The old man finished changing the sail,
He wiped his hands hastily on his pants.
He jumped down from the helm and looked back and forth between You Huo and Qin Jiu.
"A young man with a strong body,
How can you have the nerve to watch a weak old man work? "The old man's exposed arms were muscular,
In terms of arms alone, they were twice as thick as an ordinary person's.
He didn't even have the strength to truss a chicken..
Qin Jiu smiled and said, "Chickens are wronged."
The old man: "..."
He was so angry that he glared at Qin Jiu. "Don't cross your arms and do nothing,
I hate it the most when young people cross their arms and raise their chins,
Oh, and put on cold faces. They're all pretending! "
You Huo was innocently implicated. "... what do you want to help me with?"
The old man kicked a piece of deck on the ground and said, "The rotation shaft is a little rusty. I can't handle it alone. Help me open it. Otherwise, you guys can stay on the deck and wait for the waves to come! "
Alright.
You Huo was speechless in his heart. He stretched out his foot to test the deck.
This action was purely out of inertia. In the end, he stepped on Qin Jiu's shoe.
You Huo: "..."
Qin Jiu: "Are you childish,
This examinee? "
"I checked the deck,
Why did you send your foot here? "
"What a coincidence, so did I." Qin Jiu said.
He raised his shoe and checked a few places and said, "It's okay. There's an empty floor below. These two sides are uneven,
You can - "
While they were talking..,
You Huo had already pulled out a thin iron hook from the pile of junk beside him.
He chiseled the hook into the uneven deck.
With a bang, wood chips flew everywhere.
The old man silently took two small steps to the side.
You Huo lifted one of his long legs and stomped on the iron hook that stood at an angle.
Crack -
The entire deck cracked open.
Qin Jiu was still wearing that pair of black leather gloves,
Before You Huo could make a move..,
He had already bent down and put his hand into the raised gap,
He pulled it hard.
The whole deck was lifted off.
Rusty hinges clattered to the floor.
You Huo carried the iron hook.
He glanced at Qin Jiu.
It had been a long time since he met someone who could keep up with his pace.
But the old man's face had already turned green.
·
The deck was actually a trapdoor.
After lifting the curtain, they could see the stairs leading to the cabin. There were kerosene lamps hanging around the cabin, and they could see the bunks inside.
·
The old man opened his mouth and was about to say something.
You Huo patted his back and lifted his chin. "Lead the way. Thank you."
The old man opened his eyes wide and shut his mouth.
The three of them went down into the cabin and covered the broken deck, and the ship warmed up.
The old man didn't care about them. He went into a single room and slammed the door in their faces.
This person had nothing on his mind. Within a minute, he was snoring like thunder.
You Huo didn't want to touch the dirty blanket, so he found a chair in the cabin and sat down.
Not long after, Qin Jiu also came over. His fingers were still pressed to the tip of his nose. Obviously, he was quite smelly.
Even so, he didn't forget to tease You Huo. "What day is it today? You're actually awake?"
You Huo: "…"
He glanced at Qin Jiu. "I'll press you to the bed and breathe for half an hour. What do you think?"
Qin Jiu laughed. "That's fine, but I might drag you along to share the blessings."
You Huo thought to himself, F * ck you.
"How much do you remember about the coachman at sea?" Qin Jiu asked.
One of his elbows rested on the table, while his other hand was fiddling with the flame of the lamp, causing it to sway slightly.
Seeing that they had a tacit understanding to pry open the deck, You Huo replied, "The Netherlands."
It had been many years since he graduated from high school. He didn't study liberal arts, and he didn't touch history at all in his senior year of high school, so the things he remembered were very limited.
In short, in some century, the Netherlands was known as the coachman at sea.
You Huo couldn't remember the reason, but it seemed to be because it was cheap.
The Netherlands had big-bellied cabins that could accommodate more goods, and the rent was cheaper than other merchant ships. It was said that they could even risk their lives.
That was all he remembered about the coachman at sea.
But …
"Does it make a difference whether you remember it or not?" You Huo said again. "Will you be tested properly?"
Qin Jiu: "If you're lucky, there's a one in a thousand chance."
You Huo snorted. "It's faster to dream."
Wasn't the characteristics of this stupid system obvious enough? It was a typical test of where it couldn't be tested.
Even if it could be tested, it would take a lot of twists and turns and be very dishonest.
·
The boat that was responsible for picking people up was very small.
After a few minutes of sailing, there were suddenly waves on the sea.
It was as if they had just left the simulated fake sea and finally entered the real sea.
The sea was turbulent.
They could hear the roar of thunder through the thick wooden cabin, and occasionally, lightning flashed through the trapdoor.
The boat was swayed by the waves.
You Huo, a person who didn't get seasick, was very unhappy. Qin Jiu's expression was also not good.
In this extremely uncomfortable environment, both of them actually fell asleep on the table, completely unaware of it.
·
You Huo was awakened by the bone-piercing cold.
He opened his eyes abruptly and saw the gloomy sky.
The sky?
He turned over and sat up, and found that he was no longer in the dirty cabin of the boat.
Beneath him was a black reef that could barely be considered flat, covered with a layer of ice. The reef area was very large, and Qin Jiu was lying on his side next to it.
This should be the sea, because behind them was an isolated island made of rocks. Around the isolated island were nearly twenty wooden boats that were crooked.
Ten of them were the same as the one they were on, small and shabby.
There were also three that were much larger.
One of the three was crooked near You Huo.
It could be seen that the deck of this kind of boat was very narrow, but the cabin was very large, like a frozen dumpling.
The lights on the boat were all out, and some of the bows and masts were frozen. It could be seen that they had been anchored for a while, and no one was there.
You Huo patted Qin Jiu twice, thinking that it was strange.
He was already awake, but this person still didn't react …
After being patted twice, the other party narrowed his eyes and woke up. He didn't notice anything unusual at first. This was enough to show that Qin Jiu really wasn't afraid of the cold at all.
When he sat up, he pinched the bridge of his nose and said to You Huo, "Morning …"
You Huo wanted to carve the word "Morning" on his face.
"Get some wind first, then decide if you want to continue greeting me like this."
You Huo took a step to the side, and the wind that was blocked by him hit Qin Jiu in the face.
"…"
The effect was immediate, and the invigilator woke up instantly.
Qin Jiu stood up, using his glove to cover his eyebrows and looked out.
As far as the eye could see, there was rolling white ice and snow everywhere, like a polar ice field.
"Still in the sea?" Qin Jiu said with a frown.
"Yes." You Huo pointed back with his thumb and said, "There's an island behind."
Qin Jiu looked around and said, "Let's go to the island and take a look."
·
After a while, You Huo, Qin Jiu … and Qin Jiu's luggage stood in front of a stone cave on the island.
Someone had pressed down a gray canvas at the entrance of the stone cave, using it as a mark.
What made them uncomfortable was that they originally thought that it was a ball of snow that was pressing down on the canvas.
When they walked in, they realized that there was an eye on the snow.
Qin Jiu frowned and identified it, saying, "Arctic rabbit."
That arctic rabbit had been dead for a long time, frozen together with the canvas, sealed by a layer of ice.
You Huo was about to bend down to take a look, when the System's familiar voice came from the arctic rabbit's body:
【All candidates have arrived at the examination venue.】
【This round of examination is a large examination venue, with a total of 36 candidates, divided into 18 groups based on the departure port, with two candidates in each group. The total score of the candidates in each group is the basis of the assessment of the examination level.】
【This round of scoring is based on a behavioral participation model, there are no answer cards, no standard answers. In addition to the original score, there is a chance for additional points, and there is also a possibility for additional points to be deducted.】
【At the end of this round of examination, those with a score of C will need to retake the examination, those with a score of D will be eliminated together.】
【The starting score of each group of candidates is announced as follows.】
The sound of chiseling could be heard both inside and outside the large stone cave, in the blink of an eye, the names of the 18 groups of candidates appeared on the flat stone surface above the arctic rabbit's head.
Those names were in groups of two, next to them was a long bar, indicating their total score.
The higher the score, the higher the level, and the longer the bar.
The entire ranking was arranged from the highest to the lowest score.
You Huo glanced at it, the top group had a total of 42 points.
Then, there was a group with 40 points, a group with 39.5 points, a group with 35 points …
They went down in order.
They saw Shu Xue's name at the bottom of the middle. She was in the same group as another candidate called Wu Li, the two of them had a total of 26 points, and were currently ranked 12th, with a provisional level of C.
Other than that, they didn't find any other acquaintances.
Yu Wen and his son really weren't in this examination venue, but if they thought about it carefully, they might have met Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing.
As for You Huo and Qin Jiu …
These two great names were dignified and prudent, sinking in the second-to-last position.
Invigilator 001 didn't increase, but instead decreased, single-handedly pulling the group's total score to 17.25 points, unmoved by the wind and rain of the D level.
You Huo's face was even colder than the arctic rabbit's.
Qin Jiu met his gaze, spread out his hands and said, "Thank you, top student, for helping the poor, not letting me sit in the last place. I've decided to perform well, and strive to make you proud."
You Huo: "…"
Even the System's dead rabbit couldn't bear to listen to such shameless words.
The System's voice rudely interrupted him:
【The score will be updated in real time, if you have any irrelevant questions, you can ask invigilators 154, 922, 078, 021.】
When You Huo heard 154 and 922, he glanced at Qin Jiu.
"We're both invigilators, why do you look so happy when you hear 154 and 922?" Qin Jiu asked.
"… Which eye of yours saw that fallacy?"
While they were talking, the dead rabbit spoke again:
【The examination has officially begun, the examination questions will now be played.】
【In the winter of 1597, three Dutch merchant ships were trapped by the frozen sea when passing through Russia, temporarily docked on a nameless deserted island, waiting for the long winter to pass. This is the eighth month they have lived here, there are still 15 days until the end of winter, the sea ice will melt, all groups of candidates please help all the members of the merchant fleet return smoothly.】
【Question requirement: None of the crew members can die, otherwise, the last group of candidates at midnight on that day will bear the responsibility for their deaths.】
【If more than two people die that day, it will be postponed to the next day, and the last group of candidates at midnight on that day will bear the responsibility for their deaths, and so on, until the number of dead crew members is covered.】
Bear the responsibility for their deaths?
How? Replace their deaths? Or be buried with them?
You Huo couldn't help but think of the villagers of Chasu village, and his face turned sour again.
Suddenly, he felt someone tap the back of his hand twice.
You Huo looked down, and found that it was Qin Jiu's finger.
"Don't look at my hand, I'm telling you to look at the hole over there." Qin Jiu said, and raised his hand to point.
You Huo looked over, and saw people peeking out of the hole.
These people were wearing thick gray clothes similar to the Middle Ages, brown woolen waistcoats, and some were even wrapped in dirty animal skins, they looked like foreigners.
They looked haggard, and their expressions were wooden, as they carried a few people out slowly.
"What's wrong?"
You Huo looked at the people being carried, and his heart skipped a beat.
These people's eyes were tightly shut, and their faces were gray and lifeless. Two of them were even hard …
The leader seemed to be able to understand a little Chinese, and his eyes turned sluggishly, slowly looking at You Huo and Qin Jiu, and said in broken Chinese, "Dead, crew members."
Qin Jiu's voice softly sounded from the side, "It's a bit bad, eight crew members died at the beginning."
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