“So… how do all of us get out of here?”
Chi Zao looked at the lone moon boat.
Even if Bai Long had a way to manage on her own, he didn’t think the rest of them could make it to the shipyard by themselves.
Not to mention Xu Yunyi was still burning up with fever.
Bai Long was just walking back from a little ways off, carrying something on her shoulder.
“Oh hell!! Isn’t that a zombie?!”
Chen Lei’s voice cracked in fright.
Bai Long held the zombie, a faint, eager gleam flickering in her eyes.
There was something she’d been wanting to try for a long time!
“Four of you ride the boat with her. The rest of you ride this thing with me.”
Bai Long pointed at the zombie she’d beaten unconscious in her hand.
For a moment, the mood turned thick with tension.
The students: Absolutely! Over our dead bodies! We are riding the boat!
…
“Boo-hoo…”
Chen Lei, Chi Zao, and three others, faces stricken with grief, took the zombie from Bai Long’s hands with trembling arms.
Chi Wan and the rest, carrying Xu Yunyi, were the first to climb aboard the victorious moon boat.
“You all follow behind us.”
Bai Long laid the zombie face-down in the waterway, then flipped herself up to stand on its back.
Chi Zao, Chen Lei, and the others: ? Is she about to…?
The next second, they knew exactly what Bai Long was about to do.
“Move out!”
Bai Long shifted her foot and released the baffle in the waterway that normally held the moon boat in place.
The current rushed down fast and fierce. The zombie’s stiff body lay flat and straight in the waterway and went shooting off.
Wuhu, lift-off!
Corpse surfboard!
Chi Wan, Chi Zao, and the others gaped, staring blankly as Bai Long stood with both feet planted firmly on the zombie’s back.
The technique was professional. The surfing was dead serious.
“I can’t do that!”
Chen Lei clutched his head in despair.
“If you don’t move, the zombies will catch up~”
Bai Long’s voice drifted back, fading into the distance.
Chen Lei and the others turned to see the zombies in the stairwell come running, drawn by the scent.
“To hell with ‘I can’t do it’!”
Chen Lei didn’t hesitate a second longer. He flung the zombie straight into the waterway, flipped himself up onto the surfboard, and shoved off.
The rest of them followed right behind.
Yeah, right, use it or wait around to become a zombie yourself.
Once the entire zombie-surfing squad had launched, the moon boat started up right after them.
The night was long.
In the sky scattered with thin clouds, the waterways wound and spiraled through the air like ribbons of silk.
…if not for the several corpse-riders streaking across them.
The dispirited people of Water City stared up in disbelief, blinking at the figures flashing across the sky one after another.
“Did I get bitten by a zombie? Why do I think I just saw someone surfing on a zombie up in the waterway?”
“Boo-hoo, Mom, I’m dying, I’m hallucinating!”
The shipyard was almost within reach.
“…So~ how~ do~ we~ stop~?!”
Chen Lei’s words were nearly torn away by the wind.
The moon boat had a manual braking device, but…
The corpse surfboards did not.
“Face brakes, you all know how, right?”
Bai Long glanced back with a faint smile.
“What?”
Chi Zao and the others froze.
The next moment, they watched Bai Long, without an ounce of hesitation, stomp the zombie’s head down into the waterway.
Years upon years of sludge and algae had built up along the bottom of the waterway.
Chi Zao and the others clearly saw three thin grooves appear in the water.
Braking, the zombie face brake.
“She’s a hardcore one.”
Chen Lei was impressed.
Inwardly they wrestled with it, but in the end they gritted their teeth and executed the zombie face brake too.
From where the waterway let out to the shipyard was still a short distance, which they’d have to cover on foot.
Bai Long led the students around the zombies they could avoid, clearing out the rest as they advanced.
The shipyard sat out in the suburbs to begin with, even before the apocalypse there’d been little foot traffic, and now there were only a scattered few zombies.
So even though Bai Long was in poor shape, her old affliction sending pain crashing through her in waves, she could still handle the zombies one at a time.
To take her mind off the pain, Bai Long struck up a conversation with Chi Zao, Chi Wan, and the rest.
“You don’t get along with Cheng Qian?”
At this, Chi Wan seemed to weigh her words, but Chi Zao had already blurted out first.
“Get along with him? Hmph, not unless I were a class lapdog.”
Chi Zao rolled his eyes hugely as he said it.
“It’s only because Yunyi’s still passed out, otherwise she’d turn into a machine gun and mow Cheng Qian down on the spot, oh, and Wang Yi’s crew too.”
The curly-haired girl supporting Xu Yunyi chimed in heatedly.
This topic was like a key, instantly unlocking the floodgates for these students.
“Going to college really opened my eyes. How can a teacher be that shameless? Take that award last time, my sister clearly had the higher score. Cheng Qian just quietly handed the award to He Tian and had the nerve to claim it was because He Tian passed Star Alliance Language Level 3.5.”
“It’s hilarious, and then there’s Wang Yi, going around the dorm saying Yunyi’s group was isolating her, telling everyone Yunyi and the others secretly studied at night and disturbed her rest. When it was Wang Yi herself grinding in secret, leaving the lights on all night, and not shutting off her alarm even after it blared for half an hour at four or five in the morning.”
“That whole election thing she ran in last time—Cheng Qian fixed that for her too. And didn’t Cheng Qian also have a student pick up his kid from school, and make that student treat him to meals, all because he gave the kid a shot at being a teaching assistant?”
“First time I’ve ever seen someone demand kickbacks so brazenly.”
…
Chi Zao and the others simply couldn’t stop venting, and Bai Long came to a thorough understanding of exactly what kind of characters Cheng Qian and Wang Yi were.
No wonder Xu Yunyi and the others had been shouting it all out the window upstairs.
Now she fully understood.
Not far from the shipyard gate, Bai Long walked with Chi Zao and the others trailing behind her.
Xu Yunyi was tucked away at the back of the group.
As they neared the entrance, Bai Long’s nose twitched.
What a thick smell of blood.
What had happened?
Bai Long turned and made a hand signal.
Chi Wan and Chi Zao caught it and, along with the other students, grew cautious.
“Who’s down there?”
A voice came from atop the stone gate, demanding an answer.
Bai Long said nothing, telling Chi Wan and the others to hold their positions.
She circled the outer perimeter of the stone gate twice, then finally returned to dead center and called out clearly, “I’m back with the thing Sun Jie asked for.”
The person up top didn’t respond.
A few minutes later, the gate slowly swung open.
Bai Long frowned.
Something was off.
Had something happened inside?
The stone gate ground open, dust billowing.
The first thing to meet her eyes was a great pool of vivid crimson blood on the ground.
The overpowering reek of blood made Bai Long’s head spin for a moment.
“You’re back? Where’s the thing?”
But the one asking wasn’t Sun Jie.
It was Cheng Qian.
Inside the shipyard sat a wooden table and chair dragged out from who knew where.
Cheng Qian sat dead center, watching Bai Long and the others with a smile.
Wang Yi, He Tian, and a few others stood around him.
When Chi Wan and the others saw these people gathered together, their expressions twisted as if they were constipated.
But seeing that the entire shipyard held only these few, none of them dared make a sound.
“Chi Wan? I didn’t expect you all to still be alive. Your teacher and classmates have all been so worried about you.”
Cheng Qian noticed Chi Wan and the others behind Bai Long, his eyes flickering.
“Come on over. Everyone’s waiting for you.”
Cheng Qian’s smile was gentle and kind, just like a teacher who cared about each and every one of his students.
But Chi Wan didn’t move.
She stood with Chi Zao, behind Bai Long, and did not move.
“What? Not listening to your teacher anymore?”
Seeing this, the smile on Cheng Qian’s face faded slightly.
“Do you know who’s standing in front of you? The school has expressly forbidden contact with beastmen. Chi Wan, do you still want to qualify for honors and awards? Do you still remember you wanted a graduate school recommendation?”
Cheng Qian’s face went completely cold.
He looked at Bai Long, contempt flashing in his eyes. “I don’t want students in my class who get too close to beastmen.”
“Mr. Cheng, I think Chi Wan and the others have already been bewitched by the beastman. They don’t want to come back to the class at all.”
Wang Yi met Bai Long’s gaze, her face wearing a friendly smile, but her eyes brimming with malicious glee.
So what if Bai Long had escaped that garbage planet? Sooner or later she’d end up just like before, isolated, helpless, lowly, and wretched.
That was how it should be! That was exactly how it ought to be!
Bai Long turned a deaf ear to all of it and went straight to the point. “Where’s Sun Jie and the others?”
From the moment she’d come in until now, aside from the blood at the entrance and Cheng Qian himself, she hadn’t seen a single one of Sun Jie’s people.
It was as if all those kids, workers, and family members had simply vanished from the shipyard.
Cheng Qian’s and Wang Yi’s faces stiffened at the same time.
“I suggest you remember your place.”
Cheng Qian wouldn’t even deign to say Bai Long’s name.
A beastman’s name, just speaking it felt like it would soil the mouth of a renowned university professor.
“Without me, do you think you could even have gotten in?”
Cheng Qian chuckled. “I know what Sun Jie sent you out to find. If you hand over the medicine now, I might just barely allow you to scrape by in the shipyard for a few days.”
From the gist of his words, Bai Long could all but conclude that he’d done something to Sun Jie’s people.
And judging by the sheer amount of blood on the ground… it was hard to say how many of them were even still alive.
Ignored once again, Cheng Qian’s face had turned terrifyingly grim.
“I’ll give you one last chance. Come here.”
Cheng Qian practically snarled the words.
The moment they left his mouth, a whole crowd of people emerged from behind the stacked steel.
It was part of the shipyard’s workforce.
Each of them held a long staff or short blade, clearly, they’d thrown in with Cheng Qian.
The instant Chi Zao, Chi Wan, and the others refused to obey Cheng Qian any further, they would rush forward and take forceful measures.
But Sun Jie still wasn’t among them.
Instead, Bai Long spotted Zhao Xin.
Zhao Xin, an esper, had actually taken Cheng Qian’s side too?
Surely he couldn’t have been won over by Cheng Qian’s personal charm?
Suddenly confronted by the swelling numbers, Chi Zao, Chi Wan, and the others froze, baffled as to how things had taken such a turn.
Why would the shipyard’s people side with Cheng Qian and his crew?
It hadn’t been like this before they left!
Bai Long swept her eyes over the workers, there were even some of Sun Jie’s former trusted confidants among them.
It seemed Cheng Qian had something on him, something compelling enough to make these people betray Sun Jie and willingly help him seize control of the shipyard.
What could it be?
Bai Long found herself a little curious.
But she had no intention of simply submitting like a good girl.
She looked at Cheng Qian and abruptly spoke. “You want the medicine?”
Before Cheng Qian could react, Bai Long went on. “Fine.”
“But I have conditions. First, whatever I and the people behind me decide to do is none of your business.”
She slipped a hand into her pocket.
“Second, you and that woman beside you keep your distance from us. I really don’t care to catch whatever bad luck you’re carrying.”
Cheng Qian let out an exasperated laugh. “I don’t think you grasp the situation. What standing do you have to negotiate terms with me right now?”
Bai Long pulled the thing out of her pocket and held it up high, so that everyone—Cheng Qian included, could see it clearly.
Cheng Qian and the people behind him went pale.
“If any of you dares lay a hand on us, I’ll press this button right this instant.”
Bai Long gave the portable control panel in her hand a little shake.
“Since Mr. Cheng was able to turn so many people against Sun Jie, I’m sure you know exactly what my deal with her was.”
Right in front of Cheng Qian and the rest, Bai Long casually dragged over a chair and sat down too.
She crossed her legs, even cocking one knee jauntily over the other in front of all those people, paying not the slightest mind to the iron rods and blades pointed at her.
By the look of it, Bai Long now had more nerve than the posturing Cheng Qian had earlier.
The pitch-black cloak she wore only made her presence loom even larger than Cheng Qian’s.
“I just hid a fair number of alarms around the shipyard’s perimeter. Once I press this, I imagine the effect will be quite spectacular.”
At her words, Cheng Qian’s expression abruptly shifted.
The man in charge of opening the gate had reported this to him before letting them in.
Cheng Qian knew perfectly well that what Bai Long said was true.
“I advise you all to put down your weapons. Otherwise…”
“You wouldn’t want to find out how many zombies an ambulance hover-car’s siren can draw in, would you?”
Bai Long smiled, merciless. “A man your age, so eager to be everyone’s nanny, fussing over everything, step outside and there’ll be plenty of zombies waiting to fuss over you.”