Ch99 - Prelude to the Final Battle

Translator: transcendentwings

Update 2/2~

“Why are you with Song Fei?!”

“You’re still alive?!”

“I wouldn’t die, even if you die!”

“Whatapity!”

“Sh*t!”

“Fuck!”

“*sshole!”

“B*stard!”

. . .

Song Fei and Kuang Ye enjoyed a front row seat to three minutes of listening to English swear words.

The walkie-talkie wasn’t like an instant messaging device. One can’t utter a rebuttal as soon as the other is finished, the other party must finish speaking and release the talk button before one could depress the speak button in turn and regain the right of speech. If the other party was unwilling to release the button after their torrent of curses, then even if one had a wealth of TOEFL, IELTS, orGREto launch back, they’d still have to be swallowed painfully.

However this way of dialogue didn’t cause any obstacles to Qiao Siqi and Ma Weisen’s shouting match. In 180 seconds, the dialogue between the two sides showed an amazing “precise turn system”, you say one and I reply with another, after I say my part, I leave the floor to you and once you’re done, then it’s my turn once more. Their cooperation was tacit and seamless. If it weren’t for the staticy noises, you would think that these two were on a voice message channel.

“Say, do you think that they really can’t stand each other?” Kuang Ye hesitated for a long time and decided to exchange opinions with Song Fei, “Why do I feel that they are about to become one person.”

Song Fei retrieved a bottle of mineral water from his bag and took a sip to moisten his throat. He didn’t know why he felt more parched and thirsty when listening to the two trade insults back and forth than when he was the one doing the talking.

After drinking, he screwed the bottle cap back on and explained to Kuang Ye earnestly: “Isn’t this the routine in idol dramas? The protagonists don’t like each other at first and then they fall in love with each other halfway through the plot.”

Kuang Ye waited for so long only to receive such a conclusion, his eyes widening in surprise: “Qiao Siqi is alsogay?!”

Song Fei: “Why did you emphasize the word ‘also’ and it also sounds like there was an unmistakable tone of distaste. . .”

Kuang Ye: “Leader, you’re too sensitive. . .”

“Who the hell isgay—” Qiao Siqi roared through the walkie-talkie.

Song Fei glanced at Ma Weisen in confusion. The latter sported an innocent look and just gestured at Kuang Ye with his chin: “I just so happened to press the button to talk, who knew he would be so loud.”

Kuang Ye made a face while Song Fei was amused, hurrying to take the walkie-talkie from Ma Weisen and placate the other while holding back laughter: “John, we didn’t say that you weregay, Kuang Ye and I just think that you have a special relationship withWi. . .uh, Ma-tongxue.”

The walkie-talkie was silent on the other end for a few seconds.

Then—

“Then I’d rather begayba.”

Ma Weisen rolled his eyes to the nine heavens and if his eyelashes were any longer, this roll would’ve been able to push his bangs aside.

Realizing that the grudge between the two wasn’t formed overnight, and it would take more than one day to resolve it. Song Fei decisively took control of the communications and summoned hisbf, who was the one who could actually accomplish great things, back: “Qi Yan, please remove the walkie-talkie from Qiao Siqi’s claws.”

Two seconds later, the person on the other side was switched and the steady voice on the other side instantly made the entire world feel safe—

“En, it’s done.”

Song Fei held back the corners of his mouth that wanted nothing more than curl up and worked hard to make his voice sound in control and objective: “We are in the players’ lounge, if you guys aren’t sure about the location of the window then just head to the roof directly and contact us when you get there.”

“Okay.”

Concise and clear, never uttering a bit of nonsense.

However, Song Fei was still not satisfied and didn’t want to end the call so dryly. After a two-second pause, he added: “Be careful.”

There was silence on the other side and then a solemn and serious: “Don’t worry,clean upand wait for me.”

“. . .”

Who the hell did they learn this move of concealing the porn disc in the “Lecture Room”DVDbox!!!

Finally, this walkie-talkie communication that was never on the right track except for the beginning, ended. On this side, Song Fei kept the walkie-talkie at the ready, while on the other side Qi Yan temporarily shut down his.

The next thing the basketball trio had to do was just to wait..

Similar to how Qi Yan believed that he and Kuang Ye could meet up with the main force, he also believed that his companions would arrive soon.

However, before the time of their reunion, it was still necessary to figure out the love and hate relationship between their new companion and their old comrade.

“Just two?” Carefully cupping the jerky that Song Fei passed over, Ma Weisen blinked pitifully, “It’s not enough to eatah. . .”

“Any more nonsense and not even half a stick will be available to you.” Song Fei warned as he pretended to snatch it back.

Ma-tongxue, who was weak to coercion but not persuasion, stuffed it into his mouth immediately, then adhering to the old adage that one should be more grateful and courteous to those who have extended their favor, once the meat was swallowed, he spilled the past—

“zw YGvE, EaIbI bIGSSN Qtw’E hkva EJ tGN. qI GbI vSGtthGEIt LaJ taGbI G vSGtt, Jkb tEkHIwE wkhiIbt GbI JwI GYEIb GwJEaIb, Jkb VbGHIt GbI GiJkE EaI tGhI, Jkb HJbh bJJht GbI wIgE EJ IGva JEaIb, Jkb SJJBt GbI Gt HQYYIbIwE Gt EaI tBN GwH EaI IGbEa. . . TaQt SGtE JwI NJk VkNt vGw rbJiGiSN EISS IAIw QY z HJw’E tGN QE. . .”

iDNyq jJ: “. . . HDt RNmfJyhJ fI LfofmJz.”

UMOx Xwf: “arwgTw, xwP, TPCgfxnP, PM, Pnw, WMfOP.”

“vA fm fIy’m lDIm N oNmmJt OA AJJLfyqI.” VN WJfIJy mDqqJz Nm ImtNyzI OA CfI CNft, N hCfLzfIC RODme LOOX Oy CfI RDtJ-LOOXfyq ANhJ.

Song Fei, Kuang Ye: “There really is something between the two of you!”

“. . . What good will it do for you to forcefullybendus!” Ma Weisen collapsed and stopped reminiscing about theemotionsbetween them and immediately offered thedry goods, “At the time, we both liked the same girl in the class. That girl originally had pretty positive feelings for me, but when I was about ready to confess my feelings, John snatched her away. Moreover, it was when the whole class knew that I was very close to her and had practically silently acknowledged that we were a couple that he stole her love away out of nowhere!”

“What happened next?” Kuang Ye and Song Fei nearly asked in unison, curious and eager.

Ma Weisen sighed depressedly, a mournful expression on his face: “Later, the girl still couldn’t let me go in her heart, so she didn’t actually start to date the guy. Not long after, she applied to a foreign university and directly left this place of sorrows.”

Song Fei became confused: “Didn’t you say Qiao Siqi stole her away, but you also stated that the girl didn’t actually date him, so did he actually snatch her away or notah?”

“Of course he did!” Ma Weisen had no room for doubt when he spoke of this, “Before he became involved, I sat next to that girl every day in class, we were companions for the evening self-study, even when she had a fit of whimsy and wanted to run laps in the exercise field, I’d accompany her to run, rain or shine!”

Kuang Ye: “And what happened after he became involved?”

Ma Weisen: “Of course it was to take her out to eat, drink, and have funah! Whenever there were no classes, then they’d go out, relying on the fact that he has that cr*ppy car of his, they’d travel to the mountains and the sea, eat all sorts of food, a low move!”

“Now wait a second,” Kuang Ye drew in close to observe Ma Weisen’s sincere gnashing of teeth and really wanted to figure it out, “Tell me honestly with your conscience on the line, do you actually hate him for stealing her love away or were you actually envious of that girl?”

Ma Weisen: “. . .”

“That’s enough, I believe him.” Song Fei reeled Kuang Ye back in and comforted their new classmate at the same time, “It’s all in the past, don’t dwell so much on it any more. Besides, Qiao Siqi is wealthy and willful, what can you do about that? People can’t control the circumstances of their birth, there’s nothing that can be done about it.”

“What do you mean something can’t be done about it,” a disdainful look on Ma Weisen’s face, “It’s exactly his view of money that is wrong. Who would be short on that bit of moneyah, but being rich doesn’t mean you can be so willful. My mom loads money onto my card every month and I only ever withdraw the odd amount from the last four digits, I don’t even touch thewhole number. Even if there’s so much that I can’t spend it all even if I tried, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s my parents’ hard-earned money, so how could I spend it willy-nilly without a care!”

Song Fei: “. . . Then why don’t you buy aprincipal-protected financial investmentor something to earn some interest from the solid number?”

Ma Weisen: “It’stroublesome, I don’t want to do it.”

Song Fei: “. . .”

Kuang Ye: “Do you want to continue to comfort him?”

Song Fei: “I miss Zhou Yilu very much right now.”

—The Zhou family has a son, who possesses a sniper rifle for revenge against the rich, the moment he sees riches, he opens fire, burning through money like crazy with atutu.

When the flames of the social class struggle weren’t burning so fiercely, Song Fei inquired hopefully, “Do you have a car at the university?”

The answer he received after was, “Yesah, it’s very cool toride.”

And Song Fei didn’t continue to ask as he had already tossed a piece of firewood into the weakened flames of hatred of the rich.

Beijing time, 10:30 PM, more than an hour has passed since the walkie-talkie communication.

The activity center and the basketball hall were only separated by Mingfeng Lake. The distance wasn’t too close, but it definitely wasn’t too far either. However, when the university is immersed in the dark as high winds blow and the zombies rampant, this path becomes a long journey.

In the lounge, three people each took over a corner to lean into, silent and quiet.

There was no chit-chatting, but every once in a while, someone would take out their mobile phone to check the time and the anxiety in their heart was reflected in the cold glint of the cell phone screen.

Finally, a noise came from the roof, shattering the quiet atmosphere.

However it was neither the sound of the walkie-talkie nor the calls of a companion, rather although it was a soft noise, it was crisp with a penetrative force—

Ding!

Kuang Ye and Ma Weisen exchanged a glance in confusion: “Whose microwave’s time is up?”

Song Fei frowned, quickly scrambled up and drew close to the window, filling them in as he went: “It’s the musical triangle belonging to Zhao He-tongxueof our class.”

“. . . Where did you guys acquire all of these magical artifacts?” Song Fei was already checking in front of the window, so Ma Weisen had to ask the nearby Kuang Ye.

The latter was completely dumbfounded: “How should I know, I only joined a day earlier than you.”

Ma Weisen: “You’re also a transfer student?”

Kuang Ye: “My student ID number is right in front of yours.”

Ma Weisen: “Actually, I don’t really like people with student ID numbers so close to mine. . .”

Kuang Ye: “. . .”

Kala—

Nearly at the same time when the window curtains were thrown open, Song Fei deliberately lowered his voice to call out: “This way—”

In the blink of an eye, their companions hopped down like dumplings into a pot with apili palaand filed in through the window.

When Zhao He and Wu Zhou, who were bringing up the rear both leapt in, Song Fei decisively shut the window and locked it, and only then did he clearly capture the sorry state his companions were in after being bathed in the lights.

Each and every one of them looked like they had rolled out of the mud, covered in dust and dirt. Qi Yan’s state was the most tragic, he was directly hauled out of water, his hair was plastered all over his face while his clothes were all stuck to his body. His down jacket was long gone, yet it just outlined his figure more noticeably.

After entering the room, their companions didn’t bother to talk and plopped down onto the floor first. Other than Qi Yan, everyone else dug out their water bottles, panting heavily.

“What happened?” Song Fei was horribly distressed, grabbing the hem of Qi Yan’s pullover sweater while asking.

Qi Yan cooperated and raised his arms.

Song Fei lifted it up and slipped the inner garment off neatly, tossing it onto the ground with apajithen he grabbed a dry basketball jersey to use as a towel to wipe Qi Yan’s head and face.

The moment Song Fei held out his arm with the jersey, Qi Yan instinctively reached out to receive it, yet he had barely extended his arm when the jersey had already covered his head. Song Fei’s action was neither light nor heavy, the rubbing motion tickling his heart and was actually quite comfortable.

Qi Yan silently withdrew his hand, as naturally as if he had never reached out in the first place, just squinting lazily, enjoying the treatment placidly.

Just now, it seemed that someone had inquired as to “what the situation was”?

The one who was doing the scrubbing and the one who was getting dried could no longer recall who, but who caredne.

The squad of companions abruptly realized that no matter how they were relentlessly pursued by the zombies, it was still not as painful as being choked to death by a handful of dog food with pink bubble special effects.

Thus they all threw the two infuriating guys to the back of their minds and caught up with each other enthusiastically.

More than an hour of twists and turns could actually be illustrated in just a few sentences. They ran into a group of zombies by the lake, Qi Yan got entangled with a zombie during the fight and fell into the water. Later, he swam ashore and finally disengaged from the zombies with the rest of their companions and dashed straight toward the basketball gymnasium, but in this series of unfortunate events, the walkie-talkie became waterlogged and was drained of battery, as a result they could only rely on the “percussion genius” Zhao He.

It wasn’t until they curiously asked about the source of the musical triangle that Ma Weisen first gained a thorough understanding of the Wusheng class’ saga to look for the radio. In addition, rather than surprised, they were more amazed: “You guys are just too cool, what kind of begging for survival classah, it’s obviously a squadron from theNavy SEALs!”

The Wusheng class companions were also shocked that Ma Weisen didn’t know about the radio and the news broadcast from beginning to end.

Even Huang Mo, who was level-headed, couldn’t help but ask: “Then what belief supported you to persist for so many days when you were isolated alone?”

Ma Weisen racked his brains, and still didn’t dig out any lofty spiritual support, so he could only confess the truth: “Well, I just didn’t want to die.”

Huang Mo was taken back then smiled. There was absolutely no flaw in this answer at all.

The twelve companions of the Wusheng class: “He’s the real iron-blooded warrior.”

Ma Weisen: “No no no, I’m really not. I was almost scared to death, I thought I was going to be bitten every day, even when I’m sleeping, I dream of being chased and bitten!”

Qiao Siqi: “Excessive modesty is arrogance.”

Ma Weisen: “Are you looking for a fight?”

Qiao Siqi: “I just wanted to see when you would finally take the initiative to greet me, but you’ve greatly disappointed me.”

Ma Weisen: “One more second and it might’ve gotten there.”

Qiao Siqi: “Our friendship can’t accommodate this second.”

Ma Weisen: “. . .”

Qiao Siqi: “. . .”

Ma, Qiao: “Which Wusheng class are you?”

Ma Weisen: “The second!”

Qiao Siqi: “One!”

Ma, Qiao: “Hu, thankfully. . .”

After Song Fei and Qi Yan were done with being affectionate with each other, finally coming back to their senses, they just so happened to catch the tail end of the “warm scene” of the reunion of old friends.

The twelve companions were watching the ruckus with excitement and not a hint of intention to try and stop it at all.

Song Fei was speechless: “Even if you guys were just pretending to be polite, you all should at least try to persuade them a bitba.”

The eleven comrades: “Advise whatah, Qiao Siqi’s girlfriend was stolen by him, we were already very being very merciful by just overseeing and not actively helping him fight against his love rival.”

Kuang Ye: “It’s impossible to sway them, if I were like Ma Weisen, whose girlfriend wasstolenby someone else, I would also be disgruntled when I run into my rival.”

The eleven comrades: “. . .”

Kuang Ye: “. . .”

The entire body: “Wait, we need to host a meeting.”

Just as the walkie-talkie relay ended and Ma Weisen was filling Song Fei and Kuang Ye in about his sad past, on the other side, Qiao Siqi was also expounding upon the special relationship between him and Ma Weisen to his puzzled companions.

It was the same entangled love and hate campus love triangle, yet from Qiao Siqi’s retelling, it was a different version—

The one who had an ambiguous relationship with the girl was actually Qiao Siqi and it was also Qiao Siqi who pursued her fiercely. From the beginning to the end, Ma Weisen had been the one to sabotage them from dark corners, relying on his handsome face to generate nefarious winds and light eerie flames as he flirted with someone else’s girl, such that the girl was ultimately stuck in adilemmaand had fled abroad as a result.

The intelligence was fully exchanged and the truth was no longer important. The companions swore that no matter what these two people say in the future, they will just smile on the surface and not fall for a single word of it!

“What I told you all was the truthah,” Ma Weisen fished out his cell, unlocked the screen and displayed the screensaver to all the companions, “This is a photo of the two of us, you guys tell me, is she smiling sweetly or not?”

All of the comrades-in-arms: “It’s covered inAPPs, we can’t see her face at all, okay!”

“Put it away quicklyba, don’t make an embarrassment of yourself.” Qiao Siqi whipped out his wallet, opened it, and then proceeded to carefully slip out a photo from inside, “The one I have is the real couple photo, look at the emotions expressed in her eyes and hanging off her eyebrows.”

The girl in the photo was indeed pure and lovely, with fair skin and rosy cheeks. When she smiles, her eyebrows are curved upwards like a warm spring breeze and the little tiger tooth peeking out added a hint of playfulness.

Who the true love was, was simply amystery.

However, the two male students of the English department’s type was still accepted by all of the comrades.

—Except for Zhou Yilu.

Perhaps it was a common habit of every generation of innocent and pureboysto treasure the photographs of their favorites as Zhou-tongxuealso showed off a photo from his mobile.

“You two have poor taste. Look at thegirlthat your bro, I am, chasing after.”

Zhou Yilu wasn’t exaggerating. The girl in the photo was a few years older than Qiao Siqi and Ma Weisen’s crush. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, yet was still beautiful and graceful. Her eyebrows were calm and composed and she had the temperament of a lady from a notable family.

Qiao Siqi drunk in the photo on the phone screen then side-eyed him: “Did you succeed in your pursuit in the end?”

Zhou Yilu: “. . .Ke, she said that she wanted to focus on her studies and wouldn’t consider personal affairs before graduating with a doctorate.”

Qiao Siqi: “So you were dumpedbei.”

Zhou Yilu: “Didn’t you also fail in the end? And we are competing about who has the best taste right now, mine is studying her master’s and doctorate with no gaps, possessing both intelligence and beauty!”

Qiao Siqi: “Mine as well, she departed for a famous foreign university!”

Zhou Yilu: “This one of mine is wiseah.”

Qiao Siqi: “Well, mine is youthfulah.”

Zhou Yilu: “She’s levelheaded and demure.”

Qiao Siqi: “And mine is lively.”

Zhou Yilu: “A chess master!”

Qiao Siqi: “A Texas Hold’em poker elite!”

. . .

Ma Weisen really enjoyed watching Qiao Siqi’s spark of troubles from the sidelines, but as he watched on, he found the shape of these flames very difficult to put into words and had to ask Song Fei for assistance: “Don’t you find the ‘topic’ of their challenge against each other very strange?”

Song Fei patted their new classmate on the shoulder and earnestly stated: “Cherish the present timesba. Qiao Siqi is standing at the crossroads of life, maybe soon, you will be unable to stay his love rival in this lifetime.”

—Up until the break between lectures for the Wusheng classes ended and the 16-person team set off again, Ma Weisen still didn’t figure out what the class leader of the class next door had meant.

It was too d*mn profoundah!

Beijing time, 11:30 pm.

Since leaving the canteen, a day, a night, and five hours had passed.

The weight of all the companions’ bags had all been reduced by varying degrees, including Zhao He’s suitcase—which contained coral fleece pajamas seized from the Express Delivery Point and a blue woolen coat that Lin Dilei had never worn since she switched to the imported down jacket as they were now passed down to Kuang Ye and Qi Yan respectively.

Fortunately, they were all loose-fitting women’s styles, especially Lin Dilei’s Korean-style coat, which even Zhao He could wrap himself up with. Therefore, although Kuang Ye and Qi Yan looked to be a bit stifled and restricted, it didn’t affect their movements to a troublesome degree. All in all, it was better than just wearing the inner garments or basketball jerseys they had picked out from the lounge.

However, there was just one thing, the two couldn’t be looked at, otherwise the rest of the companions would break out of character and laugh.

When they were trying them on, they had already practiced it, but really couldn’t hold it in. No matter how close their relationship was or how deep their feelings went, they were unable to suppress the tsunami of howling laughter while pounding the ground.

Thankfully, the moonlight weakened the brutal visual impact.

In the whistling cold winds, sixteen people huddled together, even if they tiptoed, they still made for a conspicuous team, thus the companions thought it better to line up in two columns, split up to occupy the two sides on the path, and tried their best to drag out the distance between them.

This time, they passed the activities center with any hesitation and made a beeline for the shared academic building area.

Everyone tucked in their clothes tightly, remained quiet, and kept their eyes alert of all directions as they advanced steadily.

The highly tense nerves made it impossible to accurately calculate the passage of time, so when theChuangxinbuilding came into view, everyone felt as if they had traveled a long way for a long time.

But victory was in sight.

There are six academic lecture halls in the shared teaching building area. Houde building was the #1 lecture hall closest to the university gates and the Chuangxin building was #6, the farthest one.

The farthest from the university gates, that is, but the closest to the Wusheng class.

However, now that the Chuangxin building was in sight, how far could the Houde building really be?

Guangdong!

一A metal spatula knocked a zombie that came out of nowhere straight to the ground, and before the zombie could get up, a few more continuous strikes were executed before the comrade beside him reacted and ended the zombie’s struggle forever with a knife一Li Jingyu used his tough and shocking style to kick off the final escape of the Wusheng class.

In the misty and chilly night, the Little Whale stood proudly with a spatula pinned to his waist, like the majestic image of Poseidon, the god of the sea, leaving an indelible and shocking silhouette in the minds of the transfer students Ma Weisen and Kuang Ye.

Author’s Chapter Summary: Arriving at the public teaching area, the final escape has begun!

The translator has something to say: MWS and QSQ fight like its an old routine, but then QSQ also verbally sparred with ZYL in a similar manner, so maybe it’s just him that is prone to attract enmity, but anyways the relationship between MWS, QSQ and that girl seems so forced on their part while SF & QY seem to have just casually and effortlessly shown them what a real loving relationship was like as if they also joined this “competition” (despite actually only falling victim to the two-person world or so I think)