PCYEAN Chapter 1

ARC 1: BLOODY CAMPUS
Black Eye Mask: Taking an exam

Translator & Editor: Doges

　　Jiang Shi stood anxiously in the playground, holding a pink card. He’s been waiting here for half an hour. He hasn’t seen the sender yet.

　　He suspects the girl with a ponytail in front! Her pink hair cord is exactly the same color as the card, and she has also been standing here for half an hour.

　　Jiang Shi slowly walked over.

　　The girl smiled in surprise. While he wondered if she would pretend to be cool and unbothered, he saw her greet another girl then walking away with their hands joined.

　　A small burst of wind blew the young man’s heart, out of nowhere. Jiang Shi mumbled something to himself, then he heard the bell for late-night study.

　　”Shit!” He broke into a run, in the direction of the school building. A black object flew into his face from the wind. He pulled it off his face, it was a black eye mask. What kind of ghost object is this?

　　Jiang Shi looked up but he saw nothing. There was a row of lights in the classroom, so he could see who was in there.

　　Jiang Shi thought about where the eye mask could’ve come from and shoved it in his pocket. He took two steps before realizing he had forgotten something, remembering a voice reciting texts in the back of his mind. “Fuck ah! It’s self-study!”

　　Today’s self-study was a follow-up class by Huo Yuanjia, and he sat up on the podium and glanced sternly at Jiang Shi standing at the back.

　　This is Huo Yuanjia’s rule: A minute late, a five-minute penalty stand, and it must be the standard level for military training. While Jiang Shi was standing, he felt his back ache, baring his teeth towards the wall, he was hit suddenly on his waist.

　　Jiang Shi tilted his head, it was a bunch of paper. Is now the time to read paper? Even though he was being punished for standing, it was obvious Jiang Shi was looking at paper. The more he looked, the more it appeared similar to an animal. It was a… pig?

　　It’s ugly! If you think about an animal, I’d be thinking about squirrels, snakes…

　　Huo Yuanjia coughed up on the podium. Jiang Shi pretended to tie up his shoes and picked up the paper and slipped back to his seat. Sitting in the second row to the bottom, next to the window, Jiang Shi is the legendary protagonist! In class he can look outside, as well as be in the teacher’s blind spot.

　　Unfortunately, high school students in China have to sit together, and they have lost the opportunity to deepen their friendship with the sisters on the other side of the corridor. At the same desk as Jiang Shi was a master of study, he was either making a test or on the road to completing a test. As to why he sat with Jiang Shi, there was no need to guess why, as they were similar in height.

　　While Jiang Shi walked back towards his seat, the study lord was still completing a test, but he couldn’t read the undecipherable handwriting. Jiang Shi reached out to poke him, but the study lord moved his seat closer to the desk. Jiang Shi immediately walked past and pressed study lord into the desk.

　　Jiang Shi returned to his seat and unfurled the ball. He saw writing on the “pig”, obviously written by Ding Hao.

　　Jiang Shi rolled the paper, folded it carefully, unfolded it, then re-folded it down the creased lines. He glimpsed his deskmate… looking at him? Jiang Shi suddenly got excited and whispered: “Geng Cong, you’re looking at me! No! Look, I don’t mean to let you see. Look at you, sneakily glancing, do you want this too? That’s no good, this is for Ding Hao, I’ll fold one for you later.”

　　Like a machine gun, Jiang Shi fired bullets from his mouth, giving no opportunity for others to speak. Geng Cong had long been used to the one-sided conversations, so he only filled in the blanks by simply asking: “What did Deng Hao do?” He knew that it was impossible for him to stop.

　　”Ding Hao, that dog, hit me with a pig. I wanted him to see what the real pig is.” After Jiang Shi finished, a chubby pig was standing on the table, four short legs standing steadily, very cute.

　　Jiang Shi gave a nefarious smile towards the upright Geng Cong. Between each desk was the length of a hand, so the space available to everyone was very limited.

　　The pig hit Ding Hao’s head, and Ding Hao picked it up from the ground. He discovered that it was a pig, and clenched his fist so the pig was crushed. After he threw in into the trash can, he pointed his finger straight towards Jiang Shi.

　　Jiang Shi constantly insulted his opponent with his exquisite handicraft techniques, although he should give his opponent a little room to play. He no longer cared about Ding Hao, and took out a math test from his desk to complete. Although Huo Yuanjia taught physics, Jiang Shi never dared to do physics, who let him have this good deskmate.

　　Originally, he had two hours to study at night and 45 minutes left to go home and finish the rest of the work. However, unlike other students, Jiang Shi chose to study at school. There was no-one at home anyway, he studied better at school, and even if he talked to the students, he didn’t make bad progress.

　　Geng Cong finished his work, but when he turned his head around and looked at Jiang Shi, he was writing on a piece of paper while muttering, Geng Cong poked him with a pen. Jiang Shi scratched his arm. “What? You can’t do it? It’s useless if you poke me, I won’t do it for you. Huo Yuanjia is up on the podium, you go up and ask her. She will definitely scold you for not listening in class, and that the question was mentioned long ago, you calculate it with this method. It was here, that the poor little man could only lie down on the table, and be shot by Huo Yuanjia’s two laser cannons, tsk tsk tsk.”

　　In response to Jiang Shi, Geng Cong only said a word, “Pig?”

　　”What pig?” Jiang Shi was confused, but Geng Cong only gave him a glance. ‘He already forgot his promise,’ thought Geng Cong. But Jiang Shi said, “It’s for Ding Hao ah. You said you didn’t want it ya, so next time say you want it earlier. But I’ll have to teach you everything before you can…”

　　Geng Cong took out the English test papers and started writing.

　　After Jiang Shi finished teaching his deskmate, he picked up a pen with satisfaction and put it back on the paper. Within a few minutes, he started talking to the paper.

　　At 8:30, the bell rang on time, and everyone around Jiang Shi had packed up their bags and gone home one after another. Jiang Shi was in the middle of his math paper, so he refocused and continued. Once he was finished, there were only a few people left in the classroom. Geng Cong was writing next to him.

　　Jiang Shi took out his mobile phone from his bag and looked at the time. It was 9:20. The after-school self-study rules state that whoever has to leave once school ends will leave at the time, but at 10:30, everyone still remaining goes to class once the bell rings. Of course, Jiang Shi would not leave early, and he only left school to catch his train. Geng Cong and himself walked together to the train station, and Geng Cong finishes once the bell rings.

　　Jiang Shi never felt that Geng Cong was waiting for him. That guy was a madman, every day he didn’t do club activities, only studying. If the school stipulated that he could finish class at 11:00, he would do it at 11:00.

　　Jiang Shi took Geng Cong’s practice tests to copy, finishing the Chinese work. Geng Cong’s tests have always been used as examples. The first time Jiang Shi sat at his desk, he was surprised by the accuracy of Geng Cong’s work, so he immediately stole and copied it.

　　However, Geng Cong’s work changed, the steps of answering many major questions became more numerous and he also gave guidance of the important points to Jiang Shi. Jiang Shi never felt impressed toward those genius students, but at that moment, Jiang Shi decided that out of the whole class, no, the whole school, Geng Cong was the smartest student!

　　After he finished his homework, he played on his cell phone. While he was doing so, the bell finally rang.

　　Jiang Shi and Geng Cong both stood up, taking nothing, but turned off the lights and went downstairs. At the entrance of the hall, Geng Cong suddenly asked Jiang Shi to wait for him. While Jiang Shi complained, Geng Cong patiently listened.

　　At this time, only a few diligent students who had finished studying walked out of the building. The building became cold and quiet. Jiang Shi had long been used to it, and he walked around the hall with nothing to do, so he inserted his hands into his trouser pockets.

　　He took it out and examined it, it was the black eye mask he found outside. Since he didn’t know who it belonged to, he wanted to hand it over to the school office, but forgot.

　　Jiang Shi was thrown off by the black eye mask. It was plain, no curve where it covers the eyes. When he turned it, he found no patterns. In front of the light, Jiang Shi caught sight of what appeared to be… a pair of eyes.

　　One of them had a white iris, while the other one had a white pupil.

　　As soon as Jiang Shi saw this, the eyes disappeared. “Strange… I must’ve seen wrong.” When he put the eye mask in front of the light, there was only black fabric.

　　Too close, maybe because of the color of the fabric? Jiang Shi held the eye mask up and examined it again.

　　The lights in the school hall are white, but they aren’t that white. Jiang Shi felt something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t say what was wrong either. He looked around, finding no-one. Geng Cong said nonsense. He didn’t know what was going on, Geng Cong hasn’t been down for half a day.

　　”Geng Cong!” Jiang Shi cried out, and echoes were made in the empty hallway, rising up the stairs one after another.

　　No one responded. Jiang Shi called out again in a loud voice.

　　The whole building echoed, but could only be heard on one side of his body. Jiang Shi felt a sudden burst of cold and touched the goose bumps on his arm. He scolded Geng Cong and headed for the stairwell.

　　Class 2-3 is on the fourth floor and usually only takes three minutes to walk to. But somehow the stairs are never-ending and the floor doesn’t end. Jiang Shi saw the first grade stairs, so he pulled out his mobile phone and checked the time.

　　11:30
　　
　　He’s been waiting for an hour in this building?

　　Jiang Shi found it hard to believe so he turned his phone on, it still showed 11:30. Where’s Geng Cong? I didn’t see him on the stairs! Don’t tell me he already left, ya? Jiang Shi turned and ran downstairs. Only a moment ago the bottom of the staircase couldn’t be seen, but all of a sudden they were different from normal because several steps disappeared. He went down three steps before stopping.

　　The hall was still like it was before, except on the left wall there was a screen with a mosaic grid on which two lines of giant red numbers were written:
　　23:37:54
　　1109

　　It was as if in the whole school building, he was the only one there. Jiang Shi ran over to the door and tried to open it. The door was locked from the outside.

　　Shit! School closes at 11:30!

　　I’ll have to call the doorman.

　　Jiang Shi scrolled through the address book and dialed the doorman.

　　”Sorry, the subscriber you have dialed cannot be…”¹

　　The number on the electronic screen jumped to 23:40.

　　A malevolent voice reverberated across the building:

　　”May all students enter the classroom with your admission ticket ten minutes before the exam starts. The exam instructors will inform you of the rules. Please follow them and refrain from cheating. The exam will start at midnight sharp. Those not at the exam site at that time are considered to have abstained.”

　　Jiang Shi was frightened. He slapped himself and locked the glass door. The exam room? What the hell is this, ah?

***

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Translator Notes:
¹ kept only the English since the Chinese was basically the same

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