"Baby, What’s wrong with you?”
Gu Zhan stood at the door, confused. The puppet’s painted eyes showed a look of excitement as they fixed their gaze on him, seemingly trying to uncover what was wrong.
Gu Zhan quickly regained his composure, walked up, and closed the refrigerator door, saying, “It’s nothing, I just slept in a weird position last night.”
“Really?” The puppet’s mouth twisted into a strange arc. “She” smiled and said, “It must be because you stayed up too late doing homework last night. You should go to bed earlier from now on.”
“Yes, I understand, Mom,” Gu Zhan replied obediently.
The strange light in the puppet’s eyes finally faded, and she said regretfully, “Well then, carry your meal and go eat breakfast.”
Gu Zhan picked up his breakfast and headed to the dining table.
As soon as he sat down at the table, a male puppet dressed in a suit walked into the room.
This must be his “father.”
“Dad” came over to Gu Zhan, lightly stroking his hair with his wooden, slightly stiff hand. “Good morning, baby.”
Gu Zhan still felt uncomfortable with the idea of having family members, responding with a brief, “Morning.”
“Dad” seemed rather reserved and didn’t say much, sitting down quietly nearby.
Before long, “Mom” brought out two more breakfast plates.
Gu Zhan felt a bit curious; since they were both puppets, how did they eat?
He watched as they each picked up chopsticks and lifted their bowls, their once complete wooden mouths splitting open with a large, blood-red crack, swallowing all the food without even chewing.
They finished eating quickly, and the two pairs of wooden puppet eyes stared at Gu Zhan, asking in unison, “Baby, why aren’t you eating?”
Gu Zhan: “…”
He lowered his head to eat, and the food was normal when it entered his mouth.
The meal was soon over. The man was leaving for work, while the woman stood at the door of Gu Zhan’s room, urging him to pack his bag.
This puppet mother perfectly fulfilled her role, continuously pointing out what Gu Zhan had forgotten as he packed his things.
With her prompts, Gu Zhan successfully packed his bag.
The female puppet said, “I’ll take you to school.”
The rules announced by the system at the beginning included six points, three of which were related to school.
Gu Zhan judged that the school was the main location of this chapter.
Moreover, it was very likely that he would encounter other people at school.
As they walked out of the small house, Gu Zhan’s first impression of this world was that it felt “fake.” The sky was clear, the sun bright, the lawn outside was well-maintained, and the small house next door looked neat and new.
Everything was beautiful, fitting the theme of a “happy little town.”
But because of that, it felt unreal, reminiscent of idyllic little towns in foreign road movies from the last century.
Gu Zhan also noticed that each small house had a door number; their home was labeled “109-3A.”
The school seemed not too far from home, but the female puppet still chose to drive.
Soon, they arrived at the school.
It was the time for morning classes, and many parents were sending their children off at the entrance. When Gu Zhan got out of the car, he noticed that the other parents seemed quite normal. Turning back, he saw the female puppet’s wooden face appeared particularly unusual under the sunlight.
Yet, no one around seemed to notice anything odd.
The female puppet handed the backpack to Gu Zhan, smiling, “Go on, study hard!”
Gu Zhan took the bag, which had his grade and classroom number stickered on it, and followed the directions to find it.
Sure enough, he ran into Yu Yezhou and Yang Lin at the entrance.
In no time, Xu Yu was already sitting in the classroom.
They were in Class 3 of the sixth grade, surrounded by children, and only the four of them were adults. This was so abrupt that no one seemed to notice anything strange, with kids coming and going, playing and shouting, completely oblivious to them.
Yu Yezhou sighed, “I didn’t expect that after all these years, there would be a day to return to school.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the nearby children all turned to look at them. Their gazes seemed vacant, exuding an air of danger.
Yu Yezhou instantly realized he had said something wrong. At that moment, Gu Zhan said, “Hurry up and take your seats; the teacher is coming.”
As soon as he said this, the nearby children dispersed in a hurry, quickly returning to their spots.
In the blink of an eye, there were only three empty seats left in the classroom, and the three of them sat down in order.
Not long after, the teacher walked in.
He held a primary school Chinese textbook and started the lesson.
The content was standard elementary school material, nothing particularly special.
After forty minutes of class, the four of them finally made it through, waiting for ten minutes of break time.
During break, they were free to move around, and they left the classroom together, heading to a less crowded area behind the teaching building.
“Let’s share our situations,” Yu Yezhou said first. “I’m 12 years old this year; my dad is a doctor, and my mom is a piano teacher. I’ve heard that I’ve come from a wealthy family and have excellent grades, like the kind of kid everyone admires.”
Yang Lin said, “I’m pretty much the same, same age, and I come from a privileged background.”
Xu Yu asked, “Did you hear the system rules when you came in?”
Yang Lin nodded, “I heard it.”
Yu Yezhou said, “I heard it too. There are a total of six rules.”
Gu Zhan nodded as well. When Xu Yu asked him what rules he heard, Gu Zhan recounted them one by one.
When he got to the fifth rule, Xu Yu added the last one.
It seemed that their information was quite similar; the rules were the same, and their family conditions were similar... but none of them mentioned the puppets.
Just as Gu Zhan was about to ask, the class bell rang.
The students hurried back to the classroom. They were unsure what would happen if they were late and decided to return to class first.
The second class was math, and what surprised everyone was that a twelve-year-old elementary school student was already learning to solve complex equations. This kind of thing was completely useless for ordinary people, especially for those trapped in an infinite game like them.
Several of them had long forgotten what the teacher had taught, and after flipping through their textbooks, they could barely recall a little.
Fortunately, the course was meant to be educational; they had learned it before but simply forgotten it. Once the teacher started explaining, they gradually began to remember.
By the end of the class, the expressions on Yu Yezhou and Yang Lin's faces were not good. Especially Yu Yezhou, whose eyes were vacant, as if all his energy had been drained.
Yang Lin poked him. "Are you serious?"
Yu Yezhou looked blankly, "I hated math when I was in school. All these X's and Y's can confuse me without even adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing. Who invented these equations? Can't they use a simpler way to solve these problems?"
As he spoke, he leaned over his desk, dejectedly saying, "Haven't humans invented computers yet? Why can't these simple calculations be left to machines?"
"You’re right." Xu Yu suddenly spoke up, "But these are just elementary arithmetic problems."
Yu Yezhou was taken aback. "…"
He protested, "Even if they’re elementary, a twelve-year-old is already in sixth grade! They’re about to become middle schoolers, and they’re already previewing middle school content!"
Xu Yu showed him no mercy and replied flatly, "So what? What’s wrong with middle school problems?"
Yu Yezhou could only respond with silence.
He had nothing to say to this person!
"Alright, alright, we only have ten minutes of break time." Yang Lin skillfully intervened, "Stop arguing; should we go outside to take a look?"
Yu Yezhou immediately sat up and said, "Yes, of course."
He continued, "Let’s split into groups of two. I want to be with Gu Zhan."
Yang Lin said, "Then I’ll team up with Xu Yu."
Yu Yezhou added, "I quietly observed during class; the dormitory building is on the right side of the teaching building, and opposite that is the teacher's building. Further ahead is the playground. This school isn't big, so we should be able to make a round during break!"
"Xiao Lin, you and Xu Yu go to the playground. Gu Zhan and I will check out the teacher's building."
After assigning tasks, everyone set off in different directions.
Perhaps due to the inherent authority teachers have over students, there weren't many people at the entrance of the teacher's building.
Only teachers were allowed to enter and exit through the main door.
Yu Yezhou pulled Gu Zhan aside to observe for a while and said, "It’s too conspicuous to enter through the front door. I saw a side door; let’s check it out."
The small path next to the side door led to the playground. The kids weren't very disciplined in walking and some even jumped onto the steps leading up to the side door.
Yu Yezhou thought it should be easy to sneak in.
The two pretended to chat as they walked toward that direction.
However, just as Yu Yezhou stepped onto the stairs and was about to push open the door, it was suddenly pushed open from inside.
A man wearing a tank top walked out. Seeing the two of them outside, he sternly scolded, "What are you two doing here? Are you supposed to be in gym class? Gym class requires you to gather on the playground five minutes early. Didn’t you know?"
Yu Yezhou was startled and quickly replied, "N-no, teacher, we… we were just passing by."
"Classes are about to start, so stop running around!" The teacher glared at the two of them, "Hurry back!"
"Okay, teacher. Goodbye, teacher." Yu Yezhou didn’t dare to say another word, pulling Gu Zhan to turn and leave.
After walking for a while, Yu Yezhou said, "That was bad luck. Should we try another door?"
Gu Zhan slowly shook his head. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but the moment the teacher got angry, it seemed like wooden patterns appeared on his face.
Recalling the rules the system had mentioned at the beginning, Gu Zhan cautiously said, "You just promised him you would go back to class. It’s best if we head back."
"Why?" Yu Yezhou asked, "I…"
Before he could finish his sentence, a piercing cat scream echoed from a distance!
The sound was incredibly grating, as if it was ringing in their ears! Both were startled, especially Yu Yezhou, whose hair stood on end! Even their sanity value fluctuated slightly!
"What the hell was that?!" he exclaimed in shock.
Gu Zhan quickly pressed down on his shoulder and said, "Don’t say anything."
The two stood frozen in place, and after a long while, there was no movement around them.
Everything seemed normal, as if that horrible cat scream had never happened.
Yu Yezhou scanned the surroundings, "I didn’t mishear, right? It was… a cat scream?"
"It was a cat scream," Gu Zhan confirmed. "Do you remember the rules?"
Yu Yezhou remembered this one, "Curiosity killed the cat. Every time you ask the teacher 'why' out of curiosity, an innocent cat will die."
But he hadn’t asked the teacher; he had been talking to Gu Zhan.
Could it be… they couldn’t even mention those words when chatting privately?
He dared not ask any more questions and could only look at Gu Zhan.
Gu Zhan had similar thoughts, but without any evidence to back it up, he wasn’t too sure.
To be safe, he said, "Let’s head back."
This time, Yu Yezhou had no objections.
Moreover, the commotion they caused was already getting close to class time.
On the way back, Yu Yezhou sighed, "A ten-minute break feels no different from being let out of jail. I never felt that the school’s schedule was so unreasonable before."
When they arrived at the classroom, Yang Lin and Xu Yu hadn’t returned yet.
It was only when the class bell rang that they returned just in time.
As soon as they came back, the teacher arrived.
The two teams had not exchanged any information, and another class passed just like that.
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