Chapter 80: The Frightening Campus, The Sunshine Doll (18)
The screen abruptly went dark.
Nothing further would play.
What a pity.
She remembered, after this point, when she pulled the trigger of the 6-4 pistol, the recoil nearly shattered her jaw, almost dislocating it. Yan Xingwen had teased her about it endlessly.
Since the footage wouldn't play,
She withdrew from the perspective space.
Tang Mu glanced at her watch, only to realize it was already 23:45.
At 23:59, the setting of the next day's exam questions would close.
That left only fourteen minutes until the deadline.
Within these scant minutes, she needed to swiftly devise a death condition that could eliminate at least six people.
Recalling the information about Zi Yushu...
Tang Mu began her setup:
“Chickens and rabbits in a cage, unknown total. Thirty-six heads exposed in the cage. Counting legs, there are fifty pairs. How many chickens and rabbits are there respectively?”
Death conditions: Correctly solving the problem; possession of a sunshine doll with an orange scarf; birth date on November 9th in the solar calendar.
Death method: Not restricted to a single approach.
Audience for death: The entire class.
Checking the previous fear value of Grade 6, Class 2: 84. The condition matched; the setter won.
The moment she finished setting the questions, time sped swiftly to 7:30 AM.
She hadn’t slept yet, and now had to get up again for morning reading in the classroom.
“Ding-ling-ling~”
The classroom doorbell rang.
The teacher entered, carrying a thick stack of exam papers.
This time, however, aside from the math question Tang Mu set, there were tests in language, history, moral education, art, music, and biology—all compiled onto the same exam sheet.
This exam differed from the previous one in three ways: 1. Only a perfect score would spare the sunshine doll’s head; 2. Those possessing a sunshine doll with an orange scarf would lose its head regardless; 3. Those whose birthday fell on November 9th in the solar calendar would also lose its head.
So—
This headache-inducing exam required every answer to be correct?
She looked at the first question.
It was the chickens and rabbits in a cage problem. Tang Mu’s own creation.
Fortunately, she knew how to solve it, and hadn’t made it overly complex. Otherwise, she’d be doomed.
“Why are today’s exam questions so hard?” a classmate whispered, “But yesterday, even if we got it wrong, nothing happened. Maybe today, regardless of whether we write anything, it won’t matter either?”
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“Maybe... but yesterday we didn’t write answers, and today we don’t write again... It feels like something is piling up inside, making me anxious.”
Ignoring the murmurs of classmates around her,
Tang Mu focused on her own exam sheet.
“Chickens and rabbits in a cage, unknown total. Thirty-six heads exposed in the cage. Counting legs, there are fifty pairs. How many chickens and rabbits are there respectively?”
Let’s suppose there are X rabbits; chickens are 36-X. 4X + 2×(36-X) = 50×2
Result: 14 rabbits, 22 chickens.
Language question: Recite in full Li Qingzhao’s “Dreamlike”—“Last night the rain was sparse, the wind wild...”
This posed no difficulty for Tang Mu.
Last night the rain was sparse, the wind wild; deep sleep did not dispel the lingering wine. I asked the curtain-raiser, who said the crabapple remains unchanged. Do you know? Do you know? It should be lush green and thin red.
History question: What is the earliest complete legal code surviving in China?
A. Kaihuang Code B. Sui Code C. Tang Code with Commentary D. Song Code
...
The voice of “Tang Mu” sounded in her mind, “Choose C.”
“Why?”
“The teacher said, when in doubt, pick C. It never fails.”
Tang Mu, “...”
Fine, she’d mark C for now and change it later if needed.
Moral education question: Filial piety towards parents is:
A. A moral obligation but not a legal one. B. A legal obligation but not a moral one. C. Both a moral and legal obligation. D. Neither a moral nor legal obligation.
AAAAA!
Art question: What is the complementary color of yellow?
Blue.
Music question: “Ambush From Ten Sides” is what kind of composition?
A. Guzheng piece B. Erhu piece C. Piano piece D. Pipa piece
It’s D, pipa piece.
Biology question: Which of the following is considered a living organism?
A. Dinosaur fossil B. Mermaid C. Virus D. Snowflake
B? Mermaid?
Having finished the questions, with a perfect score of 100, Tang Mu received a full 100. The grading was instantly marked on the exam sheet the moment she completed the last question.
She hadn’t expected to get a perfect score. After all, it had been years since she last touched an exam paper.
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Some classmates who failed to answer correctly watched as their sunshine dolls’ heads rolled onto their desks.
One, two, three... A rough count showed that just the “correct answer” condition had already eliminated nine people. The rest, those holding sunshine dolls with orange scarves, also lost their heads.
—In theory, yellow, orange, red, green, cyan, blue, and purple should each have seven owners. Tang Mu’s doll had a green scarf. Zi Yushu’s doll had an orange scarf. But since some owners of orange-scarfed sunshine dolls had already died, their slots were occupied. As a result, among those eliminated this round, the number of orange-scarfed dolls was noticeably less than seven.
Yet, Zi Yushu’s sunshine doll’s head remained intact!
Tang Mu narrowed her eyes, and realized Zi Yushu, at some point, had swapped his sunshine doll with someone else.
Now, the doll in his hand wore a red scarf!
Tang Mu squinted, feeling a surge of fury.
So swapping dolls could save one from calamity?
Tang Mu knew the “correct answer” condition alone couldn’t kill Zi Yushu. She never expected it would be enough to eliminate him.
But she hadn’t anticipated that the second death condition would be dodged by Zi Yushu as well...
Hmph, no matter—there was still the third condition.
Birth date on November 9th in the solar calendar. She wanted to see how Zi Yushu could escape this one!
But Tang Mu waited and waited, and Zi Yushu still didn’t die.
!!!
Tang Mu was baffled!
She knew Zi Yushu’s birthday—it was November 9th. Was the time gap so large she remembered wrong?
The exam ended.
This round, 14 people failed the test.
Meaning, today, 14 unlucky souls would perish.
Tang Mu felt no sympathy for their demise. On the contrary, she sat high above, coldly watching these lives as their countdown began.
“Um, Zi Yushu, could we swap our sunshine dolls?” Sun Huilan looked pitiably at Zi Yushu.
“You said yesterday you liked me, wanted to be friends, and promised that to be good friends, we should exchange keepsakes. That’s why I agreed to swap my doll with you... But now...”
“So, Sun Huilan, do you think the bond between us isn’t worth the sunshine doll in your hand, the one with the orange scarf?”
Zi Yushu stared at her indifferently. Despite her shyness, shock, and hesitation playing out fully in his eyes, his expression showed not the slightest hint of emotion.
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