Translator: phizzlepop
Editor: transcendent.wings
The six of them got together to hash things out for the better part of the afternoon. Although the staple food area had been cleaned out, the snack area hadn’t been declared off-limits, so the floor was now covered in pistachio shells.
“Are we really going to withdraw? Things will be pretty touch-and-go once we get out there. Are we not going to put up a bit of a fight first?” Even though they’d finished discussing how they’d get to the canteen, close the door, and deal with any emergency situations, Qiao Siqi was still a little afraid. He couldn’t help but feel that no matter how bad it got inside the supermarket, it’d still be safer than the outside.
Zhou Yilu testily snatched over the half-eaten bag of pistachios from him and slapped them down on the side to put an end to him nibbling kaka like a squirrel and compromising their fighting spirit, “There’s just that bit of food left. After we eat it, it’ll be gone. How do you want us to put up a fight?”
Qiao Siqi raised his chin: “The keys to the entrance are in our hands ma. We can challenge them with this bargaining chip of ours and let them know that if they continue making things difficult for us, then we’ll just open up the doors. We can all die together, and no one here should think about making it out alive.”
Qi Yan asked him coolly: “If they still won’t give in, are you actually going to open the doors?”
Qiao Siqi made a face: “Then won’t we all end up dead. How could I actually open them, it’s just a scare tactic.”
Luo Geng sighed: “As long as you can’t go all out and open them for real, you won’t be able to scare them. That standoff won’t last more than ten minutes before they’ll call your bluff. Even if you actually manage to succeed, then what about next time, are we supposed to hold a deathmatch every time we want a bite to eat?”
“And even if they hadn’t come here, after a month or so, we would’ve had to relocate anyway. Now we’re basically just moving forward with our original plans ahead of schedule,” Song Fei said as he stuffed the pistachios Zhou Yilu had confiscated back into Qiao Siqi’s hand. “So, treat yourself. No need to hold back.”
Qiao Siqi squeezed the bag of pistachios tightly… Song Fei’s words not only made him lose his appetite, but nearly drove him to interrogate him about how many days he had left to live. Even looking at his pistachios couldn’t cheer him up!
After staying in place for too long, everyone felt a little worn out. Since they’d already sorted everything out, everyone stretched and loosened their necks. Zhou Yilu directly lay down and made himself comfortable to preserve some energy for their upcoming battle.
Lin Dilei breathed a sigh of relief and stood up. However, Song Fei followed suit and immediately stood up.
Lin Dilei gave him a suspicious look: “Another coincidence?”
Song Fei let out an embarrassed chuckle: “It is pretty amazing.”
Luo Geng couldn’t take it anymore and finally grumbled: “Hey, haven’t you had enough. Ever since yesterday, every single time she goes to the bathroom, you also follow right along. What exactly are you up to?”
Song Fei had an innocent look on his face: “Humans have three basic instincts. It’s not like this is something I can control ah.”
Luo Geng still wanted to say something, but Lin Dilei shut him down with a single question—
“How about you also come along?”
Luo Geng quickly shook his head. Following his simplistic line of thought, he’d always felt that it was inappropriate to follow a girl to the bathroom. But, since Song Fei was gay, he couldn’t figure out whether Song Fei’s actions fell under the category of a pervert or of a friend. After all, girls loved going to the bathroom in groups, something male students would never be able to understand in their lifetimes.
As usual, Song Fei and Lin Dilei walked to the bathroom side-by-side. And as usual, after confirming no one else was inside the bathroom, Song Fei told her he’d close the door and let her go first.
The door that Song Fei would close wasn’t the door of a stall, but the door to the bathroom. Once the door was closed, there’d only be Lin Dilei inside the bathroom, while he’d stand outside the door and wait. The reason was if they went in together, they’d be able to hear each other, so it’d be a bit awkward. Usually, after Lin Dilei came out, he’d urge her to return to their group first before he’d go and relieve himself.
But this time, instead of going in by herself as usual, Lin Dilei dragged Song Fei along with her into the bathroom.
Song Fei had thought that they’d reached a tacit understanding about their usual routine, so he was a little slow to react when he was yanked in. When he finally snapped out of it, he found himself already leaning against a wall in the bathroom.
Lin Dilei was 172 cm tall, a bit shorter than Song Fei who stood at 176 cm. But, when she slapped her arm against the wall, her imposing kabedon was still impressive.
“What did they say?” Lin Dilei went straight to the point without beating around the bush.
Surprised, Song Fei blurted out: “How did you know?”
Lin Dilei rolled her eyes: “You’ve been acting so weird that if I still couldn’t figure things out, then I’d really be an airhead.” Every change had a stimulus, but nothing unusual had happened on her end. Therefore, the only possibility was that Song Fei had overheard something that had made him so nervous that anytime she wanted to go to the bathroom, he’d follow along vigilantly.
What he was wary of wasn’t her going to the bathroom, but her being alone.
“Basically… just that you’re attractive bei!” Song Fei explained vaguely. He didn’t want Lin Dilei to hear about those things. It was too vile and deplorable, and would absolutely be too much for any girl to stomach. Otherwise, he would’ve just said something yesterday instead of choosing to do something stupid like this.
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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The girl’s eyes flashed with determination.
However, Song Fei was only reminded of the horror of being beaten up by the big sister next door when he was a child and nodded vigorously!
Lin Dilei grinned, a smile in her eyes as she glanced at him and said sincerely, “Thank you.”
This time, Lin Dilei stayed inside the bathroom for longer than usual. Song Fei assumed that maybe her stomach was bothering her. So, as soon as she opened the door and came out, he was struck dumb.
Her waterfall-like long locks had been cut unevenly to a length above her shoulders, barely bundled up into an extremely short ponytail. No, it was more like a rabbit tail.
Personally, Song Fei wasn’t particularly attached to his own hair or anything, but he still felt that it was a shame: “There’s no need to be so cruel ba…”
Lin Dilei gave him an easy shrug: “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. It’ll save some water when I’m washing my hair and save me some trouble when I’m running for my life.”
Song Fei: “Then, may I ask why you brought scissors with you to the bathroom…”
Lin Dilei: “Do you really want to know?”
Song Fei: “Uh, pretend I never asked.”
He had a feeling the answer was something men would find very painful.
After returning to their basecamp, Lin Dilei’s appearance startled her comrades-in-arms. Although her face was still very beautiful, they had to admit that hairstyle was also very important. With a haircut like this, her elegant, sophisticated image had completely collapsed. Now her look wasn’t easy to classify. Just… a whimsical style?
But, since the female student paid it no mind, the male students only teased her a bit before the six of them efficiently organized their things to bid the newcomers farewell while it was still light outside.
This so-called farewell was actually them sending Qi Yan to give Yu Zisheng a heads-up, so as to not cause any misunderstandings that’d lead to unnecessary friction over them climbing through the window later on.
When Yu Zisheng heard that they were leaving, the expression he made was extremely fascinating. Ecstasy, astonishment, doubt, and many other emotions took turns coloring his face, and he practically didn’t have enough facial features for all of them.
Qi Yan looked at him coldly and had no desire to waste another word on him.
At 3:30 p.m., underneath the window where Qi Yan had climbed in from, and under the attention of seventeen students, the six companions climbed onto the shelf one by one and filed out.
Perhaps it was because their actions had come as such a pleasant surprise to them, or perhaps it was because there was an abundant amount of supplies left in the supermarket for now, but the seventeen students didn’t insist on checking their backpacks. Someone brought it up, but was immediately shot down by Qi Yan saying “if you want to act like this, then we won’t leave”.
When the last person, Qi Yan, climbed up onto the roof, a snapping sound came from below as they locked the window right back up. The roof of the supermarket was as quiet and expansive as it was when they first arrived.
It was a somewhat cloudy afternoon. There was no sunlight and the Northern wind prickled their faces.
“If the bathroom window hadn’t been too low for comfort, we should’ve just climbed through that one and left it open to see how happy they’d be then,” Qiao Siqi said angrily.
“Enough,” Zhou Yilu tightened the sushi bayonet secured behind him a bit more, “Save your strength. We have a tough battle ahead of us.”
Their entire group sobered up.
The shortest path from the supermarket straight to the main entrance of the canteen was about fifty meters, and it wouldn’t be difficult to dash over in one shot. The problem was how the inside was still teeming with zombies. This wasn’t a figment of their imagination, but staunch reality after the tragic experience Qi Yan and Qiao Siqi had gone through. And other than the main entrance, there were doors on either side of the canteen. Unless they were the Flash, it’d be impossible for them to lock up all of the doors at once. Finally, and most importantly, the canteen was a three-story building with glass windows all around, so there were no handholds available for them to climb up with.
That’s why they’d spent a good part of an afternoon coming up with a plan.
“Ready?” Qi Yan asked.
The other five companions responded unanimously, “En.”
Qi Yan nodded: “Remember, if Plan A doesn’t work, then seamlessly switch to B, C, and D.”
Song Fei: “Group transition is key.”
Zhou Yilu: “Be flexible as needed.”
Qiao Siqi: “Split up if necessary.”
Luo Geng: “Staying alive is the top priority.”
Lin Dilei: “GO!”
Without further ado, Qi Yan ran like the wind straight to the edge of the Southeast corner of the roof diagonally across from them, the farthest possible spot from their point of departure that they could get to.
In the blink of an eye, Qi Yan arrived. He took out his phone and turned up the speaker, putting the same old trick into effect once again!
The devil’s rhapsody started up. In an instant, countless zombies appeared as though they’d burrowed out from the ground and swarmed the Southeast corner of the supermarket! A few of them that’d originally been wandering right under Song Fei and the other’s noses were slow to react at first. But, after a slight pause, they were eventually lured away as well!
Qi Yan quickly returned. His phone was still singing away on the Southeast corner of the roof.
This phone that was destined to be sacrificed may have been able to escape its grisly fate once, but never again.
The six people no longer dilly-dallied. While the zombies were still distracted, they speedily jumped off the Northwest corner of the supermarket and sprinted straight for the canteen— the North end!
There was a simple steel building hidden diagonally behind the water room, a student-favorite to frequent on the weekdays besides the canteen— an Express Pickup Point!
Yes, this was their crew’s Plan A. After racking their brains and failing to figure out a way for them to take over the canteen with the measly strength of six people, they decisively fell back to aim for second-best instead!
Although the weather was overcast, the visibility was still fair. When the six of them jumped down, they could still vaguely catch sight of the Pickup Point, just that there were three green belts separating them. Several big trees with nothing but bare branches left stood as tall and upright as ever, obstructing their line of sight.
Qiao Siqi was at the head of the pack, traversing two trimmed-down rows of shrubbery shelterbelts in succession per textbook hurdling form. The five companions behind him were inspired and channeled their inner decathlon gold-medalists. Even Luo Geng could handle it easily enough with a good leap, so there was no need to mention how it went for Qi Yan who was tall with long legs!
Seeing the Express Pickup Point right before his very eyes, Qiao Siqi wished he could paste on some wings as he ran faster and faster like he was stepping on the Nimbus Cloud!
Racing behind him in second place was Song Fei who could barely keep up. He could only grit his teeth and persist.
Qiao Siqi felt that even his internal organs were about to burst right out. However, his efforts were not in vain, because he was only ten meters away from the Pickup Point!
Eight meters!
Six meters!
Four meters!
Qiao Siqi made a sharp turn!
“Plan B—”
The rapidly vibrating air molecules carried over John’s shout.
Song Fei had already been feeling lightheaded. He couldn’t react in time to make this emergency turn with Qiao Siqi after running at such a high speed. Fortunately, the other person’s shout immediately gave his sprinting legs a direction to move towards as he charged straight for the big tree next to them!
Their Plan B had been prepared in the event the number of zombies at the Pickup Point exceeded a level they could cope with or if the door to the Pickup Point had been damaged to an extent where even if they rushed in, they wouldn’t be able to keep the situation under control. A backup plan!
In the blink of an eye, Song Fei had already made it halfway up the tree. Temporarily safe, he looked back at his companions only to find that Qiao Siqi who was supposed to be ahead of him had been detained by a zombie that’d rushed out from the Pickup Point and was holding onto one of his legs!
With a tug, the zombie caused Qiao Siqi to lose his balance and fall heavily on the ground!
Then, the zombie took the opportunity to bite Qiao Siqi right on the calf!
Lin Dilei rushed straight over and stabbed her scissors directly into the zombie’s skull!
From behind her, Zhou Yilu, Luo Geng, and Qi Yan also aimed for the zombie’s head practically at the same time. In an instant, its head became thoroughly deformed.
The first stab had only left the zombie temporarily frozen in place. Now, it was utterly lifeless.
Qiao Siqi yanked his leg back. Throughout this entire process, he only looked on blankly, gritting his teeth without saying a word!
Lin Dilei immediately hauled him up and ran towards the closest tree!
Qi Yan, Luo Geng, and Zhou Yilu all reacted promptly and climbed up the trees!
However, tree climbing was also a skill. For some, their skill tree was lit up with this ability, while for others, it was completely grayed out.
Fortunately, they’d already prepared themselves in advance. After climbing up the tree first, Song Fei let down a rope to pull up Zhou Yilu who really couldn’t climb for the life of him. Lin Dilei sent down another rope to assist Qiao Siqi in his ascent.
After Zhou Yilu used his bayonet to deal with the second and very last zombie that was attempting to climb the tree with some noticeable success, their situation was somewhat stabilized at last.
Six survivors, three life-saving trees, and eight helpless zombies wandering about beneath the trees.
Of course, they were afraid. Their hearts were practically about to leap into their throats and right out of their chests.
However, at this moment, a deeper fear swept through the entire group.
No one knew what to say. Under the dense layer of clouds, everything was horribly silent.
Finally, Qiao Siqi spoke up: “Don’t be like this…”
Song Fei’s nose soured as tears pricked his eyes.
On the other side, Zhou Yilu’s attitude had also shifted: “Don’t you f*cking know how to dodge ah, are you stupid ah, just letting it bite you like that!”
Qiao Siqi also felt wronged: “Did I ask it to bite me, it just held onto me and bit right down ah. Aiya, don’t fuss la. It didn’t draw any blood anyway.”
Song Fei: “…”
Zhou Yilu: “…”
Luo Geng: “Ah?”
From a neighboring branch, Lin Dilei stretched out her arm and pinched his leg, comprehension dawning: “Thermal pants, extra thick.”
Qiao Siqi’s eyes widened in surprise: “Bingo ah. Feel it again, there are also thermal long johns inside, also extra thick!”
Zhou Yilu: “Try me. If you dare say it’s cold again, I’ll kill you.”
Qiao Siqi: “Relax, would I be that pretentious ma, the temperature is still this high. I can even go barelegged after the Winter Solstice, no problem.”
Song Fei: “And?”
Qiao Siqi: “The biggest issue is that my legs are too thin, just like straw. If I don’t add on a few layers, they don’t look too good in pants and seem a bit too scrawny. Really, if you guys don’t believe me, once we find a safe spot, I’ll take off my thermal long johns and pants and then put my sweatpants back on so you guys can see for yourself…”
Zhou Yilu: “Don’t stop me, I’m fighting him to the death today—”
Author's Chapter Summary: Plans can’t keep up with changes, hitting a roadblock on the way!
The translator has something to say: sunflower bby, Bathroom Guardian. Qiao Siqi… King of Thermals?
The editor has something to say: our sunflower is also a Silent Guardian, a Watchful Protector, but of another kind
P.S. phizzlepop here. I’m sure you guys have noticed how sporadic updates have been recently. Unfortunately, I have personal issues I must deal with, and I’m finding it difficult to spend as much time on translating. I’ll be in the background editing for the time being while your lovely translator transcendent.wings has agreed to continue translations for the foreseeable future. I know you guys have been super patient with me thus far, and I hope you guys can continue to be just as understanding of transcendent.wings who is also very busy with real life and has another wonderful project on CG, VOB, to attend to as well. thank you guys for everything, and I wish you all the best~
Thank you for the chapter!
eeeessshhh!! I was ready to mourn Qiao Siqi QAQ
thanks for the chapter <3
thank you for the chapter !! ❤
Thanks for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter! May real life issues be resolved in the quickest and best possible way…
I was ready to grieved ah i thought he was really bitten ,,my heart sigh
Thank you for the chapter! 😘💕💕🌹 wishing your issues will be resolve soon patpat tyt 😇 and yass! Thank you transendent.wings for the future chaps too 😘💕💕🌹
Thank you for the chapter 🥰
Thanks for the chapter~~
It’s good that they decided to leave. Who knows what might happened if they stayed with these people…
Thank you for the chapter <3
I almost cried! Siqi! You idiot!
Thermal ftw