Chapter 89: The Curse Grows Heavier Qin Jiu sat among the ruins, his long, thin fingers pale as bone under the daylight.
154 stood frozen in place, holding water in one hand and medicine in the other.
He hadn’t expected You Huo to show up so suddenly and almost forgot what he was meant to be doing.
“Boss got injured on his hand,” 922 walked over, still speaking in a low voice. “From what 1006 said, his wound appeared later than yours, so he might’ve woken up a bit later too.”
Only then did 154 snap back to attention, dissolving the medicine into the water glass as he replied, “We don’t know exactly how many injuries there are yet. We haven’t checked.”
Qin Jiu’s hand hung limp by his side, the greater part of his palm a horrifying mess, just as grievous as You Huo’s wound.
Both were equally mangled flesh and bone, equally deep enough to reveal the underlying structure.
Yet You Huo felt Qin Jiu’s wound was slightly more terrifying.
Perhaps wounds always appear more piercing on someone else’s body.
“Why not check?” he asked 154.
“When the boss sleeps, he doesn’t like others—huh?” 154 began explaining, but You Huo had already reached out to lift Qin Jiu’s collar, which was tied up.
As soon as he moved, Qin Jiu, still feverish, furrowed his brow.
His mask was placed aside, the dim firelight of the basement making it hard to discern the faint color on his lips, which were as pale as his face.
He was usually lazy and arrogant, with an effortless and formidable aura about him, as if he never grew tired.
This weary and sickly appearance was truly rare, making it seem all the more severe.
You Huo’s fingers paused briefly, and his movements became even gentler.
He was just about to continue working when someone grabbed his wrist.
922 gasped.
Fortunately, You Huo wasn’t using his injured hand; otherwise, with Qin Jiu’s strength clamping down on the wound…
Ugh—
It’s enough to make your skin crawl.
922 rubbed his arms.
154 sighed and finished his sentence: “He doesn’t like being touched. More often than not, he’ll probably attack.”
As soon as the words fell, Qin Jiu woke up.
He half-opened his eyes, his gaze laden with heavy sleepiness settling on You Huo’s face.
An unusually high fever blurred the lines between dream and reality.
Qin Jiu soon closed his eyes again, the weariness lingering in his handsome brow, though not as tightly furrowed as before.
He released the grip on You Huo’s hand but didn’t let go. In the moment his eyes closed, the thumb resting against You Huo’s wrist gently stroked twice.
It was an incredibly natural little gesture, carrying an almost intimate sense of comfort.
No one else noticed—only You Huo could feel it.
His fingers curled slightly.
He clearly could have moved away, but as if seized by a sudden bout of laziness, he didn’t withdraw.
Lost in thought for barely two seconds, Qin Jiu reopened his eyes.
This time he was fully awake, his gaze falling once more on You Huo’s face, then sweeping over the others nearby, before he finally sat up.
The warmth on his wrist vanished in an instant, and You Huo flexed his joints slightly.
“Feeling numb?” Qin Jiu’s voice was hoarse as he said, “I’m a little too on guard when I sleep—did I hurt you anywhere?”
Clearly, those couple of movements were just unconscious actions, already forgotten.
You Huo shook his head and said, “Just grabbed a bit, didn’t put any force into it.”
“What happened to your hand?” Qin Jiu’s gaze fell on his hanging wrist, his brows furrowing once more.
You Huo: “…First take a look at your own hand.”
922 bumped his forehead against 154’s shoulder, unable to help saying, “My god, I’m truly impressed…”
154 wore an expression of sheer horror, though it was unclear whether it was from the sight of their wounds or from these two people themselves.
You could literally see bone—and their attention was on someone else? Was this pain receptor numbness, or were they just that nonchalant?
Perhaps truly outstanding people really are different from the rest.
The examinee Zhao Hong, who was blending in among the invigilators, thought to himself that he would never become a big shot in his lifetime.
After a simple explanation, Qin Jiu understood the current situation: “So the method to kill the duke was wrong.”
Gao Qi: “…We’ve been explaining for so long to make you realize the severity of the curse. You two are in mortal danger now, do you understand? One wrong move and you’ll both end up living in the church, calling those blood men your brothers! Who’s talking about the method to kill the duke with you?”
“I know.”
Gao Qi: “You know nothing!”
Qin Jiu raised an eyebrow at him.
Gao Qi stared him down for a few seconds before suddenly wiping his face with a sigh. He thought to himself: Damn, when did I get pulled off track? It’s almost as if 001 isn’t my longtime rival but more like a brother.
Covering his face, he muttered, “It’s definitely A’s fault. I must have been influenced by that absurd logic of ‘a friend’s friend is also a friend.’”
Gao Qi immediately turned around to restrain You Huo.
He and Qin Jiu sat on a bench, being urged together by 922 and 154, under 021’s silent glare… refusing to take medicine.
In 154’s outstretched palm were seven or eight different kinds of pills—fever reducers, anti-inflammatory drugs, painkillers—you name it.
Miss 021 had a temperament as changeable as flipping a book. One moment she was reluctantly refusing to take out the medicine, but as soon as she saw You Huo’s waist seeping blood, she turned and rushed up to the room, coming back down with a first-aid kit.
“One is enough,” You Huo said, nudging Qin Jiu and adding, “Control your people.”
With that one sentence, Gao Qi was suddenly overwhelmed with a flood of emotions.
Many years ago, when You Huo was still wearing the invigilator uniform, he would often toss a remark to Qin Jiu: “Control your people.”
And Qin Jiu would always reply, “My people? Sure, I’ll invite the chief examiner to sit in and comment when I discipline them. How about that?”
The locations varied: the conference room, the central control center, the corridor, the disciplinary building… The atmosphere was always tense, thick with the smell of gunpowder. A’s face remained perpetually cold, and No. 001’s tone was always provocative.
This had become the norm for the invigilation department.
Never did I expect that years later, the same words coming from the same person could carry an entirely different meaning.
Qin Jiu looked at the blood on You Huo’s hand, his brow still furrowed. He then instructed 154, “One pill definitely isn’t enough.”
You Huo immediately pointed right back at him and said to 154, “Give it to him first.”
Qin Jiu: “…”
Before 154 could speak, 021 couldn’t hold back any longer.
The young lady rolled her eyes on the spot, dividing the medicine into two piles. “Can you please be reasonable? Is this poison they’re forcing you to take, or what? Just now, this examinee showed me the church NPCs, and they were almost completely rotted away. For the sake of those NPCs, could you set aside your male pride for a moment? Is it really that hard to admit you’re sick, miserable, and in excruciating pain?”
She clanged the two piles of medicine into cups, shoved one into each of their hands, and said, “Drink it all!”
* * *
You Huo and Qin Jiu couldn’t argue with this young lady. Out of gentlemanly courtesy, they reluctantly took the medicine and went to wrap the gauze.
The effect wasn’t very obvious, but it was better than nothing.
Under the effect of the medicine, the two of them slept for a while longer.
Three hours passed quickly. The door to the confinement room finally opened, and the first batch of examinees came wailing and howling out of it, huddling together, trembling as they wiped their runny noses.
Fortunately, though they were in a sorry state, no one was injured.
Arranging the remaining four people became much easier.
922 and the others were concerned about the physical conditions of You Huo and Qin Jiu, thinking it best to pair them together so they could look out for each other.
With three hours, who knew if their wounds would continue to worsen inside the confinement room.
Little did anyone expect the system would speak again with malicious intent.
This time, its goal was clear; without any idle talk, it directly announced the names and assigned detention rooms.
Qin Jiu was assigned to room number 1.
Gao Qi was assigned to room number 2.
Candidate Zhao Hong entered number 3.
Finished.
Even though two people could share a room, the system insisted otherwise.
You Huo was once again excluded, pushing him to the third batch.
As soon as Qin Jiu entered the confinement room, 922 and 154 left the basement.
Like the other confinement rooms, this small house also had a single room equipped with three screens that could be connected to the confinement room at any time, known as the monitoring room.
Under the boss’s influence, in 154 and 922’s dictionary, there was no term for “monitoring examinees.”
This was their first time using the monitoring room, simply because they really weren’t at ease leaving Qin Jiu alone inside.
The screen soon lit up, and the two of them pulled up chairs, sitting down in a serious manner.
They had no interest in prying into the examinees’ privacy, so watching the surveillance footage was a long and tedious task, let alone watching Qin Jiu’s surveillance…
Other rule-breakers provided a bit of excitement, but his was always the same unchanging ruins.
922 watched for a while before he couldn’t help but start chatting with 154.
“Boss, where is this ruin?” 922 asked curiously, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.”
154 said, “It’s not in the usual places, so of course you haven’t seen it.”
“Not in the usual places? What does that mean, unusual?”
“It means it’s somewhere that even the invigilators can’t normally go.”
“Got it.”
922 nodded, seemingly understanding.
On the screen, the other two confinement rooms were bustling, making Qin Jiu’s screen appear particularly quiet, with a sense of… vast and profound loneliness.
Leaning on his chin, 922 spaced out for a moment before suddenly remembering something and said, “Hiss—wait a minute. Under normal circumstances, if even the invigilators can’t go there, how did you, 154, know about it?”
* * *
The group who had just finished their confinement was being escorted back to the exam venue by 021.
021 stopped at the foot of Carlton Hill and pointed to a stretch of iron railings surrounded by weeds and wild vines ahead, saying, “Walk forward ten meters. There’s a gap in the railings. Go through it, and you’ll see the ancient castle.”
The lingering fear in the detention room had yet to subside, and everyone stumbled as they made their way out.
Each of them displayed exhaustion after an overwhelming shock, and no one spoke.
They quietly passed through the fence, with the castle’s shadow looming ahead like a silent, monstrous beast.
“Hurry up, there are still a few girls left in the castle.” Finally, someone snapped back to reality and suddenly quickened their pace.
With that reminder, the others jolted in realization.
“Shit, I almost forgot! How many are there, anyway? Four or five?”
“Doesn’t matter how many—that duke is a beast! Who knows what he’s capable of doing!”
If this were before, they would have been afraid to return to the examination hall.
But now it’s different.
Each of them had killed the duke with their own hands.
Although the other could always come back to life, it didn’t matter—the fear in their hearts had already been overcome.
They quickly arrived at the ancient castle, and as soon as they entered, their faces turned pale at the heavy smell of blood in the corridor.
“What’s going on…”
In the corner of the second floor, where the scent of blood was strongest, Zhao Jiatong stood at the door of a room, holding a knife.
The cumbersome long dress had already been taken off, replaced with her own clothes, her expression unusually grim and almost murderous.
The earlier great battle had been too chaotic—she had miscounted the number of people.
To the extent that… when the duke roamed the castle, she only managed to protect those she had counted.
This room was the one she missed.
Inside lived a girl who was very easily shy, with dimples at the corners of her mouth and a sweet smile when she laughed.
Zhao Jiatong never spoke with her, but she remembered her smile.
At that moment, the face, which had been placed by the duke on the bedside, was now pale and stained with blood, no longer able to laugh..
Just then, the Duke withdrew from the bedside. He shook his head, licked the blood from his fingers, sighed, and said, “Still failed… Poor girl, sleep well, and have a sweet dream.”
Zhao Jiatong barged in with a knife in hand.
Alone, she had slain the duke five times over.
In a place unknown to her, Qin Jiu sat amidst the ruins, his slender fingers gleaming like bleached bone under the sky’s light.
He moved them slightly in the sunlight, and the bones clinked with a soft, rattling sound.