Chapter 21, Sister Y, please don't have it written by someone else!

The touch of those fingers sent chills down your spine. You tried to throw your phone away, but the blood-red nails dug deep into your flesh.

Your phone screen suddenly starts flickering, like the static on an old television screen, and then a chilling aura emanates from within the phone:

"Let me write it for you! Let me write it for you!"

"It's so easy and convenient! You can get all A's!"

The chat window in the center of the phone screen distorted and twisted, turning into a pale face that looked as if it were about to break through the plastic film and jump out.

You can barely meet the gaze of those eyes, which have no whites and are like bottomless abysses, while the other person stares straight at you.

You instinctively took a half step back, your heart pounding and cold sweat pouring down your face.

You agreed to Sister Y's request when she was a stranger and have been using this trick to get to know new companions. How could you have imagined that there would be such a foreshadowing?

Perhaps it was Sister Li's notes that gave you an extra boost to your already extraordinary courage, and the scene before you only briefly left your mind blank.

The fear that had gripped you quickly subsided. You thought about the "ghosts" that Sister Li had encountered in her notes and how she dealt with them, and you tried to find a way to survive.

Damn it, I can't find it!

The paranormal events that Sister Li encountered were more like the scientific inevitability of those unscientific scenarios in an unscientific country.

But what is this thing on your phone?

You didn't break any rules, so this isn't a punishment from the rules; while adding Sister Y (as if continuing to call this terrifying thing by her name makes it easier for you to step back and think about things) was certainly rash, it can't really be considered a mistake.

While you're thinking rapidly, Sister Y's loud and boisterous pronouncements using flower language are still challenging the strength of your eardrums.

Looking down again, the hand that had been holding you showed no sign of crawling out further. Instead, it tapped on your screen—because the nails were too long to control—trying to open your browser.

Huh? You stare at all of this in bewilderment, only to find that the finger has found the school's official website student page, which you had opened but forgot to delete and which has been stuck in your browser.

You can still see Sister Y's face through your browser.

On that face where all the lines were blurred together, you could still see that she was giving you a triumphant, cold smile.

You laughed silently.

After failing to disconnect your phone from the internet, you open the door and go straight to the kitchen.

You have a plan in mind, but you're not sure yet. If it works, you're really amazing. When you finally escape, you should write your own record of success for others.

—Actually, you're nervous inside, but you're venting it through this arrogant way of setting a goal.

After all, everyone speculates that the three chances in the "Deguo" game are based on the three chances of failing a course in real life. However, if you are "expelled" directly because of "academic misconduct," these chances will have nothing to do with you.

Of course, it might not be that bad, but you can't be sure.

With your other free hand trembling, you turn on the tap.

The faucet makes a "whoosh" sound; you hold your breath, your heart races, and your eyes are glued to the water—

beer!

The rich beer flowed from the tap, the golden liquid splashing in the sink, and the air was filled with the aroma of malt.

Y-jie, who had been smug, suddenly changed her expression. She herself seemed unaware that this was another way of handling things, and could only let out a resentful roar. You feel the hand that was holding you slowly loosening its grip.

You won the bet again. Clever you! Let me pat you on the head and give you a compliment.

Y-jie, who speaks so fluently about flowers, doesn't seem like a product of the game. She's more likely an outsider who broke the rules and ended up like this.

As a supernatural being, even if she spoke the language of flowers, who could do anything to her? However, as long as she was in this instance, she would have to be subject to the "instance rules".

According to general rules, beer coming out of a tap means it's safe. This is supposed to be a warning of danger, but you've thought to use it in reverse:

If it's beer flowing out, it means you're safe and nothing can pose any threat to you.

Sister Y withdrew from the video call interface and glared at you resentfully, but it seemed that she had not completely given up.

You stare at her blankly. You tentatively turn the water flow down a little, and Sister Y immediately becomes lively again, eager to do something.

If you turn the water valve up further, Sister Y's movements become increasingly sluggish, and her body gradually becomes ethereal and transparent.

You chuckled as you fiddled with the faucet handle, watching Sister Y sway back and forth like a stop-motion animation character.

Hehe, that's fun.

No, let's get serious!

You can see that the power of rules can ward off evil and protect you, but unfortunately, it cannot become your life-saving charm.

You can't guarantee how much longer this beer will flow.

"Vasmosite?" you ask yourself, wondering what she wants.

She knows the language, but you don't expect her to answer.

Unexpectedly, she actually responded: "You and I are exactly the same. It's just that when I was doing my homework, I wanted to make things easier, and that's why I ended up like this. Please save me. Look, you still have three lives. You can trade one of your lives for mine." She put on a pitiful, pleading expression.

This made your expression turn completely cold.

Sister Y is usually very talkative, and upon closer inspection, there are always many flaws in her statements. The same applies now. If she could be reborn with just one life, why make things so ugly?

To be honest, you don't dislike her. Her companionship was genuine. Although you were really angry and sad after finding out you were deceived, seeing her before made you empathize with her as well.

She's just eyeing your opportunity, trying to trick you into giving her life in exchange, but you definitely won't let her have her way.

"Oki," you laughed, then asked how to do it, "Abavi?"

A sinister smile flashed across Sister Y's face, which she quickly masked with a grateful expression.

"Thank you so much. You put the video chat in 'suspended mode' on the interface where you need to write the data, so I can write it for you. I can write anything, really. I also do writing assignments for STEM fields in real life. Your undergraduate lab report is easy to write. Just give it to me, and I'll write it for you right away. If it's not good, I'll give you a refund and make revisions."

You offer refunds and exchanges? Great!

You take action, and amidst the gurgling sound of beer flowing, you easily regain control of your phone.

With a quick swipe of the finger, a bunch of apps and websites offering writing services came up.

You open these websites and send a message: "Urgent help needed! Is there any essay writing service that can help me write an outrageous research topic? I want to prank the professor, really, the more outrageous the topic, the better!"

Within seconds, replies flooded in, and a bunch of bizarre and outlandish questions rained down from above.

Research outlines ranging from "The Relationship Between Donuts and Globalization" to "The Combination of Cat Psychology and Literature," and even "Why Do Shoelaces Always Untangle?" A whole host of outrageously demanding academic paper requirements flood your phone screen, while Y-jie's expression in the upper right corner gradually freezes.

As we all know, villains die from talking too much.

If she hadn't offered a full refund and exchange herself, you might have needed to think more carefully about how to deal with her.

Sister Li's experience has truly inspired you. Now you firmly believe that there are no insurmountable obstacles, only things you dare not even imagine.

Y's eyes began to dart around frantically, as if she wanted to refuse the requests, but the rhyming words that came out of her mouth made her unable to move.

These outrageous requests were a nightmare, yet her hands still moved involuntarily in the air, seemingly frantically taking on writing jobs.

But there were just too many tasks, and even more and more bizarre paper titles were appearing on the screen.

“Kanai.” You point out the rejection of artificial intelligence.

Y-jie gritted her teeth and agreed, but her pace slowed down more and more. You could see the extreme exhaustion on her face; she was sweating profusely, as if she was about to be crushed by these tasks.

Watching Y's every move, you knew she had reached her limit. So you added fuel to the fire, opened Taobao's "writing service," and posted an even more absurd request: "I need a 100,000-word autobiography about 'the story of me and Y growing up together,' with themes including time travel and parallel universes, and Y herself must participate!"

Sister Y couldn't take it anymore.

She screamed and disappeared from the screen, as if sucked into a huge vortex, and was never seen again.

Seeing that the phone had returned to normal, the screen had stopped flickering, and the whole room had returned to quiet, you waited a while longer before you were completely relieved and turned off the tap.

After standing there for a moment, you processed everything that had just happened before turning your phone back on and deleting all the writing requests.

These neighboring countries are more dangerous than you think; you'll have to be more careful in the future.

You can't just add random contacts when you're in the Flower Country, and it seems the same applies here.

You had a very restless sleep and woke up the next day with dark circles under your eyes.

You asked Xiaoming to come out and help you with your lab report. Unlike you, she's in the "corporate internship" stage that all international students go through, so she's usually quite busy.

If someone takes time out of their busy schedule to help you, you certainly can't be late.

Wrapped in a thick scarf, you braved the biting wind and ventured out the door as if you were digging for potatoes in Siberia.

Xiaoming isn't a chemistry major, but she has studied abroad and is quite experienced in report formatting and literature search methods.

When you arrived at the agreed-upon bakery, Xiaoming had already ordered you a freshly squeezed orange juice and a coffee, and was waving and smiling at you.

You raise your eyebrows and run briskly towards her.

“Actually, we can first understand the general content of the experiment through the English literature, and then see what similarities there are in the German part. Don’t worry too much.” She communicated with you directly by typing on your computer.

"Yes, open your student homepage. Through this, you can access CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure). Enter the number of your experiment, and you'll see that you can find the experimental instructions that you can cite."

She begins to teach you step by step how to use literature databases, from basic keyword searches to how to select suitable research materials.

Xiaoming didn't quite understand some of the technical terms and expressions, so he and you leaned on each other's heads and looked them up in the encyclopedia to find the most suitable explanations for the flower meanings.

"Since you're not a chemistry major, let's start by understanding the basics." Xiaoming opened another document and helped you analyze the experimental design and data point by point.

"Don't think of this as something terrible. In fact, lab reports are also a kind of logical reasoning. As long as you understand the purpose and steps of the experiment, the rest is just to write down these ideas clearly."

You nodded, slowly immersing yourself in the activity, which had initially left you completely clueless. The pressure in your heart also eased somewhat.

Just by looking at the words Xiaoming types, you can imagine how gentle she is when she speaks.

"You've made great progress!" Xiaoming praised you after looking at the "experimental procedure" paragraph you wrote.

"Thank you." You typed a heart after her message.

“Now that you have this information, you can refer to its structure to write your own report.” She continued to patiently guide you. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just build the framework first, and I’ll help you adjust the rest.”

With Xiaoming's help, you gradually sorted out your thoughts and transformed those complicated data and experimental steps into understandable text.

Although some parts are still difficult, whenever you get stuck, at least Xiaoming can help you figure out a solution.

Three hours later, Xiaoming had to rush to work. You gave her a fist pump to cheer her on, hugged her, and then waved to her through the glass. You sat there alone for a while, enjoying your friendship with Xiaoming, before getting back to your lab report.

After sitting in the bakery all day, the first draft of the report was finally finished. You first sent it to some grammar checkers to correct basic errors, and then sent it to Xiaoming.

"I took a look, the sentences are fine, the word order is a bit mechanical in some places, but that's okay, I'll make notes for you later, and you can fix it yourself. I checked the data based on the formulas you listed, and there are no problems either," Xiaoming replied after getting home that evening. "Completing it to this extent, passing the test is definitely not a problem."

"That's great." You were very happy and relaxed, throwing yourself onto the bed. "Thanks to you, otherwise I would have really gone blind."

"You're welcome. You wrote this yourself. I'm just taking a look for you." Xiaoming sent a cute, shy kitten emoji.

"I made potato and egg pancakes today, and they're so dry." You sent.

"You just need to add salt." Xiaoming actually remembered your complaint about potatoes without salt that you posted on your WeChat Moments, and he used that to tease you.

"Want to go out for dinner tomorrow?" You thought for a moment and then took the initiative to invite them.

"Then let's do it tonight, I have to go to work during the day," Xiaoming sighed.

"Tomorrow is Saturday, and you still have to work as a student intern?" you asked in surprise. "Isn't the country supposed to have a two-day weekend?"

"Sigh, oppression exists everywhere." Xiaoming seemed even more dejected. "Besides, I'm a paid student intern, which is much better than those students who pay for internships, haha."

"Because I'm in an internship, my family doesn't give me any extra living expenses. The money is enough for me, but not enough for this situation, so I can only work overtime voluntarily."

Xiao Ming "stole" your favorite cheerful rabbit emoji.

Looking at the frenzied giant rabbit, you laughed so hard you rolled around on the bed.

This makes you feel a little closer to Xiaoming, no longer with that polite and restrained sense of distance from before. You feel happy again.

Many things in this instance make you feel cold and helpless, but Xiaoming's presence makes you feel the warmth of friendship again.

"By the way, check out this month's carnival market." Xiaoming sent you a link before you went to sleep.

Hold up your phone and tap on it.

Automatic translation by mobile phone: Halloween pre-Halloween market.

This sounds a bit ominous.

A note from the author:

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Tiger is guilty; he couldn't update twice on Tuesday, but he'll update the second chapter soon.