You Huo looked up from the diary. His expression wasn't very kind.

"We're playing hide and seek." Shirley said.

You Huo: "Oh."

Shirley saw that he wasn't giving her any reactions, so she turned and said to the others: "We are playing hide and seek today. You should be coming to look for us."

She bit her lip and didn't seem happy. After a pause, she forced another line out: "You're all busy looking for the ball and haven't paid attention to us."

Everyone's expressions were complicated. They didn't trust this pair of "siblings". They were almost certain that the real Shirley was probably stuffed inside the ball.

The fake Shirley again received another blow.

She glanced at Sali and finally said to Qin Jiu who was coming down the stairs, "We are playing hide and seek."

Qin Jiu: "Oh, you're done playing?"

Finally, a different response.

The girl's eyes lit up, "Not yet. Do you want to play with us?"

Qin Jiu came over and patted her head, "Go hide. I won't be looking for you anyway."

That was the last straw.

Shirley couldn't handle it anymore. She was instantly rendered into tears because of Qin Jiu.

She vented her anger on Qin Jiu and even caused a chain reaction. Chu Yue who was standing closest to him was also pushed into the mirror.

Chu Yue originally wanted to grab the frame of the mirror to save herself but she saw Qin Jiu wink at her.

Chu Yue: "?"

Deliberate?

What are you two planning now???

At the same time, a strange spectacle had occurred in the invigilator's place.

Generally speaking, there would be a place in the invigilator's place that deals with textually recording the details of the events in the examination. If anything abnormal was to happen, an invigilator could check it to determine the cause and effect.

But it was actually quite useless.

Afterall, if anything was to happen, it was usually accompanied by a rule violation. If they wanted to know the details behind it, the invigilators just needed to go directly to the examination centre with the notice. Seeing it in real life was more useful and reading it on paper.

And so, those records were often forgotten and left to gather dust.

But today was an exception.

Dozens of heads squeezed together as they stared at the computer screen. They carefully pulled up the details of the 197th examination centre.

They then saw the following paragraph:

Examinee name: You Huo

Examination ticket number: Unknown

First day of the exam

19:51pm

Event: Examinee You Huo failed to give Shirley a satisfactory answer causing the other party to cry. Declared dead.

Conclusion: 7/8 of examinee You Huo remains. The exam continues.

19:55pm

Event: Examinee You Huo failed to give Shirley a satisfactory answer causing the other party to cry. Declared dead.

Conclusion: 6/8 of examinee You Huo remains. The exam continues.

...…

The You Huo written here was like a cake. After some time, a part of him was gone and after some more time, another part was gone.

This continued until only 3/8 of him was left and the situation suddenly changed. After a wave of resurrections, You Huo had returned to 1.

And then it was the second day.

....

Looking at the record, this person was rarely whole.

The invigilator's expression had all turned green as they read through the records.

The invigilator who held the mouse scrolled down further and muttered: "I seem to have heard this name before. Where was it….."

When he reached the very end, a photo of the examinee suddenly appeared.

His first reaction was: Since when did the records include photos? Did it update?

Two seconds later, he belatedly cursed.

Isn't this fucking Invigilator A???

KK has something to say:

What kind of doctor tells a grieving mum that their twin daughter absorbed their twin brother?? WTF. It could at least be worded more nicely