In the children's room there were two small mounds; one on the upper and one on the lower bunk.
As someone else had taken over their job, Sali and Shirley are once again sleeping very peacefully.
On the grey carpet, You Huo was asleep with half the duvet over him.
He was lying on the side with one arm under his head and the other resting outside the duvet. His fingers were curled around empty space.
Before falling asleep, in order to prevent the same thing that had happened to Yang Shu to happen to Qin Jiu, You Huo had specially grabbed the other party.
He grabbed him as if he really meant it, as if he would really wake up if Qin Jiu made any movements.
Yu Wen burst into the room like his butt was on fire He collapsed before You Huo and frantically shook him, "Brother! Wake up brotherrrr!"
He didn't actually hold any expectations towards You Huo waking up. Afterall, his brother sleeps like he was in a coma.
What's more, there was still the buff from the exam schedule helping. If normal people were to be sleeping soundly, his brother would basically be "resting in peace".
Thud, thud, thud. The baske—-no, the rubber ball casually moved up the stairs before stopping at the door.
Yu Wen felt that his own heartbeat was too deafeningly loud. It was so loud; it could almost be heard from across the room.
Qin Jiu was completely on a different level to Shirley.
Even as a villain, he maintained his devil-may-care demeanour and even politely knocked on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
Every sound of it was filled with civility.
Yu Wen swallowed nervously. He claps his hands together and bowed at You Huo before quickly burrowing in behind You Huo.
When the third knock sounded, the door opened with a creak.
Qin Jiu lowered his head and entered the room.
"Brother——-Brother Qin! Brother Qin Jiu! Don't catch me, please don't catch me!" Yu Wen hastily tried to pick You Huo up, "Look at who this is? This-this super handsome face. You recognise it right?!"
Qin Jiu lifted his chin and lazily bounced the ball as he tilted his head to look at You Huo.
When this Mr. 001 tilted his head, his killing aura didn't diminish at all. It conversely became a little more dangerous.
He stared at him for a moment before his feet started to move again.
"Don't come over! Don't move!" Yu Wen raised his hand to stop him, "Look carefully. Please, I beg you. Look a little more carefully...."
Right at this moment, his only thought was that movies were all lies. What 'waking up the villain with some words'? What 'waking up your lover with your face'?
All bullshit.
Just as his despair was about to reach its peak…..
His brother moved!
His brother actually moved!
You Huo furrowed his brows and looked up with a look of annoyance from being woken up. He first looked at Qin Jiu and then turned back to look at Yu Wen.
What can be considered a 'miraculous recovery'?
This is!
Yu Wen was so excited, he was almost about to cry. He grabbed one of You Huo's arms and said, "Brother, you're finally awake! Brother Qin was assimilated by Shirley and he wants to kill me. It's so fucking scary!"
You Huo looked at him with half-lidded eyes and didn't answer.
"Brother?" Yu Wen felt that something wasn't right and called out to him again.
You Huo still didn't respond.
He kneaded his neck and stretched a little before licking his lips and saying with a slightly hoarse voice, "So hungry."
Yu Wen: "..."
Yu Wen: "........."
God wants me dead.
***
Early in the morning, the phone vibrated for a very long time.
You Huo reached out and patted around. When he found his phone, he opened his eyes and checked the time: 8:42am.
He threw away his phone and closed his eyes again.
Qin Jiu was still sleeping next to him. His body temperature that travelled over to him gave him a reassuring feeling and the people around also weren't making a ruckus so it was a perfect moment to get more sleep…..
He laid there for a few more seconds before suddenly sitting up.
He kicked Qin Jiu's calf and said in a hoarse voice, "Don't be lazy, get up."
That sentence sounded strange when it came out from his mouth.
The moment Qin Jiu heard this; he opened his eyes.
He squeezed the bridge of his nose and sat up. Not yet fully awake, he leaned forward and pecked the corner of You Huo's lips, "What time is it?"
"Little past 8:40." You Huo answered.
Qin Jiu's actions stopped: "Past 8:40?"
"Yeah." You Huo pointed at the bed, "Those two brats have already left but you weren't woken up today?"
"Yeah, I actually didn't wake up and slept until now." Qin Jiu leaned over You Huo's waist and picked up the phone on the carpet. The alarm had gone off five times.
Under normal circumstances, he should've woken up the first time the alarm went off but for some reason he had actually slept through it.
The two of them washed up in the bathroom connected to the room before leaving.
The ends of Qin Jiu's hair still carried some water droplets. He rolled his sleeves up and walked over to the railing on the second floor to give his greetings to the others, but the living room was empty. Not a single shadow was around.
"Where are they? They can't still be asleep?" Qin Jiu turned around and asked.
"Not in the living room?"
"No."
You Huo glanced over and quickly strode down the stairs.
The master bedroom was used by the girls, so it wasn't convenient for he and Qin Jiu to enter. They could only knock on the guest room door.
"Yu Wen?"
You Huo knocked a few times but didn't receive a response.
"I'm coming in."
As he said this, he pushed the door open and looked inside. It was also empty.
The two looked at each other and seemed to have thought of something.
"I'll go upstairs, you downstairs." You Huo said this and strode up the stairs two steps at a time. He took down the two phones hidden in the corner and Qin Jiu also picked up the two on the first floor.
They had plugged it in to a power source and had set it to record overnight.
Four phones were arranged side by side on the coffee table. It replayed last nights events from various angles——
At 3:18am, a certain Qin and a certain You caught the screaming Yu Wen and threw him into a mirror in the corridor of the second floor.
At 3:20am, a certain You and a certain Qin caught the Shu Xue who came out to check on the situation and threw her into a mirror in the corridor of the second floor.
At 3:21am, the two caught Yang Shi and Wu Li who came to stop them and threw them into a mirror in the corridor of the second floor.
At 3:28am, a certain Qin caught Chu Yue who didn't know whether to laugh or cry and threw her into a mirror in the corridor of the second floor.
At 3:30am, a certain You caught the confused Old Yu and, with the cries of 'I'm your uncle!', threw him into a mirror next to the entryway on the first floor.
In just twelve minutes, they had caught them all.
At the end of the video, with the accompaniment of some static sounds, a certain Qin spun the rubber ball in his hand and turned to ask a certain You, "Still hungry?"
A certain You pushed open their room door, "A little full."
The door closed with a click.
You Huo pressed the pause button. He crossed his fingers and pressed it against his tightly pursed lips.
Qin Jiu pressed his elbow against his knee and used his hand to support his chin as he fell into thought.
These two both needed some time to calm down.
***
Inside the mirror, Shu Xue and the others sat on the sofa yet to recover from last night's shock.
"Hey, look at that. I knew it." Chu Yue was the only one who wasn't shocked. She pointed at the dark, foggy mirror and said, "They must be too embarrassed right now. One of those four phones is mine. No matter what, I'm going to keep this video. It'll definitely come into use next time when I need them to help with something."
Yu Wen murmured: "Luckily....."
"Mn? Luckily, what?" Chu Yue asked.
"Luckily, my brother isn't part of the exam, and Brother Qin also isn't part of the exam." Yu Wen said, "If they were, I would've died on the spot."
Chu Yue agreed, "That's true. I suddenly find the system really dumb. Why did it have to kick A out? If it converted him into an NPC, he would definitely become every examinees nightmare."
She paused for a second and added, "Oh, but that won't necessarily be the case. A single exam centre might not be able to hold him down."
"Speaking of which, didn't you guys also get assimilated? Why didn't you guys sleepwalk last night?" Yu Wen wondered.
"Probably can only choose one." Chu Yue said, "A lot of people may have a response during the day but when we're all asleep, those siblings probably only need one each."
"Is it random?"
"Probably the most affected person is chosen."
"What if it's the two of them again next time?"
"...."
The atmosphere suddenly turned heavy.
Yang Shu said, "So how long will this assimilation last? Don't tell me it's going to happen again tomorrow?"
"Do you even need to wait until tomorrow? You'll find out after the nap in the evening.
Recalling their experience of being thrown in, everyone's face turned green.
Yu Wen said, "Can I not go out? If I stay here longer, maybe I'll be the one sleepwalking next time."
Yang Shu was exasperated, "You're not afraid?"
Yu Wen pointed at the mirror, "Could it be scarier than those two?"
Yang Shu: "...…"
That's true.
The gods didn't answer to Yu Wen's wishes.
After You Huo calmed back down, he picked up the marker and got ready to let them out.
He randomly wrote an incorrect answer and crossed it out to let the teammates who were accidentally thrown in come back out.
"Forget about feeling guilty. It's enough to just leave me with the recording." Chu Yue grabbed her phone as soon as she came out and sat down on the sofa to replay it.
As she watched, she rubbed her stomach.
It wasn't just her. You Huo's stomach also wasn't feeling very comfortable.
"Oh right, where are those two brats?"
Noticing their actions, Yang Shu asked this.
"Don't know. Weren't there when I woke up."
Qin Jiu turned his head and looked out the window. The basketball court was also empty. There were no sounds of children's laughter.
"Couldn't have gone out to play." Chu Yue said, "With one person entering the mirror, little Sali's belly would bulge a little. After throwing all of us in, his stomach must be about to burst and, with us all coming out again, he is probably too busy crying."
"That's true. Then where are they?"
As they discussed, Chu Yue played through the recording at twice the speed.
On the screen, Qin Jiu placed the rubber ball in the corner and the two returned to their room to continue sleeping.
Everything seemed to have ended. The corridor was quiet again and the scene was still.
Chu Yue couldn't stop laughing. Just as she waned to replay it the third time, the ball in the corner suddenly moved.
You Huo was standing beside her.
He originally wanted to make this lady here delete that damned video, but he changed his mind when he saw this.
He bent down to look at the screen and reached out to enlarge the video.
The corner where the ball was placed now occupied the entire phone screen. You Huo could now see clearly the ball shaking left and right a few times before silently rolling into the dark.
From its location, that patch of darkness it entered was the side of the corridor that was closer to the master bedroom.
The next second, the door to the master bedroom was nudged open by the ball. The gap slowly grew bigger and bigger.
It was like a living creature that even knew how to open and close doors.
After entering, the door clicked shut. It was closed from the inside.
You Huo turned around and glanced at the paper on the coffee table.
The message on it suddenly stood out:
Shirley likes to play hide and seek and wait for her parents or guests to come find her. Her favourite place is the cabinet under the bed in the master bedroom…..
She had in fact been in that cabinet every day. It was just that no one had noticed.
KK has something to say:
Too OP…..