Ch73 - Struggle at Yixin (3)

Translator: transcendentwings

Feng Qibai pondered for a while, then looked up after a moment and shook his head slowly: “No. The other buildings are too far away, let alone shouting, I’m afraid they won’t even be able to realize that the one who is hollering is you. And when you were at the Gewu Building bellowing from the entrance, the sound drifted out along the innermost part of the avenue where there were no obstacles, but now we are in the building. Not to mention the distance of several floors, the exact location is sandwiched in the middle with the window facing the Gewu Building. There would be little chance for those at the Luban Building to hear the clamor from this side.”

“Then we’ll go to the roof,” Wu Zhou suggested, “There are no obstacles on either side. We can call out from this side and then go to the other.”

“Is there any other method than just roaring in your sports department?”

“Whistle?”

Feng Qibai sighed; “Can’t it go beyond human bodily functions?”

Zhao He interjected: “Beating gongs and drums? But there has to be some ah.”

Feng Qibai was stunned, Zhao He awakened the dreamer with one sentence.

“Your department has one?!” Zhao He wasn’t stupid, he probably picked it up from Feng Qibai’s expression.

Feng Qibai rolled his eyes: “Why do we need gongs and drums for ma? Carving while cheering?”

“Then what’s that expression of yours for.”

“Our department doesn’t have it, but the music department does.”

“Then what are we waiting for, let’s do it ah!”

The three companions carried out what they discussed, but the former students of the sculpting department on the third floor also weren’t vegetarians. A group of a dozen wandered the corridors with their carving tools at hand, looking like The Young and Dangerous 2 crew, with the posture of what are you looking, why the hell would I be staring at you, and letting their knives fly at any sign of disagreement.

What was more terrible was that the corridor on the third floor was bright with moonlight, thus they would be spotted swiftly as soon as they poked their heads out.

“What’s the plan?” Zhao He stuck to the crack of the door, while he closely observed the zombie patrol team and analyzed the situation in a low voice, “Forcing our way through will probably be dangerous.”

Wu Zhou crouched down like a cat to squeeze in beside him and tried his best to look out through the gap in the door. He abruptly caught sight of the red device on the wall not too far away and his eyes lit up instantly: “The fire hose!”

The zombie seemed to have detected his voice and the one bringing up the rear whipped around suddenly.

Zhao He was startled and immediately closed the door before locking it.

The three of them shuffled to the rear compartment to discuss further—

Wu Zhou: “I believe it’s feasible. The impact of a column of water is quite strong, it’ll be no problem to block the zombies.”

“Of course it’ll be fine to use to sweep them into a pile,” Zhao He hesitated, “But the premise is, can that thing be used? It looks like it’s in disrepair and has been scrapped for a long time, are you sure it isn’t just being used as a decoration?”

“Relax ba,” Feng Qibai, who had remained silent all this time, was calm and steadfast, “I don’t know about other buildings, but the fire hoses in the Yixin Building are definitely in working order.”

“You guys have used it previously?” Zhao He wondered, “I haven’t heard of any fires in our university since I enrolled ah.”

Feng Qibai spread his hands out: “It doesn’t need to be utilized only when there is a fire.”

Zhao He blinked ignorantly, having the feeling that he and the other party didn’t exist in the same plane: “That certainly is a very mystical way to put it.”

“The fire hose was a very important performance art prop in our department. Sometimes the coupling wasn’t sealed very well or there was an issue with the water volume or momentum, but these issues would all be reported promptly.” Feng Qibai paused here a bit after speaking up to here, then after perceiving that Zhao He had pretty much digested all of that, he then gently asked, “Do you understand what I mean?”

Zhao He felt that he got it, though he also seemed to not be enlightened completely, but what he wanted to know more urgently at the moment was: “How often did you guys do this. . .”

“It depends on whether the artist’s performance ended with an impeccable absconding or an internal punishment within the campus. Oh right, activating a fire hydrant without authorization is worthy of a demerit.”

“What’s the difference between those two conclusions?”

“The former draws a vibrant rest, the fermata symbol, at the ultimate climax of the show for the sake of art, signaling success. And a phenomenal performance in the eyes of art would make latecomers have a lack of interest in reenacting it; The latter is representative of failure, but defeat can also stimulate others to inherit this mission which is a mark of respect for the sake of art and also the spirit of dedication for art.”

“. . .” Zhao He swallowed and sought help from the audience, Wu-tongxue, “Did you understand?”

Wu Zhou scratched his head: “Uh, pretty much.”

Zhao He: “Then can you give me a concise explanation in human language?”

Wu Zhou: “Mischievous chuunibyous are keen to be dealt heavy punishment.”

Zhao He: “A great pal!”

The dragon king stirred, and water overflowed from Yixin.

When the violent jet of water sprayed out from the mouth of the fire hose, Zhao He discovered the spirit that one man could hold out against ten thousand strong!

A dozen or so zombies were stunned by the strong momentum and became unable to stand up in an embarrassed manner. Zhao He glanced at his two comrades, who were still spectating, from the corner of his eye, and hurriedly urged: “Run ah—”

This push even caused his body to turn slightly to the side and as a result of not controlling the direction for a brief moment, the fire hose let go of all fetters and went straight for his two comrades-in-arms. Poor Wu Zhou and Feng Qibai, before they even started making a break for it, were served with a torrent of crystal clear water, thoroughly chilling their heart.

The comrades, who were implicated despite being innocent, roared: “Zhao He!!!”

Embarrassment and guilt overwhelmed Zhao He who was in a panic as he was flustered about what to do, how should he explain, if the one in this situation was. . . was Song Fei, right, what would he do if he were Song Fei?

Pa!

Zhao He abruptly felt the light bulb in his head flicker on.

“Enen, over here ne, I know that the two of you love me, quick, go upstairs first, we’ll talk later, be good!”

“. . .”

The comrades-in-arms didn’t speak anymore, but just by listening to the sound of their footsteps, one could detect the gloom and indignation from it.

Watching his comrades heading upstairs one after another, Zhao He heaved a sigh of relief. Sure enough, it was correct to choose Song Fei, that person was the most cunning, no matter who was in the right or who was in the wrong, whoever was backed by reason and who’s rationale wasn’t strong enough, he could always dissolve the danger from using the water as a shield to block the enemies into an accidental case of friendly-fire with a drowning into safe mode. It was practically a nifty go-to tool for the wicked to wash themselves clean of responsibility!

Realizing that the timing was about right, Zhao He decisively dropped the fire hose and lunged up to the fourth floor in one step. At this time, Wu Zhou was already entangled with the zombies roaming on the fourth level and Feng Qibai used skillful and practiced movements to connect the hose and opened the valve in the blink of an eye!

Zi—

And just like that the three of them broke through level by level, after the sculpting department’s lair, they barged through the fifth and sixth floors of the painting department. Compared with the sculpting department, the combat effectiveness of the students in the painting department plummeted significantly and unlike the others, they had no weapons by their side. Most of them were empty-handed, and a few of them were grasping watercolor palettes or paint brushes, which made Zhao He feel somewhat unwilling to be so harsh.

They ultimately got stuck on the seventh level.

First, the fire hose on the seventh floor wasn’t tightened enough and the amount of water leaking out exceeded the amount of water spraying out , thus its lethality dropped sharply. Second, there were not only infected professors on the seventh floor, but also some students from the music department who came down from the eighth and ninth levels. The zombie team grew significantly.

However, it also wasn’t right for the mini detached squad to accuse Feng Qibai of false propaganda because the fire hose on this floor was indeed not in the scope of sacrifice for the sake of art as there weren’t any students who wanted to incur heavy punishments to test it out regularly ah! One must know that this floor was entirely made up of professors’ offices. As soon as someone attempts some mischief, any of the professors wouldn’t have a need to use the process of elimination with the students to locate the culprit and could just directly take them down with absolutely no possibility of escape.

That’s why the battle on this floor was so bumpy. Before they finished fighting, the three of them had no choice but to hide in the women’s toilet.

Thus in the following hours of daylight, the three of them were cornered by a subtle sense of shame. They tried to catch up on sleep and forced themselves to close their eyes even if they weren’t sleepy. The whole team was silent and peaceful akin to angels.

Night descended once again.

Zhao He was the first to open his eyes as he inquired in a heavy voice: “Are you ready?”

Wu Zhou nearly followed up seamlessly: “I can’t wait!”

Feng Qibai didn’t speak, but he had already risen with the carving blade gripped tightly.

Zhao He held the doorknob and confirmed one last time: “You guys really don’t want to smear some zombie blood on your body to cover the scent?”

His two comrades-in-arms: “Absolutely, utterly, no, need!”

Zhao He sighed then pushed the door ajar and slipped out.

Those who achieve great things don’t make a fuss about the little details. Sure enough, not everyone was as heroic as he was. But it didn’t matter anyway, there was only one main instigator in the Oath of the Peach Garden ma, with him as the leader of this pack of dragons, it would just be. . .

Yi? What happened to my second and third brothers?

Zhao-huangshu came back to his senses and surveyed his surroundings, except for a few zombies with their backs facing him in the distance, there weren’t even the shadows of his comrades!

“Sh—”

A short reminder traveled through the air.

Zhao He followed the sound and finally spotted Wu Zhou’s head poking out at the corner of the stairs at the other end.

The reason why he chose to act at night was to avoid as much conflict as possible. If it weren’t for this, Wu Zhou would definitely be forced to scold him right now—There are only two f*cking directions one can go and you can still pick the wrong one!

Feng Qibai had already jabbed at the other’s head into a jack-o-lantern in his mind, so his heart felt a little less irked and he wasn’t as agitated as Wu Zhou.

Zhao He shuffled close to the wall in embarrassment, finally getting back on track.

It wasn’t very difficult to battle on the eighth and ninth floors, the hard part was locating the gongs and drums. According to Feng Qibai, the music department must have these instruments because they could be heard practicing daily. Although as claimed by the department, all the classrooms were soundproofed, in reality they were actually still quite disturbing to the others. They often caused the students of the sculpting department to be unable to wield their tools stably which made them have to often rework their pieced in various ways as a result. However, as to which exact classroom it was in, he couldn’t pinpoint, after all, he wasn’t in the music department and basically didn’t travel beyond the seventh level.

In this way, the three companions could only search from classroom to classroom. Not being able to find the gongs and drums was secondary because five times out of ten, they would run into zombies instead, and that was what was fatal.

The three of them could only rest when they were tired from attacking and then reengage when they had enough rest, using the stupidest and most cumbersome method to conduct a thorough search. When they finally found the red Chinese-style drums in the lecture hall next to the piano room on the north side of the twelfth floor, the daylight was already fast approaching.

The three of them knew in their hearts that they couldn’t delay any longer, but the scene in the auditoria lecture hall made them restless for a long time.

The door to the classroom was open, but when they locked it behind them and were ready to engage in combat, they realized that there were no zombies inside, only dead bodies. Either leaning against the corner or lying on the ground, alone or in an embrace, spots of livor mortis had already begun to appear on the faces of the corpses, but the loneliness and despair that hit right before death still rushed at their faces.

Wu Zhou turned his face away and covered his eyes with his hands.

Zhao He felt sorrow in his heart.

It stood to reason that only the big drums were a part of the public property in the music department because it was inconvenient to carry and remained stored in the classroom all-year round. All other musical instruments should have been the private property of the students. However now, these dizi, xiao, erhu, morin khuur, etc, were all scattered on the ground in a mess.

This should have been the rehearsal of a folk band.

How many days had the been trapped in here? Did something happen abruptly during the rehearsal? Why were there far more musical instruments than remains? Did some people escape or were they turned into zombies? Under what circumstances would some become zombies while others starved to death?

Zhao He clenched his fists tightly, his palms were damp and hot.

There was only one possibility, a portion of the group starved to death first, and then the other part couldn’t hold on anymore, so they opened the door. . .

Dong.

The drumstick tumbled to the ground.

Zhao He and Wu Zhou looked up in unison and saw Feng Qibai struggling to move the large drum.

His eyes were hidden behind his bangs, theoretically speaking, he shouldn’t be able to see clearly, but Zhao He captured the determination in the other party’s eyes by accident.

Feng Qibai didn’t speak, but he already used his actions to let his comrades understand that the dead were gone, and the living still needed to move on.

Taking a deep breath, Zhao He and Wu Zhou stepped forward to help.

It wasn’t an easy task to get the big drum relocated to the roof, but fortunately they were in possession of ropes as well as Zhao He.

The latter ascended to the roof first and then Wu Zhou and Feng Qibai below tied the big drum up and tossed the other end of the rope upwards. Zhao He caught it firmly and hauled the drum up with all his strength.

Combining the strengths of the two Wusheng classes, only Zhao He was able to accomplish this. He was so strong and powerful, excluding the entirety of the university community, he would at least be able to regard his own university with disdain.

If Feng Qibai and Wu Zhou didn’t happen to shove that zombie down the building, he might not have even chose the Yixing Building; If he hadn’t decided upon the Yixin Building, then even if those two found the big drum, they mightn’t have been able to make it to the rooftop; However if Feng Qibai was absent and there was only him and Wu Zhou, not to mention the big drum, they would be lucky to even emerge unscathed from the hordes of zombies that seemed to be celebrating Halloween.

Therefore, Zhao He reasoned, the three of them were able to avoid so many ifs, and ultimately gathered in the Yixin Building, that was the final fate set in the abyss. It was destiny that the Wusheng class would be able to be saved in the depths of despair.

The only thing to pray for now was for Qi Yan and the others to not have departed from the Gewu Building yet. After all, it had turned to another twilight scene and would be dawn soon, they couldn’t guarantee that they might’ve retrieved the radio already.

Dongdongdongdongdong—

Without any need for guidance, Wu Zhou, who already picked up the drumsticks, instantly transformed into the Drum King of the Northwest, all he was missing was the white towel wrapped around his head.

Amidst the deafening beating of the drums, Zhao He suddenly realized belatedly that their three-person team really hadn’t had conversed with each other much. Throughout this night, most of the time was spent on execution, roasting each other, and stabbing. Unless it was absolutely necessary, no one engaged in idle chit chat. The roots of his ears were so clean that it made people want to cry.

Sure enough, he still preferred the minimalist style of the Mighty and Unyielding Fighting for Survival Class 2 ah.

Wu Zhou pounded for several minutes in one breath, until his arms were sore before he stopped at Feng Qibai’s signal.

A large part of the sky had already brightened, but there was only the howl of the wind on the roof, nothing else, let alone any responses.

Feng Qibai calmly brought out his xiao.

The two athletes of the physical education department didn’t notice when Comrade Feng pilfered a xiao. To be exact, they couldn’t tell the difference between the bamboo flute and recorder, the sheng and the xiao or other instruments of the like, although judging by Feng Qibai’s posture, it was obvious he would be playing a tempo.

“Can this be louder than the drum?” Wu Zhou was a little doubtful, “Why don’t I beat it a bit more ba.”

Feng Qibai shook his head: “It doesn’t have to be louder than the drum. As long as it can reach their ears, then it’s fine. The drum just now was the bell signaling the start of the exam, and now it’s the listening test.”

Wu Zhou wiped his sweat: “Can’t you change the metaphor, I have a psychological shadow toward English assessments now. . .”

Zhao He had no objections against blowing on the xiao, what surprised him was Feng Qibai: “Aren’t you from the sculpting department, you also know how to play instruments?”

Feng Qibai didn’t take this to heart and explained lightly: “When I was young, I dabbled in a lot of miscellaneous subjects such as drawing, musical instruments, sculpting, dancing, anything and everything that was even remotely related to art, except for singing, I don’t have the talent for it. The rest I practiced until the college entrance examination. At that time, I found that I was most confident about my sculpting, so I chose this professional exam to take on.”

“Impressive,” Zhao He didn’t praise others so easily, but Song Fei’s shamelessness and Feng Qibai’s omnipotence made him admire the other even more from the bottom of his heart, “Even if others were gifted until they reached the sky, they would still only learn one or two, while you are mastering them all in one fell swoop ah. You’re just that passionate about the arts?”

Feng Qibai lowered his eyes: “There is a type of learning method that is called your mom thinks you should learn them.”

In the morning breeze, the sound of the xiao gradually rose, with a low hum of cynicism, laden with melancholy.

Author’s Chapter Summary:

The auditoria lecture hall was covered in bloody drops, the Big Three play music on the rooftop!

The translator has something to say: FQB is truly hiding himself too deeply, I would say that he would be quite the leader as well, except for the fact that he’ll need someone like ZH to be his speaker since he isn’t much of a speaker

Same drill as last time update 1/2