Hidden Assassin 203

Volume 3: The Cohabitation Era, Chapter 203: Escape Time

2013-02-08

Within the school, Fu Yanjie opened his eyes. The cold wind blew past his face in the dim forest.

His chest felt tight, and his consciousness was hazy. After a moment of hesitation, he realized that there was a body underneath him. Moments later, his obese frame leaped from the ground with a bang, his back hitting against the rusty iron wire fence.

“What…what…what…”

Although dusk had descended, there was still some light in the forest. The fat man’s jaw trembled, and he saw that the person on the ground seemed to have their limbs twisted, with a pool of blood staining the ground around their mouth. It had already congealed into a dark red color. He looked around but the male and female students who had been kissing there were gone. He stood there, helpless, for a long time. He reached down and checked the person’s nose, then pressed on their neck artery. It was clear that they were dead.

“What to do…what to do…”

In the dimness, the fat man almost cried. He mumbled and groaned for a while inside the wire fence, then frantically began to gather his belongings. His laptop was military-grade, and though it had fallen from the height with him, it was miraculously still intact. He crept out of the iron gate and found a quiet spot in the forest to adjust the signal. He took out his big phone and dialed the hospital.

“Hello…hello…”

He waited for a long time, but the call wouldn’t go through. Apparently, he had broken his phone when he fell.

The person was dead anyway, so calling the hospital wouldn’t do any good, the fat man thought. As for turning himself in to the police, that was out of the question. He had previously blackmailed online companies under the name of “Weight Loss Superman,” which was technically illegal. He didn’t have the same awe of the police as most people, and in fact, he disliked them. This was the first time he’d killed someone, and his heart was in turmoil. He walked with a long face towards the forest, completely losing any interest in the White Snow Pig.

He walked ahead for a while, lost in thought, and then stopped. Perhaps he couldn’t leave through the main gate. What if he was seen and caught? The Sacred Heart Academy was built against the hillside, and there wasn’t a back door. The tall walls were often followed by steep, dangerous slopes. He gritted his teeth and finally decided to go through the main gate. As he exited the forest, he faintly heard firecrackers going off inside the school. There were screams and cheers, and he felt a pang of sadness at the contrasting sounds.

He emerged from the dense forest, and the sun cast a faint glow in the western sky. To avoid being seen, he ducked and weaved, sticking to secluded paths on his way out of the school. Whenever he saw a figure running towards him, he would quickly hide. His chest was stained with blood, and he couldn’t let anyone see him. He hadn’t even gotten out of the school grounds when he heard the sound of sirens in the distance. A jolt went through him: no, those two students had called the police!

He looked at the vast campus, and a sense of despair filled him. He dared not approach the main gate, and there didn’t seem to be many good places to escape. He stumbled through the relatively sparse trees for a while. Suddenly, something grabbed his foot. He moved it, but it didn’t move. He looked down and his eyes widened in shock.

It was a man in a school security uniform, covered in blood, seemingly with only his last breath left. If Fu Yanjie had been a little more sober, he would have noticed that the man was riddled with gunshot wounds. However, he was still immersed in the fear of having killed someone, and his mind was filled with the twisted image of the dead man. He screamed, “Ah!” and the entire mountain of flesh charged forward like a train.

Trees and wind whizzed past his ears as the fat man ran for his life. At one point, a figure suddenly darted from the side. Before he could react, a hand as white as jade reached out and grabbed his collar. The slender figure spun a 360-degree circle, using his body as the center, and a cold flash of light flickered!

Bang! The fat man crashed into a tree trunk in front of him.

His vision blurred, and his gaze shifted to the side. There were two figures, one tall and one short. The shorter one was a beautiful girl, with delicate, refined features and a faint, almost expressionless face. She looked like a perfectly stunning doll. She had clearly been the first one to charge forward, and in the blink of an eye, she had completed a 360-degree circle, stabbing a dagger into the neck of the tall man who was in pursuit.

The forest was dim, and his mind was foggy, so the scene seemed surreal to him. The girl pulled out the dagger, and blood spurted out of the man’s neck like a fountain. It spurted and spurted and spurted…

“Ugh…” Blood trickled from his nose, his eyes rolled up, and the fat man fainted again.

…

The Sacred Heart Academy was now in a state of utter chaos.

It was said that to build a school so grand, attracting 80% of the eligible wealthy children in the Jiang Hai area, the security system at Sacred Heart Academy had to be of a certain scale. They chose mostly retired military personnel, including some former special forces. In China, dealing with one or two black gangs was absolutely no problem. However, the initial collapse was due to two factors: the overwhelming firepower of the attackers, and the astonishingly audacious attack by the likes of the Godless Ones.

Even those with military experience, even special forces, those who hadn’t been through real war were completely different from those who had been constantly fighting for survival in the midst of blood and fire. The Sacred Heart Academy had some individuals who could legally obtain guns and other weapons, but they couldn’t possibly equip every security guard with a weapon. Moreover, for years there hadn’t been any major incidents, so when the alarm at the main gate sounded, the internal personnel didn’t take it seriously. By the time the Godless Ones stormed in with lightning speed, it was too late.

Of course, a team of only forty people could not fully control the thousands of teachers and students at the school. Once the gunfire erupted and the first clash began with the security guards, the mercenaries focused on blocking the entrances to the teaching buildings, the activity buildings, and the administrative building. Some people, of course, headed elsewhere, to apprehend the specific individuals they had been tasked with capturing. These included Chen Gu Xia of Yan Huang Jue Xing (Yan Huang Awakening), including Ya Han, Ling Jing, and Xun. The events that unfolded were naturally different for each of them. In any case, within the hour or two following nightfall, the entire school was engulfed in a noisy chaos.

Capture, encirclement, combat, flight, concealment… In fact, most people might not have realized what was happening until the gunfire started and they saw someone shot dead. This was how the first few security guards lost their lives. Forty people couldn’t cover the vast area of the entire school. After the main entrances to the major buildings were secured, the rest of the teachers and students started to scatter like birds and beasts. Some ran, some cried for help, some found places to hide. There were also those who fought off dispersed mercenaries, grabbed a few weapons, and escaped on their own, or gathered others to resist or flee.

It took about twenty minutes for many people to finally understand that this unreal scene wasn’t from a blockbuster movie, but a very real event taking place. Dozens of those who tried to escape through the main gate were shot dead or blown up. After the initial chaos, things finally started to calm down. The mercenaries took control of the largest buildings and then dispatched troops to search in all directions. Snipers perched on high ground kept their eyes on everyone trying to escape. Some people used the school’s complex architecture to hide and resist, while others looked for a way to escape at the edge of the campus…

…

As dusk faded, sporadic gunfire and cries for help came from afar. Deep in the forest behind the mountain, a group of people were cautiously moving forward. Leading the way was Dongfang Lu, a bloody scratch marring his face. Behind him, there were about a dozen students, including Dongfang Wan and Ling Jing, following him slowly.

“What in the world is going on?” one of the students asked fearfully.

Dongfang Lu waved his hand. “Shut up.”

“We can’t get out from here…”

“Shut up…”

Amidst the low curses, the outline of the wall appeared in the group’s line of sight. Dongfang Lu hesitated for a moment, “We’ll go out from here.”

“Impossible, it’s too high…”

“It’s concrete ground below…”

“The slope is so steep, at least a few dozen meters…”

They had been at the Sacred Heart Academy for a long time, and they were familiar with this area. This wall alone was over three meters high, and outside there was not only a dangerous slope, but also a concrete wall and a secluded road. If someone slipped down directly, they wouldn’t be able to slow down effectively, and they would either break a leg or be seriously injured. The few people in the group hesitated. Before Dongfang Lu could speak, Ling Jing took a deep breath and charged forward, leaping and kicking off the wall. Her hands reached the top edge of the wall. She moved with an agility that didn’t seem like the usual, demure, studious Ye Ling Jing.

Seeing her flip over, Dongfang Lu nodded. “This is the most likely place to get out now. If anyone wants to go, I’ll pull you up, if not, I can’t help you.” He said, and with a flip, he followed Ling Jing over the wall. He landed on the other side, his upper body leaning over. He extended a hand. Although Ling Jing didn’t speak, she extended her hand to them. The wall was quite high, and their actions were difficult for ordinary people to accomplish.

Naturally, Dongfang Wan was the first to follow Dongfang Lu. She called out, “Brother.” She jumped up and grabbed his outstretched hand. Although everyone knew that jumping from there could break a leg, it was better than being shot dead. One of the girls, who had a fear of heights, immediately charged forward and grabbed Ling Jing’s hand. However, before she could pull hard, a shout came from a distance, followed by the rapid-fire sound of bullets, creating golden sparks on the wall.

“Ah!” The girl who was holding Ling Jing’s wrist screamed and let go, falling to the ground. With the sudden loss of strength, Ling Jing’s body also lost its balance and she fell abruptly. She then slid down the steep slope, her hands grabbing at the short grass below. The next moment, a burning pain shot through her hands. She stretched out her legs and tried desperately to slow down, but the scenery whizzed past her eyes, and the distance of dozens of meters flew by in an instant.

“Ling Jing…Xiao Wan, come up!” Bullet marks slashed across the wall diagonally as a mercenary with a submachine gun chased after them. There was nothing to use as a handhold on the wall, and Dongfang Lu exerted all his strength, but couldn’t pull his sister’s body up. Dongfang Wan was also screaming in terror, her legs frantically kicking against the wall. Suddenly, a spark of fire seemed to cross the hands they were holding together. The next moment, Dongfang Wan yelled, “Brother! Let me go! Let me go!”

Seeing the mercenaries approaching, the dozen or so people were so terrified that no one dared to move. Dongfang Wan let go of her hand and fell to the ground. Dongfang Lu’s body also fell abruptly, landing outside the Sacred Heart Academy with a thud. Before he could slide, he grabbed the grass and soil on the slope with all his might. As he looked up, a strange face appeared on the wall, pointing a gun at him.

“Brother, go! Go…Ah!” As Dongfang Wan screamed, the mercenary who had climbed onto the wall was pulled back. The stray bullet that missed its target shot into the sky, followed by Dongfang Wan’s screams.

“Xiao Wan…” Dongfang Lu’s heart sank, and his body couldn’t stop sliding downwards. He desperately tried to claw at the grass and stones on the ground, but it was useless. He was already close to the top of the wall below. Then, he slammed hard onto the concrete road…

The mercenary appeared on the wall, raised his gun, and scanned the area below for a moment, before disappearing back over the wall.

“It wasn’t a gunshot…it wasn’t a gunshot…The timing is wrong…The timing is wrong. She should have just been kicked. It’s okay…Xiao Wan is okay…”

Two figures sat side by side below the wall. Dongfang Lu shook his head and mumbled his own analysis. Ling Jing took a few breaths, looked at Dongfang Lu, and said, “Thank you for saving me. Are you okay?”

“Uh, I’m okay…” He shook his head. “I’m okay.”

“Why is this happening? So many people with guns, killing people…It’s not like a movie…” Tears welled up in her eyes, and the hands that were scratched by the grass stems trembled slightly. She had seemed calm on the way here, but she was actually so scared that she couldn’t speak. Dongfang Lu shook his head again. Everyone had been participating in the school’s group activities. They were about to finish school when the gunfire erupted, and then people charged in and started shooting. Dongfang Lu had instinctively taken the few people near him and run away. He understood the relationship between Ling Jing and Jia Ming, but his admiration for her hadn’t diminished. Seeing Ling Jing present, he always stayed close by, and unintentionally saved her.

They sat there for a while longer, and Ling Jing endured the pain in her body and stood up. “That…if you’re okay, Sha Sha hasn’t come out yet. I’m going to find someone to help.”

“I want to save Xiao Wan too…The phones and everything at the school are dead, they must have been destroyed. But we can definitely call outside.” Dongfang Lu got up as well. “So, if we’re calling Gu Jia Ming, we can go together, okay?”

“Uh…” Ling Jing turned around abruptly and froze when she heard his words…

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