I Am A Killer Page 5

  After walking past a small trail, a few people scuttled out all of a sudden, blocking Qin Ke Xuan’s way.

  Qin Ke Xuan’s eyebrows rose. There sure were lots of people blocking her way today. After surveying the surrounding, the remoteness of this place, unlike the bustling school gates in the morning that made punching people inappropriate, dissolved her qualms.

  The head of the little gang of girls pointed at Qin Ke Xuan: “You lowly wench! Why the hell are you still bothering Cao…”

  The girl did not finished her piece because Qin Ke Xuan forcefully cut her off. One hand gripping her collar, she pulled her down, a quick push shortly followed, and she forcefully flung the girl about six metres away. That girl laid on the ground, groaning in pain incessantly.

  The other two, after witnessing such a terrifying scene, were not given a chance to react before Qin Ke Xuan dumped them, as well, in the direction of the first girl. The groaning moans of pain resounded continuously.

  Upon seeing this, Qin Ke Xuan was a little disappointed. She’d thought she would be able to test her agility and give herself some exercise. Who would have known that they were so weak they couldn’t withstand a hit, and one without even utilizing her Inner Qi at that, from her.

  Qin Ke Xuan left, disappointed.

  Chapter 7 - Curbing Violence With Violence

  When she was returning to the classroom from the canteen, Qin Ke Xuan saw Yin Xu Dong at her seat smiling splendidly and waving at her.

  Qin Ke Xuan walked towards Yin Xu Dong, asking expressionlessly, “What are you doing here?”

  Yin Xu Dong said gleefully, “I here of course to…” He surveyed the many eyes thirsty for gossip looking their way, “Let’s talk outside.”

  Qin Ke Xuan walked out of the classroom first with Yin Xu Dong following tightly after grovelingly eager.

  Qin Ke Xuan brought him up to the roof. “There’s no one here. Speak.”

  “Qin Ke Xuan, you shouldn’t always walk around with such an unfriendly and unapproachable expression on your face. No wonder nobody, excluding myself of course, dares tell you about this.” Yin Xu Dong was immeasurably self-satisfied.

  Qin Ke Xuan thought about it for a while, and it was indeed so. He had been the only one so far who had narrowly escaped death, by her, twice, and still continued with tactlessly throwing himself in her face. He was actually a simpleton right. “If there’s nothing, I’m going.” And she proceeded to turn to walk away, not paying Yin Xu Dong any attention.

  Upon such a sight, Yin Xu Dong panicked. He had not even accomplished his goals yet! He promptly grabbed her. “Qin Ke Xuan, no, shi fu! How can you bear treating your disciple so cruelly? You’re just going to walk away like that?” Yin Xu Dong was aggrieved, “…okay, I won’t nonsense so much. I here because… y’know, for that… that… to learn Xiao Li Flying Daggers!”

  “That’s not called Xiao Li Flying Daggers.” Qin Ke Xuan corrected.

  Yin Xu Dong asked excitedly: “Then what is it called?” It definitely must be something magnificently glorious!

  “Concealed Weapon Hurl*.”

  * 暗器投掷 = Concealed Weapon Hurl; if anyone has a better translation/name of this skill, please do comment below!)

  “…”

  Yin Xu Dong scratched his head, “Forget it, who cares what it’s called. Back to the topic, shi fu, when are you gonna teach me?” Yin Xu Dong was so excited all through the previous night, hence he’d not managed to sleep even a wink. If he was able to learn Xiao Li Flying Daggers and Sunflower Dian Xue Hand, he would become the embodiment of superman and become an unparalleled existence! Ha ha ha ha! Uh, of course excluding shi fu whom he would be no match against.

  “Don’t you have class?” Qin Ke Xuan asked seriously.

  Yin Xu Dong froze, and scratched his head in embarrassment, “Don’t you think the stuff in textbooks are way too boring? It’s useless learning it, so why waste time bothering with such meaningless things?”

  “Are you saying, that I am an idiot, and is wasting time?” Her glare seemed to radiate a trace of danger.

  Yin Xu Dong was so scared he almost bit his tongue. How could he have imagined Qin Ke Xuan, the runaway student from yesterday, had suddenly decided to turn over a new leaf and become all studious? He tried to cover up his slip of the tongue, flustered. “I, I definitely did not mean it that way! Shi fu, you’re exceptionally intelligent! Everything you do is right! Actually, actually, it’s me that’s too stupid, to actually think studying is a waste of time! I’m the most foolish person on earth!” He was this close to going as far as slapping himself.

  Qin Ke Xuan ordered: “Go to school. I’ll be asking you questions in the future.”

  Yin Xu Dong was unable to achieve what he had gone to do in the end, and left Second High* and returned to his own school—the First High* in B city. After all, his almighty shi fu had said that she would ask him questions in the future!

  * Second High and First High are referring to 2nd and 1st ranked High School in the country respectively; schools are sometimes labelled with numbers

  After Qin Ke Xuan had, once again, stepped into her classroom, her classmates’ gazes fell on her uniformly. Some of which were of anger, some of disdain, others were… pretty much all of them were unfriendly looks. Qin Ke Xin was indifferent with regards to this, and proceeded to return to her seat calmly instead.

  As expected, Zhou Jing immediately went over to her side to ask quietly: “Ke Xuan, what’s your relationship with that handsome guy just now?”

  Qin Ke Xuan looked at Zhou Jing, not saying anything. Zhou Jing, upon seeing her calm and collected composure, started feeling uncomfortable. “I, I just saw that his uniform was different from ours so I was wondering why he’d come over to our school to look for you.” Why was it that when she looked into Qin Ke Xuan’s pitilessly black eyes, she would feel a sudden chill down her back.

  Qin Ke Xuan: “That’s not something for you to be curious about.”

  Zhou Jing, once again, walked away, the rim of her eyes reddening.

  The other classmates urged Zhou Jing, as though impatient with her lack of realisation. “Leave her be next time! It’s not worth it for you to befriend people like her!”

  “In my opinion, it’s definitely because she wasn’t able to successfully seduce Cao Lin Wei, and since she’s already infamously known in our school, that’s why she’s looking for new hotties from another school. And also, was that hot guy from just now blind or something? How did he fall so easily for her tricks?”

  “Sigh, what a pity that such a handsome guy would be ruined by her.”

  “…”

  Qin Ke Xuan read her book diligently. Despite not quite understanding the contents, she decided to take it down for future reference and use.

  During her lesson in the afternoon, Qin Ke Xuan still did not understand. She had looked through all the books in her bag. Excluding some strange-looking symbols which she did not understand, she had pretty much memorised all the content in prose. As a killer, memory work was an important skill.

  After school, Qin Ke Xuan went to the bustling city area again to gather information, before breaking into a run back home. After last night and this morning, she had tried running twice. With her current speed, running back took a short while. If she were to recover her Inner Qi and use Qing Gong, she would definitely be faster.

  * 轻功 ＝ Qing Gong; a martial arts technique for making the body extremely light in weight by altering the distribution and flow of Qi

  Qin Ke Xuan walked into the dusky alley, and slowed down after a few steps before stopping. She started slowly: “Come out.”

  A number of people came out from the two ends of the alley.

  A burly chap stood in front. His arms crossed, he looked at Qin Ke Xuan with an arrogant expression on his face. “Little girl, you sure seem to know your stuff! Hua’zi and that bunch of fools can’t even deal with such a little kid, and even had to trouble me to wipe their butts.”

&nbs
p; The few who stood behind started mumbling: “Da Cheng ge*, don’t look down on that kid, she’s very strong.”

  * 哥 = Ge; older brother, need not be referring to a biologically related elder brother

  Qin Ke Xuan recognised him. Among the bunch of people who had chased Yin Xu Dong and ended up provoking her, he was one of the less injured ones. The rest of them probably were still injured so severely they couldn’t even move.

  The person known as Da Cheng ge waved his hands, fed up. “That’s because you guys were too rubbish! Shut up and stay behind.”

  That person retreated worriedly, not daring to make any more noise.

  Qin Ke Xuan felt that this was a make-up for her incomplete ‘exercise’ in the morning. Just look at these people, all tall and strong, they definitely were somewhat involved in the underground world. That means their fighting should be pretty decent no? Or at least they would be more resistant to her beatings that the three girls in the afternoon.

  For once, the sides of Qin Ke Xuan’s lips lifted. “Come!”

  Da Cheng ge froze for a second, then he suddenly burst out laughing: “This silly little girl. Seeing how you are a girl, all you need to do is kowtow and apologise, and we won’t make things difficult for you, how ‘bout that?”

  The raised lips of Qin Ke Xuan’s twitched, these people sure had a lot of nonsense to say.

  “Da Cheng ge, that girl is actually quite pretty, why don’t we go one round?” Standing behind Da Cheng Ge was a guy with a wretched looking expression colouring his face. Looking in Qin Ke Xuan’s direction, his eyes were full of lust.

  Da Cheng ge swept him a glance, looking down on him, “You’re interested in these kind of underdeveloped girls?”

  That guy chuckled, saying: “Da Cheng ge, sometimes these kind of under-ripe, young and inexperienced little girls are all the more fun and tasty, hehe.” The others standing behind, too, joined in, laughing vulgarly.

  Qin Ke Xuan exploded forward, arriving behind the guy who had brought up playing Qin Ke Xuan. Her hand shot out, capturing his lower jaw in her grip. Against the background of his shocked gasp, her hand exerted a little force, and she dislocated his jaw. Her other hand was not idling either. Her elbow stabbed at his chest, and the sound of his rib fracturing sounded with a snap. She released her grip, and let the guy fall limply onto the ground squirming weakly, unable to call for help with his dislocated jaw.

  The moment the guy fell, Qin Ke Xuan had returned promptly to her original position, as though she’d never left. This momentary flash of happenings unfolded before the others’ eyes rendered them terrified and appalled. How had she done it? This was way too…

  “You, you dare mount a sneak attack?!” The people standing around trembled, “Despicable!”

  Sneak attack? Despicable? Killers, especially assassins, never do things in the open.

  Da Cheng ge spat on the ground, a malevolent expression dyeing his facial features, and dashed toward Qin Ke Xuan, his fist swinging at her face.

  Qin Ke Xuan raised her hand to block, and her leg swung, sideways, at his invitingly open stomach. The burly chap, as though a ball of crush paper, flew out. If it were not for the people behind catching him, he would have slammed on the ground.

  Sadly, even if there were people catching him, he would not be any better off. He twitched, before spitting out a mouthful of blood.

  “Da Cheng ge!” Everyone called him anxiously.

  Shocked, and mad, the bunch of people looked at her, their eyes burning, and pounced at Qin Ke Xuan, unarmed. They were unarmed because they had severely underestimated her when they heard the enemy was only a little girl, so they did not carry any fighting props. Now, they were all wishing everyone could have a mace in their hand.

  Qin Ke Xuan did not retreat, rather, she quickly gripped the arm that was swinging towards her. She broke it with a snap, and sent a kick at his legs, which was once again coupled with a snap. Then, as he fell howling in anguish, Qin Ke Xuan quickly swept her leg behind him, right at another person’s waist, sending him flying to one side. Following this, was a very one-sided beat-up. Everyone beaten by Qin Ke Xuan more or less had a broken arm or a broken leg.

  The entire alley was filled with people lying on the ground, unable to get up. Those that somewhat had a little strength left hugged their injuries, groaning. Those drained of their strength could only lay there moaning in pain. The scene was as though a living hell.

  Qin Ke Xuan was a little disappointed. Their fighting ability, despite their larger built then others, could not even measure up to the third-rate inferior practitioners in the martial arts scene.

  Qin Ke Xuan walked over them and out of the alley. When she stepped on Da Cheng ge‘s body, his hand suddenly shot out and gripped her leg tightly. Her gaze lowered, meeting Da Cheng ge‘s eyes. His eyes were filled with bitterness and non-resignation.

  Qin Ke Xuan exerted some force with her leg. Da Cheng ge groaned in anguish, but his hand gripping her leg did not loosen. Qin Ke Xuan’s eyebrow raised. Not bothering to continue showing any mercy, she snapped another one of his ribs with a crack, “If I said I will snap every rib of yours, will you believe me?”

  The bitter and undying spirit in Da Cheng ge‘s eyes were quickly replaced with that of terror. That woman would definitely do as she had said!

  His grip loosened, trembling.

  Qin Ke Xuan stepped out of this living hell of an alley and continued with her mission—going home.

  She dashed all the way home. Her speed was so fast an occasional brush against anyone, though she was quick enough to dodge immediately, would scare the hell out of them, thinking they had seen a ghost. However, it was just the dark shadow of her flying past.

  Chapter 8 - Conan

  Qin Ke Xuan returned home, only to see Qin Peng Cheng sitting along on the sofa watching the television.

  She had originally intended to slip soundlessly back into her room. Qin Ke Xuan’s inadvertent gaze at the television, however, quickly resulted in her being attracted to the scene with the strange people who did not look like people on the screen. Hence, she stood behind the sofa and watched quietly.

  It was only when the music sounded and the scene changed did Qin Ke Xuan point at the television enthusiastically, asking Qin Peng Cheng: “Do you have any more of that?”

  Qin Peng Cheng didn’t realise that Qin Ke Xuan had returned at all, hence the sudden voice from behind, on top of just finishing watching Detective Conan’s murder case, gave him a huge scare, “Ahh! When did come back, why didn’t you make any noise? Do you want me to die of a heart attack?!”

  “What was that just now?” Qin Ke Xuan asked.

  Qin Peng Cheng said impatiently: “Conan! Detective Conan! How can you not know that, are you sure you’re from Earth?” He actually got that right, Qin Ke Xuan wasn’t from this world!

  Qin Ke Xuan said: “I want to watch more.”

  “It ended! If you want to watch, go watch it on the net!”

  “You do it.”

  “Why should I listen to you?!” Qin Peng Cheng glared at her ferociously.

  Qin Ke Xuan did not haggle with the immature kid. She looked at him indifferently and returned to her room.

  Qin Peng Cheng called after her: “Oi! Mummy and daddy are not coming back tonight. You prepare dinner.”

  Already on the stairs, Qin Ke Xuan stopped, and turned around. “Why should I listen to you?” After saying that, she turned and went into her room.

  Qin Peng Cheng widened his eyes in shock, shouting: “Hateful woman! You want to starve me to death?! I’ll tell daddy! You just wait and see!”

  Qin Ke Xuan closed the door, locking Qin Peng Cheng’s noisy screams outside. She placed her school bag on the floor and proceeded to jump from her balcony over to Yin Xu Dong’s balcony. She pushed the door, entering. Yin Xu Dong wasn’t there.

  Qin Ke Xuan opened the bedroom door and walked out, only to hear a flustered and exasperated voice, “You damned dog! I’m gonna slaughter
you!”

  She went down to the first floor and saw Yin Xu Dong grabbing a piece of cloth. A golden yellow little dog bit the other end of the cloth. The pair of them, a guy and a dog, were pulling from both at it from own sides.

  “What are you doing?”

  Upon hearing Qin Ke Xin’s voice, Yin Xu Dong got a scare, before shouting, all riled up: “Qin Ke Xuan, hurry bring your dog home!”

  The dog, however, suddenly released the end it had been clenching tightly onto and scuttled over to Qin Ke Xuan’s side, yapping excitedly and wagging its tail in circles non-stop. It even stuck out its tongue and licked her ankle.

  The moist and slimy feel almost made Qin Ke Xuan kick out her leg involuntarily, but when she looked down and saw the pair of watery dog eyes, she restrained herself and resorted to only pushing the dog away gently.

  “Give it to him.” Qin Ke Xuan glanced at the cloth Yin Xu Dong was holding in his hand.

  Yin Xu Dong’s face scorched, half mad, and half embarrassed. That was his underwear! Underwear! “Why should I give it to him?”

  “Mmh?”

  “…I know, I’ll listen to your commands, but, but can I change this? This is my underwear!”

  “Then give him something else.” Qin Ke Xuan liked to think that she was very open to discussion. Since it was his undergarment, it would be better that he kept it for himself.

  “And, can you bring the dog home? I swear we are natural enemies, we don’t see eye to eye at all. It’s annoying as heck how it always sets itself against me!”

  “No can do.”

  Yin Xu Dong looked at the dog that only hyped up with Qin Ke Xuan around in frustration, and turned to face the dog, which was now baring its teeth in his face, “But it very evidently, wants to follow you.”

  “You handle it accordingly. If you can’t figure things out, you can forget about looking for me.” Qin Ke Xuan said diplomatically.