Death Progress Bar

utside, it’s not safe.”

Lian Jun also knew that with his identity, going to a place with too many people was asking to be killed, so he nodded and squeezed the teenager’s hand.
“Let Gua Two go with you.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, stay calm.
I’ll be waiting for you here.”

“I know.” Shi Jin hugged him, exchanged a few words with Gua Five, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and got out of the car with Gua Two.

Shi Weichong, whose car stopped right behind theirs, got out as soon as they did and followed.
He came up to Shi Jin’s side as if it was only natural and asked, frowning, “Why are taking the college entrance exam all of a sudden? You used to be going to school abroad—in fact, it would’ve been better to take your exams there.”

Shi Jin really and truly didn’t know what expression to face him with.
He gave a perfunctory reply, “I just wanted to take an exam and go to a university and get a diploma, but I’m not pursuing some big ambition.
Applying for exams in a foreign country is too much trouble, I don’t want to bother.”

“But you haven’t been to school for nearly a year, and you aren’t familiar with the domestic teaching system.
You’re taking the college entrance exam so suddenly—your results might be less than optimal.” The longer Shi Weichong spoke, the deeper his frown got.
After a moment of thought, he added, “Xiao Jin, if you really want to go to university, I can get you a guaranteed admission spot.
You can just skip the exam.”

Being stinking rich is nice.

Shi Jin was quite touched, but he refused without mercy.
“No need, Jun-shao arranged a tutor for me.
I want to use my own strength to get into the university I want to attend.” Then just stay at Lian Jun’s side and while the time away.

“Pff.” Not caring about Shi Jin’s dignity at all, Gua Two laughed out loud.

Shi Jin gave him a death glare.

Gua Two raised his hands in surrender, then turned to Shi Weichong.
“Please don’t say things like that, Mr.
Shi.
The examinees are already under heavy pressure; if you continue, Shi Jin’s mentality might collapse.
He was reviewing even on the way here—it’s obvious how nervous he is.
Please show some understanding for his difficulties.”

This sounded polite, but he actually meant that what Shi Weichong was saying was disagreeable and he wanted the man to shut up.

Shi Weichong glanced at Gua Two, then looked at Shi Jin again.
The teenager still had faint dark circles under his eyes; Shi Weichong stifled the urge to persuade him further and said instead, “Don’t be nervous about the exam, it doesn’t matter if your score isn’t high.
Attending university isn’t the be-all end-all of life.”

Shi Jin felt helpless—why was everyone telling him that it didn’t matter if he didn’t do well in the exam? It was as if they were sure he would fail.

It had to be said that sometimes the examinees’ mentality would collapse not because of their poor psychological quality, but because the people around them would unintentionally keep suggesting they would do badly, and add to the pressure.

The three walked to the entrance of the examination hall to wait.

Because of his temperament and all he experienced in the past year, Shi Jin looked much more composed than his peers; he stood out among the nervous students clutching their exam bags.
In addition, he was not accompanied by his parents, but by two tall adult men, so their group was three times as conspicuous.
In short, they stuck out like a sore thumb.

The eyes of the surrounding people gathered on them and followed them as they passed.
It was in sync, like visitors to a zoo watching monkeys walk around.

Shi Jin: “……” I really want to ditch Gua Two and Shi Weichong somewhere.

Because of his profession, Gua Two didn’t like that they became the focus of the crowd.
He didn’t realize the heart of the problem, though—he was convinced that they attracted so much attention because Shi Weichong was following them like a curse.

“Huh, I think that all the other examinees have a bottle of water.
Could you perhaps get one for Shi Jin?” Gua Two asked, subtly trying to drive him away.

Frowning, Shi Weichong looked at Shi Jin, looked at what other examinees and their parents had in their hands, and actually left to buy water.

Shi Jin turned to look at Gua Two.

Gua Two explained with a straight face, “Shi Weichong is actually considered a celebrity, he often appears on the first page of finance and economics magazines.
Him standing next to you puts you in danger of being photographed, so it’s best to get rid of him as soon as possible.”

“I totally believe you,” Shi Jin said, expressionless.

A warm smile appeared on Gua Two’s face.
“Thank you for your trust.”

While they talked, Shi Weichong returned with the water.
He carefully tore off the plastic packaging and the label and handed the bottle to Shi Jin, saying, “I saw that everyone else was doing this.
Here.
I didn’t buy you a soft drink, pure water quenches thirst the best.”

“Thank you.” Shi Jin took the water, glancing at the torn-off plastic crumpled in his brother’s hand.
He wanted to sigh.

Why did Shi Weichong bother doing all this? He didn’t need to.

As if reading his mind, all of a sudden Shi Weichong said, “Don’t worry about it—I’m simply doing what I want to do.
What you should be thinking about is doing your best on the exam, don’t mind other things.”

Shi Jin didn’t answer, responding to his goodwill with silence.

The entrance opened exactly on time.
Shi Jin bid farewell to Gua Two and Shi Weichong, took the exam bag and water, and entered the exam hall.
After finding the right classroom and seat according to the information on the admission ticket, he sat down, put his things on the desk, and forced himself to focus on the exam and ignore anything that was irrelevant.

When the time came, the exam proctor began to hand out the papers.

Xiao Si took the opportunity to give Shi Jin a bunch of random buffs, like ‘Feeling Refreshed,’ ‘Twice The Result With Half The Effort,’ ‘Possessed by Exam God,’ ‘Studying Tyrant,’ and so on.
It wanted to help Shi Jin as much as it was in its power to do so.

Shi Jin didn’t notice anything.
After getting the exam paper, he began by filling out the examinee information as was the usual practice.
Somehow, he felt it was very easy to write today and he finished filling out the information before he knew it.
Then, his eyes moved to the questions and, without a hitch, he continued on to answer them.

Time always seemed to pass in a flash when you were completely focused on doing something.

By the time Shi Jin finished answering the last fill-in-the-blank question and emerged from his trance-like state, there was not much time left.
He went over his answers for the last time and confirmed that he filled in the examinee information correctly.
As soon as he put his pen down, the bell announcing the end of the exam rang.

Everything went so smoothly, as if it was following some kind of script.

Shi Jin walked out of the classroom with the other examinees.
Recalling the way he took the exam, he found that he seemed to be in extraordinarily good condition—answering the questions felt easier than usual, and he had been very focused, not paying attention to anything except the exam paper.

It wasn’t right—when he got up this morning, his brain was in chaos and his body felt uncomfortable all over; it was bad enough that he had been almost certain he would fail today’s exams.

Realizing what happened, he poked Xiao Si.
“Did you help?”

Caught, Xiao Si’s reply was timid.

Warmth filling his chest, a smile spread over Shi Jin’s face.
“It was very useful.
Thank you.”

So Xiao Si’s voice grew louder again, and it said with happiness,