Translators: phizzlepop, kurisu
Editor: mantou
Eight o’clock in the morning, bright and sunny.
This was the second day after Qi Yan had fled back to the dormitories, and also the third day after the dormitories had been besieged. The students like Song Fei who’d been in the dormitories since the very beginning had largely depleted their mental and physical strength, so it wasn’t only 440 that needed food.
The early morning had gold in its mouth. Students of all shapes and sizes could be seen hanging onto the building. Some were nimble and lightning fast, others huffing and puffing while struggling, while many more were preparing to join them outside, along with a few who’d just joined them outside, only to discover that they really couldn’t do it, and were clambering their way back again.
Normally, this kind of scenery would absolutely be worth enjoying over some melon seeds to nibble on while lounging about. But right now, the three of them, Qi Yan, Song Fei, and Qiao Siqi, were standing on the balcony, watching this lively, bustling, and almost comical spectacle, left with only a frisson of terror. The chatting and encouragement between them after lights-out last night seemed to have become a soap bubble, unable to withstand a single blow in the face of this apocalyptic scene that was so close at hand, practically just within reach.
Yes, the apocalypse.
The three of them had no idea what the outside world was like right now. Maybe there were frequent zombie tides, and maybe the situation was already under control, but no matter which it was, they weren’t in the mood and didn’t have the power to attend to it anyway. They weren’t yet twenty, and on emotional highs, the whole world was big enough to fly off to outer space. But more often than not, once they’d landed back on the ground, the world was so small that only this campus remained.
What they saw in front of them was everything.
The student who could giggle away while discussing beautiful girls from the Department of Art across the balconies on a normal day kicked off another student climbing below him, sending him plummeting downstairs, all for the sake of fighting for a bite to eat. The blood slowly trickling out dyed the pavement red once again, its original color no longer discernible. The three of them couldn’t think of an apocalypse that could be more cruel, or more desperate than this.
“Or… why don’t we just forget about it,” Song Fei subconsciously clutched Qi Yan’s shirt, unwilling to let him take any more risks from the bottom of his heart.
Qiao Siqi didn’t speak. He was staring at the student lying downstairs. That student had been grievously injured from the fall, but was still breathing, his body repeatedly convulsing. He already looked as though he wouldn’t be able to make it, yet still wanted to try hard to get back up. A few mutants seemed to have caught his scent, and swarmed out from the dormitory building. That student didn’t even have a chance to struggle, and in a flash, met his demise. His face was badly mutilated, while his body was also eviscerated, just like the antelopes preyed upon by the big cats of the animal world, becoming a cold feast.
If this kind of plot was included in a revamped zombie film, let alone the climax, it was already doubtful whether or not it’d qualify as a cutscene.
But, this was real.
Qiao Siqi swore that the grossest, bloodiest, and scariest zombie film he’d ever seen was nowhere near as terrible as this.
Qi Yan gave Song Fei a look telling him to relax, then gently pried his shirt from his hands: “Be mentally prepared, there may not be too much of a haul.”
Qiao Siqi regained his senses, then hurriedly walked over and shook his head: “Food isn’t important, safety comes first.”
Song Fei felt the same way, and promptly echoed: “If it doesn’t work out, just withdraw and hurry back. We still have Fen Duo Duo.”
Qi Yan gave a slight smile. He looked at Qiao Siqi. At the moment, he was about an arm’s distance away from him. Then, he looked at Song Fei. At the moment, he was only about half-an-arm’s distance away from him. Qi Yan lowered his gaze and thought for quite a while, before he took a deep breath, and directly tugged Song Fei over and nibbled on the other’s lips.
Song Fei was scared silly.
Qiao Siqi practically lost his mind.
Releasing Song Fei, Qi Yan leaped onto the edge of the balcony without another word, then jumped onto the balcony next door. The neighboring balcony door was half-open, while the door to the dorm room was wide-open, the dorm room a complete mess with faint bloodstains on the floor. Qi Yan didn’t dare to stay for long, and immediately got on the edge and jumped onto the balcony next door. The moment he landed, two mutants had already rushed over onto the balcony where he’d been standing before. Qi Yan watched them from a balcony away, looking at the ferociousness and eagerness on their two faces. Because Qi Yan was out of reach, they were waving their outstretched arms around anxiously.
Qi Yan consecutively hopped past another two balconies at the fastest speed, finally reaching 437. Then, he began to climb upwards.
On the 440 balcony, there were still two people stunned silly.
The last time Qi Yan had been this enthusiastic dated back to the first time the two of them had rolled in the sheets. After that, the enthusiasm was no longer, and getting along with each other had become a daily verbal sword fight.
“How was it?” Qiao Siqi was the first to react, swallowing before sincerely consulting him.
Song Fei recalled the aftertaste, the corners of his lips quirking up: “Not bad.”
Qiao Siqi: “In the TV shows, if the male lead does something like this to the female lead before leaving, he usually won’t be able to come back.”
Song Fei: “…”
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.
On this side, Song-tongxue couldn’t wait to let Qiao-tongxue experience what it was like to never be able to come back, while on that side, Qi Yan had already climbed onto the 637 balcony. The reason he was set on drinking boiled water was also because he felt that in this kind of situation, it’d be best to make things safer whenever he possibly could. Besides, there were people looting the dorm rooms left and right, so looting an extra immersion heater wouldn’t make much of a difference.
Dea, tf vlvc’a fzqfma obg atfgf ab jmaejiis yf qfbqif lcrlvf 637.
According to Qiao Siqi, because the fleeing army had dispersed, he had no chance to rush up to the sixth floor. But, after he’d settled down in Song Fei’s dorm room, he’d shouted in the direction of his dorm room upstairs several times, yet no one had answered. Judging from the pitiful sound-proofing effects of the male dormitories, the possibility of there being people inside the dorm room was basically zero. But, inside 637 now, there were no more and no less than exactly three people: one tall and stocky, one short and fat, and a thin one that was neither tall nor short.
Ca olgra, yfobgf tf’v ajxfc j ubbv ibbx, Hl Tjc tjv atbeuta atja atfs kfgf weajcar, jcv tjv jiwbra gec jkjs lc ogluta. Lbkfnfg, tf rbbc vlrmbnfgfv atja atfs kfgfc’a weajcar, yea tewjcr. Ktfc, tf’v atbeuta atja atfs kfgf Hljb Vldl’r gbbwwjafr, ecali tf rjk atja atfrf qfbqif kfgf ecmfgfwbclberis aegclcu atf gbbw lcrlvf bea.
Not mutants, nor Qiao Siqi’s roommates, but like himself, were those who’d come to loot the dorm rooms then.
Qi Yan didn’t dare to enter the room rashly, and stood on the balcony, waiting quietly not too far away.
The three people inside the room were very engaged in their search, and hadn’t noticed him at all. It wasn’t until they finally discovered that there was nothing to eat in the room, so the tall and stocky one kicked over a stool in a fit of anger, and looked up, that he saw Qi Yan.
“Who is it, ah? Standing there without a word like the dead!”
Qi Yan gave a friendly smile, his mild voice not sounding imposing in the slightest: “Just looking for something to eat.”
“No need to look, there’s nothing here!” That person snorted coldly, then went out onto the balcony, walking up to Qi Yan. He looked him up and down, surveying him like a searchlight.
It was three-to-one right now, so there was no benefit in going head-to-head with them. Qi Yan immediately proved his innocence, firmly patting down his clothes and pants pockets. A discerning person could tell at a glance that there was nothing at all.
“F*ck!” The lack of a haul had greatly frustrated this person, and he soon crossed over to the balcony next door.
The two people quickly followed behind him.
638 seemed to be unsafe, because those three soon jumped onto 639 next. Qi Yan watched as they directly smashed open the glass balcony sliding door for 639, and swaggered right in.
He slightly frowned, before stepping into 637.
The room was already a downright mess. Those in the know would understand that it’d been raided by fellow students, while those who weren’t would think that a robber had ransacked their home. Qi Yan went straight to Qiao Siqi’s wardrobe, found the wool coat he’d mentioned, and felt around the inside of a wide, hidden inner side-pocket for the immersion heater.
High-wattage appliances were like hermits; the amateurs hid themselves in the wild, while the experts hid themselves in the city.
Immersion heater in hand, Qi Yan grabbed the phone charger on his desk as well, then put both of them together inside the zippered pocket in his clothes, before continuing to look around. Finally, he gave up on his desire to rummage around again— Qiao Siqi had said that they still had some stuff to eat inside their dorm room. This stuff had probably gone to aid some other students already.
Returning to the 637 balcony, Qi Yan pondered what his next step ought to be. Originally, he’d planned on going through 637, 636, and 635 all the way down, but going by the looks of those three people just now, it was clear that they’d most likely swept through the earlier rooms already… Qi Yan lowered his gaze, thought a bit, then had an idea.
Tiptoeing over, then jumping onto the 638 balcony, Qi Yan didn’t dare stay, and quickly jumped over to 639. The moment he got up, he unsurprisingly caught sight of the vague figure of a mutant brushing past the doorway through the wide-open door of the 638 dorm room in his peripheral vision.
639’s balcony sliding door had already been smashed to pieces. Most of the broken glass had gone inside the room, while a small portion had splashed onto the balcony, and made faint crunching sounds beneath Qi Yan’s feet.
Qi Yan’s original plan had been to go straight to 640 without stopping, so that he could get there ahead of those three people and search through the dorm rooms after 640 first. But, just when he was about to continue jumping onto the next one, his gaze suddenly swept past the inside of 639. It was actually completely empty.
This situation caught Qi Yan off guard. After he thought about it, he soon figured it out. There was probably nothing inside 639, so that group had swiftly gone on to 640.
Qi Yan was a little vexed. At this speed, before he could get ahead of that group of people, they would’ve already cleared out the entire sixth floor. To begin with, there already weren’t that many dormitories left after 640.
Or, should he just directly give up on the sixth floor and go to the fifth floor?
While thinking about it, Qi Yan poked his head over the balcony to check if the competition on the fifth floor was fierce.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he stuck his head out, he heard a loud bang!
Qi Yan was taken by surprise, and almost fell right off out of fright. He wanted to listen in carefully, but those voices were even more anxious than him, and basically went straight for his eardrum—
“F*ck!”
“Oh, sh*t!”
“F*ck you!”
The cursing was close at hand, mixed with chaotic fighting sounds.
Qi Yan promptly squinted his eyes. It was the voices of those three people, 640!
Evidently, the three people who’d been one step ahead of him had landed themselves in trouble.
Qi Yan’s thin lips were pressed into a straight line. He appeared indifferent, but in fact, his heart was already at war with his mind.
Should he save them or not?
“Qi Yan—”
The wind carried over John-tongxue’s concern.
“What’re you standing there stupidly for, move, ah!”
Qi Yan rolled his eyes, too lazy to bother with him. But, a Qiao-light bulb suddenly went off in his head, telling him about his close shave and how he’d practically wanted to hold onto Song Fei and call him daddy after Song Fei had let him in his room. And somehow, the teetering balance in his heart gradually tilted to one side.
Qi Yan was the active type who’d just go for it as soon as he’d thought things through. Since he’d already made up his mind, he stopped dawdling, took out the fruit knife hidden at his waist, unfolded the blade, gripped it tightly, then jumped onto the 640 balcony without any hesitation. The moment his feet touched the ground, he charged into the room…
“That’s what you get for not handing it over, f*ck!”
Then, he froze.
The situation inside 640 was quite contrary to Qi Yan’s expectations.
The door to the dormitory was tightly shut, and there were no mutants. There were only four students, three standing and one lying on the ground, the typical setup for ganging up on someone.
Instant noodles were scattered all over the ground. Two bags had been trampled on in the chaos, and the crushed noodles had gotten everywhere.
The person on the ground had given up on resisting, and was curled up there, shielding his head with his arms. His white down jacket was already covered in dust from their kicks, and even distinct shoe prints were visible in a few spots.
When the three of them finished hitting him, and had kicked him to their heart’s content, they finally stopped, completely out of breath. The two who were clearly lackeys at a glance immediately bent over to pick up the instant noodles. The tall and stocky one glanced at Qi Yan, amused: “What’s up, buddy, you following us? ”
After he finished speaking, he noticed the knife in Qi Yan’s hand, and his eyes immediately lit up: “That thing of yours isn’t bad, lend it to us for a bit, ba. ”
Food could sustain your life, while weapons could protect your life. But for anyone who wanted to survive, their thoughts were transparent at a glance.
Qi Yan looked at him quietly. After a long while, he said, “Borrowing it is possible, when will it be returned?”
That person’s face darkened, and he didn’t speak. Suddenly, his hand went for the chair next to him!
Qi Yan was startled, and reflexively dodged backwards. Unexpectedly, the balcony sliding door was right behind him, and his back just so happened to hit the side that hadn’t been opened with a bang, really making him feel numb all over.
Fortunately, that person had just swung the chair, and hadn’t thrown it, otherwise the chair legs wouldn’t have just brushed past the tip of the nose, but would’ve smashed both his head and the glass sliding door open.
It should be said that this classmate wasn’t a lunatic that directly killed anyone he came across.
But, to swing a chair at a fellow student because of a single remark that didn’t sit well with him, how far was he, really, from being a lunatic?
“Stop with the f*cking nonsense, give me the knife!” That person shouted again.
Qi Yan had no expression on his face, and didn’t utter a word, his body not moving in the slightest.
The two in the back who’d just finished picking up the instant noodles became anxious, and one of them handed the instant noodles in his arms to the other, before rushing over to seize the knife!
Qi Yan gritted his teeth, and directly brandished his knife wildly, the cold steel glinting, leaving countless afterimages behind: “I’ll kill anyone who comes any closer!”
Fighting was just like this. The reckless feared the unreasonable, and the unreasonable feared the desperate. The three of them had originally wanted to use their advantage in numbers to intimidate and beat him into submission, then snatch over the knife and call it a day. But, everyone had f*cking gone through nine years of compulsory education, and martial arts wasn’t part of the university entrance examinations. Facing a gleaming blade, anyone would be terrified.
The two sides were locked in stalemate. In the end, the three people gave up on the knife, and left with their spoils.
Qi Yan was purely trying to frighten them. If he really had to injure someone else, he might not have dared to actually do so. He’d leave well enough alone, conceding a broad path for others.
“They didn’t leave even a little bit for laozi, pettier than those f*cking colonizers, f*ck.” White Down Jacket got up from the ground. He used his sleeve to wipe at his nosebleed, and his dusty white cuff came away with an extra touch of red.
Seeing Qi Yan still holding onto his knife, White Down Jacket smiled bitterly and spread his arms: “Tongxue, you came late. There’s really nothing left.”
Qi Yan wasn’t sure what kind of mental state he was in now, but he actually asked the other person: “What’re you going to eat in the future?”
White Down Jacket lifted the chair that had fallen onto the ground, his movements slow and listless, like a dejected, aging patient.
After finally lifting up all the chairs that’d fallen onto the ground and putting them back in place, White Down Jacket sat down on his chair, the corners of his mouth twitching as he looked at Qi Yan. He didn’t answer Qi Yan’s question, and just said, “I was really worried you might actually stab one of them to death.”
Qi Yan threw a glance at the wardrobe next to him. The wardrobes in the boys’ dormitories were all the same. The gap between the bottom of the wardrobe and the floor tiles was a few centimeters. At the moment, there was a cold gleam coming from the gap there.
“You were beaten by them into such a state and didn’t touch your knife. At most, I’d be robbed of a little old fruit knife. Killing someone over something like this would really be too crazy.”
White Down Jacket’s look of resignation was replaced with one of surprise. Following Qi Yan’s gaze, he also looked under the wardrobe. For a moment, he revealed a rare smile: “You’re pretty shrewd, ah.” As he said this, he bent over and felt for the thing hidden underneath the wardrobe.
A shiny sushi knife.
Qi Yan peered at the thing in his hand, a kind of embarrassment like Dong Shi meeting Xi Shi arising within him.
“Luckily, the three of them didn’t notice it.” White Down Jacket sighed, and carefully wrapped the knife up with his torn clothes, almost devoutly. “It’s a pity I didn’t listen to customer service back then. If I’d purchased the complete set, laozi would be a santoryu-user right now!”
If it hadn’t been for the great disparity between their weapons, Qi Yan really would’ve wanted to kick him two extra times as well: “If you’d just held onto this thing back then, you wouldn’t have needed to kill anyone. It would’ve just scared them off, and you wouldn’t be left with nothing to eat.”
“No way, no way, no way!” White Down Jacket shook his head like a dashboard bobblehead. “This knife is especially sharp. I’m not showing off, it can cut through iron like mud! If I’d messed up while threatening them, heads would’ve rolled!”
Qi Yan was exasperated. He could swear by his final exam results that this guy had absolutely photoshopped his own knife-wielding abilities in, and had f*cking photoshopped it brainlessly at that!
“If they’d been determined to snatch your knife just now,” White Down Jacket asked suddenly, “Would you have really stabbed them?”
Qi Yan was silent.
White Down Jacket chuckled with a slightly melancholy air of helplessness, and a bit of childish gloating: “We’re both modern-day university students with a bottom line.”
Qi Yan’s heart was set at rest, and he was amused: “Silly, for short.”
White Down Jacket pointed at the door to the dorm room behind him: “Those things outside are no longer human beings. Sooner or later, those of us inside will eventually be pressured into losing our humanity as well.” Then, he paused. After a long while, he raised his head again, his eyes shining bright. “But, I’d rather it be later.”
Author’s Chapter Summary:
A survival crisis suddenly arises, saving a student along the way after seeing injustice!
The translator has something to say: congrats on picking up another stray, fill up that Pokedex. bonus pts to anyone who remembers why 640 sounds familiar.
P.S. for those of you who haven’t noticed yet, this is the same author for “The Night Owl”, also on CG currently being translated by a fellow translator
P.P.S. For those of you who aren’t active in CG’s Discord group, we’re holding an event for almost having 10,000 members! The event details can be found on the new banner at the top of each page and in the #cg-event-channel on Discord. I highly encourage everyone to participate!
Thank you for the chapter (≧▽≦)
thanks for reading! 😊
Thank you for the chapter!!!! AHHHH i love zombie fics
thanks for reading!! hehehe me too~ this novel has a fairly natural progression and i like the “slow-build” plus the fun mix of horror, action, and comedy
640’s Zhou Yilu, joining the boat with Qi Yan, Song Fei, and the rest. Thanks for the chapter
the squad is slowly coming together hehehehehehe
thanks for reading!
I feel like he would have stabbed one of them, if worse came to worse…
thanks for the chapter! <3
yeah i agree, i can def see Qi Yan doing that even though he appeared to be a huge rule-following, straight-laced student in school. if it were Song Fei though, maybe not. if it were me, i would’ve just stabbed those ppl on principle though, idk what they’re playing at running around like mobster debt collectors #toosoon it’s literally been like 3 days of the apocalypse and they’re already going crazy like starved beasts yikes
thanks for reading! <3
Is that maybe the guy who was always asking about the exam? :’D I can’t remember anymore orz
Thx for the ch ٩( >ヮ<)۶
(¬‿¬ ) the gang’s getting together~
he’s surprisingly goofy-sounding when he’s not busy lamenting his missed exam
thanks for reading! 😀
Just when I was thinking that this writing remind me of The Night Owl it turns out it’s from the same author lol
haha it indeed is Yan Liangyu-dada with the ensemble cast of quirky chars filled with camaraderie and action interspersed with comedy. dense fog is as well, though that’s not hosted on CG, and there are actually lots of other good books as well just not translated :\
qi yan bring him along!!
(¬‿¬ )(¬‿¬ )(¬‿¬ )
Thank you for the chapter ❤️