Ch102 - Hot Blood Runs Cold (2)

Translator: transcendentwings

CW/TW: depiction of suicide (please seek help, doesn’t exactly need to be professional, as long as it’s someone you can talk to)

The author has something to say: This is the second update today~~ There are two updates today, so those who missed the first update should go back and read the previous chapter firstoh~~ Running away at Qiao Siqi’s speed~~~~~~~~

Translator has something to say: I guess since I’ve already uploaded the last chapter for a while now, I can only say that I guess this will be a double chapter as well, next chapter will be up shortly (probably tomorrow)

Finally, Fu Xiyuan patted Ma Weisen on the shoulder and stood up first: “Let’s take it one step at a timeba.”

Ma Weisen looked up miserably, a pitiful look swimming in his eyes: “Then let’s make a deal first, no matter who is left alone, the other must turn back and look for them.”

Fu Xiyuan stared at him for a long time: “Excuse me, how do you determine who was left behind when there are only two people?”

Ma Weisen: “This is indeed a more profound question. . .”

“Get lost,” Fu Xiyuan scoffed grumpily, “Once separated, you must find a way to meet up.”

“That’s what I meant!” Ma Weisen nodded like he was beating garlic.

Fu Xiyuan stretched his muscles and finally let out a long breath: “Let’s go.”

Ma Weisen stood up: “Feint to the east and attack in the west or clear the field directly?”

The fact that the Wusheng class had persisted until now, in fact, was because they relied on two major tactics—The former, creating a ruckus to draw zombies away collectively; The latter, luring zombies into attack range and dealing with them one by one, or killing two if two came, until all of them were all cleaned up.

However, Fu Xiyuan didn’t expect that Ma Weisen had only been in the class for a few hours and was already proficient from sniffing out romance to the tactics they utilized.

If it weren’t for his flawed personality, this person also actually had what it takes to be the class leader. . . Forget it, this one’s personality was really too faulty.

Fu Xiyuan was happy to secretly criticize Ma Weisen, but soon he thought that the so-called “class” might’ve permanently become a thing of the past, so the joy instantly turned bitter, and finally settled into a lingering heaviness of melancholy.

There was no anger, only desolation.

He didn’t blame the fourteen others for not coming back to find them, no, instead, he understood their choice very well. It should be fine as long as he maintained such a mentality, but he couldn’t, he still had to include reluctance. He was truly reluctant to leave his class of friends, he was even quite upset with himself for dropping out the team himself. It was like when he moved to a new house when he was a child and had to say goodbye to his playmates in the community, wanting to hold onto the electricity poles and not let go.

At that time, little Fu Xiyuan had cried until he was a being made of tears.

Now, no matter how sad Fu Xiyuan was, his eyes would only be sore.

“Wei—” Ma Weisen almost shook his five fingers off before his comrade’s eyes, “Don’t scare me, if you are so distracted when the fighting starts later, I’ll die!”

Fu Xiyuan made a face and waved away the hand in front of him, shelving the complicated emotions in his heart in order to finally continue with the previous topic: “There are too many zombies, it’ll be hard to sweep it clean, so we should make a feint to the east and attack in the west, think of a way to lure them out to another location, and then we’ll enter the sunroom.”

Ma Weisen: “What if there are still zombies on the stairs below?”

Fu Xiyuan: “We’re not taking the stairs, we’ll take the elevator.”

Ma Weisen: “. . . Isn’t that a bit suicidal?”

Fu Xiyuan: “We’re heading to B1, which means we only need to take the elevator down one floor, if there is still a problem in such a short time, then the two of us don’t even need to try breaking out because the chance of escaping death would basically not be in our destinies.”

Ma Weisen: “No, that’s not it, the elevator is not a big problem. If there are zombies in the car park, we can just not enter and run back to the roof. What I’m worried about is that after the elevator goes down and the door opens, what if B1 is full of zombies, or there are zombies guarding the elevator doors?”

Fu Xiyuan: “Bite the bullet and rush out.”

Ma Weisen: “. . . Have you always been so tough in the way you handle thingsma, Fu-ge?”

Fu Xiyuan: “I can also be more. . .”

“Ahhhhhhh—”

The heart-wrenching scream, like a flash of lightning, cut through the silence of the night.

The sound was too close, as if it was right above their heads. Fu Xiyuan and Ma Weisen shuddered at the same time and looked up immediately!

However, before they could see it clearly, a black shadow fell from the dark pit that was the Houde building.

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This was different from the coldness of warmth being sapped from their bodies. When the body is cold, they are able to wrap their clothes tightly and even move back and forth to increase friction and generate heat, but when the heart is ice, they are unable to do anything and could only helplessly feel the punishing temperatures until it finally froze over in despair.

—At a certain instance, they had even thought that they themselves were the ones lying there.

“Is there anyone. . . downstairs?”

A trembling voice came from higher up in the Houde building, harboring a hint of uncertainty, laced with fear.

The two swiftly looked up and soon locked onto a window on the fifth floor just above the person who fell from the building.

The light was on in the window, clearly illuminating the figure in front of the window, but with the backlight and the distance, the two could not see her face. They could only infer from the voice that it was a female student.

The street lights beside the sunroom were very dim and a large area was hidden in the shadows. If not for the fact that the two of them hadn’t stopped creating a ruckus for even a moment, it would’ve been difficult for someone upstairs to find them.

“There are some—”

Ma Weisen and Fu Xiyuan responded almost instantly, fearing that if they were a second late, there would be another free falling body.

Upstairs was silent for a long while and when they spoke up again, it carried a sob: “Can you help me take a look at my classmate. . .”

The two looked at each other and in the next second, they peered at the pool of blood on the ground in unison. . .

Yet in the end, Fu Xiyuan still didn’t give up and asked with difficulty: “Your classmate. . . is where?”

The frigid gusts funneled into their cuffs and collars, causing their two of them to tremble.

Then they heard the sound of someone openly weeping upstairs—

“She just jumped. . .”

The wind scattered the clouds and the moonlight returned.

The corpse on the ground was completely revealed under the night’s veil, with messy long hair, strangely twisted limbs, and blood still spilling out from under the body.

The girl upstairs also saw it, but perhaps from her angle, she could only see the general outline of her classmate demarcated by the moonlight, but couldn’t see any specifics.

Thus the two heard the crying voice ask: “Is she dead. . .”

Fu Xiyuan didn’t know how to answer, he was afraid that if he was not careful, the one upstairs would stage a reenactment. . .

“Do you want her to be dead or notah!!”

Ma Weisen couldn’t stand it anymore. He didn’t have as much patience as Fu Xiyuan and yelled directly.

Fu Xiyuan was so startled that his heart skipped a beat, and quickly shouted towards upstairs: “Don’t pay attention to him, don’t be impulsive, and don’t do anything stupid—”

Ma Weisen made a face: “She didn’t want to jump in the first place, can you please not give her a friendly reminder!”

Fu Xiyuan was about to have a breakdown: “Can you just not give voice to the phrase leap off the building!”

Ma Weisen: “Even if I don’t say it, if she wanted to jump, she’d have done it anyway. If she didn’t want to, could it be that she would be forced into a dead end by hearing these crappy words?”

Fu Xiyuan: “. . .”

“I want to jump, but I’m afraid I won’t die all at once. I don’t want to take the dive and just be crippled, I want to be completely free. . .” As she voiced the last few words, the girl burst into tears.

Ma Weisen and Fu Xiyuan didn’t know how the two girls entered the Houde building. They might have fled from the dormitory like they had, or maybe they have been trapped in the lecture hall area from the beginning, it was possible that weren’t even their schoolmates at all, but strangers who had fled here after the incident.

But no matter which was the case, the two of them didn’t want to see anyone die in front of them again.

When faith is shaken, temptation is hard to resist.

Death is scary, but the relief of washing their hands of everything also sounded extremely sweet and beatific at the moment.

“Do you have any food?” Ma Weisen abruptly asked without thinking.

The girl was stunned by the question, her sobs becoming weaker, but she still didn’t respond after a long time.

Ma Weisen had to repeat his question.

After half the day, they finally heard the girl’s answer: “There still is. . .”

“Then think about whether you want to die or not after you finish eating!”

Ma Weisen scratched his hair irritably. It seemed like these words were for the girl to hear, but more like he was admonishing the devil in his heart.

“It’ll only be a matter of time anyway, I don’t want to suffer anymore. . . It, they keep ramming the door. . . I can’t stand it any more. . .”

The girl’s voice was full of fear, fragility, and what scared them the most, was the hint of determination that cut through it all.

Fu Xiyuan was desperate and roared: “They can’t enter anyway! You can’t become scared to death before you’re bitten to deathah—”

The girl screeched in devastation: “But I can’t hold on any longerahhhhh—”

Ma Weisen: “You still have a roof to shelter you from the wind and rain, while the two of us that are stuck outside in the wind and rain haven’t even declared that we can’t endure any longerah!!!”

The girl: “But you will still die in the end even if you hold on, why bother continuing to suffer through all of this—”

Fu Xiyuan: “Who told you that you’ll die, the national rescue efforts will arrive soon, you’d be stupid to commit suicide now!”

The girl: “What. . . did you say?”

Ma Weisen: “He called you a fool.”

Fu Xiyuan: “Was it your math teacher who taught you how to summarize the main body of a sentence in your Chinese language studies instead!!!”

“National. . . rescue?” The girl stopped sniffling completely, while her voice trembled even more, but this time it was due to the sudden hope.

“Exactly,” Fu Xiyuan pushed Ma Weisen’s head out of the way, “The viral outbreak inJing-Jin-Tangand the entire East side has been controlled, and rescue will arrive here soon. If you die at this time, you will cry until you ruin your makeup below the ground!”

“. . .”

Silence, a long and extended quietude.

Fu Xiyuan patiently waited for the other party to digest the information, but unexpectedly, when the other other spoke again, she was calmer, but more despairing than before—

“You’re lying to me. . .”

There was no sense of accusation, it was more like an indifference born after careful consideration.

Fu Xiyuan then realized that in the situation just now, his words certainly sounded like a falsehood made up on the fly with a strong flavor of “regardless of anything else, persuade the person to come down first”.

However, in all honesty, what he revealed was the absolute truthah!

If he knew this was going to happen, he should have learned from Song Fei and recorded the broadcast too!

Someone jabbed him hard in the back, and other than the hateful Ma Weisen, he didn’t dare think it was someone else.

Fu Xiyuan turned around and was about to explode, when he heard his comrade-in-arms anxiously hiss: “She really seems like she’s about to jump!”

Fu Xiyuan was stunned and his head swiftly shot up in the next second. Sure enough, the female classmate had already stood on the windowsill!

The wind poured into the window, and her flying long hair blurred her face.

At this moment, the two had a very idiotic, but very instinct driven idea at the same time—They wanted to rush down to catch the other!

The girl was looking down and the light-colored coat she wore made her seem weightless, as if she would be blown away by the wind in the next second.

It was useless to persuade her anymore at this time and the two people on top of the sunroom could only clench their fists!

One of the girl’s feet was already hanging over the void. . .

The familiar melody from the opening theme of the news broadcast suddenly exploded across the campus!

Like the sound of thunder across dry land, the aridity and decay were swept away in an instant and moist air with a fresh smell gushed in.

“Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan. . .”

“The Chinese nation is facing the most severe test in history, but I believe that the people of the entire country are united and will overcome these difficulties and usher in a brand new tomorrow. . .”

“The following is international news. . .”

It was something that they had listened to repeatedly, but when the school broadcast was turned on, the shock was still unprecedented.

The lifeless campus seemed to have been revived in an instant.

The students struggling in every corner, were like fish in a dried-up pond, finally welcoming a heavy rain with vitality.

“It’s Song Fei’s mobile phone recording.” Fu Xiyuan’s voice was very calm, but the hand that couldn’t help but grip onto Ma Weisen’s arm, unveiled his mood.

Many expressions flashed across the latter’s face, as if there were joy, anger, sorrow, and joy, but in the end, it fixed on indifference: “Yesah,I harbor the world in my heart.”

Fu Xiyuan felt as if these words were harsh in his ears: “Don’t be sarcastic, do you know how many students this broadcast can save?”

Ma Weisen shrugged indifferently, as if he was taking it lightly, but still had to make things clear: “I only know that they can rush to the broadcasting room to transmit it across the entire university, and may not have turned around to find the two of us.”

“. . .”

This statement was very selfish, but when he was on the side that had been abandoned, Fu Xiyuan couldn’t criticize and lay judgement on those words so righteously.

More than ten minutes later, the news broadcast ended.

The whole campus returned to silence, but it was subtly different from before.

Fu Xiyuan lowered his eyes, digested everything for a bit, then stated: “Let’s get going tooba.”

No matter if it were two classes or two individuals, to live, the only way is to keep going forward.

Ma Weisen dug out his cell, ready to use the tactics that he had only learned in theory and chose a rhythmic classical tune, but as soon as he unlocked the screen, another thought popped into his mind: “The one upstairs. . . what should we do?”

With Ma Weisen’s reminder, Fu Xiyuan recalled that there was another sister upstairsne. He was just thinking about asking the other, if they were willing to stay then stay, or if she were willing to escape, then they would go all out to bring her with them, when a loud “peng” that carried the crackle of static sounded in his ears, as if someone on the stage dropped their microphone on the ground. . .

The next second, the broadcast speakers in the whole university exploded again, and the thunderous roar of cadre Song swept across the entire campus—

“I told you not to snatch the one dream in my life from me which is to be the host of a news broadcast!!!”

Then Lin Dilei’s weak reminder: “That, the microphone is already on. . .”

Song Fei’s voice cut off abruptly.

When he opened his mouth again, his voice was full of tenderness: “Hello fellow students. This is the campus radio station. You must have heard the news broadcast just now. It was not made up by me, but a real broadcast from the radio. If there is any similarity, then that must mean that you also possess a radio at hand. Therefore, no matter where you are now, the dormitories, canteen, lecture halls, or any other corner, as long as you can hear my voice, don’t give up, keep on persevering! Remember, our tomorrows will be better. Of course, some students may think that these are all just false and empty words, so let me give you something more real and relevant to you, the CET-4 and CET-6 exams need to be made upba. . . D*mn it, Zhou Yilu, don’t snatch the mic from me—”

“You spout too much nonsense!”

“Okay, fine, I got it, I’ll get to the point right away. . . Fu Xiyuan and Ma Weisen, I know the two of you are listening, stop f*cking around outside, hurry up and report to the broadcasting room on the third floor of the academic affairs building stat!!!”

Fu Xiyuan’s ears hurt, his heart burned, his eyes were sore, but in the end, what burst out of him was laughter.

He wanted to tease Ma Weisen, who tortured him with so much negative energy and always assumed the worst of their comrades, yet when he turned around, he found that Ma-tongxuewas already reduced to tears.

Fu Xiyuan was frightened, more shocked than being called out on the radio: “Aren’t you always sarcastic and disdainful?”

Ma Weisen rushed over, glomping him as he howled, crying heartbreakingly, every word dripping with blood: “That was all just a façadeah—”

Author’s Chapter Summary: the broadcast room in the academic affairs building breathes life to the campus in the dead of night!

The translator has something to say: a rollercoaster of emotions, good and bad, I wonder what is going to happen to that girl on the fifth floor (although how they knew she was one floor above is a mystery since the building was pretty much all dark, and if the girls were staying together, how were they not in the same room? Or maybe they were originally trapped in separate rooms and found out that they were in stacked rooms thus forming a companionship, anyways this is getting away from me), the other girl (a moment of silence for her, doubly tragic as they were just a little too late to revive her faith and will)’s incident seemed somewhat abrupt to me and I have a bad feeling that the author is just going to write her off like this literally (no emotional devastation at the just a bit too late part, if I were the other girl, I’d definitely have survivor’s guilt, thinking what if I could’ve talked to her just a little longer to stay her hand)

Sooooo sorry for such a late chapter, RL has been busy and if things go well, well, hopefully things will get better, I’ll let you guys know how it goes! And well, posted a day late because I accidentally locked myself outta my account ahahaha