Translator: phizzlepop
Editor: transcendent.wings
Sponsored by: Atropos, a winner of the CG 10K contest, who has kindly chosen 2 bonus releases for ZU as their prize~ pls congratulate them + send good vibes their way. 2nd bonus ch will be released tomorrow, and the regular chappie from last wk will also be released asap once it’s done~
Their back-and-forth debate continued late into the night. Sitting on top of the blankets, the six students compiled a rough summary of currently identified zombie characteristics:
1. Sense of sight, hearing, and smell either enhanced or remain unchanged. Sensitive to the movement and the scent of living people;
2. No sense of pain;
3. Significantly reduced intelligence. May retain rudimentary imitation or learning abilities and limited memories;
4. Decline of physical fitness (speed, flexibility, etc.) dependent on baseline levels. Deterioration rate unknown. Individual differences present;
5. No change in strength, essentially consistent with that of ordinary people. Individual differences exist;
6. Saliva contains virus. Transmitted through blood.
7. Brain death is the sole known cause of death to date.
Putting down their respective notebooks, the six parched students breathed a sigh of relief. The inside of the supermarket had already darkened. Paired with the humming of the air conditioners, it produced a peculiar sense of trepidation. It had gone unnoticed during their debate, but now sent shivers running down their spines.
Everyone exchanged looks. Song Fei reacted first, getting up to find the wall switches. Fortunately, he soon found them, and pressed down on all of them successively with a papapa. Instantly, all the lights turned on.
“No wonder Prometheus wanted to steal fire for mankind,” Zhou Yilu put down his notebook, stretching as he sighed with emotion, “Only light can rekindle hope for human beings mired even in the darkness.”
Song Fei: “…”
Luo Geng: “…”
Qiao Siqi: “…”
Qi Yan: “…”
Lin Dilei really didn’t want their conversation to go cold right after their discussion, so she could only search desperately for a response to squeeze out: “En.”
This wasn’t Zhou Yilu’s first offense as a conversation killer, but he still couldn’t figure out where he’d gone wrong: “Is it that difficult to respond to my comments?”
This time, the four male students were finally qualified to speak on the topic—
Song Fei: “Extremely.”
Luo Geng: “Difficult.”
Qiao Siqi: “Basically.”
Qi Yan: “Impossible.”
Zhou Yilu was silent for a long while, before he raised his head: “Let’s just continue talking about zombies ba.”
The five companions rocked with laughter, the awkward silence evaporating as the atmosphere became lively once again.
This afternoon, first there’d been the bathroom scare, and later, they’d mentally toiled away. Everyone was already starving, so they scattered to look for their dinner of choice. After a while, they gathered together on the floor once again.
“Regarding post-mutation features, I think we’ve basically covered them for the most part,” Zhou Yilu scooped up a large spoonful of Eight-Treasure Congee and put it into his mouth, muttering indiscernibly, “I don’t even take group discussions in class this seriously.”
“We’re finished with our analysis, but we still need to carefully consider how we’ll deal with this situation.” Qi Yan opened up a link of ham sausage and handed it over to Song Fei who was holding onto his instant noodles. The latter was stunned for a moment, before he shot him a speedy thank you, keeping his head bowed as he accepted it.
Qi Yan raised an eyebrow. Song Fei had said thank you. Was red rain about to fall from the sky?
Qi Yan was so absorbed in thought that Zhou Yilu had to call him three times before he came back to his senses: “En? What?”
Zhou Yilu rolled his eyes. Even if beauty was in the eye of the beholder ba, you couldn’t just stare at your beauty all day long. NPCs like them also needed some attention: “I was asking you, have you come up with any countermeasures already?”
Qi Yan placed himself back in the proper frame of mind, putting everything else on the back-burner for the time being: “I haven’t thought of any specific countermeasures yet, but since they have the ability to imitate us, we can probably start from there. We also have to remain cautious no matter which plan we implement. We can’t think of them as single-celled organisms anymore, so we’ll have to be more thorough.”
“I’m in total agreement.” Luo Geng cautiously delivered some freshly brewed hot milk to his goddess, tacking on a complimentary heart-warming smile on the side. After his goddess took the milk, he looked back contentedly and continued, “Our purpose isn’t to eliminate them, but to preserve our lives. With our current situation, this place may remain safe, or may end up breached, but we definitely need a back-up plan.”
“Isn’t the back-warehouse good enough?” While everyone else was dining on a main course, only John-tongxue was snacking on shredded squid with gusto. “If we really can’t stay here anymore, we can all hide in there. The door locks, and we won’t have to worry about food or drink.”
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.
Qi Yan pondered for a moment, then asked, “What if the warehouse doesn’t work out?”
Qiao Siqi made a face: “Things won’t get that bad, ba.”
“Ktfc, atf mjcaffc,” Vbcu Mfl lcafgpfmafv, “Ktf mjcaffc lr atf mibrfra, jcv atfgf rtbeiv yf wfja bg rbwfatlcu lc atf yjmx-xlamtfc ogffhfgr.”
Hl Tjc lwwfvljafis ibbxfv ja Vbcu Mfl. Vlcmf atf yfulcclcu bo atlr vlrmerrlbc, tf’v yffc fzfgalcu j iba bo foobga ab mjamt atf batfg qfgrbc’r fsf: “Lbk?”
Song Fei scratched his head in embarrassment: “I haven’t thought about it yet.”
This answer had fallen within his expectations. It would’ve been downright spooky if Song Fei had already given it some careful consideration. Qi Yan had just wanted to take a good look at him under the guise of asking him questions. It’d be best if he could catch a glimpse of his mind through his eyes so he could see what exactly was wrong with him that was making him act so strange.
Song Fei squirmed under his gaze. Seeing that no one else was continuing this topic of conversation, he simply buried his head back in his food to continue eating.
Thus, this created a magical scene of Qi Yan frowning and staring at Song Fei, while Song Fei only concentrated on his instant noodles.
Lin Dilei was eating saltine crackers while sipping on some milk, feeling that something was off as she looked on from the sidelines. The other three male students also noticed the abnormal atmosphere. But, as pure young men who hadn’t even touched a girl before, it was too difficult for them to grasp the subtleties involved in a relationship between two guys.
Even after they were satiated with food and drink, they still had yet to find an adequate contingency plan they could unanimously agree on. The main issue was the multitude of potential dangers. Once their imagination ran wild, it was impossible to reign in their worries that their plan B would ultimately morph into a road of no return. Plus, they were already mentally drained from their minds working a mile a minute the entire afternoon. Although no one complained out loud about it, everyone was already well aware.
In the end, Little Landmine called ‘cut’: “Let’s talk about it tomorrow. Go and do whatever you’d like right now, get some R&R!”
The male students who’d managed to hold on until the final bell rang for dismissal felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off their shoulders, and scattered like ants.
Zhou Yilu went for the daily necessities. He wanted to find a sturdy broom or mop, so he could remove the handle and tie his sushi knife to it to turn his melee weapon into a bayonet, enhancing his reach.
Luo Geng went off to help Lin Dilei choose a nifty weapon, explaining the most lethal way to use each and every item to her, although the latter felt that the difference between fruit knives, scissors, utility knives, pencil sharpeners, and nail clippers was obvious at a glance.
Qiao Siqi, on the other hand, directly lay back down on the blankets and emptied his mind. When he’d rested just about enough, he started replaying movies inside his head, recalling exactly how the protagonists had fought their way out of an encirclement, slaughtering all those in their way, hoping to draw some inspiration from them for combat.
Song Fei hadn’t moved from his original spot, still holding onto his small notebook, scribbling something down.
Qi Yan had originally wanted to look into how they’d be getting to the canteen. Yet, when he looked up, only Song Fei and Qiao Siqi were left in front of him; one engrossed in his work, the other sprawled out on the floor.
“What’re you writing?” Qi Yan inched closer out of curiosity. Upon closer inspection, he realized that Song Fei wasn’t writing, but drawing.
“A map of our school.” Song Fei didn’t look up, still immersed in his work.
This was Qi Yan’s first time seeing Song Fei draw something, so he took a good look at it, simultaneously feeling curious and fascinated. Song Fei’s sketch was a little rough with all kinds of lines traveling across the page. But, whether it was the buildings or the paths, the locations were all correct. Perhaps it wasn’t completely accurate, but as a student of this school, it was obvious what it depicted at a glance.
What was even more amazing was all the places he’d included that Qi Yan hadn’t really noticed before. Some Qi Yan knew about, but had never been to himself, like the Yixin Building for the Department of Art, the Chongli Building for the Department of Psychology, and the Wenhui Building for the Department of Liberal Arts that were all far away from the buildings under the College of Science. They’d never been on Qi Yan’s radar, and were also not within the scope of his student council activities; there were even some that Qi Yan had never even heard of before. If Song Fei hadn’t drawn them, he would’ve never known that such places even existed in his school.
“What’s the Changyi Garden?” Qi Yan picked one that he’d never heard of, openly asking without any shame.
“A bamboo garden.” Song Fei doodled on, his response both succinct and concise.
“Just bamboo?”
“En.”
“They can survive in the North?”
“They all died last winter. The new ones they planted this year look promising, though.”
“When did you go there?”
“When I led day tours.”
“What’s that?”
“…” Song Fei’s scribbling paused. After a long while, he raised his head and smirked, “I was a tour guide for our school’s one-day tours.”
Qi Yan was amused by the proud look on his face: “You’ve done something like that before? Why didn’t I know about it.”
Song Fei shrugged, and muttered in a low voice, “There’s a lot you don’t know. ”
The atmosphere seemed to have eased somewhat. Qi Yan actually wanted to talk about something serious, like discussing the severity of the bathroom incident, or dealing with his bad temper, since he’d acted so standoffish the entire afternoon, etc. However…
A certain male classmate surnamed Qiao who’d tried and failed to empty his mind after being caught up in the strange atmosphere between his male classmates surnamed Song and Qi, very wisely sat up after finally noticing the faint side-eye he was getting, practically fleeing as he hurried away, lengthening his stride: “Suddenly, I’m not so sleepy anymore, I’m going to go check on how Zhou Yilu’s bayonet is coming along—”
Only after Qiao Siqi disappeared into the shelves of brooms and dustpans did Qi Yan approach Song Fei, rubbing his hair and whispering softly, “Not angry anymore?”
Song Fei subconsciously tried to avoid his touch, but was unsuccessful, so he stopped moving so as to not appear too deliberate: “I’m not angry ah.”
Song Fei’s voice sounded very natural, but Qi Yan’s chest had twinged when he’d felt his head actually attempt to pull away at first, although he didn’t allow his discomfort seep into his voice: “If you aren’t angry, then why was your head practically glued to your crotch all afternoon.”
Song Fei was unamused: “Can you not misappropriate my famous catchphrases?”
Qi Yan grinned, an innocent look on his face: “He who stays near ink gets stained black.”
Song Fei tilted his head and thought about it carefully: “It would appear that you really haven’t learned anything good from me.”
Qi Yan nodded approvingly: “How rare for you to be so self-aware.”
Song Fei wanted to laugh shamelessly like usual, but it felt strained no matter how he tried to tug the corners of his mouth up, so he quickly resumed a business-like attitude: “I’m not angry, really. I just thought that everything you guys were discussing sounded very reasonable. I could barely take note of it all, so how would I have the spare time to look up.”
Qi Yan subtly raised an eyebrow, suspiciously searching Song Fei’s face for a trace of dishonesty.
Song Fei lifted his face, letting him scrutinize it openly.
At first, Qi Yan had honestly just wanted to determine whether or not Song Fei was talking nonsense. But, after staring at it for too long, his mind went astray, while his gaze didn’t move away at all. No, he couldn’t even pull himself away after looking at his face.
Song Fei’s appearance had no relation to the words ‘handsome’ or ‘cool’. If you threw him into a pile of people, you absolutely wouldn’t be able to find him. His monolids, especially, and how he normally always looked half-asleep both fit in seamlessly with his lazy temperament. But, this person was full of mischief, his roguish charm reflected even at the corners of his eyes and through his eyebrows. And, maybe just because opposites attract, his energy was exactly what Qi Yan found attractive. When they’d first gotten together, just a few extra glances would leave him unable to hold himself back.
Now, although his resistance had gone up, he’d still occasionally lose himself.
Seeing the face in front of him move closer and closer, Song Fei realized something was off and became nervous, directly shoving him away.
After being pushed away so abruptly, Qi Yan came to, but also felt that Song Fei was being unreasonable. The incident in the bathroom this afternoon had originally only taken place because of Song Fei’s impulsivity. Telling him off in front of an audience probably hadn’t been the right thing to do, but now that he’d lowered himself to come and coax him, was that still not good enough for him?
“Whenever you want to stop acting difficult, just say the word.”
Qi Yan didn’t want to waste time with Song Fei on this kind of thing when zombies might barge in at any time. He instinctively returned to their usual routine of giving it to each other straight and speaking bluntly.
Song Fei despised it.
Using this method, Qi Yan always remained high up above, calm and self-possessed, while he was automatically relegated to being the unreasonable one that was just making trouble out of nothing.
He’d followed behind Qi Yan, attempting to learn more about his beliefs and pursuits, but Qi Yan had never considered stopping for even a bit to pay any attention to his world.
Leading their campus day tours used to be his favorite weekend activity. Unlike Ren Zhe’s purpose of picking up girls, he genuinely enjoyed introducing others to the small things he was familiar with, the approval he’d receive filling him with a sense of accomplishment. Later on, after he’d gotten together with Qi Yan, he’d only ever stay in the library with him on the weekends. Qi Yan had never asked him what he used to do before on the weekends, as though he’d automatically assumed that he’d been idling about with nothing to do. Afterwards, he’d also felt that this matter didn’t seem to be a big deal anyway. As a result, even after he’d broken up with Qi Yan, this issue never came up again.
Taking a deep breath, Song Fei raised his head. For the first time, without a guilty conscience, he looked steadily at Qi Yan: “We’re friends right now, companions in life and death. So, if I do something wrong, and you point it out, I’ll definitely fix my mistakes, and won’t make things difficult for you.”
Qi Yan stared at Song Fei in a daze. It felt as though he knew this person, but also didn’t know this person.
The key point was what he’d said wasn’t wrong. They’d clearly already broken up on the surface and were friends.
However, he’d thought that after these past few days…
Nevermind. If Song Fei insisted on him making things clear, he would just have to deliver, then.
“Do you still remember the day of the incident, when I originally asked you to have lunch with me,” Qi Yan asked.
Song Fei hesitated, and then nodded: “Why’re you suddenly bringing this up?”
Qi Yan: “Actually, there was something I wanted to tell you.”
Song Fei: “…”
Qi Yan: “I want to get back together with you again.”
When Qi Yan had mentioned that he had something he wanted to tell him, Song Fei already had a guess, but once the other person actually uttered the words, ‘get back together’, he still felt as though it was an auditory hallucination.
He’d thought that the zombie outbreak had caused Qi Yan to suddenly reconsider the relationship between the two of them. And so, after he’d made it back to the dormitories, the very first thing he’d done was climb up the balcony to reunite with him, etc. He’d never imagined that even before that he’d…
“Why?” Song Fei couldn’t make any sense of it. He racked his brains and couldn’t remember any pleasant interactions that’d occurred between the two of them after they’d broken up.
Since Qi Yan had already made up his mind to be honest, he no longer hesitated: “I don’t want to break up with you.”
Song Fei: “…”
Qi Yan: “Besides, I never responded to your WeChat message saying we should break up. We’d just had an argument at the time. The reason I told you to calm down was because I knew you wouldn’t use your brain once you got all riled up like that. Well, that turned out just fantastic. I should’ve just argued with you, instead of letting you go back and overthink everything.”
Song Fei: “…”
Qi Yan: “I admit I used to be a bit too pushy, but you really weren’t all that motivated either. The more you mess around in university, the more hardships you’ll suffer in society. I was just doing it for your own good, but you always felt… forget it, it doesn’t matter anymore. We don’t even know if we can make it out alive, or what kind of society we’ll be returning to. This is just perfect. There’s no need to study, so there’ll be no need for us to argue anymore.”
Song Fei: “Qi Yan.”
Qi Yan: “En? ”
Song Fei: “What was it you wanted to say to me when you asked me to get lunch with you?”
Qi Yan: “Didn’t I just tell you, I want to get back together with you.”
Song Fei: “I refuse.”
Qi Yan: “…”
In the space between two shelves.
Qiao Siqi: “Did you guys get all of that?”
Zhou Yilu: “I’m a little confused. Did they break up long ago or are they breaking up now?”
Luo Geng: “Am I the only one who finds it concerning that apparently you can insult your way through begging someone to take you back?”
Lin Dilei: “That’s why he failed. Campus has collapsed, zombies are everywhere, and love is sinking. How apropos.”
Qiao Siqi: “But right now, the enemy is before us, and morale is very important ah. Should we try to mediate?”
Zhou Yilu: “How?”
Five seconds later.
Qiao Siqi: “Qi Yan—”
Qi Yan: “Speak!”
Qiao Siqi: “In our current situation, staying alive is most important. If your ship is sinking, just let it sink ba—”
Qi Yan: “…”
Author's Chapter Summary: The boat of love is shaken by wind and rain, an academic tyrant uses a block-headed tactic to get back together!
The author has something to say: I saw a bunch of companions having a passionate discussion yesterday, and it also made me very emotional. Actually, whether it’s small blade of grass Song or big tree Qi, they’re both only 19 years old. Campus romance is actually filled with impulsivity and sweetness, and even small things probably feel like something insurmountable. After all, everyone hasn’t fully matured yet. Plus, no one is perfect, and everyone has their own weaknesses and strengths. Xiao Qi is academically outstanding, but has his character defects. Xiao Song isn’t as eye-catching, but has his own beauty. When you can really be together again, then you must be willing to accept all the good and bad parts of the other person. Of course, you can work hard to turn your bad points into good points la. Xiao Song has already decided to turn over a new leaf. A good romance is one that makes people want to work on themselves ma!
The translator has something to say: [Song Fei: “…”] +1000. all hail the peanut gallery, the vibe there is immaculate. I call for a Titanic reenactment.
P.S. update: almost done with ch22, ch23 is halfway done.
The editor has something to say:
Qi Yan uses arrow raid with a message, “Get back together with me”, attached
Song Fei blocks successfully; Qi Yan’s move is not very effective
Song Fei uses counter, “I refuse”
[Qi Yan received -1000 points of damage] Qi Yan is in critical health, would you like to use a potion now?
I’m glad Song Fei stood his ground and although Qi Yan deserved it, that was a hard blow on his glass heart. It’ll take awhile to pick up the fragments and piece it back together, especially since Qiao Siqi contributed a poisoned status; only a Song-Fei-brand healing potion can help him now
I like how everyone is eavesdropping on their failure love confession
Thanks for the chapter
Zhou Yilu working on his bayonet and Qiao Siqi going off to watch him… what a ~coincidence~ the broom shelves were so close by huh
I mean who would want to miss this drama especially if they could get front row seats to the premiere
Thank you for the chapter!
thanks for reading! <3
“Luo Geng: “Am I the only one who finds it concerning that apparently you can insult your way through begging someone to take you back?” ” Luo Geng is me LOL
thanks for translating!
honestly everyone except for Qi Yan was a mood. SF’s “…” and QSQ’s “kind words of encouragement”.
Go Qi Yan give us nothing 😍😍😍
».. but now that he’d lowered himself to come and coax him..« Okay.. wow… QY, if you have to lower yourself.. is that really love we are talking about? But hey, you mentioned that there will be character development, I’m really looking forward to it bc so far QY is still just cancer in my eyes :’D
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
thank goodness author-dada has character development in store haha i don’t think QY is awful or anything but rather than being a fellow flower in the garden with our bby Sunflower he acts like he’s the gardener that owns the garden
+1!
I didn’t think a zombie story would make me cry so much. Qi Yan, you don’t deserve him right now.
thanks for the chapter <3
Qi Yan honestly pisses me off, at least from what Song says about him. Like, bro…. he just liked the idea he had of Song, never trying to go deeper into the other’s life and what annoys me the most is the fact that he ALWAYS talks like the rational person who knows everything about Song, talking as if Song is always a kid who doesn’t know how much his parents are doing everything they do for his sake, being angry out of sheer tantrum and for no reason. Qi Yan deserves to suffer!!
Well, it’s true, the anger still exists, even if you can justify it a little…THEN IT DESERVES TO SUFFER A LITTLE.
Thank you for the chapter 💕
Wow that was pretty backhanded Qi Yan can’t wait for him to realize his faults.
I have to say Luo Geng really hit the nail on the head 👌
Thank you for the chapter 💛
SF is so relatable it actually hurts. I’m glad he stood his ground. Don’t be swayed!
QY on the other hand, he’s young so I get it. But he’s so gross. Ngl. This whole chapter made me think so little of him. Ironically so considering he thinks he’s so much smarter and better than SF. Obviously the author is doing this on purpose so good on them for the good writing, but if he doesn’t do a 180, I am BOUNCING.