Chapter 4

Jing Yan was stunned for a few seconds before she remembered to suppress the smile that she couldn't hold back. When she turned around, she saw several trainees around her huddled together, their shoulders shaking with laughter.

"Ayu, how tall are you?" Xie Man was a very outgoing person. After being bombarded with his thoughts one after another in the past hour, he had already developed a sense of familiarity with Chu Yu, like a silly brother. He put his hand on the man's shoulder and asked, but he saw that the other party narrowed his eyes and frowned, and he gave off an aura of someone who was not easy to mess with.

He paused, and just as he was about to step back subconsciously, he heard a familiar voice beside his ear:

【Why are you calling me so intimate? I'm so shy.】

He looked at the boy in front of him whose shoulders he had his arm around. He saw that the boy had a stern face, and looked colder than an ice cube in the freezing cold of minus 30 degrees Celsius.

Well, shy, very shy.

Chu Yu opened his mouth. His real voice was actually very nice, warm, delicate and granular. His tone was low and soothing, yet unconsciously alluring. He was completely different from the madman on the Xin Sheng Radio who was always going crazy. Even though the voice was the same, everyone in the corridor was quite uncomfortable after hearing it.

"1.79 meters."

This answer silenced all the trainees.

One of the trainees, who was slender and obviously shorter than the others, repeated himself tentatively: "One meter, seventy-nine?"

Chu Yu paused for half a second with a cold expression, then added, "One meter seventy-nine point three."

It's accurate to one decimal place, isn't it detailed enough?

Zuo Yanning remained silent, remembering that before going on the show, he had experimented with how many layers of socks he had to wear so that he could reach just 1.70 meters during the physical examination. However, when it came to measuring his height, he still miscalculated. The measurement teacher said 1.69.7 meters, but he went to the registration office and relayed that it was 1.70.1 meters.

Ah, I can’t think about it. If I keep thinking about it, I’ll have to look up at the sky at a 45-degree angle and shed two diamond tears.

It wasn't until the election officer called and urged them to hurry to the dormitory building to pack their luggage and go through the check-in procedures, saying that everyone except them had already registered. Jing Yan immediately dragged everyone to the dormitory building. As soon as they arrived, they saw a few lonely suitcases standing in the corner of the hall. The others had been claimed by the trainees, leaving only theirs lined up in a row, all with the label 602 on them.

Several people carried their own boxes and hurried all the way to the sixth floor. Chu Yu was the last one because he had no idea which box was his. He could only wait until everyone had claimed theirs before picking up the remaining one.

His suitcase is a cool silver-grey color, inadvertently revealing the luxurious and restrained brand patterns and high-end leather material. Just like his personality, he exudes an aura that is not to be messed with.

When he followed the group into the dormitory and opened the box, what caught his eye was a dazzling array of high-end cosmetics and skin care products. None of the brands were ones he had seen before, and he didn't even know how to open the packaging of some of the products.

He searched the box in the vain hope of finding a PSP or a stack of game cards, but as expected, he came back empty-handed and was deeply disappointed.

What made him even more worried was what was hidden under the cosmetics - three boxes of laxatives, two bottles of sleeping pills, and a small bottle of clear liquid with a paper label on it. He took a closer look -

[Damn it, sulfuric acid!]

This loud shout startled everyone in the dormitory.

He touched another hidden pocket and pulled out a small bottle of the same size.

[Damn it, sodium hydroxide!]

Now no one dared to move. They turned into stiff wood without even moving their eyes, and tried to communicate with each other through eye contact.

Xie Man frowned, anger rising in his heart——

He even brought this contraband! He's truly a vicious and scheming man!

Tang Yanning was so excited that he winked and was about to cry.

He wants to poison me! He wants to poison me!

Jing Yan remained calm in the face of danger, his eyes as determined as if he was about to join the party.

My dear ministers, please don't jump to conclusions. There may be a glimmer of hope for this matter.

Just as a few people were exchanging glances, the inner voice broadcast in the dormitory sounded again.

Sodium hydroxide plus sulfuric acid...

Everyone gasped in fear.

It's an acid-base neutralization reaction, forming sodium sulfate and water. When the sulfuric acid ratio is high, it seems to be sodium bisulfate?

Everyone was stunned.

[Well, maybe I'll get some stuff together someday and do some chemistry experiments for fun. It'll be a good way to pass the time.]

[Am I here for a talent show or to be an assassin and spy? ]

[I'm so impressed. This life has been a treacherous one, and now when I get to the other side, I find there's no video game console to play, and I have to cosplay as the evil queen and give people needles everywhere.]

[I'm so tired. It feels better to die.]

"No!" Jing Yan couldn't help herself, and the sincere and heartfelt words of redemption came out of her mouth.

His words were accompanied by a synchronized muttering:

[Let me bully others, I'm afraid they will isolate me. Everyone knows that I'm a sensitive and fragile little boy who has nightmares at night. Oh, it turns out I'm the only one who knows.]

Chu Yu felt that he had a very unique skill, which was that he would often think alone and suddenly break down his own defenses.

"Ayu, would you like some water?" Xie Man took a disposable paper cup from the water dispenser and asked in the direction of Chu Yu.

Chu Yu froze, as if he was about to turn into a tin puppet in the next second: "...No need."

"Ayu, Ayu, can you play games?" Meng Shuan, the last trainee in the dormitory, sat on the lower bunk in the corner, holding up a switch in his hand and waved at Chu Yu with a sweet smile.

Chu Yu's eyes lit up.

Then the next second, he was intercepted by the photographer and dormitory manager who broke into the room to collect the phone.

"Attention, students. From now on, each of you will have ten minutes. You can call your family or friends to report your safety. After ten minutes, all of you must hand in your cell phones into this box. The timer starts now." After setting up the cannon, the photographer stood aside and patted the large cardboard box in his hand to signal.

Then he glanced at a little boy in the corner who was scrambling to hide his stolen goods and said, "Hey, hey, hey, look what I found. Hand it over quickly."

As a result, the already insufficient spiritual life in the dormitory became even worse.

"Only ten minutes?! How can I possibly finish it?"

Jing Yan wailed, and the photographer immediately pointed at his watch mercilessly: "There are only nine minutes and fifty-five seconds left."

In stark contrast to his roommates who were frantically dialing numbers, Chu Yu stood there like a capybara. It took him four seconds just to blink, and by the time he slowly took out his phone from his pocket, one minute had passed.

How could it be ten minutes long? How could there be so much to say? This is clearly asking too much.

With his level 10 awkward conversation skills that make the conversation stall as soon as he opens his mouth and his lifelong motto that other people are hell, he can't even put together ten sentences, let alone ten minutes.

More importantly, he has no familiar relatives or friends in this world, and he doesn't even know who to call if he wants to.

Just when he was thinking of just standing there blankly and getting away with it among the crowd, a sharp-eyed photographer saw him trying to fish in troubled waters and just opened his mouth: "Hey, you..."

Chu Yu turned around in a second, lowered his head, put on his hat, and frantically pressed the phone keyboard, then dialed a number and put it to his ear. The whole set of actions was done smoothly and in one go.

How can a simple act of touching a fish be singled out as the focus? I hit him, I hit him, isn’t that enough?

The photographer who originally wanted to cue him silently put down his hand that was pointing at him.

There were several busy tones on the other end of the phone, indicating that the call was in progress. Chu Yu realized belatedly that he had just subconsciously dialed a number that he was most familiar with.

Well, it didn't matter which one he dialed, since there was no way the call would actually go through in this world anyway. He would just mumble a few words during the automatic hang-up tone to get through it...

"Hello, who is this?" A voice that was cold, magnetic, and so familiar that it couldn't be more familiar rang in his ears, with a hint of impatience. Chu Yu could almost imagine the expression of the person on the other end of the phone - his brows were slightly furrowed and his eyes were slightly narrowed, maybe with a mint cigarette in his hand, he was wearing the same old windbreaker, shirt, and jeans, and a stack of textbooks and handouts in his arms - mixed in the middle was a piece of lyrics he had written himself, the kind with four dirty words in every three rap sentences.

It was a very strange feeling. He was in a completely unfamiliar environment, but suddenly he heard this voice. It seemed as if the whole world suddenly became familiar.

But at this moment, there was another exciting emotion filling his heart.

How? Is the call connected?

Holy shit, mom, the cell phones in this world are psychic!

Seeing no response from the other end, Luo Jiayu put down his phone and glanced at the unfamiliar international number displayed on the screen. He tutted and raised it to his ear again: "If you have something to say, just say it quickly. Do you understand Chinese?"

"I can understand a little, but not much." Chu Yu's nerves suddenly relaxed, and her mouth started running faster than her brain. "Handsome guy, do you want to buy insurance?"

There was a pause, then the impatience disappeared, and the voice was filled with laughter: "Chu Yu?"

"Did you hear that?"

"I can recognize your half-dead tone even if it's burned to ashes."

“…” Chu Yu was choked by this and rolled his eyes, “You didn’t burn anything for me?”

"I burned them all. I burned all your cassettes. I also set up a shrine for you at home, with a photo of you in women's clothing from your high school graduation in front of it. How about I livestream it and show it to you?" Luo Jiayu replied naturally, then suddenly sensed something was wrong. "Wait a minute, you're not dead?"

"Are you stupid? I've been reincarnated into another world." Chu Yu frowned after saying this, realizing something was amiss. He then roared at the highest volume he had ever heard since joining the camp, "Why are you still keeping my photos of me in women's clothing? Burn them now!"

The system felt like it was about to crash as it listened to this conversation in his mind. It thought to itself that birds of a feather flock together, and the two good brothers' ability to grasp the key points was more outrageous than the other.

"Why burn it? A bunch of female classmates from high school want it. I'll sell it secondhand at a high price and split the profit with you 70% to 30%. It's more cost-effective than burning it myself." Luo Jiayu raised an eyebrow after saying this. "No, answer me first, why are you not dead? I just heard you passed away in a car accident a few days ago, and I just wrote half of your eulogy."

Just half of it took him three days and three nights, and he stayed up two all-nighters. Now his eyes are red.

"It can't be said that he is not dead, but he is probably not completely dead." Chu Yu murmured, and felt that his words were too abstract. He thought about how to express it, but as a otaku who stayed at home playing games all day, he couldn't find a more concrete adjective.

"Anyway, I'm currently in a life-or-death judgment system, completing various tasks to be judged. If I'm ultimately judged as passing, I can return. Otherwise... if I don't speak to you in four months, you can continue writing your eulogy." Chu Yu habitually added after he finished speaking, not caring how sloppy it might sound to others, "Don't use swear words or rhyme. I'm afraid you'll end up rapping at my grave."

There was silence for a moment, and then Luo Jiayu asked softly, "Did he really go to another world?"

"Um."

"Is it fun?"

“…” Chu Yu pursed his lips. His childhood sweetheart’s sudden gentle greeting suddenly rekindled his previously dulled perception, and his emotions surged like a dam breaking. “This isn’t fun.”

The unattainable and fairy-tale-like task of traveling through a book, the suffocating feeling of having to face a large group of living people every moment, the ubiquitous flash lights and the overt and covert intrigues in the plot... It is really difficult for him, a socially anxious person who is not sociable, to adapt himself to survive in this environment.

After saying this, his eyes had turned red without him realizing it: "I miss you a little bit."

Without you as my personal voice actor, I can't make a single move in this world full of cameras and scripts.

"I miss you too." Luo Jiayu said as he pulled out the eulogy paper from his arms, looked at it for a while, and said, "I'll wait for you to come back."

"good."

The phone was hung up. He listened to the busy tone on the other end for a while, then tore up the half-written paper in his hand without hesitation.

In the dormitory on this side, Chu Yu looked blankly at the photographer brother walking towards her and pointed at the watch on her wrist: "It's half a minute overtime."

Is it over already? How come it’s only been so long? Hasn’t he said enough?

Oh yes, his cassettes were all burned by that stupid guy. That was several thousand dollars of his private money, and it all turned into carbon dioxide in the air after the fire.

His heart was bleeding.

"Okay, now let's interview Chu Xiaoyu, the last student to hang up the phone." A female staff member appeared out of nowhere and took the microphone to act as the host. She put the microphone to Chu Yu's mouth and said, "Excuse me, who was the person you were talking to just now? It seemed like you were having a very happy conversation with them."

"I..." Chu Yu saw the camera getting closer and closer to him, and he quickly wiped the tears that had not yet flowed out of his eyes. His mouth began to tighten physiologically. In this situation, he could only slow down his speech, otherwise he would either stutter or stammer.

As a result, the excited and nervous voice in his heart came out before the words.

[This is my biological son who just celebrated his 20th birthday last month!]

"...My good brother."

"Pfft." Several roommates couldn't hold it in and lowered their heads to laugh.

The host and photographer were clearly new to this kind of scene and were still taking it all in when an announcement came over the radio: "Attention all trainees! The following trainees who have registered their names must gather in Studio One within 20 minutes to record their individual talent vlogs. The list will be read out: Wei Ziyu, Jiang Chenglu, Chu Yu... Jing Yan, Fu Hansong. Trainees who have registered their names, please proceed to Studio One immediately."

"Host? Are you okay, host?" The system tapped on Chu Yu's brain and whispered in his ear in a devilish tone, "We should get going."

"Chu Yu? Are you okay, Chu Yu?" Jing Yan patted Chu Yu, who seemed to have entered a state of inactivity, familiarly, with a look of innocent cheerfulness on her face, "Let's go together."

Chu Yu stood up upon hearing this, with a tragic look on his face.

Personal talents, a large-scale social death scene that is better than a self-introduction.

What would he have to do to die with dignity?

A light bulb went off in his head and he raised his eyes.

Got it.