EMSD Chapter 23

As the bell rang to a close, the surroundings morphed visibly fast. Dozens of coarse ropes vanished before Tong Yang’s eyes, bodies that hung in mid-air crashed down one after another. The moment the view was blocked, the three invigilating teachers on the stage disappeared without a trace, and the aged mold on the walls and dried bloodstains on the corridor floors faded away until they vanished completely.

The noise of chatter filled her ears, the maple leaves outside the third-floor windows gleamed a light green, and the words “Death to violators” on the blackboard faded from Tong Yang’s sight.

Excited cheers and hurried footsteps echoed across the floor, marking the end of their two-day college entrance exam.

“My god! What happened?!” A startled exclamation burst out in the classroom. The scene before Tong Yang blurred; she squinted hard to see it was a teacher with an invigilator’s badge on his chest.

“What’s going on? Wasn’t everything fine just now?!”
“Call the police! Quick, call the police!”
“There are ambulances at the school gate, hurry and get them here!”
“Don’t just stand there! Help them!”

More and more teachers and students noticed something odd in Room 1209; thirty-two students had collapsed in silence in the blink of an eye.

Tong Yang’s pupils dilated as she stared at the lifeless bodies on the ground. The room, crowded with teachers and students, triggered a sense of intense suffocation, making her dizzy.

Was she the only one who had returned to the real world?

“Classmate, are you alright?” An invigilator bent down, touching her shoulder with a worried expression.

“Let’s leave this to the police and doctors.”

Tong Yang was half-dragged out of the classroom. She looked back at the fallen students, and in a trance, it seemed like they all opened their eyes, looking at her in confusion.

“It’s over… they’re not breathing…”
“What happened?”
“Where’s the teacher? Evacuate the students first!”
“Quick! Let the police and medics in!”

Tong Yang was squeezed among the crowd, staring blankly for a long time.

Could things just end like this?
Could she just return to a normal life as if nothing had happened?
Was she content to be manipulated like this?

Suddenly, Tong Yang grabbed a fellow student, instructing, “There’s cash in my backpack. If… give it to my little brother. His name is Tong Le, he’s in the fourth grade, class six, at the Experimental Primary School.”

The student froze, asking, “What?”

Tong Yang didn’t reply, pushing against the crowd, she fought her way to the fifth floor of the academic building.

Although still unclear about the cause of the time loop, she believed she could enter it again. She had finished the college entrance exam; the scores should meet the school’s requirements. The money would be enough for Tong Le to live on until adulthood.

She cherished her life, but couldn’t accept failing here. She had achieved perfect scores, without missing a single mark.

She couldn’t accept this ending!
She couldn’t care about right or wrong. If it all ended like this, her life would be completely ruined!

Tong Yang ran to the fifth floor, reaching a balcony at the corridor’s end—a dead angle between the academic building and the enclosing walls, usually deserted.

She took a deep breath, the onlookers’ stunned eyes upon her, and without hesitation, she leaped from the balcony.

Apparently, she couldn’t wait for a psychologist’s hypnosis.

“Ah!!!”
“Someone jumped!”

The scream echoed as the wind, sharp as blades, scraped against her cheeks, gravity pulling her body rapidly downward.

—So this is what it feels like to fall from a height?
“Bang!”

“Bang!”

A loud noise suddenly erupted in the quiet classroom, and Tong Yang fell from her chair.

“Please keep quiet.”

A familiar, cold voice rang in her ears, surprisingly, Tong Yang felt no pain.

She opened her eyes to see the familiar mold on the walls and the other students, hanged by ropes around their necks, looking at her with eyes filled with surprise and concern. She glanced at the classroom clock—twelve minutes until five-thirty. She had indeed returned to ten minutes before their deaths.

“Sorry.”

Her voice trembled with unspeakable emotion as she returned to her seat. The last big question in biology had only two lines written; the part she had crossed out had not even been started. There was still time!

Tong Yang gripped her pen, feeling a shiver run through her. She took deep breaths, forced herself to remain calm, and wrote the answers from her memory neatly and cleanly on the paper.

Seven minutes left until the end of the exam.

“Number twelve, please submit your paper before the end of the exam. The rest of the students, close your papers.”

This time, Tong Yang didn’t need to check her paper again; she knew she hadn’t made a single mistake.

“I’m done.”

She spoke the same words as before.

The crowd reacted just as they had before, holding their breath, their eyes focused on her.

Tong Yang stood up and submitted her paper at the lectern, allowing Invigilator A to review it.

“Please return to your seat.”

“Physics, full marks, no errors.”
“Chemistry, full marks, no errors.”
“Biology, full marks.”
“No errors.”

“Firstly, congratulations to candidate number twelve for achieving a perfect score in the sciences.”
“Secondly, congratulations to candidate number twelve and all candidates in Room 1209 for successfully passing the independent college entrance exam.”

The ropes around the others’ necks loosened; they incredulously widened their eyes, removing the ropes from their necks.

“Did we… succeed?”
“Is it all over?”
“Tong Yang… Tong Yang…”
“Ah!!! We won!!!”
“We can go back!!!”
“That’s great! Really great!”

“Please collect your paper.”

Tong Yang approached the lectern, picked up her paper, and returned to her seat.

“Congratulations, everyone. After the bell rings, please take your belongings and leave the classroom.”

Invigilator A looked emotionlessly at everyone, as if the previous mockery and laughter had never existed.

Tong Yang perhaps understood—they could only act within the rules.

Tong Yang silently packed her things and asked, “Can I submit my paper early?”

“Yes.”

Tong Yang walked straight out of the classroom, took her backpack from the rack, stuffed her belongings into it, then casually picked a handy weapon from the rack before entering the classroom again.

“Please, number twelve, leave the examination room…”

Before he could finish, Tong Yang raised the bloodstained blade in her hand and stabbed him, kicking him to the ground.

Invigilator A made no move to resist; Tong Yang acted quickly, fiercely pulling out the blade and striking again.

Invigilators B and C hurriedly approached from the back of the classroom, their voices numbly repeating, “Please, number twelve, leave the examination room.”

Tong Yang clenched her teeth, turned back with a kick, and with swift movements, she knocked back the approaching bodies, killing with red eyes, disregarding everything, as if venting long-suppressed anger.

The crowd watched in shock as fresh blood dyed the lectern red, Tong Yang’s body and face covered in blood, her whole being as if soaked in blood, her expression calm, her eyes sinister, her movements ferocious.

“Tong Yang…” Chu Shiyu was closest to the lectern, her face splattered with blood, clearly seeing that even though the invigilators on the ground were silent, Tong Yang continued her furious actions as if venting her anger.

“Enough… enough…” Chu Shiyu’s face paled as she murmured, instinctively stepping forward to stop the nearly crazed Tong Yang, but at that moment, a strong sense of suffocation surged, her eyes widened uncontrollably, her hands covering her neck, legs collapsing from the seat.

“Ah!!!”
“Ugh!”
“Help…”

A strange and desperate feeling swept over everyone in Room 1209; almost instantly, everyone sprang from their seats, clutching their necks, legs kicking wildly as if searching for a place to land.

After a struggle, they clutched their necks like fish out of water, mouths gaping as they breathed heavily, their faces still bearing expressions of pain and despair as their vision gradually cleared, unsettled as they looked at each other.

“What happened??”
“I remember we were all hung up…”
“I remember too! It felt like hands were tightly choking my neck!”
“We failed, didn’t we? Why…”

“Could it have been a dream?”
“It’s not a dream!”
“It was too real to be a dream!”

Sun Ye held his neck, shaking his head after a long pause, “It’s not a dream, we really died once…”

“But why?”
“Why did we succeed this time?”
“We failed… we should have failed…”

Sun Ye’s eyes behind his glasses seemed dazed, finally settling on Tong Yang at the lectern.

Tong Yang stopped her movements, raised her arm to wipe the blood from her eyes, turned to look at everyone, and said, “Because I went back ten minutes, I saved you all.”

“What? What?”
“Tong Yang… what are you talking about?”
“What do you mean, went back ten minutes?”
“Haven’t we encountered even stranger things?” she replied, calming her breath, and counter-questioned.

“But…”
“But this is a bit too unbelievable!”
“What exactly…”