Ch49 - Superficial Harmony, Underlying Discord

Translator: transcendentwings

Eight new zombies under the tree and one new classmate on the tree.

It was just that this new classmate evoked a perturbing feeling as if they could sec-kill the zombies under the tree in an instant—not only the eight newcomers but the five remaining from before as well.

Fate?

If one had to describe it like that, it’d be a karmic fate.

No one answered and this delicate silent atmosphere seemed like a slap that was delivered neither too lightly nor heavily onto Yu Zisheng’s face. He understood, but paid it no mind: “What ah, your gazes look like they want to eat people. Wasn’t it just that we thought of the same thing and hoped to scrounge some food to eat from the Express Pickup Point, there’s eight of you and one of me, are you guys still afraid that I’ll take too much?”

“Don’t f*cking pretend,” Zhao He couldn’t watch this shamelessness of feigning innocence when the other was clearly aware of the truth, “When you guarded the door to the supermarket and wouldn’t open its doors for the life of you, you should’ve known that there would be such a day, yet you’re starting to act pitiful here to gain sympathy?”

Yu Zisheng was taken aback when he heard these scathing words, then realization dawned on him: “So it’s really you ah, and here I was thinking that the voice sounded familiar.”

“Who’re you trying to deceive ne,” Wu Zhou couldn’t listen on anymore, “The two of you were in the same class, you’d be able to recognize the other through a single roar ba. There are no outsiders here right now, everyone knows about the skeletons in your closet, so don’t bother trying to exonerate yourself now.”

“You’ve really wronged me this time,” Yu Zisheng was surprisingly calm, “If it was just refusing to open the door for the two of you then I can still try to wash my hands of it, but the others there are watching ne, so I really can’t say anything.”

Song Fei, Zhou Yilu, Qiao Siqi all had sour looks on their faces without exception. This was a very frustrating experience. When someone you want to rush over and beat up, suddenly opens up their arms and says, that’s right, I am a bad guy, so scold me as much as you like ba. If you castigate the other ne, it’s like you’re joining the other, acting on a low level, but if you don’t rebuke the other, then you’d have a stoked fire smoldering with nowhere to vent, making you uncomfortable.

“Where are the others?” Qi Yan abruptly asked.

Song Fei and Lin Dilei not only briefed Class 2 about the supermarket, but also relayed the information to their comrades on the first floor in simple terms. Everyone’s reactions were complicated. At that time, everyone thought that there were no survivors in the supermarket, yet now a survivor abruptly appeared, making it impossible to not overthink it.

His companions were also stunned. They narrowed their eyes and all of them focused on Yu Zisheng.

The latter gave a wry smile, and offered an explanation matter-of-factly: “The door to the supermarket was smashed and we were scattered by the crowd. I alone managed to escape to the roof and that’s how I was able to salvage my life.”

Song Fei’s heart sank: “You’re lying.”

Yu Zisheng was startled, although he tried his best to hide it, a hint of shock still leaked from his gaze.

“I was standing on the roof of the canteen at that time and the moment the supermarket was breached, there was no one on the roof.”

“There are two possibilities. Either you were no longer on the roof when I climbed out or it was too distant and dark, so you didn’t see clearly.” Yu Zisheng’s expression was very natural as if this was the actual truth which you could choose to believe or not.

Although Song Fei was usually very acerbic, when he really wanted to rip someone apart, he would always think that his vocabulary was too inadequate. Besides it didn’t matter if he escaped by himself or if he stepped on his fellow brothers to make it out at this point, even if it was the latter, could they really represent a criminal court trial and carry out the verdict to stab this b*stard to death?

“I was just asking casually,” Qi Yan noted Song Fei’s speechlessness and took over, “In fact, you have no obligation to explain it to us.”

Qi Yan didn’t expect a question to render Yu Zisheng helpless and unable to refute. The reason why he asked this question was to remind his comrades to always keep in mind what kind of person he was, or at least to remind them that this was a dangerous person because they probably couldn’t get rid of this person anytime soon.

Furthermore, perhaps he hadn’t bumped into them unexpectedly on the way to the Express Pickup Point. On the contrary, it was more likely that he had picked up on their voices and then made a beeline over here.

Yu Zisheng was taken aback by Qi Yan’s tolerance and half-seriously, half-jokingly remarked: “I thought that I’d at least have to kneel and kowtow in exchange for us to interact peacefully.”

“Did you think I didn’t want to take it out on your hide ne,” Zhao He snorted coldly: “The zombies saved you.”

If it weren’t for the current predicament where zombies were surrounding the trees, Zhao He vowed that he would beat the crap out of Yu Zisheng.

Yu Zisheng smiled apologetically at Zhao He, the overly sincere type.

Zhao He glanced up at the sky to observe the sky, the stars, or the moon, and just couldn’t be bothered to look at Yu Zisheng. It was impossible to forgive him completely, but faced with this sort of attitude, he really couldn’t just throw down the gauntlet. If he did, it would just be like punching cotton, lacking substance, so he simply rolled his eyes concluding that this scum had nothing to do with him.

Seeing that Zhao-tongxue was giving him the silent treatment, Yu Zisheng smiled helplessly and once again turned to Qi Yan. When dealing with Zhao He there was a natural casualness and intimacy in his attitude which was common among fellow classmates, but when faced with Qi Yan, these two characteristics were completely tucked away, leaving only positivity and a somewhat low profile: “Actually, it was a last resort to chase you guys out. Under those circumstances, we were all scared to the point of losing our normal composure. After two days, when we calmed down somewhat and reflected, we realized that it really was cruel of us to do such a thing and that we were outright b*stards.”

“You’ve already come around so why didn’t you open the doors for Zhao He and the others ne. After all, that was only three days ago.” Qiao Siqi sneered, snorting in contempt, “If you want my opinion then don’t bother trying to explain because no matter what your excuse is, your fate will be to be ridiculed by the masses. It’s better to be a better man and if you’re bitten to death, even if you already set up a way out for yourself, the heavens and the earth still won’t tolerate you.”

The six comrades who were perched on the branches or hugging the tree trunks wished they could give Qiao Siqi a thumbs up, no, just a like wasn’t enough, they had to award him as well—this slap in the face was too satisfying.

“True, the more I elucidate the more mistakes I make, I’m not going to justify it anymore. Just take it that I’m inhuman. But I barely managed to preserve my life at the supermarket and you guys can’t very well make me jump down now and return it to you now ba. Besides, you guys all have great fortune and luck and all of you are still brimming with energy and vitality, even if I wanted to use my life as compensation I don’t have a target ah. Can’t you guys just take me in, give me a chance to pay for my actions and transgressions and redeem myself through meritorious contributions?” Yu Zisheng had a bitter expression, as if he really was a servant earnestly waiting for his master to pass on orders.

However when he uttered those words, his gaze stayed on Qi Yan’s face most of the time—In this squad of eight, who set the beat and who was the accompaniment was obvious at a glance.

Qi Yan didn’t go around in circles with him either. They couldn’t get rid of the other any more so they may as well lay all their cards on the table: “We can’t afford to accept you. If you want to join us then it can only be considered as a temporary partner. But I’ll say everything that needs to be said beforehand. Everyone is gathered here for the sake of survival. I don’t care what calculations you’re making deep in your heart, but you better think carefully about the consequences before you actually try anything. In this environment we’re in, either we unite and mutually live another day or have a civil war and perish together. There won’t be a situation where one party is dead and the other is only looking out for themselves. If it does happen, you only have one life and we have eight, you should be clear on who will be the last ones standing.”

Yu Zisheng listened quietly, his expression dark and indiscernible. Only when Qi Yan finished speaking did he smile wretchedly: “Is this a warning or a threat?”

Qi Yan shrugged indifferently: “However you want to interpret it is on you.”

The remaining seven companions didn’t utter a word. Emotionally they didn’t want to accept him nor declare a temporary truce. However, from a rational perspective, they understood that Qi Yan wanted to fight a quick battle. This person made it obvious that he wanted to latch onto them, and even wanted to drag it out a day or two. As long as they couldn’t bring themselves to eliminate him, then it was guaranteed that they wouldn’t be able to get rid of him. Since the end result was already set in stone there was no point in squandering extra time.

The wind started to get colder.

This meant that dusk had passed and the actual deep dark night was coming.

Yu Zisheng who was crouched on the branch transitioned from standing to sitting then he wrapped his legs around the thickest part of the root of the branch where it met the trunk and the person abruptly fell backwards!

The eight of them had a scare, Qiao Siqi even nearly cried out.

Yet Yu Zisheng didn’t actually fall down, instead he hung upside-down while his swaying body was only one person’s height from the ground!

The companions didn’t know what to make of it, but in the blink of an eye, he reached out and grabbed a hold of the hair on a female zombie under the tree and tugged the opponent who was originally only one step away to the spot immediately underneath him. He raised his hand and stabbed the other directly through the crown of their skull! And then when another zombie finally reacted and lunged over to take a bite out of him, he had already flipped back over onto the branch and returned to safer heights.

Hanging upside-down.

Yanking on the hair.

Plunging a knife in.

Pulling the knife out.

Flipping back over.

Five actions completed in one smooth motion were over in a split second.

If anyone was forced to squint their eyes and blink due to the wind, that was enough for them to miss most of them.

“How was that, it’ll be a loss not to accept me ba.” Yu Zisheng flung the blood on the knife off and although he tried his best to restrain himself, he still couldn’t hide his self-satisfaction.

Qi Yan didn’t speak.

Zhou Yilu felt awkward and kept his eyes lowered to grasp the right timing to perform a one-shot kill. After he finished, he lifted an eyebrow at him: “It was good luck that hit you right over the head to be able to run into us.”

In the same tree, Zhou Yilu was on a lower branch returning tit-for-tat, while He Zhiwen on the higher branch quietly touched Zhao He who was wrapped around the tree trunk.

“What’s up?” Zhao He had been keeping his eyes on Yu Zisheng for a long time already and seemed to be prepared to continue keeping the other in his sights as if he could see through his schemes this way, so he was very displeased to be disturbed at this time.

“It’s nothing much, just a little strange.” He Zhiwen whispered hesitantly.

Zhao He became more vigilant: “Did you figure something out?”

He Zhiwen mulled it for a while and ultimately remarked: “No matter how I look at it, I just can’t figure it out. Yu Zisheng is about the same build as you and when he jerked the hair of that zombie just now, it’s reasonable to say that the force exerted on the branch would change from just his weight to his weight + the pulling force acting upon the zombie’s hair, but the branch didn’t break.”

Zhao He: “. . . Can you think critically about something that would actually be useful!”

Leaving aside the rest, just in terms of combat power, Yu Zisheng was indeed passable. If the companions of Wusheng wanted to kill zombies from on top of the tree, they could only rely on Qi Yan and Zhou Yilu who possessed long-ranged weapons. Originally, Zhao He’s military knife could also be utilized, but now both of his arms were preoccupied with hugging the tree and should now be considered a non-combatant. However Yu Zisheng could inflict lethal force no less than that of a long-ranged weapon with nothing more than a fruit knife. Furthermore, he could flip about the tree branch freely, his movements light and agile, his figure nimble.

When Zhao He began to slide down the tree trunk once again, the thirteen old and new zombies were already completely cleaned up.

Song Fei looked at the corpses lying all over the place, then turned to look at the Express Pickup Point in the shadows, and was at a loss for a while: “I wonder how many are still there.”

“We can’t see them, likewise, they can’t see us either,” Qi Yan pondered briefly, asking for everyone’s opinions, “Just like old times?”

Class 2 didn’t understand, but the companions of Class 1 all understood—Get onto the roof.

Author’s Chapter Summary:

Bearing in mind the trials and hardships of the supermarket, don’t forget that the heart of another is unpredictable!

The translator has something to say: Zhao He is so pitiful, although his combat power is to the max and everyone trusts and relies on him for that, he probably has the lowest status in the entire class