Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The “joyous party” outside the broadcasting room was still going strong.

Dozens of lunatics crowded around a body that had long since ceased to resemble a human being. Like children playing with a battered rag doll, they giggled as they tore at the last shreds of flesh and sinew. Wet, sticky sounds mingled with their deranged voices.

“Feels so good… Hee-hee, it’s like gummy candy!”

“La-la-la, I want the eyeballs… They’re so bouncy… So much fun!”

“So red… so slippery… I like your body…”

Qingshui and Li Wei’an pressed themselves into the shadows behind the fire door, holding their breath as they observed the scene. The small window in the door offered only a limited view and blocked out most of the noise, but the overpowering stench of blood seemed capable of seeping through anything.

“There are more than a dozen by the door,” Qingshui whispered, never taking her eyes off the window. “They’ll spot us if we approach directly.”

Li Wei’an nodded, her face pale, and quickly messaged Lin Hao: “We’re here. There are more than a dozen outside the door, with more in the hallway. Stick to the plan and use the PA system to lure most of them away first.”

Lin Hao replied almost instantly, fear and urgency evident in every word. “Got it! Playing it now! Maximum volume, on repeat!”

After several seconds of silence, a blast of shrill electronic music mixed with distorted screaming erupted from the conference hall in the Administrative Building, loud enough to nearly rip the roof off.

The aggressive noise hit the wandering figures deeper in the hallway like a drop of water thrown into boiling oil, sending them into an immediate frenzy.

“Aaaaaaah! There’s a little piggy!” one lunatic shrieked, its voice brimming with rabid excitement.

The lunatics howled with delight and surged toward the conference hall, where the deafening noise was coming from.

Qingshui looked toward the broadcasting room, and her heart sank. Three lunatics were still there. They stopped what they were doing, glanced toward the conference hall, and broke into crazed grins before hurling themselves against the broadcasting room door.

Li Wei’an’s expression turned grim. “Why are they… trying to break down the door?”

It was almost as if they knew the people inside were responsible for the noise.

“Does the broadcasting room… have any windows?” Qingshui asked with a frown.

“I don’t think so,” Li Wei’an replied. “Only the conference rooms on either side have windows.”

“…”

After thinking for a moment, Qingshui said, “Tell him to provoke them from inside. We’ll ambush them while they’re distracted.”

Lin Hao went pale when he received Li Wei’an’s message, but the lunatics outside would break in sooner or later. Gritting his teeth, he steeled himself.

Screw it!

He raised a club defensively and shouted at the door, “Fuck you! Drop dead, you bunch of lunatics!”

The violent pounding abruptly stopped, and Lin Hao’s heart skipped a beat.

Then the impacts resumed, harder and more frenzied than before. The dull thuds of flesh slamming against the door made his scalp crawl.

“Bitch! Come out here! Don’t you love showing off? Come out! Come out! Come out!”

“Come on out, classmate! Come out! I’m going to cut off your head! Cut it off! Then shove it up your fucking crotch!”

Blood rushed to Lin Hao’s head, and he roared back, “I’ll cut off your whole damn family, you fucking morons! Can you even get in here?” The more he cursed, the more fired up he became, pouring out all the fear and anxiety he had endured throughout the afternoon. “I’ve been hiding all afternoon, but not because I’m scared of you! I just didn’t want filthy beasts like you dirtying my hands!”

The hand gripping his club bulged with veins, and his voice trembled. “If you’ve got the guts, break down this door! The second you get in here, I’ll smash your skulls open! Let’s see who cuts off whose head first!”

“Move!”

At Qingshui’s low command, she and Li Wei’an slipped out of the fire stairwell like shadows and flattened themselves against the wall.

“Count down from three. You take the one on the left.”
Li Wei’an nodded silently.

Qingshui lowered the first of her raised fingers.

They were less than five meters from the madmen.

Her second finger went down.

Li Wei’an tightened her grip on the fruit knife, her face pale as she stared fixedly at her target.

The madman on the far left was ramming the door with his shoulder. He was slightly thinner than the other two.

Qingshui lowered her final finger.

Go!

Qingshui moved.

Without making a single unnecessary sound, she crossed the distance in a few silent strides and appeared behind the madmen.

Putting her entire body behind the blow, she drove the tip of her military dagger into her first target’s vital spot with a soft squelch. The blade slid in cleanly and deep.

The madman’s body went rigid. Only a brief, breathy “Huh?” escaped his throat before his furious expression froze. He pitched forward against the door, then slowly slid to the floor.

At almost the exact same moment, Qingshui used the momentum of her turn to drive the fruit knife clenched in her other hand into the back of the second madman’s skull. The blow was so powerful that nearly the entire blade sank in.

The instant Qingshui charged, Li Wei’an rushed forward as well!

Her heart nearly pounded out of her chest. The bloodstained madman turned around, revealing half a deathly pale, twisted face. His blood-red eyes met her terrified gaze.

Her heart stopped for a beat. Fear spread through her, and for one fleeting moment, her mind went completely blank as numbness swept over her entire body.

But there was no time to hesitate. Li Wei’an’s movements remained unnaturally calm. Gripping the fruit knife in both hands, she put all her strength into thrusting it deep into the madman’s eye socket!

Squelch!

Warm, viscous fluid splattered across her hands.

“Urgh… ngh… feels so good… hee…” The madman made a bizarre sound as his body began convulsing violently. Both hands flailed toward Li Wei’an, trying to grab her.

Li Wei’an’s face was deathly pale, but she clung to the hilt and twisted with all her might!

Crunch…

Something inside seemed to have been ground to pieces.

The hallway suddenly fell into an eerie silence. The heavy stench of blood rapidly filled the air. Three corpses lay tangled in unnatural positions outside the broadcasting room, while dark-red liquid spread across the floor.

Li Wei’an stood frozen, her hands still held out as though driving the knife forward. She stared at her hands, now coated in sticky blood. Her stomach churned violently, but nothing came up. An icy shudder crept from the base of her spine all the way to her scalp.

A flicker of surprise crossed Qingshui’s eyes. She swallowed the words “Don’t let go” before they could leave her mouth.

Qingshui quickly recovered from her surprise.

“You did very well.”

Li Wei’an snapped out of her daze. When she saw the approval in Qingshui’s eyes, the spasms in her stomach gradually subsided.

She had only done it to survive.

Qingshui was already at the broadcasting room door. She lowered her voice and said, “Lin Hao, open up. It’s over.”

The door opened a crack almost instantly, revealing Lin Hao’s bloodless face. The moment he saw Li Wei’an and Qingshui, he nearly burst into tears.

“Move!” Qingshui hauled him out, gently pulled the door shut behind him without locking it, then pointed toward the fire escape. “Quick! Downstairs!”

The three of them did not dare waste a single second. They sprinted back to the fire escape as fast as they could and raced down the stairs.

“The car’s in the underground parking garage! A black SUV!” Lin Hao panted as he ran, clutching his backpack tightly. “The radio’s in the car!”