Ye Tiancheng and his companions spent the entire day exploring the university, becoming quite familiar with the campus. After discussing their findings, they could piece together a comprehensive picture of the entire school.
Just as Ye Tiancheng and the others were contemplating where to begin their investigation, the school's broadcast suddenly came to life.
"It is now 11:30 PM. The daily random pop quiz will commence shortly. Students who remain awake and have been selected to participate in today's examination number five hundred and forty-six. The examination venue is the main teaching building of the Business School."
"Students who hear this announcement, please proceed immediately to the main teaching building of the Business School, locate your examination room, enter, and prepare for the examination. Students who fail to arrive before midnight will be marked absent once, resulting in a deduction of two credit points, leading to failure."
Ye Tiancheng and the others exchanged bewildered glances.
Little Fox asked in confusion, "Does this school really have exams in the middle of the night? This is too outrageous; I've never heard of such a thing."
Long Miaomiao, lacking much understanding of contemporary human society, stood by with her arms crossed, offering no comment. However, if one observed closely, it would be evident that Long Miaomiao was in a state of alert. Her posture appeared relaxed and casual, but in reality, it was a highly sensitive, subtly suppressed readiness for action.
Ye Tiancheng frowned deeply and said, "How could this possibly be a normal exam? It's obvious, given how abnormal the situation is, with the emergence of an 'opening' outside for reasons unknown, there must be something fishy going on here!"
This was definitely not a normal examination.
Little Fox then asked, "Shall we go take a look?"
Ye Tiancheng replied, "Let's go take a look."
This was clearly an excellent opportunity to investigate what was happening at the university, and it was currently the most concrete direction they could find.
During the day, Ye Tiancheng had been responsible for scouting the Business School, so he was quite familiar with the way. He led Long Miaomiao and Little Fox towards the main teaching building of the Business School.
As they approached the Business School, Ye Tiancheng and the others could see quite a few students in the vicinity, all heading towards it. Most of them appeared anxious, seemingly quite fearful, but their eyes didn't show much confusion. It seemed they knew what was going on.
This was rather strange.
During the day, observing the students in the school, Ye Tiancheng felt they were all quite normal. If they had indeed encountered such a bizarre situation, and with so many people involved – Ye Tiancheng and the others had heard the previous broadcast stating that the exam was a random selection of students, and this time, over five hundred students were participating in the exam in one night.
After experiencing such a major event, even if these students, for some reason, could not reveal what was happening, they couldn't possibly show no fear and act as if everything were normal.
If they truly possessed such ability and acting skills, this should be the Imperial Capital Film and Television University, and these students would all have to be outstanding actors.
Ye Tiancheng and the others blended in with this group of students. Apart from their exceptionally outstanding appearances, there was nothing else to draw attention. Moreover, at such a critical juncture, even if Ye Tiancheng and the others looked like celestial beings, no one would be in the mood to pay attention to their looks, so even fewer people noticed them.
This situation made it easier for Ye Tiancheng and the others to slip by unnoticed.
Upon entering the main teaching building, Ye Tiancheng noticed the difference from the daytime.
When Ye Tiancheng had visited during the day, everything there was no different from an ordinary university. But now, even Ye Tiancheng could faintly sense a chill. With his insensitive constitution, he could perceive it, which indicated how heavy the chilling energy was.
Little Fox's feedback to Ye Tiancheng was indeed the same. The place was permeated with a dense, almost black, chilling energy that roamed throughout the teaching building. To those who could see it, it was a truly terrifying scene, like a chaotic dance of demons.
Long Miaomiao could also see these things, and her expression showed a hint of disdain because of it.
Ye Tiancheng noticed that the doors of the classrooms in the teaching building had new items posted on them that hadn't been there during the day.
He walked closer to take a look and found that the doors were pasted with yellow paper, different from the yellow paper Little Fox used to draw talismans. It was more like the yellow paper used to make spirit money.
On the yellow paper pasted on the classroom doors, there were red, almost blood-colored, brushstrokes. They listed about twenty names, with the student's major and class marked behind each name – it was evident that the arrangement was quite chaotic. Although the examination venue was in the Business School and the exam was randomly selected, the students whose names were listed came from different majors and classes, and their years might even be completely different.
However, it was indeed impossible for all these students to come from the same major and year, because generally, the students in a college within a university would only number a few hundred.
This was the Business School, and over five hundred people were being randomly tested this time. If they all came from the same college, it wouldn't be called a random selection; it would likely be a comprehensive examination.
If only one major was selected, it would be even more absurd, possibly not even enough people to form a class.
Not every classroom door had such yellow paper pasted on it.
The students who rushed to the main teaching building were all looking at the yellow paper on the classroom doors, presumably searching for their examination rooms.
Ye Tiancheng mused, "The students' majors and years are so mixed, I wonder what this exam is testing."
Little Fox remarked, "I just feel it's definitely nothing good."
Seeing how anxious these students were, as if they were afraid of not arriving at their examination rooms in time, perhaps they all knew there would be severe consequences.
The broadcast mentioned a deduction of two credit points, leading to failure.
It sounded relatively simple, and the consequences didn't seem severe, but who knew if the actual situation was as simple as the broadcast stated.
Ye Tiancheng and the others had just arrived and didn't understand much, nor did they know the real examination rules or the consequences of various violations.
However, because of the students' behavior, Ye Tiancheng and the others, to avoid revealing themselves, couldn't linger in one place for too long and dared not act too leisurely.
Otherwise, they would be too conspicuous.
But Ye Tiancheng and the others were not students of this school at all. They were only left in the school by chance and had no academic records here. Logically, they should not have an examination room.
With no other options, Ye Tiancheng and the others thought of finding an empty classroom where no one was present, to see if they could blend in and observe what would happen during the exam.
The reason they chose to observe from the sidelines was not due to genuine indifference or a lack of desire to save people. It was because they couldn't figure out the real situation, and the number of students involved was simply too large – it was hundreds of people.
Furthermore, Ye Tiancheng believed that these students would not be in mortal danger so easily.
With so many students participating in the exam, if something were to happen, the number of affected students would certainly not be small. If their lives were threatened, it would undoubtedly be a large-scale supernatural event, which would have alerted the outside world long ago.
With no news from the outside, it meant that at the very least, they wouldn't easily lose their lives.
The school's broadcast repeated the announcement every five minutes, but later broadcasts also reported the number of students who had reached their examination rooms and how many had not yet entered.
However, what Ye Tiancheng didn't expect was that in the last five minutes, at 11:22 PM, Ye Tiancheng and the others could no longer see any students walking around in the teaching building; they should have all been in place.
Yet, the broadcast announced: "There are still three candidates. Please do not loiter in the teaching building. Please find your examination rooms as soon as possible and prepare to begin the examination. You have five minutes. Those who fail to reach their examination rooms within five minutes will be marked as absent once, resulting in a deduction of two credit points!"
Little Fox looked at Ye Tiancheng, dumbfounded.
"Big Brother, there seem to be no students outside anymore. Could these three candidates mentioned in the broadcast be us three?"
Ye Tiancheng's expression also changed.
But at this point, should they still look for an examination room?
Moreover, why should he listen to the words of whoever was speaking through the broadcast, without knowing who they were?
Suddenly, Little Fox tugged at Ye Tiancheng's sleeve and said in surprise, "Heavens! Big Brother, look here."
The three of them happened to stop outside a classroom. On the yellow paper pasted on the front door of this classroom, new writing suddenly began to appear. The first name to appear was Ye Tiancheng's, but there was no major or class marked behind his name.
This was likely because Ye Tiancheng was not a student of this school.
After Ye Tiancheng's name appeared, it only paused for a few seconds before another name appeared below it – Ye Li.
Unexpectedly, even the name on Little Fox's ID card was displayed.
Ye Tiancheng found it strange. How did the person behind this know his and Little Fox's names? Could the person hiding behind the scenes also know Long Miaomiao's name?
Long Miaomiao also watched the writing on the yellow paper with interest.
However, when it came to the third name that was newly displayed, the writing that should have appeared on the yellow paper only showed a red dot. It seemed that even the person themselves didn't know what to write, or perhaps they were afraid to write, for some reason. In any case, they hesitated and paused, leaving this mark.
Then, a character finally appeared on the yellow paper: Shui.
Ye Tiancheng and the other two were speechless.
The person behind the scenes finally couldn't figure out Long Miaomiao's name. But this character 'Shui'? It seemed to have some connection, after all, it was Miaomiao, which implied a lot of water.
Because they didn't want to attract too much attention, Ye Tiancheng and the others hadn't brought Long Zhaozhao with them on this outing. They didn't know if Long Miaomiao had brought Long Zhaozhao out with her today, whether Long Zhaozhao's name would appear on the paper.
Little Fox asked Ye Tiancheng, "Is this perhaps our examination room? Big Brother, do you think we should go in?"
Ye Tiancheng's gaze fell on the yellow paper, and he finally said, "Go in, of course, we must go in. I really want to see what kind of tricks the person behind this, who doesn't even dare to show their face, is up to."
Ye Tiancheng pushed open the door of the classroom. Inside, there were already about twenty students. After Ye Tiancheng and the others entered, the gazes of these students all fell upon them.
It wasn't their fault; it was just that Ye Tiancheng and the other two were too conspicuous.
These students rushed to get there, afraid of being late. Only Ye Tiancheng and the other two entered the examination room leisurely, right at the last minute. They appeared unhurried and had even been warned by the broadcast once. The appearances of the three were exceptionally outstanding, and they were unfamiliar faces.
But being unfamiliar faces wasn't the problem.
After Ye Tiancheng brought Long Miaomiao and Little Fox into the classroom, the classroom door behind them closed with a bang on its own.
It wasn't a completely unexpected outcome, and Ye Tiancheng didn't even turn his head to look.
He noticed that the students in this classroom rarely huddled together. Most of them wore expressions of fear and a hint of indifference, and they did not communicate with each other.