"New students?" Wen Qing leaned his head next to Chen Yang. He glanced at the words on the blackboard with a look of surprise on his face. "First year of high school." He scratched his carefully groomed hair a few times. "What should I do? I'm so nervous. I'm not very good at pretending to be young."
The next moment, he raised his head and chest, put his legs together, stood straight, and said loudly and energetically: "Classmate Chen, classmate Jin, it's nice to meet you. I hope we can work hard together and make progress together in the rest of our high school life!"
Chen Yang looked at Wen Qing's flushed face and pure eyes full of expectations for the future. The corners of his mouth twitched fiercely. He was worthy of being the best actor stamped by Zheng Zhiqin himself. He got into the role so quickly.
The surroundings were very quiet. Chen Yang stood in the corridor and looked downstairs. There was no sound at all. The school was like an empty shell.
"Where were you when you came in?" Chen Yang turned around and asked his two teammates.
"On the stairs on the second floor." The hipster was peeling gum.
"Then which floor is this?" Chen Yang reached down along the half-person-high corridor. Suddenly, a strange voice sounded from behind. The voice was gorgeous and profound. "The fourth floor."
Even though Chen Yang is not a voice control enthusiast, he still felt his ears numb. This kind of voice can be remembered after listening to it once and is difficult to forget.
"Student Jin has a voice that can make people's legs go limp." Wen Qing curled his lips sourly, "I can't envy him, there's no comparison."
Chen Yang glanced at his new teammate who was almost as tall as Xiangdong. It seemed that the other party had seen many literary and artistic performances and was used to it.
"This time the mission is set in a campus setting. The feelings of young people in their prime years are always poetic, which is very suitable for classmate Jin to perform. Please lead him." Wen Qing peeled off two more gums and put them in his mouth, chewing the three together. The strawberry flavor was rich and sweet.
"Be quiet, Qingqing." Jin Xiao pinched his mouth.
“Um… um… umm!” Wen Qing’s mouth was pinched into a duck’s mouth, and the swear words became blurred syllables. His small eyes stared at Jin Xiaochang.
I told you not to call me like that again, you’re dead, you’re absolutely dead!
Wen Qing was so angry that his blood boiled. His eyes turned excitedly towards Chen Yang. He was eager to expose something, but Jin Xiao covered his face with his long hand and pressed him against the wall.
Chen Yang quickly put the word "Qingqing" behind his mind and strode towards them: "Mr. Jin, Wen Qing..."
The voice stopped abruptly. Chen Yang looked at the half-outline of the man trapped in the shadows strangely. A bold and subtle idea exploded in his mind. He cautiously tried: "Lee?"
The atmosphere changed instantly.
Jin Xiaochang loosened his hand that was pinching Wen Qing's mouth, and slowly stroked his suit that had been wrinkled by him.
Chen Yang stared at the man closely, while Wen Qing crossed his arms and watched the show.
The strange silence lasted for a few seconds. Jin Xiaochang took off his sunglasses with one hand, smoothed his hair, turned his head to look at Chen Yang, his pair of green eyes were full of stories.
Chen Yang called out again, his tone becoming more determined: "Lee."
The man just looked at him without any other action. Chen Yang's rapidly beating heart gradually sank. He was prepared to be denied. Suddenly he heard the other party ask: "How did you recognize me?"
"Intuition." Chen Yang's mouth was dry.
"Intuition..." Jin Xiaochang muttered meaninglessly and put his sunglasses back on. "It's just luck."
Chen Yang did not comment. He had something more important to worry about now, something that mattered more than investigating the mission environment. At this moment, his emotional and rational sides were reversed.
"How is Chao Jian?" Chen Yang tried his best to suppress his emotions. "What treatment plan did you arrange for him?"
Jin Xiaochang said in a rigid tone: "I have professional ethics."
Chen Yang was patient and said humbly: "Then can you tell me if he is good or not?"
"I said yes, do you believe it?" Jin Xiaochang asked indifferently.
A look of shock appeared on Chen Yang's thin face.
"You already have the answer, but you still ask this question. You like to deceive yourself and escape reality." Jin Xiao paused for half a second, "I'm used to it."
Every stroke of the last two words was filled with criticism and disdain.
Chen Yang's temples twitched slightly. During that video call, he felt the panic of meeting the parents. He imagined that the parents thought he had kidnapped their child and resented him for a long time. They wanted to write a check to him at any time. However, for some reason, the other party could not do anything. They could only dislike him but could not kill him. Later, he learned that Chao Jian's family was gone, and he had no chance to meet his parents. Now it is confirmed that Lee is Jin Xiaochang, the new teammate this time. The strange thing is... He still felt the restraint and uneasiness of his boyfriend's parents who were very dissatisfied with him.
There are too many strange things, one more is not too much, one less is not too little. Chen Yang did not think deeply about it. He was disappointed that Jin Xiaochang would not tell him about Chao Jian's condition.
Chen Yang turned to the young man who was still watching the show and said coldly, "You know everything."
"I have to clarify this, the word 'all' is not quite appropriate." Wen Qing blew bubbles. In the past few years, he only used the surname "Shao" to show off when the Shao family needed him. The rest of the time, he stayed in Qingcheng. But he didn't like staying in one place all the time. It was boring.
Two months ago, Wen Qing was planning to move to a new place. He casually mentioned it to a man named Jin, and the other party gave him a house as a gift.
Wen Qing had never lived in an old house before, so he was very surprised. He immediately sent someone to arrange for him to move in. The next day, Wen Qing went to borrow salt from the neighbor opposite and found that the neighbor was Chen Yang. His sensitive cognition instantly made him realize that something was fishy.
The man named Jin plotted against him, but he finally chose to be plotted against because he loved playing games the most.
As a member of the game, Wen Qing's task is to watch over Chen Yang and record every detail of his lovesickness until Chao Jian returns.
As for the recorded part, it was sent to Jin Xiaochang. He didn't know what it was used for and he was too lazy to care.
Wen Qing told Chen Yang about his mental journey: "That's what happened. I am innocent."
Chen Yang didn't say anything. Why did Jin Xiaochang want him to go through this painful process? To show it to Chao Jian? What was his motive and purpose? Could it be that he wanted Chao Jian to know that Chen Yang liked him more than Chen Yang thought.
Could it be like this? Chen Yang pursed his dry lips and told Jian that he was both an antidote and a poison. Would the attending doctor also include him in the treatment plan
"Then do you know Chao Jian's situation?" Chen Yang asked Wen Qing in a low voice.
"Ayang, the fact that you asked me this question shows that you didn't listen to two-thirds of what I just said to you. I didn't even know that the man surnamed Jin had an alias." Wen Qing sighed. He met Chen Yang's confused eyes and sighed again, "Can you understand what I mean? The man surnamed Jin only told me that Chao Jian was his friend and did not reveal their doctor-patient relationship. Alas, I was kept in the dark too. I always thought he was a forensic doctor and his knife skills were amazing, but I didn't know that he was actually a psychologist." Wen Qing looked as if he was doubting his life.
Chen Yang glanced at Jin Xiaochang next to him. He had a head of naturally curly hair, but it made him look far from cute and soft. Both his body shape and contours had strong masculine characteristics, but he was still very... beautiful. Really beautiful.
In fact, there are other words to describe it, but that word is the most direct and impactful.
-pretty.
Jin Xiao has a very fair complexion, which is different from Chao Jian’s. Chao Jian’s is cold, while Jin Xiao’s is weathered.
This man walked out of the dim video window and stood in the sunlight, exuding the aura of someone who had lived for centuries from head to toe.
However, he did not have the kindness and easy-going nature of an old man. His fierceness was in his bones and would show up from time to time, cutting you and making you bleed on the spot.
"Mr. Jin looks a bit like Chao Jian." Chen Yang suddenly blurted out a sentence for no reason. He thought about it carefully and felt that they were not alike. Jin Xiao looked like a European mixed-race. His facial features were too three-dimensional and deep, as if they were carved out inch by inch. Chao Jian's appearance was more like flowing clouds and water, without any traces of carving. However, they both had a strong ancient and noble aura, as if they were from the same batch of oil paintings in the last century, which was very ornamental. Just when Chen Yang was thinking this, Wen Qing asked in surprise, "You discovered it too?"
"When I first saw Chao Jian, I thought his eyebrows and eyes looked like Jin Xiao's." Wen Qing shrugged, "But I suspect that their looks are similar when they reach a certain level."
Chen Yang: “…It’s not impossible.”
He can enter the mission world from Penang, and Wen Qing can also come in when attending a dinner abroad, which means that missions can be accepted anywhere, provided that they have a Qingcheng household registration.
From this, it can be inferred that Jin Xiaochang is most likely from Qingcheng. Chen Yang pretended to casually look for Wen Qing to confirm.
"I don't know. He is a very cunning man. He is very shrewd and cunning. I asked him and he said that only Mrs. Jin could know his household registration. Is that human language?" Wen Qing winked at Chen Yang. "I'll tell you when I can see his household registration book."
Chen Yang: “…”
He looked at Jin Xiaochang's back again. He must find a way to ask about Chao Jian's condition before completing this mission.
Wen Qing approached Jin Xiaochang and asked, "What do you think about your vest falling off?"
"Look down." Jin Xiao glanced at the young man who was only as tall as his shoulder.
"…" Wen Qing blew bubbles at him, "Is Chao Jian dying? Tell me, I won't tell Chen Yang, I promise."
Jin Xiao curled his pale lips and said with an ambiguous tone: "Qingqing, you didn't ask before, why are you pretending to be a good person now? Are you challenging yourself?"
The hipster took off the man's sunglasses and put them on his own face. His nose was not straight enough and his features were not three-dimensional enough, so the sunglasses made him look funny.
"Every time you call me that, I want to stuff this into your mouth." There was a coin between Wen Qing's fingers.
The curve of Jin Xiao's long lips disappeared.
The literary young man Jin Xiao looked at him, and the big pink bubbles around his mouth deflated immediately. This man's eyes seemed to be connected to the depths of the forest, dark and ancient, and if you look at it for a while longer, you will be trapped by the maze floating out of it.
"Why hasn't anyone come yet? It's so boring." Wen Qing pushed his sunglasses on his face and complained.
Chen Yang collected his messy thoughts: "It will be soon, it won't be just the three of us." He glanced at the doorplate of the classroom, which was blank with no words on it.
There were rows of wooden tables and chairs in the classroom. The tables were double-person, and the chairs were separate, with two long benches. Chen Yang counted the seats, thirty-six.
Chen Yang remembered that when he was in high school, there were many students in his class. They all had single desks. There were three groups in the classroom. The middle group had four people in a row, and the groups on the left and right sides of the wall had two people sitting together.
This classroom is also divided into three groups, with two people in each group, for a total of six rows.
"Oh, someone's coming." Wen Qing was like a brothel owner who had finally seen a customer. He excitedly went up to them and said, "Here they come!"
"Teammate, we are here, here! here! here! here!" Wen Qing shouted towards the stairs.
The footsteps coming up the stairs were approaching the fourth floor. This time there were three people. The one walking in front was a thin man, and there were two girls following behind him.
The man was wearing a white shirt and casual pants, and his proud temperament was mixed with a bit of bookish air. Chen Yang was neither unfamiliar nor familiar with him. He only knew that he was suspected to be Xiangdong's old lover.
Bai Tang stopped and looked at Chen Yang, his peach blossom eyes slightly widened.
When the two girls saw that Bai Tang was not leaving, they immediately started sobbing. One of the girls with big round earrings asked timidly, "Bai, Professor Bai, what's wrong?"
Bai Tang shook his head slightly, walked over, and introduced himself in a cold and clear voice.
Chen Yang got the information he wanted from it. Bai Tang was an old tasker, doing the task for the third time, and the ones who came up with him were his students, both of whom were newcomers. The two girls were best friends.
"Professor Bai, what do you teach?" Chen Yang asked an important question considering the mission environment.
"History." Bai Tang responded. Personal matters should not be brought into the mission world. Besides, he had misunderstood. This person had no emotional connection with Xiangdong.
Chen Yang frowned. As for history, the liberal arts class had the advantage. However, the task started with the "enrollment of new students" and no one knew what would happen next.
"Hello, Professor," Wen Qing said with a happy smile, "Professor Bai, I'm counting on you."
Bai Tang thought his teammate meant that if he needed to answer questions, he should do more, but the other party said, "Whether the task is fun or not is up to you, please."
“…” Bai Tang’s first impression of Wen Qing was that he was a game player.
Bai Tang observed the mixed-race man not far away, the mysterious person with special abilities, inconspicuously. After he defined him, he breathed a sigh of relief. This mission might be easier than the previous two.
The pair of girlfriends who were struggling on the edge of collapse were also looking at the mixed-race man. When he turned his face to the side, they held each other's hands tightly and held their breath. They didn't expect that they would see the top handsome man in their nightmare.
After a while, two more taskers appeared in the corridor, the two brothers of the Qian family.
Qian Qin didn't react much to working with Chen Yang again, but Qian Han seemed much more excited.
Wen Qing snorted at Chen Yang: "What's going on? There are five people in total in two groups, three of whom are people you know, and none of them are me."
"It's nothing we can do about it." Chen Yang said, "We can't rely on anyone at the critical moment." He didn't reveal the brothers' style of doing things, otherwise Wen Qing would be so excited.
"It's better to rely on yourself than on others. Life or death is decided by yourself." Wen Qing suddenly looked behind Chen Yang.
Chen Yang turned his head as if aware of something. It was a fat white man with a shaved head, in his early thirties. He appeared out of nowhere and had just arrived.
"Where is this?" The man looked at Chen Yang and the other eight people. "A TV show?"
"Why can't I see the photographer?" He looked around in the corridor and stretched his head into the empty classroom. "Are you all celebrities? Where is the director? I won't participate in reality shows! Not even if you pay me! Send me back now!"
Chen Yang had done so many missions, but this was the first time he heard such a statement. Seeing Wen Qing staring at the man, he asked curiously, "Your old teammate?"
Wen Qing raised his lips and said, "No."
Chen Yang looked at Wen Qing twice. If that’s not the case, then why are you smiling so happily
"Of course I'm happy. When playing games, old players don't mean much. We still rely on new players." Wen Qing walked slowly towards the man who was still looking for the camera, "What's your name, sir?"
"Ah? Oh, my last name is Lin, Lin Chengye, Cheng means to undertake, and Ye means career." Lin Chengye said seriously, "Brother, can you take me to see a director? I don't want to be on TV."
"Why don't you want to be on TV? That would be great, you'd become famous." Wen Qing looked puzzled.
"I, I'm just an ordinary person, I don't know anything." Lin Chengye waved his hands in panic, "I really can't do it, I..."
"This is an amateur show." Wen Qing interrupted, "The director specially found amateurs from all walks of life to come to Kong School to record it."
Bai Tang couldn't stand the way the intellectuals were fooling the newcomers, so he spoke up to explain.
Lin Chengye was shocked after hearing this: "Isn't this a show? What task?" He felt his pocket as Bai Tang instructed, and blankly took out the white card and turned it over. "Impossible, impossible, impossible... Help!" Lin Chengye screamed in despair and rushed downstairs.
Chen Yang was on the fourth floor watching Lin Chengye running towards the school gate. A literary man's laughter rang out beside him: "According to normal rules, if he runs out of the school gate, it means the mission has failed and he will most likely be blown to pieces. But there is no way he can run away."
Sure enough, Lin Chengye stopped halfway, his safety awareness stopped him.
Soon, the task participants came one after another to gather at the door of the empty classroom on the innermost left side of the fourth floor.
There are twenty people on this mission, ten men and ten women.
Chen Yang rubbed his forehead. If they were the freshmen of this year, that meant there were still sixteen students who had not arrived.
"Only twenty people, so few." Wen Qing leaned against the edge of the concrete corridor and shook his head and sighed, "I wonder when we can play games with more than fifty people."
Jin Xiaochang asked abruptly: "Qingqing, what do you think of Chen Yang?"
"You're so annoying, Qing." Wen Qing glared at Jin Xiao gloomily and replied reluctantly, "I'm kind but not saintly, I'm careful but not weak, I'm decisive but not reckless."
"You gave him such a high evaluation? Did the chewing gum stick to your brain?" Jin Xiao glanced at Chen Yang who was asking for task instructions, "No matter how I look at it, it's below the passing line."
"That's because you are prejudiced." Wen Qing said it all.
Chen Yang didn't notice the sight of Jin Xiaochang and Wen Qing. He observed his teammates one by one, whether they were working together for the first time or the second time, and repeatedly asked, "Who got the mission prompt?"
Again no one spoke.
Someone must have gotten the hint, Chen Yang's intuition told him so. He walked in front of everyone with a good attitude: "This is a group task, the hint is very important, if anyone got it, please share it."
"Especially for text-based prompts, the more people know about them, the more ideas and thoughts they will have. We can also analyze what the prompts represent as much as possible to reduce the number of deaths."
Chen Yang spoke sincerely, and a young man's voice came out from the team: "I... I got it."
Some people cursed angrily, some complained in low voices with contempt, and the whole place was noisy.
The boy's name was Zeng Jin. He became the target of everyone's criticism. He was scared and embarrassed, and his face turned red. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hide it. I just... I haven't gotten used to it yet. This is also the first time for everyone to see it..."
"Okay, okay, it's nothing. It's normal for teammates to not trust each other and be on guard." Wen Qing smiled, "When necessary, they will even push their teammates out as targets. Stay calm."
The noise disappeared instantly.
"Zeng Jin, right? I remembered your name when you introduced yourself. Jin means academic progress." Wen Qing patted the boy's shoulder.
Zeng Jin trembled every time he was tapped, and he stuttered as he revealed the task hint.
If you don't learn, don't delay others.
The corridor was silent.
"This..." Chen Yang said thoughtfully, "I heard this quite often when I was in school."
Qian Han, who was standing with his brother, raised his hand weakly: "I was told that."
Someone else chimed in: “I’ve been told that, too.”
"I also… "
A little over half of the twenty people had their faces humiliated and their self-esteem trampled upon by that sentence, but despite the shame they refused to change.
"What this reminder means is..." Qian Han pulled at his curly straightened hair, "We can't whisper during class? Brother, have you thought of anything?" He touched his brother, and the others looked over.
Qian Qin's stern face showed an expression of "I don't understand what you are talking about". There is no such sentence in the world of academic masters. It is his blind spot in knowledge.
Chen Yang looked at the two brothers calmly. The elder brother was introverted and dull, while the younger brother was lively and simple. These were all superficial phenomena. He retracted his attention and asked, "Does moving chairs loudly in class count as disturbing other people's studies?"
Bai Tang groaned: "Forget it."
"What else? Professor Bai, you are the only teacher in the team, you can try to think from your perspective." Wen Qing looked expectant.
Bai Tang immediately became the focus. He pursed his rosy lips slightly and said in a clear voice: "I have never said anything like that to my students, even if it's similar."
The two best friends nodded hurriedly to testify, yes, our professor is cold on the outside but warm on the inside and has a soft heart.
“… is a good teacher.” Qian Han sighed inappropriately, “It’s great to be your student.” He was a poor student and had suffered many injuries.
"Everyone has studied, think about it. Besides not talking to classmates during class and not moving chairs loudly to avoid making harsh noises, there are other things. Please, think about it quickly, I don't want to die!" Some people in the team have poor ability to withstand pressure and are going crazy before they even start the task.
No one has given me a solution, and I can't think of one no matter how hard I try.
Jin Xiaochang's action of unbuttoning his cuffs suddenly stopped, and his green eyes turned towards the stairs. Next came Chen Yang and Wen Qing, who moved in sync.
"You're slow to react, Qingqing." Jin Xiao frowned.
Wen Qing twisted his face and said, "What are you talking about? I just want to go back instead of forward and I can't do it."
Jin Xiaochang's brows furrowed even more tightly.
"He has made progress." Wen Qing looked at Chen Yang and smiled with amusement.
Chen Yang stared at the stairs and counted in his mind. At the thirteenth second, a figure appeared in his sight.
He was a man with glasses, a beer belly, wearing a gray-blue striped jacket, and holding a teacup in his hand.
"Why don't you go into the classroom? What are you doing in the corridor?"
The teacher is here! Chen Yang suddenly thought of something. He turned around and saw that there was a word on the door number of the empty classroom.
—Grade 1 (Class 1)
"Come in, everyone, and don't disturb others in the corridor." The teacher shouted and walked into the classroom.
The twenty people in the corridor had different reactions. Even at this moment, some people still thought it was a prank arranged by a program crew and refused to face this nightmare.
Chen Yang was the first to walk towards the classroom. The moment he entered, he heard chaotic screams of fear from behind him, as if he had seen a ghost.