Chapter 147 Higher Education Entrance Examination (VII)
The pain of impacting a physical object didn't occur. It was like suddenly passing through an invisible door. The light in front of Tang Xinjue's eyes suddenly changed, and his vision refocused in the new environment, finally outlining a long corridor.
She stopped and touched a wall behind her.
The corridor we came from was gone. We were blocked at the other end along with the invigilator who had almost caught up with us. No sound could be heard from us anymore.
But from another perspective, she couldn't go back the same way.
Since we are here, we might as well make the best of it. Tang Xinjue continued to walk forward, scanning the surroundings, and soon discovered that this place was almost identical to the corridor he had just walked through.
The only difference is that the direction of the classroom is completely opposite - if the wall at the end of the corridor is regarded as a mirror, then this is like another fifth-floor corridor in the mirror, a mirrored version of the original fifth floor.
The corridor was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, devoid of any sign of people or objects. Tang Xinjue began his observations from the nearest classroom on the right, noting that most of the exam room doors were tightly locked.
Except for the only door.
Tang Xinjue pushed open the door and walked into examination room 508.
The examination room was empty and silent. The neatly arranged tables and chairs were completely empty. Only the second-to-last row, against the wall, was occupied: a girl with short hair sat quietly there. Tang Xinjue noticed that she still had no arms.
When Tang Xinjue approached, the short-haired girl slowly raised her head. On her desk lay two pieces of paper. One was a blank exam paper with the title printed on it: [University Town's First Higher Education Entrance Examination].
The other one is the admission ticket, and only the word "Cai" can be clearly seen in the name column.
"Mr. Cai."
Tang Xin Jue spoke.
"You brought me here, is there something you want to tell me?"
There was no emotion in the girl's dark eyes. She looked at Tang Xinjue for a long time without saying a word, then suddenly stood up and walked out.
Tang Xinjue followed behind her.
After exiting the examination room and turning right, he found himself in the direction of the hall near the stairwell. As he approached, the details of the stairwell came into view, and Tang Xinjue saw a staircase leading upwards.
——In the original examination building, the fifth floor was the highest floor with no access upwards.
Obviously, the layout of this mirror corridor is not like this at this time.
The girl with short hair walked very fast, especially when she was near the hall and the stairs, her speed was obviously faster.
Tang Xinjue immediately realized something, took two steps at a time and rushed forward, accurately grabbing the corner of the girl's clothes.
"Thank you for your help."
She said softly and politely.
The girl pursed her lips and said nothing, nor did she shake off Tang Xin Jue. When they stepped onto the stairs leading to the higher floors, the girl's already light legs floated upwards as if gravity had been removed, indirectly pulling Tang Xin Jue, who was holding on to her clothes, with them.
"Sizzle—hiss—"
From the moment he stepped onto this staircase, the originally peaceful environment suddenly changed ! A chilly gust of wind howled and rolled up from the ground. The temperature around him was as low as if he were in a freezer. All kinds of unknown and unusual noises came from all directions, and the icy air even licked the back of Tang Xinjue's neck several times.
Taking advantage of the girl's speed, Tang Xinjue quickly climbed the stairs, ignoring all the sounds around him, without even moving his eyes outside. In just a few moments, he stepped onto the sixth floor.
Snap. Footsteps landed with a soft thud, and all the noise around them instantly vanished, leaving only the frozen, numb limbs as evidence of what had just happened.
Tang Xinjue touched the back of his neck, his hand was bright red.
——Highly aggressive, highly dangerous, and potentially fatal.
After quickly coming to these conclusions, Tang Xinjue covered the wound on his neck with his collar and calmly continued to follow the short-haired girl.
There is no spacious lobby or corner on the sixth floor. The long solid walls block the view, and one has to look carefully to notice the two narrow corridors on the left and right.
The girl walked into the left corridor. There was no light in the corridor, and the walls seemed to be squeezed down at any time. Tang Xinjue had to release his mental power to track her in order to keep up with her.
But even so, she still paused slightly at a distance of more than ten meters.
The girl disappeared.
The dark corridor, completely devoid of all light, left no room for vision. The short-haired girl seemed to have vanished into thin air. His mental power couldn't even detect the slightest fluctuation in the air, instead spreading a slight pang of exhaustion.
Tang Xinjue pressed his temples to withdraw his mental strength, reached out his hand to touch the wall, and explored the surrounding environment step by step.
The fact that the girl led her here and then disappeared meant that there must be something here.
——Click.
Sure enough, Tang Xinjue quickly found a switch that looked like a handle, and pressed it down lightly. A door that was only wide enough for one person to enter and exit was gently pushed open.
The incandescent light dispelled the gloom. This was a small room, about twenty square meters. The smell of dust and paper entered my nostrils, and dust particles of all sizes floated up and down near the light.
Is this... the data room?
The neatly arranged mahogany bookcases almost filled the entire room, and Tang Xinjue had to turn sideways to pass through.
There were countless documents and papers piled on every bookshelf, most of which were locked behind glass windows, with only a small portion scattered outside. Tang Xinjue picked up a few sheets and took a look. Most of them were either blank or contained incomprehensible garbled text, and no valuable information could be found.
She looked up at the number of files and was silent for two seconds.
It was obviously unrealistic to search step by step, so she simply gave up on the documents and directly observed the differences in the bookcases.
Facts have proved that this decision is correct. She soon discovered that although these bookcases did not have labels that could be used to find them, there was a row of very small numbers engraved on the top. The larger the number on the bookcase, the more documents and papers were scattered outside.
Tang Xinjue stopped in front of a bookcase where almost half of the documents were visible. The glass window was divided into nine equally sized square windows, each with a Chinese label at the bottom.
“…Not enabled.”
Tang Xinjue read out the first word he recognized since entering the room. His heart moved, and his eyes swept down, checking one by one.
Not enabled, not enabled, not enabled... enabled.
In the last box, the word "Enabled" is clearly visible.
A thick stack of papers was stacked in the grid. The pages were still covered in garbled characters, but the title at the top was very clear:
[The First Higher Education Entrance Examination in University Town]
Admission Ticket
With a focused look, Tang Xinjue opened the admission ticket that he had folded in his pocket for half a day, and compared it to find that the size was exactly the same.
As long as you add the prefix "University Town" before "Higher Education Entrance Examination" and replace the garbled code on the "Admission Ticket" in the bookcase with normal information and photos, there will be no difference in the format of the two.
Tang Xinjue took out the stack of garbled admission tickets without hesitation and examined them one by one. When he turned to the middle, he finally saw a very special one:
[Candidate number: 20190607]
[Name: Zhang You]
[Gender: Female]
…
In the photo on the admission ticket, a girl with her hair tied low, holding her black glasses with her hand, stared straight ahead with a serious and calm expression. Both her face and her clothes were a look Tang Xinjue was all too familiar with.
It was enough for her to confirm: this was Zhang You’s admission ticket.
If Zhang You’s admission ticket is here, then... what about others’?
Continuing to search downwards, after twenty or thirty sheets, another admission ticket without the garbled code fell out. This time, her eyes suddenly fixed on it.
[Candidate number: 20170607]
[Name: Tang Xin Jue]
On the admission ticket, her own photo was looking quietly at the camera.
From beginning to end, it is exactly the same as the old admission ticket that has been folded and wrinkled next to it.
“… Really good.”
Tang Xinjue held two identical admission tickets at the same time. If there could only be one "college entrance examination admission ticket", then one of them must be fake.
Which one?
After looking at it for a while, Tang Xinjue pinched the old admission ticket that had always been with him and had been checked countless times without any loopholes, and pasted it tightly on another admission ticket. Then he turned it to the side of the new admission ticket and pressed down hard on the photo position.
The next moment, a subtle sound of peeling suddenly emanated from the inside of the admission ticket. When the old admission ticket was opened, the smooth surface had a small dent in it.
This concave part is actually her "photo".
And underneath the fallen photo, another color is clearly revealed.
Tang Xinjue tore her photo down without blinking, and the same position instantly became another girl's close-up photo!
This was a girl with long hair and bangs. The photo seemed badly worn, and her facial features were not very clear. But Tang Xinjue still caught a hint of familiarity at the first glance.
Apart from her hair shape, the girl in this photo has facial features that are very similar to that of the "green teacher".
——It can even be said that they are exactly the same.
Tang Xinjue narrowed his eyes and continued to experiment with the same method on other parts of the admission ticket. However, from the moment the photo fell off, the paper seemed to lose its camouflage magic. Just a simple brush of the palm of his hand and the countless rough edges would gently lift.
Then she tore them all off without hesitation, until the true appearance of the admission ticket was completely revealed:
[2017 National Higher Education Entrance Examination Admission Ticket]
[Candidate number: garbled]
[Name: Lina Green]
[Gender: Female]
…
[Registered address: Dormitory 315, Building 250, University Town]
[Exam guarantor: Wang Jiji]
Looking at the revamped admission ticket, Tang Xinjue smiled for the first time since entering the mirrored corridor.
"I see."
——It turns out that during this period of time, she had been taking exams “for others”.
What’s even more interesting is that this “someone else” is the invigilator of this exam, or even a friend who has never met but is not a stranger to him... Lina Green, is that right?
After repeating the name, Tang Xinjue turned his gaze back to the pile of papers and continued to search. Not long after, he found the admission tickets of Zheng Wanqing and Guo Guo.
Four brand new admission tickets were lined up, pointing to a highly likely scenario:
If the four people were in the same situation, then what each of them was holding in their hands now should be a fake admission ticket that was "impersonated".
However, the real admission ticket was hidden here. Without the guidance of that special candidate, it would be almost impossible for the candidate to find it on his own, not to mention that the four people in the dormitory were forcibly separated and had to recover their strength after repeated exam cycles.
In other words, could the endless cycle of college entrance exams be related to the replacement of admission tickets?
After sorting out the five key clues, Tang Xinjue had not yet decided on his next course of action when he suddenly heard a dull crashing sound coming from afar.
...It was like something heavy had fallen from the sky.
The author has something to say:
Today's statement:
A college student was tricked into taking the college entrance exam for someone else, and the person he replaced turned out to be the invigilator.
