by A Sick Frog
“Accepted.” Qin Ke Xuan nodded.
Qin Ke Xuan was brought to the basement. Upon opening the door, she saw a woman sitting on the sofa. Her makeup was exquisitely done up, and voluminous curls draped loosely. She was an enchanting beauty, but the close to a lack of fabric clothing her body rendered Qin Ke Xuan unable to agree blindly.
The beauty stood up to welcome them, and walked around Qin Ke Xuan, sizing her up and down, before she clicked her tongue: “Where did you guys abduct such a pretty girl from?”
The three guys rolled their eyes simultaneously, “It’s Boss who abducted her, none of our business.”
The beauty fished out a rubber band and tied her hair up in a few moves, and walked over to the desk on the side, calling Qin Ke Xuan: “Come over here and lay down. Aye? Where are the three of you guys going?”
The three guys rolled their eyes again, “No direct contact between males and females!” They were going to evade this!
When Leopard closed the door, he could not stop worrying and urged Qin Ke Xuan: “An Ye, you must listen to Xiang Jie, don’t get angry.”
Xiang Jie wore her gloves, picking up the surgery knife to slash away her blood-stained shirt, and Qin Ke Xuan lowered her head to look at the wound. There was a hole on the snow-white skin, and the blood was already clotting up.
Xiang Jie clicked her tongue loudly, “Tsk tsk, what are they doing? To actually let a lil’ girl eat a bullet, aye, you’re An Ye right? Why don’t you stop following them and drift with me hmm?”
Qin Ke Xuan started to suspect if everyone in this organisation was a chatterbox, why did each and every one of them have so much nonsense to talk about? “Please hurry up.” She had to rush back before dawn breaks.
“What’s the rush? Don’t want to chat with me? It’s such a rarity to get another female join this organisation, of course I’mma talk with you… Aye? Why are you getting up? Okay okay okay, I’ll start immediately, say, aren’t you impatient? … Aye, I’ll stop talking alright? Lie down lie down, I need to find some anaesthetic, hah? Don’t need? Woah! You sure you don’t want any? Alright, then I’ll start! … Ayeee seems like the bullet’s a little deep, I need to cut through, endure it a little hah! Hahaha, I found the bullet! Aye? Why’re my tweezers? Tweezers, tweezers, it’s here. Phew, it’s out, everything’s all right once I sew your wound! … OK, mission accomplished!”
Wolf, Jackal and Leopard stood eavesdropping outside, cold sweat drizzling down.
“Creak.”
Wolf, Jackal and Leopard saw the pale Qin Ke Xuan pushing the door open and walking out. Xiang Jie was inside cleaning up her apparatus, and shouted excitedly: “An Ye Xiao Mei Mei, you’re welcome anytime! I’ll give you a fifty percent discount!”
That woman… Wolf, Jackal and Leopard followed Qin Ke Xuan speechlessly and drove her back to the fixed pick-up location near her house.
“An Ye, you sure you don’t need us to send you back to your place?” The three of them were very worried she would walk halfway and faint.
“Mmh.” Qin Ke Xuan nodded and left.
When she got back to the house, since her shoulder was hurt, she could not jump up to the balcony. Seeing how it was still very early in the day, and everyone was still asleep, she fished out her keys to open the door, and quietly returned to her room, locking her bedroom door, and laid on the bed without even changing her clothes.
Chapter 19 - Her Dream of Killing, and of Him
Qin Ke Xuan opened her eyes muddle-headedly. It was still dark outside. When she tried moving her body, a tearing pain seared through her shoulder. She struggled to get up and surveyed the surroundings. There were dead bodies of children all around. The large area was dyed in dark red blood, as though a bloody hell.
This scene was too familiar though; so familiar she almost thought she had walked out from there herself. She shook her dizzy head, making an effort to get up, and walked, staggeringly, towards the narrow exit in front. Even though the exit was just right in front, why did it seem as though she was walking further and further away from it? Even if she had finished off all the other children, was she not able to leave? No! She did not want to die here!
Qin Ke Xuan clenched her teeth tightly and exerted the last of her energy to bolt forward, but just a few steps out, her legs were weighed down. She looked down, and saw both her ankles being grabbed by two small hands.
“Don’t leave…”
She tried to kick away the hand of the kid who was probably still alive, “Let me go!” She wanted to go out! Go out!
The little kid’s strength was eerily large, no matter how she tried to kick them off, she could not escape from the clutches. The other children beside, as though they had revived, also stretched out their hands to pull, and grab on to her, not letting her go.
“I don’t want to die…”
“I want to go out…”
“…”
The twisted expressions of the children stared right at her, their murmuring continuing. She looked, powerlessly in fear, at the increasing number of children who were supposed to have died reviving and lunging at her. Beneath her, a black hole took shape, and she was being dragged down, sinking deeper. No matter how hard she tried to struggle, she could only watch herself helplessly being pulled slowly into the black hole, unable to extricate herself. The scene before her eyes slowly blurred and blackened out…
“Ahh!”
Qin Ke Xuan awoke, screaming, just as she was about to be completely submerged in the black hole. Her eyes wide open with fear, she panted heavily, reaching out to wipe away the cold sweat beading on her forehead.
“Xiao Ye, what’s wrong?” A low voice came from behind.
Xiao Ye… The only person who would call her that…
“You Ming?” Qin Ke Xuan turned around to look behind, unsure, but only saw an empty space. There was no one.
Her shoulder was suddenly hit, “I’m here!”
She turned back, and a familiar face appeared before her eyes, she asked in suspicion: “Why are you here?”
The sides of his lips lifted, revealing a large smile, “Because…”
“Phuu*~”
(T/N: “噗” = “Phuu”; onomatopoeia for sound of escaping laughter)
Qin Ke Xuan lowered her head, only to see a knife protruding from her stomach, and the hands that had grabbed the knife handle belonged to the gentle guy in from of her. He was still smiling tenderly: “Because only when you die will I be able to live, so don’t blame me okay? Xiao Ye?”
And then he released the knife handle, and gently pushed her. Behind her, unbeknownst to her, had somehow become an overhanging cliff, and she, fell off the cliff, just like that. In that flash of a moment, she stared tightly into his eyes; they were full of his softness and gentleness of the past and nothing else.
She could not help but ridicule herself. They had all crawled out from the training abyss, why would anyone like that carry any hue of tenderness? She had been a killer all these years in vain, to actually be unable to see through his killing intent masked beneath his gentle façade!
She closed her eyes, letting herself fall down and down…
“Xuan Xuan? Wake up, sob sob, you can’t have died right? What am I going to do? Hurry wake up, Xuan Xuan!”
Someone was patting her face lightly, his voice choking with sobs. Qin Ke Xuan raised her hand, gripping his neck without failure, and her eyes opened slowly. She said coldly: “I said you’re not allowed to enter my bedroom.” Her fingers tightened.
Yin Xu Dong frowned, and both his hands went to unclasp Qin Ke Xuan’s grip while explaining with difficulty: “I… I was, calling you… on the balcony… but there was no sound… I, I was worried… so, so… I came in…”
“You’re seeking death.” Qin Ke Xuan’s chilly glint lingered in her eyes as her hand closed in.
Yin Xu Dong was throttled till his face paled and tried to pry open her hands, but they were too tight. Just when his life was hanging by a thread, his hands
draped, unconsciously pressing down directly on Qin Ke Xuan’s injured shoulder.
Qin Ke Xuan’s shoulder stung in pain, and her hand fell down weakly. Yin Xu Dong upon having picked back his little life, collapsed on the ground, coughing non-stop as he cupped his neck, “Cough cough…”
“Xuan Xuan?” Suddenly Jiang Hui Lin’s voice sounded from outside the door, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?”
“It’s nothing.” Qin Ke Xuan clenched her teeth to force out these two words with effort.
“Need me to take a look?” Jiang Hui Lin continued asking in concern.
“Get lost!”
“…”
“Then you rest properly, remember to yell for me if there’s anything.” With that, Jiang Hui Lin’s footsteps faded.
Yin Xu Dong sitting on the ground saw Qin Ke Xuan pressing her shoulders. Her shirt was split open, and the white bandages were, because of the tearing of her wound, dyed red by the oozing blood. He froze, staring idiotically, and asked, “Xuan Xuan you’re hurt?”
Qin Ke Xuan’s glare was cold like daggers, “Get lost if you don’t want to die.”
Yin Xu Dong was so agitated he jumped up, and turned in circles from anxiety, “Bleeding, it’s the place where I accidentally pressed just now right? Sorry, Xuan Xuan, I didn’t know… Where’s the band-aid? Freaking hell! It’s bleeding so much, you need to go to the hospital! I’ll go call your dad!” He lapsed into a flurry to find Qin Shu Hua after saying that.
“Stop! Come back!”
Yin Xu Dong returned to her beside unwillingly, his face one of worry, “It’s better to go see a doctor right?”
“If you want to die, you can try walking one more step.” Qin Ke Xuan threatened him calmly.
Yin Xu Dong thought about the scene where he had been strangled just now and shut his mouth obediently. However, upon seeing Qin Ke Xuan’s small face becoming paler with the moment, he felt as though his heart was nibbled away at by countless ants, and felt extremely uncomfortable, yet he could not thwart her stubbornness. Hence, after much choking and stifling his worry, he suddenly stood up and rushed to the balcony, “Wait, I’m going to get some medicine from my house.”
Qin Ke Xuan waited for a while, and he rushed back like a gush of wind, a box in his hand, and opened the first-aid box, sitting down beside Qin Ke Xuan, and started looking for bandages and blood staunching medicine.
“You think I dare not kill you?”
Yin Xu Dong upon hearing that, raised his head to look at her. He broke into a smile after a while, before lowering his head back down to look for medicine, “You foolish girl, I’m your brother*, even if not biologically related. Why would you kill me?”
(T/N: he’s probably referencing to Chapter 11: Birth of a Sis-Con, where he introduced her to his friends as his little sister)
“I almost strangled you just now.” Qin Ke Xuan reminded kindly.
Yin Xu Dong laughed: “You said ‘almost’, but I’m still well and alive right now, right? Even though you’re a little fierce normally, and did do some scary stuff to me, but I know you’ll always stop in the end. Hehe, actually I do have quite the spot in your heart hehehe.” A certain someone started to discharge narcissism.
She sighed in her head, he was a complete fool who did not even know how to spell die. Even setting herself against him felt ridiculously idiotic!
“I found the medicine, Xuan Xuan, I’ll help you change your bandage.” Yin Xu Dong took out the bandage and medicine he found.
Qin Ke Xuan: “Put these down, you can go.”
“How will that do, you won’t be able to do this on your own, let me help you!”
“Don’t force me to throw you out.”
“……”
Yin Xu Dong yielded under her violent threats, and shifted to outside the balcony, “Call me if you need me!”
Qin Ke Xuan had been injured countless of times in her career as a killer, and there were loads of injuries that were way worse than this, yet was she not the one who had bandaged her wounds on her own? She tore open the bloodied bandages with practised ease, wiping on the medicine she had gotten from Xiang Jie, before quickly wrapping it back with new bandages. After she changed the clothes she had worn yesterday, she yelled: “Come in.”
Yin Xu Dong ran in happily, only to be beyond disappointed when he realised that Qin Ke Xuan had already finished settling everything and did not need his help. He had originally wanted to check whether her injury was serious or not, if it was, then he was ready to pull her to the hospital even if he was going to die.
Qin Ke Xuan pointed at the bandage and the sliced and bloodied shirt, saying: “Go burn these, make sure no one sees you.”
Yin Xu Dong found a bag and stuffed everything in, asking softly: “Xuan Xuan, what did you go and do? Why are you injured so badly?”
Qin Ke Xuan had originally wanted to say it was none of his business, but she suddenly sprung up, and replied coldly: “I went to kill people, why, are you interested as well?” Even though she had only killed a dog.
Upon seeing Qin Ke Xuan’s earnest expression, Yin Xu Dong was tied. Her injury so blatantly displayed she had exchanged fire with someone if he did not believe her, but it was really a little against his outlook of life, of the world, and of his morals if he did believe her. Hence he deliberated for a moment in all prudence before thumping his chest, vowing solemnly: “Xuan Xuan wouldn’t slaughter the innocent, even if she did really kill someone, then that would be completely entirely wholly be that person’s fault! You had no other choice but to kill that person! I believe you!”
The Qin Ke Xuan resting on her bed swept him a sideway glance, “Get me a cup of water and place it at the bedside, leave after that.” After talking, she laid down, pulled her blankets and went to rest.
Yin Xu Dong obediently poured her a cup of water, carried the stuff he needed to take care of with him, and crawled back to his place.
Because Qin Ke Xuan was shot during their mission, Wolf, Jackal and Leopard had all felt guilty, and so they urged her to stay at home to rest and resume her missions after her injury recovered. Qin Ke Xuan was glad about the outcome since she did not like doing the job of a thief anyway.
Hence, she was placed in left to recuperate on her own throughout the entire holiday. Meanwhile, Yin Xu Dong followed the training regime Qin Ke Xuan had drawn up for him dutifully, only going out to hang with his friends occasionally, and contributed the rest of his spare time to meticulously studying recipes, and even especially went to research about recipes that were able to help with enriching the blood. This event had brightened mother Yin’s eyes and enriched her colourful expressions. Afterwards when she learnt that he was researching these recipes were for Qin Ke Xuan’s sake, the looks she gave him, however, become all the more unusual. After having researched these recipes, he had also personally prepared them. Even though it did not taste very amazing, Qin Ke Xuan still, very generously, ingested everything, since they were prepared anyway, might as well eat everything rather than waste it, right?
Chapter 20 - The Start of School
Having stayed at home to recuperate leisurely for two months, the Qin Ke Xuan nourished by Yin Xu Dong’s blood enriching soup gained rosiness in her cheeks and even grew taller. This had Yin Xu Dong feeling very accomplished, and firmly decided that he would continue his Lolita-raising… uh, he meant fattening plan on the skinny and weak Lolita-sized Qin Ke Xuan.
The long-awaited day first day of school arrived. Qin Ke Xuan called Yin Xu Dong over to help move her luggage on the way to First High. The admission notice had indicated that there was a military training kind of activity happening before lessons started. She had heard from Yin Xu Dong that the military training was very exhausting, and hence developed a strong interest in this military training, and was eager to give it a try.
Yin Xu Dong carried Qin Ke Xuan’s many luggage on his back, as well as in both his hand and eluded a regional-mafia-boss aura as he played the role of Qin Ke Xuan�
�s guide in bringing her around B City’s First High.
“This building, this building and this building are all classrooms, year one, year two and year three respectively. That building’s the dormitory, the one beside and the one behind are also the dormitories. You need to walk along this pavement and turn round the corner to see the library. That’s the basketball court, soccer field, and indoor sports hall. Hehe, and this road is hailed as the Lover’s Road by the students, don’t you think the scenery’s especially amazing and is especially suitable for dating?”
“Dong Zi!” A group of people walked towards them.
It was Ah Lang and the bunch of people who went to Karaoke the other time. Ah Lang pointed at the enslaved Yin Xu Dong and laughed out loud, “Hahaha, sis-con!”
Yin Xu Dong’s expression darkened as he glared at Ah Lang. Meng Xiao Jing smiled and walked forward to help with the luggage. Yin Xu Dong happily passed a bag he was holding to Meng Xiao Jing, but his gaze that had inadvertently met Qin Ke Xuan’s chilly look made his hands tremble, and it retracted, “No need, no need, it’s not a lot, I can carry it.”
“Go report.” Qin Ke Xuan said, pinching the admission notice in her hand.
Yin Xu Dong replied “Oh”, and said to the bunch of them: “I’ll go first then, you guys go play your stuff.” And he hastened his steps to catch up with Qin Ke Xuan, shouting behind her: “The reporting place is in your classroom, at the year one classrooms.”
Ah Lang and the people left behind looked at each other, the former evil tyrant Dong Zi had really regressed to being a complete sis-con! That was seriously too horrifying and too shocking!
The two of them reached Qin Ke Xuan’s classroom—Year One, Class 15. The year one classes are streamed according to the student’s results. Those with better results were allocated to classes more towards the front. Class 1 was the heaven for top-notch students, Class 15, on the other hand, was made up of 50 students with the crappiest results in the level. These students were admitted First High to either by donating loads of money or through strings pulling, and Qin Ke Xuan was considered the former.