I Am A Killer

by A Sick Frog

  The Qin Ke Xuan following tightly behind him wanted to just send him a kick, why was he dragging her down with him! Pity the captain was just beside them so she couldn’t find the time to make her move.

  “Newcomer?” The vice-captain’s attention, as expected, was shifted by Chi Qu Qi. He turned to look at the Qin Ke Xuan behind, shocked. “Not bad, calm and composed, your physical finesse must be pretty good. Finally, a good seedling from this squad.”

  Chi Qu Qi upon hearing him turned to look at Qin Ke Xuan. As the vice-captain had said, she was neither sweating nor panting, and that had him clicking his tongue. He really couldn’t tell Qin beauty was such an OP character.

  “Xiao Chi zi, you still dare to say you’ve fought all the Reserve Squad members and remain unparalleled?” The vice-captain laughed.

  After short break after running ten rounds was scaling. They had to scale up and down a ladder a hundred times per set. After such intense training, the majority of the people were beginning to be exhausted and laid on the ground panting.

  A few of the captains squatted in front of them, snorting: “A proper Special Forces member will need to scale the ladder three hundred times per set! Not only that, you guys didn’t train in the morning so the amount of training is largely decreased. At the rate you guys are going, exactly when will you reach the standard of a Special Forces soldier? Acting dead already now huh? Stand up straight! Scale the barbed wire two hundred times!”

  The entire squad howled in anguish in their hearts, it had only been a hundred last time!

  The physical strength of the girl could not compare to the guys, but their captain this time didn’t let the fairer sex go easier, hence did not give the girls any leeway. Other than Qin Ke Xuan, the two other girls’ hands and legs had already gone soft. They even wobbled when walking. As expected, before the two of them hit a hundred, both of them could no longer continue and fainted.

  After the captains had the health personals to check if they were fine, they called some people over to carry them back to rest, then couldn’t help but sigh: “They do have some skills, but their physical strength is too weak.” It’s not actually accurate to say their physical finesse was poor. They were a lot better compared to normal males, however they were definitely far from enough when compared to a Special Force soldier.

  The only two burly and strong females had fainted, yet the Qin Ke Xuan, submerged in the bunch of tall and sturdy people, still appeared to have great vitality, and was even more at ease than some of the guys.

  Chapter 32 - Dong Zi Stirring Up Trouble

  Chi Qu Qi was now climbing the barbed wire with Qin Ke Xuan. As he climbed, he said indignantly: “Qin beauty, are you still a woman? Hurry faint and go rest, you won’t be cute if you’re too valiant and make guys lose their faces!”

  Qin Ke Xuan was annoyed with all his blabbering. She laid there before sending a foot stepping on Chi Qu Qi’s head. Why was it that every person she met was more of a chatterbox than the previous? Did he not know that blabbering all these nonsense stuff was just wasting his strength? She couldn’t be bothered to mind the Chi Qu Qi who was howling continuously behind her and continued crawling forward. She still had a hundred more times to go.

  “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Don’t lay there and act dead!” One of the vice-captains on the side stuck a metal rod through the barbed wire and poked at Chi Qu Qi.

  Chi Qu Qi: “Vice-cap, don’t poke me! I’ll climb, I’ll just climb okay!”

  “You’re the one who makes the most noise! If you howl any more, I’ll have you climb a hundred times more!”

  That threat was useful, because following which, Chi Qu Qi did not make a single sound. Instead, he only glared his large eyes at the Qin Ke Xuan who had stomped on him and still acted as though nothing happened.

  After the training for weaving through the barbed wires ended, the captain very benevolently allowed them half an hour’s time of break before starting the horizontal bar pull ups and parallel bar dips training, a hundred times for each of them. By the time their training ended, it was near midnight. Everyone was so tired they could no longer move, but with the sticky sweat and mud on their bodies, they had to return to the warehouse to bathe after being released before they could go back and sleep like a log.

  There were ten beds in the female dormitory, but only three were occupied. The two girls that had woken up told Qin Ke Xuan there had originally been ten girls, however, eight of them could no longer withstand the stress hence left. The two of them were the only ones left. Now with the entry of Qin Ke Xuan, there were three of them. The two of them sighed; perhaps it would not be long before the Reserve Squad would be void of females.

  “But, Qin Ke Xuan perhaps you will be able to stay. I feel like you have the ability to.” Lin Xiao Yun said.

  “Enh.” She had never thought about leaving, much less going because she could not take the stress. She’s been through much worse, so it would be impossible to make her go just like that because of these little exercises.

  Qin Ke Xuan took off the camouflage uniform on the outside and changed on her singlet.

  “Qin Ke Xuan, what is that you have on?” One of the girls suddenly asked.

  “Du dou*.” Qin Ke Xuan tugged on the skin-tight undergarment, her voice calm as she replied. When she had first came to the Qin house, she had searched throughout her cupboards and could not locate a du dou, hence she had no other choice but to find some other clothes and make her own. Since her forte was killing, not needlework, the product turned out to be far from satisfactory, but at least it still looked like a du dou.

  * 肚兜 = du dou; (ancient) an undergarment vest covering the chest and the abdomen

  “… Du dou?”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “No… but why do you wear a du dou instead of a bra? I’ve seen little kids wearing a du dou to block the wind, but it’s not the ancient times anymore, have you seen females wearing that anymore?”

  Qin Ke Xuan minced her lips and stayed silent. Little kids wear du dou…

  The girl, upon seeing Qin Ke Xuan like that, thought she was unhappy, and so she quickly said: “I don’t mean it any other way, it’s just that you are… a little special. You don’t need to be embarrassed. When girls hit their puberty, it’s more or less normal to be embarrassed. I was the same when I was your age and my mom’s the one that bought my bra for me. Why not you have your mother to buy you yours. You should wear a bra when it’s time to wear, you shouldn’t not wear it because you’re embarrassed, else it’ll droop.”

  “Enh.” She was not embarrassed per say with regards to this. It was just that she did not understand.

  Lin Xiao Yun said: “Then let’s sleep, let’s sleep, we still need to run back to school tomorrow. Oh yeah, Qin Ke Xuan, our morning exercise every day is to run to school. The distance will have to depend on how far or near your school is from the base. Where is your school? Is it very far from here?”

  “First High in City B.”

  The two girls inhaled sharply. “My goodness, the university for the people in our squad’s generally closer to the suburban area, so it’s not that far, but First High is in the city. That’s quite far, why not you look for the person in charge to check if there are other accommodations?”

  “No need.” This distance was not considered far, she could run back. If time was tight, she could use qing gong, so it was absolutely no problem.

  “Alright then, if you really can’t, remember to go look for the person in charge.”

  “Enh, let’s sleep.”

  The second day before the sun rose, the doors to the girls’ and boys’ dormitories were opened a small slit before a tear bomb rolled in. Smoke emitted from the head of the bomb continuously. Before long, the entire dormitory was engulfed in smoke. The irritant had everyone rousing from their sleep in shock. They leapt from their beds, briskly wore their normal clothes and rushed out from the dormitories.

  The captains stood in front of them, chec
king their appearances. All those with belts not clipped or buttons not buttoned were thrown back by them into the dormitories engulfed in tear-inducing smoke to tidy themselves up before they could come out again.

  “Stand straight! Turn right! Look straight! Count off!”

  “One, two, three… fifteen.”

  “Stand at ease! Your speed today is slow! If it had been a poison bomb thrown in by the enemy, you would all be dead! Too comfy sleeping on beds huh?!”

  “No!”

  “No? Then why is everyone sleeping dead like a log?!”

  “Reporting!” Chi Qu Qi shouted loudly.

  “Speak!”

  “The training amount last night was increased, so we were all too tired.”

  “Tired? Alright, then we’ll let you be comfier today then!” The captain smiled eerily. “Stand straight! Disband!”

  Everyone pushed around before returning to wash up themselves. There was someone who complained peculiarly, saying that Chi Qu Qi talking nonsense dragged everyone else down.

  Chi Qu Qi got angry. “What’s wrong with me talking?! Don’t join the Special Forces then if you’re so afraid of hard work!”

  The squad leader and Tian Xue Qin held on to Chi Qu Qi tightly, urging him: “It’s a rare occasion for everyone to be gathered, don’t spoil the happy mood for everyone over something trivial ha! Everyone knows Xiao Chi he’s quick with his words, it’s not his intentions to purposely to cause trouble for us, isn’t it?”

  Everyone knew that if they started fighting and making trouble, the leaders upstairs would definitely think they were not united and collective. The notion of unity and collectiveness, however, was extremely important to soldiers, so the leaders would very likely kick them all off the squad. No one wanted to aggravate things to that extent, and so, they took a step back each, keeping intact the façade of peaceful interaction.

  After everyone had finished washing up, they ran out from their base. In the beginning, everyone was lined up in a row running, gradually though, they turned at their own crossroads, running towards their own schools respectively.

  Coincidentally, a section of Qin Ke Xuan’s route to school was in the same direction as Chi Qu Qi’s, and so, Chi Qu Qi stuck beside her running, and at the same time, played his role as a chatterbox.

  “Qin beauty, we’re so fated! You’re from First High? That’s so far, why don’t you ride a bus halfway through? But if you’re caught by the surveillance people, you’re gonna be dropped from the squad, hehe.”

  This guy, after experiencing all the things that had happened at the base, had still not registered how provoking the stuff he said was. He would suffer or even lose his life because of that mouth one day.

  “As a male, it would be more attractive to females for you to stay quieter.”

  “…”

  This was definitely revenge! She was seeking revenge for him saying valiant girls were not attractive to guys!

  The two of them ran a distance in silence. Upon reaching a crossroad, Chi Qu Qi said: “I’m turning this way, be careful on your own, call me if there’s anything. I’m going, bye.” After which, he puzzled over Qin Ke Xuan’s words on his way to school.

  Qin Ke Xuan nodded at him before starting on her solo journey. She had originally wanted to use qing gong to go to school. However, after hearing what Chi Qu Qi had said, it seemed like there were people observing them all along the way, and so, she gave up on that thought and instead raised her speed and ran towards her school. They wouldn’t be able to fault her for running fast and having good stamina, right?

  The person surveilling her had thought she had run out of strength after running a short while in the beginning, however, when she kept running with this speed all the way to her destination, it had him smacking his lips in approval. Goodness, even the flying runner Liu Xiang* only flew a hundred metres, but she’d literally flown a marathon’s worth of distance.

  * Liu Xiang (刘翔) is a Chinese gold-medal hurdler of the 2004 Olympic Games

  When Qin Ke Xuan returned to school, the sky was still hazy, but there were already some students that were up and studying. This was after all the best high school in the city where the best students congregated, they worked hard not only to chase their dreams in the future, but also because a lack of hard work and self-improvement in this incredibly competitive school would entail being overtaken by others and left behind.

  Qin Ke Xuan first went to some covert location in school to meditate in order to cultivate her nei gong. At night, she had to go to the base for training, in the morning, she had to go to school and learn knowledge, so time was very tight on her side. Seeing how her nei gong had yet to return to half of its original level, she must squeeze time out to cultivate her nei gong.

  It was only until class was almost beginning did she exhale and collect her cultivation, then stood up and headed to her classroom.

  After one period of class going by calmly, a person rushed in, pulled on her elbow and dragged her out.

  Qin Ke Xuan very rudely slapped his hand away, her eyes still glued to the textbook. “What is it, if you continue tugging, I’ll break your hand.” The students in this world were seriously too lamentable, unlike in her original world where all she had to learn was “language” and that was enough, they had to learn all sorts of random stuff here.

  The person who had come was one of the people from Yin Xu Dong’s gang, Ah Lang. He rubbed his arm where Qin Ke Xuan had hit him, and said anxiously: “Your ge’s in trouble, hurry go help him!”

  “What happened?”

  “Speaking of which, it’s related to you! Did you tell the Director about Lu lao shi getting together with a student?”

  “Yes.” As a teacher, that shameless woman ought to be dumped in a pigsty for getting into an ambiguous relationship with her student.

  “Aye! After your brother heard about this, he went to make trouble in the office! He usually makes quite some trouble, so the Director may seize this opportunity to expel him from school! Hurry go and stop him!”

  Qin Ke Xuan put down the textbook in her hand, stood up and followed Ah Lang to the Director’s office. As expected, she saw Yin Xu Dong shouting his lungs off arguing with the Director. “Lu lao shi definitely isn’t a person like that! Where’s your evidence! You can’t just fire her like that!”

  “Yin Xu Dong tong xue! Do you know where this is?! You have no right to change the decision made by the school, neither is it in your place to butt it! If you continue making trouble, I will record this as a serious demerit!”

  “It’s you who’s being unreasonable! Why can’t I raise an objection?!”

  The Director was shouted at by Yin Xu Dong till he didn’t know what to do with him. Just at this moment, he turned and saw Qin Ke Xuan, and so he pointed at Qin Ke Xuan saying: “Look! That’s the student that reported this, go look for her if you have questions!”

  Yin Xu Dong turned to see Ah Lang bringing Qin Ke Xuan, and immediately went over. Beyond flustered, he came right up to in front of Qin Ke Xuan, asking through clenched teeth: “Xuan Xuan, tell me that’s not true!”

  Qin Ke Xuan’s hand raised, and lowered; her hand a knife, she chopped at Yin Xu Dong’s neck. Yin Xu Dong’s eyes closed and slowly collapsed, right before the flabbergasted Director and Ah Lang’s eyes.

  Chapter 33 - Bra Purchasing Diary

  Qin Ke Xuan rose her chin at the stoning Ah Lang. “Come here.”

  Ah Lang immediately felt a very powerful aura enveloping him, and couldn’t help but went over to Qin Ke Xuan obediently, asking carefully: “May I have your instructions?”

  “Carry him, come with me.” Qin Ke Xuan walked out of the Director’s office.

  Ah Lang hurriedly picked up Yin Xu Dong’s arm and hooked it around his neck, half carrying half dragging him as he followed after Qin Ke Xuan. Before he left, he even flatteringly said to the Director who had yet to react: “Director, sorry for the disruption.”

  Qin Ke Xuan walked all the way
to a corner in the school and stood under a tree. She had Ah Lang place him down to lie on the ground, then threw a bottle of bottled water at Ah Lang, saying beyond calmly: “Pour him awake.”

  Ah Lang caught the bottled water, very at loss. “You really want to do that?”

  “Then do you have a better way?” Qin Ke Xuan did not understand.

  “Will he get a concussion?” Ah Lang was a little unable to make the move.

  Concussion? Dunno what’s that. Qin Ke Xuan negligently waved her hand. “He won’t die. Stop being long-winded, just do it.”

  Ah Lang closed his eyes, held the bottle tight and smashed it at Yin Xu Dong’s head. Qin Ke Xuan held out her arm to stop him, looking at him in shock. “I told you to pour him awake, not hit him.”

  “Aye? Didn’t you mean to have me use to bottle to wake him up?”

  Qin Ke Xuan took the bottle from him in for the lack of better choice, twisted open the bottle cap and poured the water on Yin Xu Dong’s face. It was only then did Ah Lang realise Qin Ke Xuan meant “浇”* (jiao; pour) not “叫”(jiao; call/shout/make), and so he scratched his head awkwardly. Suddenly being splashed by ice-cold water had shocked Yin Xu Dong awake. Some of the water that went into his nose went into his nasal cavity, hence he immediately sat up and coughed away uncomfortably.

  * wordplay: Qin Ke Xuan said “浇” (jiāo) pour him awake, but Ah Lang heard it as “叫” (jiào) call/make him awake; the two words sound similar so Ah Lang heard wrongly

  “Have you calmed down?” Qin Ke Xuan asked leisurely.

  “Enh? O*.”

  * 哦 = 0; interjection to indicate surprise/doubt or to indicate one has just learnt something or can be used as a sentence-final particle to convey informality/warmth/friendliness

  “Ask your questions.”

  “You said Lu Wan Ran she, she, she…”

  Qin Ke Xuan replied straightforwardly: “Getting into that kind of relationship with a student, oh right, the place where you’re sitting right now was the location the two of them rolled together.”

  Yin Xu Dong’s face immediately turned red yellow blue green, changing non-stop. He stood up unnaturally and walked over to Qin Ke Xuan’s side, muttering: “I don’t believe it, she said she didn’t…”