Mingqiao's mouth twitched: "I'm not very good at this kind of flattery, and I don't want to go along with them."
"What's the big deal?" Zhang Tao said indifferently, "If you really don't know how to flatter, then just go along with them and don't object. Besides, we are in Cao's camp, but our hearts are with Han. We are traitors to the Han Dynasty, so we have to endure hardships and fight alone. This is just a temporary measure, not a collusion."
"...What kind of metaphor is that?" No wonder Zhang Tao could be the chief invigilator. Not everyone has this kind of awareness.
Although Zhang Tao's words were not so pleasant to the ear, he also reminded Ming Qiao that since he had become an NPC, this identity must serve this "game". If he continued to deliberately go against it, he would only end up in a more tragic situation. It would be better to pretend to compromise, and perhaps he could find a faster and easier way to pass the level.
"Hey, how did you wake up?" Zhang Tao interrupted Mingqiao's thoughts.
"Bite your tongue." Mingqiao's tongue tip was still stinging. He heard Zhang Tao laugh in a low voice and asked awkwardly, "What about you?"
"Pinch your thighs." Zhang Tao said, "Now both the new and old principals are on the stage. No one is controlling the two computers for the time being. We can talk soberly for a long time."
"Yeah." However, pinching the thigh, which was similar to biting the tongue, amused Mingqiao. He understood that Zhang Tao wanted to ease the heavy and depressing atmosphere, but he still took a detour and got back to the main topic: "Besides you, which other teachers are awake?"
"Some teachers are awake from the beginning. They agree with the principal's methods and are automatically identified as one of his own. These people are usually veteran teachers or those who teach junior high school and senior high school." Zhang Tao started invigilating earlier than Mingqiao and woke up earlier, so he told him everything he knew: "But there are also people like you and me who wake up halfway through, or can only be awake for a minute or two occasionally. Almost all of them are thinking about their students. The rest who have never woken up are probably those who don't have strong willpower and just go with the flow."
After he finished speaking, Zhang Tao's voice became noticeably more depressed, and Mingqiao heard him sigh several times.
"Maybe I'm not that passionate about this industry," Zhang Tao added.
"There's no need to ask everyone to do what you want." Mingqiao thought of his roommate Wen Jia, whom he met in the grocery store before. He probably belonged to the third type of person Zhang Tao mentioned. Thinking of Wen Jia, Mingqiao didn't know whether he had taken Zhang Wanqiao and the children out as he said. He could only pray that even if they didn't go out, they were hiding in a safe place.
Ming Qiao didn't want to sigh with Zhang Tao, so he said firmly: "Let's do our best. If we have someone to help us, that would be great. If no one helps us, we have to work hard on our own, and everything will be over."
"Am I too pessimistic?" Zhang Tao let out a long sigh. "Watching the kids taking exams these past two days has given me a headache. Don't mind me."
"Children cannot be educated like this." Now that it has come to this, Ming Qiao also said seriously: "And I suspect that they are subtly promoting some experiments during the examination. This kind of thing will have an impact whether it is done well or not. Once this 'game' comes to an abrupt end, it will be too late to subside. The psychological impact will accompany you for a long time or even a lifetime."
"I've never discovered this." Zhang Tao's expression was serious, his lips were almost pressed into a straight line, and the air pressure around him dropped a lot: "What experiment? I don't quite understand."
Mingqiao briefly explained it to him.
"If you put it that way, I have discovered something." Zhang Tao thought carefully and said, "Don't you think there are too many red things in this school?"
Mingqiao's pupils trembled: "Yes, there are many more red things in school now than before."
Zhang Tao said in a tone of astonishment: "Where do these reds appear?"
Mingqiao recalled the entire experience from when he was locked in the office, to going to the cafeteria with Shi Xin, to the playground and the library, and finally to this teaching building.
"When punishment or death occurs, red will appear intentionally or unintentionally," Ming Qiao said. "Now when I see red, I get nervous, sweat, and breathe fast."
"Isn't this also an experiment, a conditioned reflex?" Zhang Tao said. "The whole nation is familiar with Pavlov and the dog, a story that we have memorized since elementary school."
"Then we have basically determined the two experiments. As for the others, it's too short a time to tell."
Zhang Tao was listening to Sun Guiping's sermon on the stage, and it was probably about to end, so he quickly said to Ming Qiao: "I know a teacher in the high school department. I'll find time to ask her if she has found anything."
"Okay, please."
"Today we are still in the same group of invigilators. It's a pleasure to work with you." Zhang Tao said at almost the fastest speed.
“It’s been a pleasure working with you.”
After reading the last sentence of the brainwashing script, Sun Guiping finally announced the end of the meeting.
When Mingqiao stood up with the people around him, he turned his head slightly to look at Zhang Tao, who had been sitting on his right.
He pretended to stand up stiffly and walked without bending his knees, like a puppet. Mingqiao was speechless, but he also imitated Zhang Tao when he walked, moving crookedly to the office.
They took away the first exam paper of the day.
Still Chinese.
It’s the same topic as yesterday.
When Mingqiao handed out the papers, Zhang Tao also saw the questions. He sighed, turned around and said to Mingqiao in a voice that couldn't be any lower: "We need to make them get full marks before moving on to the next subject."
"You can't cheat." Ming Qiao was already beginning to lose consciousness again. He blinked hard, "I have a friend..."
"No matter what friends you have, it won't work." Zhang Tao elbowed him hard: "Don't faint first."
Ming Qiao held on, "Let my friend come quickly, he can do it."
"Full score?"
"Um."
"Can you really get full marks in Chinese? You're a genius." Mingqiao's eyes became more and more empty and dark. Zhang Tao couldn't call him anymore, otherwise he would also be judged to have violated the rules.
Mingqiao felt as if he had been in a dark ocean. He floated on the water, rising and falling with the not-so-turbulent waves. His limbs were weak, and he could only lie on his back. The seawater poured into his ears, mouth and nose mercilessly. He choked hard, and the fresh and salty water immediately rushed into his throat and into his tiny trachea. His lungs suddenly felt unbearable pain, as if they were on fire.
Mingqiao's eyelids were already bloodshot due to suffocation and violent coughing, and he was trembling all over because of the red color in front of him. Until his legs twitched violently, Mingqiao took a deep breath of air, and when he opened his eyes again, he was standing in the middle of the podium, watching the red light fill the entire classroom.
Then, a boy sitting in the middle row rolled to the ground with his head.
The screams that came one after another in the class made Mingqiao, who was not yet fully awake, deaf for a moment.
With cold sweat on his forehead and his face pale, he immediately rushed down from the podium, but before he could walk over, the boy's body and the head rolling on the ground disappeared, along with the terrifying red light.
"Zhang Tao!" Ming Qiao reacted and shouted to the person at the door.
But the talkative Zhang Tao didn't say anything at this time. Instead, he stared at him with a gloomy face.
Ming Qiao looked him in the eye without hesitation: "You killed that student!"
"He violated the rules," Zhang Tao's voice was like a knife, stabbing people with blood, "You also violated the rules, deputy invigilator."
"Which one?" Mingqiao asked coldly.
"I just made the rules casually." Zhang Tao said: "I am the rules. If I say you violated the rules, then you violated the rules."
Mingqiao clenched his fist and swung it directly at Zhang Tao.
Perhaps Zhang Tao didn't react in time. Before he could kill Ming Qiao, Ming Qiao grabbed his collar and dragged him out of the classroom.
Who made him stand at the door? He was dragged out.
"I know that all the power of the invigilator lies in that small square in the classroom. You can't kill me now." Mingqiao punched him twice in the face: "Wake up! Zhang Tao! You can wake up by pinching your thigh, but you can't wake up if I hit you?"
Just when Mingqiao was about to throw the fourth punch at him, Zhang Tao subconsciously raised his hand to block his face.
“Fuck!” Zhang Tao hissed in pain, “I’m awake, stop hitting me, it hurts!”
"You killed that student." Although Mingqiao put down his fist, he still pressed Zhang Tao against the wall and forced him to look into the classroom: "You killed him."
Zhang Tao was also frightened. He was shaking and couldn't speak clearly: "You said I, that, I, killed him? The student?"
"Yes, and no." Ming Qiao released his hand that was holding Zhang Tao, slowly covered his face, and squatted down against the wall. He said in a muffled voice: "It was you, the NPC, who killed that student."
"Mingqiao." Zhang Tao panted rapidly, crying and laughing, trying his best to defend himself: "I didn't, how could I kill students? I..."
Zhang Tao couldn't continue.
Because he knew that what Mingqiao said was the reality.
"He" killed the student, perhaps just because the student broke a rule that seemed insignificant at other times.
"He" even wanted to kill Mingqiao who came up to persuade him.
It all happened so suddenly.
A layer of cold sweat broke out on Zhang Tao's back, and his thin shirt stuck to his skin.
It's so scary.
It's really terrible.
Ming Qiao looked at the painful expression on his face, took two deep breaths uncomfortably, and reluctantly said, "Forget it. It's not something you and I can control."
"Thank you." Zhang Tao's voice was hoarse. He knelt on the ground exhausted, using his arms to support the cold ground. His tears slid down silently, spreading a wet area. "Are you okay too?"
"I've seen it." Mingqiao said.
Zhang Tao didn't react for a moment: "What?"
"I've seen students die even more miserably than this." Mingqiao patted his shoulder and said, "Get up. We have to speed up."
It was not until the afternoon of the third day that Zhang Tao brought back the news he had obtained from the high school department.
"In addition to the two experiments we found, the high school department found two different ones. One was Kohler's gorilla, and the other was Skinner's rat."
"Insight and stimulus reflex." Mingqiao said.
"Besides, don't you want to be the chief invigilator? The high school department gave another answer."
Zhang Tao paused for a long time before speaking: "Set the questions." Just saying these two words felt cruel to him: "Set the questions yourself and eliminate at least 50% of the students."
Mingqiao swallowed and said, "Students who are eliminated will die, right?"
Zhang Tao nodded slowly.
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