Unlimited Cycles of DeathChapter 12

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In the pitch-black rainy night, rain fell nonstop like a broken string of pearls, striking drop by drop onto Mu Qin’s and Qiu Zijia’s bodies. 4gbiLa

Mu Qin endured the cold and brushed aside the weeds that were as tall as people. He looked towards the vague lights coming from the small church’s doors in the darkness nearby. He didn’t see Xu Fu walking out of the church. Perhaps Xu Fu was still inside, or perhaps he had already come out from the back. This church that was neither large nor small had a back door right behind the stage.

Although it didn’t look like Xu Fu had chased Mu Qin and the others out to kill them, this definitely did not mean Mu Qin was safe now. He observed the church for a while longer. Then, he turned his head around to peer in the other direction. In the orphanage, other than the apartment building, there was also an office building. Mu Qin et al had yet to visit this office building. The building didn’t look big at all and appeared to only have four stories. Perhaps it might have clues about the key to the exit door.

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The current state was not very clear, and Mu Qin was also unable to ascertain which place was actually a safe spot. Rather than pursuing that vague sense of security, Mu Qin thought it would be better to face the risk and fight for the possibility of escape, thus he pulled over Qiu Zijia who was beside him and pointed at the farthest office building.

“Let’s go there.” Mu Qin said, “We still haven’t searched there yet… plus that building doesn’t have lights on.” 5HArl8

Earlier, Mu Qin et al consecutively explored the apartment building and the small chapel. They would turn on the lights of every room they passed through. As a result, the rooms that were lit up were all places they had already finished searching.

Qiu Zijia replied, “But we only explored the first and second floors of the apartment complex. We still haven’t gone to the third, fourth, or fifth floors. In addition, we also haven’t gone up to the second floor of the small chapel…”

Mu Qin turned his head and glanced again towards the church, responding, “I haven’t seen Xu Fu come out of the church. Regardless of whether or not he is still inside the church or has come out from the back door, we should go to the building located farthest away from the church.”

Qiu Zijia was still terrified, “But if we go to that office building and, in the process of searching, turn on the office building’s lights, wouldn’t Xu Fu thus know where we are?”

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“He’d find sooner or later.” Mu Qin continued, “Moreover, we can’t stop searching just because he’ll find out. We must find the key to the exit.”

Qiu Zijia was powerless to refute Mu Qin’s words. He knew Mu Qin was right. This orphanage was only so big. If the killer was on this side, then they would detour away from this side and go search the other side; if the killer was on the other side, then they would detour back here and continue searching this side. It was nothing more than a peekaboo, hide-and-seek, guerrilla war. It was a very simple principle.

“Alright then, I’ll just listen to you.” Qiu Zijia said.

After deciding a simple plan of action, Mu Qin twisted around and carried Han Li, who was still unconscious and leaning against the tree, onto his back. When Mu Qin piggy-backed her, he felt this woman’s body was boiling hot, so he said to Qiu Zijia, “Han Li is running a severe fever. We need to help her find antipyretic medicine.” 8qzjCM

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“You come and carry her.” Mu Qin was disinclined to care about why he suddenly changed thoughts. Instead, he straightforwardly passed Han Li on his back to Qiu Zijia.

He spoke to Qiu Zijia, “You carry her… go along the courtyard’s fence. Slowly move forward towards that office building. Because the peripheral zone is very dark and there are still trees, shrubbery, and weeds next to the fence, these plants can help conceal your actions. It should still be considered safe. As for me, I’ll take a trip to that side’s apartment building’s infirmary. It should have some medical supplies.”

Qiu Zijia more or less understood Mu Qin’s meaning, “You mean to say we’ll act separately? You’ll go get antipyretics, and I’ll carry her and go to the office building.” ce4ImQ

“That’s right. After I find the medicine, I will go there and find you.” Mu Qin replied.

Qiu Zijia was anxious, “What if something goes wrong on the way there? What if we’re found by the killer?”

“There are only two types of situations where something would go wrong. The first type is I get found by the killer. The second type is you and Han Li get found by the killer.” Mu Qin lowered his voice and spoke gravely, “If I am found by the killer, you don’t need to care about me. You just need to go to the office building. I will find a way to escape on my own. If I haven’t gone to find you after a long time, it means I ran out of luck. At that time, whether you’re willing to continue bringing Han Li or discard her, it’s all up to you.”

“On the contrary, if you get caught by the killer, then you can just abandon ship, treat Han Li as a disposable, throw her to the killer, and then run to find me. I will protect you,” Mu Qin told him. 5Czvra

Qiu Zijia asked Mu Qin with a complicated look, “You mean I should use Han Li as a shield?”

Qiu Zijia’s question made Mu Qin observe him with a penetrating stare for a few moments. Soon after, he answered, “That’s right. Under necessary circumstances, she will become your human meat shield.”

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“Since she’s a shield, then why do you still need to take the risk to go find antipyretic medicine for her?” Qiu Zijia didn’t understand, “Why not simply use her as bait. For example, tie her up under the light and find an old radio to loudly play music next to her. This set-up will definitely attract the killer to take this bait. When he takes the bait and is hooked, we can then search the office building over there completely free of worry. Isn’t that right?”

Mu Qin gave Qiu Zijia an abstruse look, “I’m not a good person, Qiu Zijia… but I also don’t do bad things. If it’s under the circumstance where I believe I can do it, I am willing to save people. I am willing, for the sake of this woman, to take the risk and to go find antipyretics on my own. The crux of the matter is not why I am doing this. Instead, it’s you… would you do the same thing as me?” b1AwFh

“I would not.” Qiu Zijia shook his head, “There’s no way I would take any kind of risk for this woman. My own life is what’s most important!”

After hearing Qiu Zijia’s words, Mu Qin suddenly started laughing. This was the first time Qiu Zijia saw a distinct smile on Mu Qin’s face. Until now, Mu Qin always looked like he was wearing an indifferent expression. This smile that abruptly appeared truly caused Qiu Zijia to be a bit frightened.

“To selfishly put yourself and your profit before everything else, putting their own safety first, even disregarding morals, is human nature.” Mu Qin said, “If you survived like this previously, then keep living on like this after today. No one will blame you.”

Qiu Zijia stopped talking. He used a gaze the carried some fear and some sorrow to watch Mu Qin. Mu Qin couldn’t imagine how Qiu Zijia interpreted the meaning in his words, and he also didn’t know what Qiu Zijia was thinking in his mind. Mu Qin was disinclined to understand. pLxS4

After Mu Qin passed the female teacher to Qiu Zijia, he gestured a “begin operations” hand signal to him and then watched Qiu Zijia make his way into the underbrush with Han Li on his back.

Not long after, Mu Qin also followed and left the flowerbed. He walked to the cobblestone path in the center of the courtyard and, along with the crashing sounds of rain, walked step by step towards the lights of the apartment building.

The apartment building wasn’t far at all. Mu Qin only took a few steps before quickly walking into the first floor’s open corridor of the apartment complex. Then, Mu Qin raised his head and looked around, observing his surroundings for movement. Other than the sound of rain, he didn’t hear any other noises, seeming like a scene of peace and tranquility.

As a result, Mu Qin began looking for the location of the infirmary. The location of the first floor’s infirmary was beside the apartment complex’s staircase. It wasn’t hard to find because a room number label was hung next to the door of each room. F8Cwu0

Only, when Mu Qin had just walked to the infirmaries door, he couldn’t help but stop his footsteps in alarm.

Because he saw many bloody traces on the ground.

The matter of the ground being stained with blood originally shouldn’t have caused Mu Qin to feel odd because in the first-floor stairwell of the apartment complex lay the corpse Mu Qin and the others had seen earlier.

The deceased had his neck slit open. He fled from the courtyard outside to the apartment building and, while crawling up the apartment complex’s stairs, left many bloodstains on the ground. Later on, when Xu Fu came over and captured Han Li, he also stepped on these bloodstains, leaving chaotic, bloody footprints. After that, while the three people, Mu Qin, Qiu Zijia, and Cheng Guoxu, were leaving the apartments also stepped on these blood prints, so there were a lot of bloody footprints left behind. 4dGCE5

Because of that, there was blood all over the place from the second to first floors of the apartment complex. The bloodstains extended all the way to the courtyard outside the corridor of the first floor. Although, due to the fact that it was raining now, the bloodstains in the courtyard were blurred by the rainwater, seeping into the cobblestone and soil.

But why were there traces of blood at the door of the infirmary?

Although the infirmary was next to the staircase, it was still separated by some distance. Mu Qin was certain that when he left the apartment complex with Qiu Zijia and Cheng Guoxu they had never lingered around the entrance of the infirmary. From Mu Qin’s impression, this place’s floor should actually be very clean.

Mu Qin carefully examined the footprints on the floorboards at the entrance of the infirmary. The footprints were still fairly fresh. At the same time, he observed the direction of the footprints… the person who left behind these footprints seemed to have entered the infirmary before. The footprints advanced towards the door and into the infirmary before coming out again. Perhaps the person searched the infirmary for some medicine or some medical supplies. zg 0f1

Had someone come here?

Since he or she came to the infirmary, it meant the other party was injured or sick and needed to find medicine. Among the six people, excluding Han Li, he can confirm there were three people who had previously gotten injured. The first was the corpse lying on the stairs next door, but he was already completely dead. After all, Mu Qin had felt for a pulse with his own hands.

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The second was Cheng Guoxu. Mu Qin saw Xu Fu cut open Cheng Guoxu’s neck with his own eyes. However, he did not see the scene where Cheng Guoxu genuinely died. Mu Qin speculated that Cheng Guoxu’s physique was not as good as Xu Fu’s, and it was also not as good as the dead body on the stairs next door. Therefore Cheng Guoxu had absolutely no way to escape from Xu Fu’s clutches. Running to this infirmary to look for medicine was also not a very probable situation.

Lastly was Xu Fu. Xu Fu was smashed in the leg by the chandelier according to Mu Qin’s plans. This was also witnessed firsthand by Mu Qin. However, the specific condition of the wound on his leg, Mu Qin didn’t know. kn83pg

Indeed, Xu Fu was the person most likely to come to this infirmary. His leg may have been injured to the point of fracture. He may need to bind it or to set the bone. However, just now Mu Qin and Qiu Zijia squatted in the vegetation for half a day, but they never saw anyone come out from the main entrance of the church. Thus, Xu Fu may have left from the church’s back door.

These random thoughts and inferences swam around in his mind, and Mu Qin slowly crouched down. He softly and quietly pushed open the infirmary’s door. The bloody footprints at the door indicated signs of the person who had gone in coming out again. In that case, there was probably no one left in the infirmary. Yet, Mu Qin still couldn’t feel reassured. He concealed himself as much as possible and moved quietly. He pushed open the ajar door and stuck his head in to survey the room.

Prior, when Mu Qin, Qiu Zijia, Cheng Guoxu, and Han Li were still together, they had previously searched this infirmary, The infirmary was a bit more spacious, and the lights were also on. The things inside were also in ruins. There was only a simple bed frame. On it was a mattress, and the mattress was covered in disgusting black traces. It was unknown whether they were bloodstains or some other secretions.

Other than the bed frame, there were also rows of cabinets arranged along the wall with some medicine and medical supplies stored inside. Most of the cabinets were empty, but there were still some stored medicine remaining. Mu Qin hoped there were antipyretics inside, even if they were expired. QdNBHx

Observing that there were no people inside the infirmary, Mu Qin no longer snuck around on tiptoes. Instead, he started acting swiftly. He quickly rushed in front of the rows of cabinets and started thoroughly searching. He discovered that these cabinets probably were already rummaged through by someone. It was the person who left behind the traces of blood at the infirmary’s entrance. He came in and flipped through these cabinets, leaving not a few bloody handprints on the cabinets.

Mu Qin followed the bloody handprints and inspected these cabinets. There were around five to six cabinets that had been rummaged through by someone. That person had taken gauze, bandages, and alcohol from the cabinets.

Mu Qin, who had noticed this, continued to comb through other cabinets, seeing bottles and boxes of medical supplies inside. He didn’t know what kind of medicine fever reducers were, so he could only read the directions one by one on the bottles and boxes.


BunnyGod: Heya~ I’m back! Sorry for the super super super long delay… Yes, I’m alive haha :blobsmilesweat: I got really kicked in the butt by maymester. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well, and I’ll be updating regularly again! PS: stay safe, stay home. the world is a DANGEROUS place :blobpeek: eELnB4


Translator's Note

raw: 丟車保帥 means to abandon pawns/soldiers/rook to preserve or save the general/leader, similar to “sacrifice” in chess

Translator's Note

Mu Qin literally says “人肉盾牌” in the raws O.O

Translator's Note

I think it means the type of corridors that are outdoors? Like the ones in some motels/hotels where the doors to each room lead directly outside and the “hallway” is outdoors

Translator's Note

not sure if it means simple bed frame or simple canopied bed… I’d assume bed frame because it’s an infirmary in a poor orphanage, but the raw is “簡易架子床” which also translates to simplistic canopied bed? Idk :(

Leave a Comment

5 comments

  1. ‘ was thinking in his hear’ It should say ‘head’ I think.

    Xu Fu is injuried, but he can still move around… so he could be anywhere. SCARY!!!! Mu Qin, hurry up to come back to the others- you can use them as shields 😅

    Thanks for the chapter!

    It’s good to see you again!!! You stay safe,too!!