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CNC: Chapter 55

Mosaic School (6)

The doctor saw that Chi Nan was still as stiff as ever and smiled. “Sit down first. I will take your temperature.”

Chi Nan sat down, but his eyes were still on the doctor. “I came to see you last night.”

“Really? I was probably dealing with something else, sorry.” The doctor laughed.

“Was it you who knocked on the wall in the middle of the night last night?”

“I was just saying good night to the student next door.”

“Oh.” It was similar to what Chi Nan thought.

“Thank you, I received your good night as well.” The doctor seemed to be in a good mood as he took off his gloves and stood in front of Chi Nan.

Chi Nan looked up at him and blinked. “Don’t you need a thermometer to take my temperature?”

The doctor leaned down slightly, narrowed his eyes, and made eye contact. “I don’t need it.”

As he spoke, he gently pressed a hand against Chi Nan’s forehead.

His hands were as cold as ever and didn’t belong to the temperature of the living.

Chi Nan’s eyes instinctively opened and his Adam’s apple moved slightly. Two tears dripped down from the corners of his eyes.

The doctor didn’t stop due to Chi Nan’s tears. He just kept taking the temperature while watching Chi Nan’s tears continue.

“It is very hot. It seems your illness isn’t light,” the doctor stated.

Chi Nan told him, “Maybe your hands are too cold.”

The doctor didn’t refute it. He just smiled in a happy mood. “It is 38.4 degrees. I will prescribe you some anti-fever medicine.”

He paused before reluctantly removing his hand from Chi Nan’s forehead. Finally, he grabbed a tissue from the table and naturally wiped Chi Nan’s tears.

He also wiped the tear drop moles with a tissue in a very restrained manner.

It was like eating a cake and saving the strawberries on the cream until the end. The deliciousness couldn’t be enjoyed all at once.

Chi Nan also let him do it. In any case, he felt no shame shedding tears in front of 229.

He just pursed his lips when he heard 229 was going to prescribe medicine.

He had taken 229’s medicine twice. Once in You Yu’s Dream and once at the Dawn Base. He cried while drinking it.

“Is it sweet?” Chi Nan asked.

The doctor smiled. “You will know after you taste it.”

Then he handed Chi Nan the soup medicine that had been boiled to a reddish brown color. The warm medicine was just hot enough to be ingested and there was still a trace of steam.

Chi Nan looked up and drank the medicine. Sure enough, it was the familiar sweet taste that was delicious yet bitter.

He wiped the tears that fell and didn’t bother to ask about the ingredients. In any case, this medicine wasn’t really to treat him.

“I said we would meet again. I didn’t lie to you.”

Chi Nan nodded and felt a bit distressed. “However, I spent my favorability points.”

The doctor laughed. “Is there anything else you need my help with?”

“Yes.” Chi Nan gently placed Ye Chang’s broken glasses on the table. “Can you help me fix it?”

The doctor picked up the glasses and held them in his hand, the corners of his lips raised imperceptibly. “Of course.”

“For the sake of 100 favorability, I will naturally satisfy this requirement.” The doctor happily put away the broken glasses.

“Thank you.” Chi Nan was still polite.

“Is there anything else you want to ask?”

Chi Nan knew the rules of the instance and didn’t both asking about relevant matters uselessly.  He thought about it before wondering, “In the You Yu’s Dream instance, the NPC you controlled was little You Yu, right?”

Chi Nan had been suspicious ever since the Ye Chang identity was revealed last time.

The doctor stared at him for a few seconds before smiling half-truthfully. “Brother, did you recognize me?”

Chi Nan: “……”

The phrase ‘I like the way you cry’ was really something that this guy could say.

“What does your number 229 mean?” Chi Nan asked again.

The doctor thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. “I can’t tell you this for the time being.”

Chi Nan didn’t have much hope that this question would be answered. “Then should I call you Doctor, Ye Chang, or 229 later?”

The doctor looked at him in a half joking and half serious manner. “Why don’t you call me You Yu like in the first instance?”

Chi Nan: “……”

The doctor added, “I don’t mind continuing to call you Brother.”

“…Forget it.”

The doctor smiled and shrugged. “Then what else is there to ask? It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a question for the time being. You need to come to the infirmary once a day at noon to drink medicine. Think about it and ask again.”

Chi Nan wondered, “Every day?”

The doctor nodded. “Since I have used your 100 favorability, I naturally want to give you special treatment. Boiling medicine and doing a routine physical examination every day is what I should do.”

Chi Nan nodded. “Okay.”

The doctor looked at him with a slight smile. “Keep what I have given you. Remember what I said. Perhaps you can use them.”

Chi Nan: “……”

“If I guessed correctly, you have already used it today, haven’t you?”

Chi Nan knew this guy was referring to the red quilt thing…

The doctor smiled and wiped the tears from his eyelashes. “Go and take your lunch break. Don’t be late for class in the afternoon.”

After coming out of the infirmary, Chi Nan saw Guo Xian waiting in the corridor not far away.

“What happened? Were there any clues inside?” Guo Xian asked immediately.

Chi Nan thought about it for a moment. “There was a strange school doctor.”

Guo Xian was stunned. “Huh?”

“Hmm.”

In the afternoon, it was still the female teacher who taught them. She placed a stove and kettle in the middle of the classroom.

Everyone exchanged looks as the female teacher lit the stove and put the kettle on the fire. “Please keep an eye on it until the water boils.”

No one knew what the NPC was saying but they all did as told. Yet after almost 10 minutes, the kettle still showed no signs of boiling.

“The water shouldn’t boil while we are staring at it.” The long-haired student’s eyes lit up and she spoke suddenly.

The girl with the buns looked confused. “Why?”

The long-haired student had always been hesitant. At this time, she spoke in a rare firm manner, “The Quantum Zeno effect.”

The bun-haired girl showed the bitter smile of a learning scumbag. “Can you explain it clearly?”

“Once we continue to observe an unstable quantum system, it won’t decay. We can freeze the initial state of the system through high-frequency observations and prevent the system from changing.”

The girl with the buns held her forehead. “Please speak human words.”

Chi Nan understood what the long-haired student meant. “Does it mean that as long as you keep looking at it, the state of the object won’t change? The water can’t boil when we stare at the kettle?”

The long-haired student nodded vigorously. “Yes, that is it.”

“Ah, it is just like when I was taking an exam. The invigilator stood by and stared at me and I couldn’t write…”

“Me too! Originally, I remembered the words well and the position was clear, but as soon as I stood on the stage and was stared at by hundreds of eyes, I couldn’t move…”

The long-haired student smiled in embarrassment. “There are some…deviations but it is indeed easier to explain it like this.”

“So what does the teacher mean by telling us this now?”

The students murmured to each other. As soon as they looked away to participate in the discussion, the kettle placed in the center of the classroom immediately made a harsh sound and the water boiled.

The female teacher looked approvingly at the sleepwalkers. “It seems that you students have a good foundation. This student has already said it very clearly so I don’t need to explain too much.”

“Please remember the knowledge points learned in class and flexibly apply them to your following campus life.”

The female teacher’s words gave enough information and Guo Xian slightly raised an eyebrow. “It seems that this Quantum Zeno effect is related to today’s new school rule.”

Chi Nan stared at the water kettle that was emitting steam. Continued observation would cause the system state to freeze and prevent it from changing?

“Do you have any thoughts?” Guo Xian glanced at the dazed Chi Nan and asked him what he thought.

Chi Nan thought about it. “Maybe today’s school rule is a bit tricky.”

Guo Xian: “……”

There was the lesson of the green and blue-haired boys, so the new and old sleepwalkers had alarm bells ringing in their hearts. Everyone quickly agreed in the classroom that the death penalty tonight might be related to observation and variables. In any case, as long as there was any suspicious phenomenon, just keep staring at it to prevent any changes from happening.

After mastering the basic routine, everyone had a bit of an idea in their heart. The worry  couldn’t be put down safely, but it was temporarily relieved.

Time passed minute by minute. Soon, it was the most difficult night and snow was blowing outside the window.

The group noted down the taboos: don’t walk on the snowy playground, don’t stick out their hands, feet, and heads when assigned a red quit, don’t be afraid when seeing suspicious things and keep staring at it to prevent changes from happening…

The strange prayer session of sending small white flowers was held as usual. There were no sleepwalkers who violated the school rules today so the female teacher changed her words. “Congratulations to all the students who have passed these last 24 hours safely. However, we can’t guarantee that there will be no students who break the school rules at night. The little white flowers today can be given to the students you think will break the rules at night.”

Everyone looked at each other. This meant that this round of white flowers was a pure gamble with the death of a companion as the bet.

It might hurt feelings, but in the Nightmare World, there was nothing more important than following the process. No one was worried about shedding any pretenses of cordiality with their companions here.

16 white floors were soon given away. The long-haired student was considered to be the sleepwalker most likely to encounter danger due to the death of her roommate and she got seven white flowers. Two were behind two other newcomers and there was one flower behind several people, including Chi Nan.

After the announcement of the results, everyone was a bit surprised. It was reasonable to say that after Chi Nan and Guo Xian correctly answered the second test question this morning, they were obviously bigshots with a lot of experience. No one was stupid enough to think they would die.

No one knew that Chi Nan had given the flower to himself. He remembered that the sleepwalkers who had been assigned flowers yesterday could take them away.

He thought that he would be able to give this white flower to 229 at the infirmary at noon tomorrow.

At the end of the day, Chi Nan got 12 credits while Guo Xian got 11 credits because he missed one point from the white flowers given at night.

No one had an appetite after the bloody and strange day, but they still came to the cafeteria to eat dinner at the suggestion of the girl with buns.

“Illness, lack of sleep, and hunger are likely to affect our awakening value. Once the awakening value is raised, it is likely to lead to confused thinking and a loss of judgment and desire to survive. We must try to keep our body in a healthy and good state.”

Chi Nan sneezed the moment the girl with the buns finished speaking.

Everyone: “……”

“Sorry.” Chi Nan consciously distanced himself from the group and took the tray to a corner to eat.

After all, colds were contagious. No one wanted to get sick in the instance.

Besides, Chi Nan was happy to stay by himself. It was better to not be disturbed.

The only fly in the ointment was that Chi Nan found there were no sweets in the school cafeteria. This was probably done deliberately by 229.

However, Guo Xian wasn’t afraid of death and came over with a tray. He said, “It seems that the medicine prescribed to you by the school doctor doesn’t work very well?”

Chi Nan nodded. “He is a quack doctor.”

Guo Xian gave up when he heard this and got to the point. “If tonight’s death rule requires us to continuously observe something, then I’m afraid this is a bit difficult to deal with if you live alone.”

“It isn’t necessarily Room 210’s turn,” Chi Nan said, “In addition, judging from the situation with the red quilt last night, the death trigger is random.”

“That doesn’t mean that Room 210 will necessarily avoid it, right?”

“Yes.” No nervousness could be seen on Chi Nan’s face.

Guo Xian looked at his calmness and raised an eyebrow. “Are you gambling with your life?”

“Have you thought of anything?” Chi Nan asked Guo Xian.

“Yes, the rooms are divided into double rooms. I think this is a necessary condition for breaking this taboo. If there is really any dangerous situation, the two people can take turns to observe continuously. It is a bit difficult for one person…” Guo Xian informed Chi Nan of the results of the discussion between him and the others just now. “Now you and Tang Yu are the only ones in single rooms. I think it is better for you to become roommates if the rules allow it.”

“Tang Yu?” It was difficult for Chi Nan to remember the appearance and names of others. It was just that the long-haired student was the only one whose roommate had died, so he soon figured it out.

“If living by yourself isn’t your bottom line…” Guo Xian added.

Chi Nan wasn’t such a stubborn person. He chose to live alone when conditions permitted it, but he could accept having a roommate if it improved the safety factor.

Unfortunately, the female teacher refused their request to merge dormitories.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t approve your application. After each student’s dormitory is allocated, it can’t be changed at will. You have to live there until the end of the semester.”

“If you change the dormitory without permission then the consequences might be unbearable for you. Please remember this,” the female teacher warned again. Her eyes were specially focused on Chi Nan.

Proofreader: Kat

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