Chapter Text
small changes in the chapter: the little twin girls and other irrelevant characters have been cut out to keep the people at a set of thirteen to fit the storyline better
from being in a five stars restaurant to a cold cabin for no reason. ke jin, joe and the mint essence turned to look at the subject of several assassinations with a look that said "who the fuck did you piss off this time?"
yan suizhi gave the lovely disciples a smile that invited death to tea.
ke jin and joe turned to access their communication devices to see where on god's holy land they were. because this place looked worse than wine city and neither of them were having it.
gu yan took a look around, it was an old cabin of literally ancient architecture.
their curiosity was even more piqued when a bunch of old, frail and sick people walked in. also a thug. but what made professor yan and gu more concerned was the clothing of a certain thug. too old fashioned.
"we cant access our comm devices." ke jin frowned,
"lets just ask to use someone else's-" joe began approaching a pregnant-seemingly harmless-woman but was stopped by gu yan.
"look at their dressing, we're foreigners here." he whispered.
"what-"
"ah- gu yan is right." ke jin lowered his voice subconsciously to gu's level, "they dont seem to have any comms devices on them and- look! that man is holding one of those ancient comm devices-!" he gestured to the aforementioned thug,
"a phone." professor yan intervened,
"yes- that!"
"wait, so we went back in time?" joe's eye twitched,
"perhaps."
so far the people entering the cabin seemed scared and afraid as though they didnt know what on earth was going on, the quad could only let out a sigh of relief when a rather tall and well put together young man stepped through the door, eyes cast downwards; he was followed by a younger boy and an old man.
soon as he entered, the old man seemed tipsy and intoxicated, and that he was- he immediatly threw up on the tall boy.
"PFFFT-" joe seemed to choke on something looking at the situation even kejin and professor yan turned their heads to chuckle. the one with better manners maintained a poker face,
"my darling mint essence, by any chance is that your long lost brother?" yan suizhi snorted, placing an arm on gu's shoulder to which gu yan pushed it away as though he was disrespected.
the old man who had just thrown up on this young man, his face went green and he seemed- scared. the three lawyers noticed this change in expression and their faces became solemn,
gu's eyes narrowed, he shook his head a little.
"ah brother-" the younger boy mumbled, "does anyone have a spare set of clothing?" he turned around and began asking around.
in the crowd a head popped up, it was a rather large man, he had pale skin and blond hair- he stood out amidst the crowd,
"ah?" he turned his head to the side, he looked at the man with soiled clothing and asked in english, "do you need a shirt?"
"shirt! yes, please!" the young boy clasped his hands together in front of the foreigner as he recieved a shirt from him. he thanked the man profusely handing it to his brother.
as the tall poker faced youth went to get changed the old man's face seemed to ease up a little, he thought to introduce himself, "ah im so sorry for that!"
"its alright," yan suizhi smiled,
"i suppose introductions are in place! see, that was my nephew! he's visiting us for a while, i was supposed to drop him off to the airport tomorrow so we went drinking and-"
"and he got drunk and stumbled taking me and brother you with him! when we tripped we wound up at this mountain." the boy finished the story.
"i see, interesting." yan suizhi nodded along, this son of an extrovert.
for the record, ke jin and gu yan had been holding joe hostage and filling his head with everything he should not fucking mention.
"you can call me old yu, this brat here is my son, yu wen." old yu grabbed the boy, messing up the boy's hair to which the kid responded,
"let go of me you old drunkard!"
"is that any way to speak to your father?!"
"may i ask what your nephew's name is?" yan suizhi smiled as though he was about to meet his brother in law.
"oh, he's you huo, he had only returned for two months and came to Harbin to find me during the National Day holidays. I was originally supposed to take him to the airport tomorrow morning. Haa.......It’s all my fault! Useless!”
"please dont beat yourself over it, all of us were dragged in by chance." yan suizhi smiled, joe and gu almost spat blood hearing yan suizhi's sweet tone.
"uhm, pardon, what is this place?" ke jin finally asked,
"ah?" old you stammered, "i dont know, we just... somehow ended up here, you were here before us."
"that is true..."
"what a shame... they all seem to be from rich families, how unfortunate for such youths to be here." an old lady commented,
"its a shame anyone ended up here, miss." yan suizhi smiled,
by now the nephew named you huo walked back into the room, all he said was muttering 'sleepy' and with that he laid onto the couch and well... slept.
"if only we could sleep that soundly." ke jin sighed, gu yan and yan suizhi sharing the sentiment.
suddenly a scratchy voice resounded throughout the cabin, it was an old school- sorry an ancient radio.
it was a monotonous, a bit pleasant voice but the words it said made people vomit blood.
[Welcome to Examination Centre 003712]
[It is currently 17:00 beijing time.]
[The exam will start in One Hour.]
[All examinees please enter the Examination Centre.]
immediately the place errupted in whispers. old yu volunteered to go look for a way out, he and his left whilst the nephew slept soundly.
a man got up and he spat, "exam?! exam your fucking mother, i'll tell you what you get for playing such petty fucking tricks on people!"
he went up to the radio under the eyes of everyone, he pried open the back of the radio,
[Examinees attempting to damage the system will be penalised.]
hearing this ke jin moved to stop the man but he had already pulled out the batteries.
looking as though he'd lost his mind, he rushed outside the cabin, joe subconsciously held ke jin's hand. a moment later they saw the body of the man fall off the roof through the window.
the cabin erupted in screams.
yan suizhi and gu yan turned to look at you huo who only covered his ears.
"how can he sleep in a situation like this..." joe mumbled,
"he must be exhausted..." ke jin sighed.
about half an hour passed. the three lawyers and the son of a billionaire began to discuss the situation among themselves.
during this time the radio kept repeating the same bullshit.
[it is now 17:30 beijing time.]
there it was again, beijing time. after some discussion they came to the conclusion that beijing was probably one of the ancient civilisations that existed a long time ago. they speculated that they were no longer on De Carma and decided to not bring up the planetary system in front of anyone lest they're found out.
[There are still 30 minutes till the exam starts, examinees please hurry to the examination centre.]
[Please enter the examination centre and avoid loitering outside.]
"old yu is still outside." ke jin mumbled,
"i'll go look for him." gu yan spoke up, yan suizhi just followed him to the door without a word.
soon as the two lawyers stepped outside they saw old yu and yu wen rushing to the cabin with fearful eyes, they made way for the two to walk inside,
"how is it?" yan suizhi asked,
"useless! we tried looking for an exit but everywhere we went after five minutes we'd end up at the beginning all over again!"
professor yan and student gu frowned at this information, "this isnt good."
the static of the radio resounded once more, the room reflexively fell into silence.
[all examinees have been admitted. the rules are as follows.]
[the exam is conducted within a set period of time.]
[after the exam starts the examinees cannot enter the examination centre. you may not leave the examination centre during the exam without permission. if there is an emergency you must follow the rules and leave with an invigilator.]
[apart from open book exams you cannot use mobile devices or other communication tools. please be considerate and turn them off.]
the four noticed everyone around checking their mobile phones and internally commented "play cool, play cool."
[The exam is point-based. Examinees must write their answer on the designated answer sheet (except in special circumstances) or the answer is invalid.]
"ugh, this brings back nightmarish memories." joe held his head, the cause of the nighmares- professor yan simply smiled.
"there, there." ke jin sighed, he looked around the others in the room were in discussion and everyone seemed to be minding their own business.
he saw the tattooed thug call over yu wen, not having a good feeling especially since the man had a swiss army knife in his hand, ke jin stepped up in front of yu wen,
"what do you need from him?"
"huh? who the fuck spoke to you?" the man scowled, immediatly pissing off joe who gave him a death glare and was about to roll up his sleeves,
"pardon? and who exactly are you to be calling out children from amidst a crowd?" oh the fucking shade.
the other three nodded in agreement of ke jin's actions.
"stop making me look bad! all im saying is that the kid seems like he knows how to do exams--" the man's gaze once again landed on ke jin, "actually, you look pretty young yourself, when did you give your exams huh? my memory's rusty we need someone to solve this."
"my...exams...?" ke jin blinked,
"... he's 32." joe face palmed.
"HUH?!" even people who werent invested in the conversation before, stared mouth agap. ke jin burried his face in his hands,
"...oh my god... YOU LOOK THE SAME AGE AS ME THOUGH!" yu wen screamed,
even joe had to admit, ke jin did look younger than most people, especially since he recovered he'd been livelier than ever. but then joe's gaze landed on yan suizhi.
very cheekily he out of the blue asked old yu, "hey old yu, how old are you?"
"huh? oh! haha! i'm not that old actually, its just the beer belly isnt it?" old yu laughed, "i'm fourty two!"
yan suizhi -43- died a little. gu yan saw the opportunity, elbowing yan's side he spoke, "you're supposed to be looking like that in this timeline."
"student gu, do you not value life anymore?"
gu yan simply chuckled,
"oh forget it!" the thug threw his arms up, "kid, can you do exams?"
yu wen pointed at himself, "huh?! me?!"
"of course he can!" old yu butted in,
"NO I CANT! I've literally been playing games 24/7 for the past three months!"
"oh but its just three months for you, all of us have completely forgotten-" the pregnant lady voiced,
"y-you dont understand i really cant!!" joe sympathised with yu wen, he was in a similar predicament during his university years. but he didnt dare voice his opinions in front of the demon teacher yan.
"Don’t you guys read novels or watch movies? Would it truly be an exam in this horror kind of setting? It’s probably just a cover!" yu wen was desperately grasping at straws here,
"cover for what?" professor yan smiled,
"How would I know? Anyway, people just die everywhere in horror movies. Who the hell would suddenly come and test you on maths and physics? Is this cabin built by the Ministry of Education?" yu wen ended the argument with an exhasperated "hah"
this one hah, after dozens of screams, a fucking hah woke up the sleeping beauty.
immediately after waking up, the man scouted everyone's expressions in the room, as though memorising their demeanor. as his eyes swept past joe, the little fool shivered a little,
"is something wrong?" ke jin asked slowly,
"... no its just... something seems off with him..." joe's instincts told him one thing, run.
"hm? doesnt he remind you a little of someone?" yan suizhi asked the young couple,
both of them turned to look at the mint essence and joe let out a little chuckle, "yeah, i'm probably overthinking."
the cursed radio spoke up once more,
[It is currently 18:00 Beijing time. The exam has officially begun.]
[As another reminder, examinees are not allowed to enter the centre after the exam has started and you cannot
leave without authorisation during the duration of the exam or you will be punished. The other examination rules are as per the standard.]
After it threw out a threat in passing, it paused for two seconds and said:
[Exam duration: 48 hours.]
[Subject: Physics.]
Yu Wen: “..............”
joe silently patted the young man's shoulder,
[We will now be distributing the exam papers and the answer sheets. I wish you all the best.]
"such a wonderful cover, isnt it, young man?" yan suizhi smiled, earning a sigh from his babysitte- student.
"that wall!" a pregnant woman screeched,
she pointed to a wall covered in some knife marks over an old fire stove.
where it was blank some words began to appear,
[Topic: A group of travellers came to a snow mountain.......
Exam details: The response will be collected every 6 hours. If no points are earned within 6 hours, you lose qualification to participate and will be evicted.]
Below that was a large blank area. It was like the response area in a test paper for answers to be written in.
"...fuck my life." yu wen silently whined,
suddenly a cold gust of wind blew into the cold cabin, everyone instinctively turned to the source, it was the mint essence's long lost brother.
he had opened a window,
"what the fuck are you doing?!" the thug screamed at him,
he only arrogantly casted him one look and said, "and who are you?"
"brother what are you doing?" yu wen who was visibly pushed forward by the father asked,
"checking the consequences of leaving."
with this he turned to toss out a can of heaven-forbid-what outside the window.
and the can disintegrated. the tips of his fingers too were bleeding a little,
"so, cant go outside?" joe commented,
"couldnt have guessed." yan suizhi snorted.
amazing start aint it?