I can"t promise anything for now, but I"ll try to get at least Book 1 complete.
Translated by: La Phong
Edited by: BE_EP
Chapter 1: The Skull Pattern On The Test Paper
Outside the window, the sky had been covered by dark clouds, and from time to time there was a sound of thunder roaring.
Gao Ying walked into his own examination room and sat on a seat at the corner near the window. In the examination room, most of the candidates were very quiet and flipped through the book, preparing for the final sprint in the remaining time. Some people also looked out the window from time to time, complaining about how it had rained in the college entrance examination these two days and what if the thunder was too loud to hear the words in the English hearing test?
Gao Ying put 2B pencils, pens, admission tickets, etc. on the table, and then opened his textbook. In fact, he already had steady confidence in the college entrance examination. In the last six months of the third year of high school, he was among the best in the grade. He was a master among the countless people in school. It could be said that it was the legendary “children of other people.”
The roaring thunder had become more frequent, and the tense atmosphere in the cla.s.sroom had intensified a lot. Some people had gathered together to discuss the topic of Chinese essays in this year"s college entrance examination, in order to alleviate the slightly suppressed atmosphere. Gao Ying, from time to time, looked out at the door of the big school outside the window. There were a large number of parents gathering, and some parents even held an umbrella to fight the rain. His parents, naturally, were also waiting for him to get a good grade. Even if he had excellent grades, his first choice was Fudan"s journalism department, which was called “the hardest department of the world.” How difficult it was to pa.s.s the test, naturally went without saying.
Suddenly… a thunder roared in the sky, and Gao Ying"s hand holding the textbook trembled, and the book fell to the ground!
He felt a little uneasy… This feeling was very weird, even he himself couldn"t say it clearly…
At this time, the invigilator brought the sealed college entrance examination papers into the cla.s.sroom, and the broadcast also began to reaffirm the emphasis on the college entrance examination rules. Then, even if they were unwilling, the candidates could only close the textbooks and turn off their mobile phones to put them in the bag and place it next to the podium. Subsequently, the two invigilators opened the sealed test papers and checked the ID cards. At the same time, it was emphasized that it was not allowed to move the pen before the bell rang.
After getting the test paper, the first reaction of most candidates was to immediately turn to the last page of the test paper to view the essay topic. The composition occupied a large proportion of the scores of the Chinese exams. To get a high score, it must satisfy the marking teacher. Gao Ying was also very concerned about this issue.
After he got the exam paper and the answer sheet, he went directly to the last page of the exam paper.
At this time, outside the window, the torrential rain had also arrived unexpectedly! At this point, the sky outside the window seemed to be no different from the night. At the same time, Gao Ying had opened the back of the last exam. There he saw … on the examination paper, someone had actually painted a terrible black skull pattern!
The black skull pattern was painted vividly and looked so real. It made him feel… very uncomfortable…
Could this be… related to the topic? So he immediately went to see the content of the t.i.tle.
The content of the essay topic was very short.
“Are you eager to get eternal life? If you are eager to get it, how much will you pay?”
The topic was even weirder…
Generally speaking, the topic of the Chinese essay should be “Based on the following materials (pictures), with x.x.xX as the t.i.tle, write an essay of no less than 800 words, the style is not limited, except for poetry.”
He suddenly thought about it…
This year"s college entrance examination language topic was somewhat interesting, with some humanistic philosophies in it?
At this time, the bell at the beginning of the exam rang…
“The exam begins!”
Gao Ying subconsciously immediately picked up the pen and turned to the last page of the answer sheet. He suddenly thought… first give an answer to the composition.
“Eternal life…”
How could a person not be eager for it? However, this was an essay topic. If he had really written like that, naturally, he wouldn"t get a high score. After all, the people who tried to seek eternal life in the past, such as the Emperor Qin Shihuang, had no good reputation. However, when he really wanted to write, he suddenly noticed the lifelike skull pattern on the test paper. He had a weird feeling, like this… was staring at him…
He intended to dispel this strange feeling, so he immediately returned his thoughts to the composition. He only wrote a question, but then he started to write the first paragraph. Originally, he wanted to write a paragraph that clearly stated that “I am not eager to be immortal.” But he suddenly thought that most people would write like that, and it might not be able to make his essay shine in front of the marking teacher. So, he wrote: “In fact, who in the world has never longed for eternal life? I am only an ordinary person. If there is a chance of eternal life, I think I will get it at all costs…”
Writing this, he was going to add a “but” in the second paragraph… But at this moment, he suddenly saw that the skull pattern on the examination paper suddenly came out from the paper and rushed at him!
After a few seconds, Gao Ying"s seat was empty. However, none of the teachers and candidates had noticed his disappearance. At this time, the invigilator was watching a female candidate carefully reading the t.i.tle of her work, and the essay topic was “please use "tolerance" as the t.i.tle, write an essay of no less than 800 words…”
……
Almost at the same time when Gao Ying disappeared…
Faraway from the SH city where Gao Ying was located, on the remote TW Island of the TB City, in the examination room of a certain school…
Zhu Xun Ling was also in the examination room now. However, she was partic.i.p.ating in a different subject than the one in the college entrance examination, but belonging to the designated subject examination of TW.
What she was doing now was the Chinese language test.
At this point, she had done the final question, and on the last test paper, there was a black skull pattern!
Although it seemed to be realistic, Zhu Xun Ling"s expression did not fluctuate. She just read the t.i.tle of the text…
Eternal life… never get old, never die?
How much are you willing to pay for this?
She looked at the subject. Of course, she couldn"t see other people"s exam papers, and she didn"t know that only she had this question on her own exam paper.
She did not hesitate for long, and she answered.
"Yes… If I can get eternal life, of course, I will do whatever it takes, even sell my soul to the devil!"
June 25, 1995… She would never forget that on that day, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake occurred in YL City on TW Island. At that time, she had been only 6 years old.
In the earthquake, her father, her mother, her two sisters and one younger brother were killed. She was buried under the rubble, staying with her dead parents, her siblings, watching them on their last breath, and when she thought she would die, fortunately, she was rescued by the rescue team. After that… she was adopted by relatives located in TB.
For many years, she would never forget that her parents and sisters had changed from a living person in front of her to cold bodies. Death had changed from the unclear concept in news, film and television dramas to horrific reality. After she had realized the horror of death, she realized that… death meant that everything had come to an end, no longer any feelings, no longer meeting relatives, even disappearing bit by bit from people"s memories… and she would be the same sooner or later. If she was lucky, maybe it would be a few decades later, and if she was not, maybe in the next second she would die. No matter what you have now, no matter how many people you used to love or love someone now, after death, everything would cease to exist. When she thought of the death of her parents, the good old people who matched them, from the cold body to a pile of ashes, Zhu Xun Ling had a great fear of death.
She was extremely resistant and hated death, but human modern medicine, research on genetics was still at a beginning stage, and it was far from the time to conquer cancer. The technology for realizing eternal life in various science fiction novels was just empty talk.
But even so, Zhu Xun Ling still did not give up the desire for immortality, and she decided to choose the path of medicine without hesitation. She was eager to realize the medical technology that made humans immortal through the study of genetics in the future! Even if it couldn"t, it would at least increase the life span of human beings. She hoped that everything would advance in the future of human medicine in the next few decades.
“As long as I can get eternal life, I can pay any price.”
She wrote so.
Then, she widened her eyes, as the skull on the test paper actually came out and rushed towards her…