Translator: transcendent.wings
T/N Note: Also I decided that “closed stacks” may be a better term than “restricted books” so I’ve altered it accordingly, sorry for the confusion it may bring!
CW/TW
Brief mentions of suicide
Wang Qingyuan’s cheeks were already gaunt and the dark circles under his eyes made his face look even paler. He originally was already thin, but never had he been like he was now. As Song Fei hugged his body, it felt as if he were just hugging a sack of bones.
He couldn’t help but tear up. Song Fei sniffled, gently let go of the other, and then immediately rifled through his bag to whip out a can of Red Bull and two Snickers bars then passed them over.
Wang Qingyuan took the Snickers and refused the Red Bull, then weakly said: “Just a cup of water from the water dispenser is fine, don’t waste this.”
Song Fei was a little anxious: “This will energize you!”
“The two of us haven’t eaten in ten days so all we’ve been doing is energizing ourselves. All I want is something light right now. . .” Li Jingyu feebly explained from the other end.
Song Fei followed the voice to the corner and only then did he realize that Qi Yan was hugging someone. Song Fei felt that he was a bit familiar, but he just couldn’t remember where he’d seen him before. Furthermore, why was there a somewhat dumbfounded look on said person’s face?
But now was not the time to ponder about such things: “What do you mean?”
Li Jingyu didn’t have any strength to explain further and only gestured for Song Fei to look at the table.
Song Fei looked around and finally realized that he was in a breakroom. There were three water dispensers, even a faucet with a sink to complete the set up, and a coin-operated coffee machine placed on the table.
Song Fei’s heart trembled a bit. He looked at Wang Qingyuan in disbelief, then he shifted his gaze to Li Jingyu. He had originally thought that the only reason they lasted until now was because they still had at least some emergency food supplies: “Could it be. . .”
Misery flooded the base of Li Jingyu’s eyes as he solemnly swore before those who could hear him grind his teeth: “I’ll never drink anymore f*cking coffee in this lifetime!”
Every lucky survivor has an unknown and unique personal grievance. Song Fei sighed and filled a cup of plain water for Wang Qingyuan. Who would’ve guessed that when Song Fei returned with the water, the Snickers bars in Wang Qingyuan’s hands were already long devoured and if it weren’t for the fact that there were still some residual chocolate stains on his thumb and index finger, Song Fei would’ve questioned whether or not he had given the other the Snickers at all.
On the other side, Qi Yan let go of Li Jingyu and found a small French-style bread for the other. Li Jingyu took two dry bites and gave him an aggrieved look: “You don’t have any Snickers?”
Qi Yan was currently narrowing his eyes as he watched them on the other side offering condolences and sending water so when he heard the question and turned around, he hadn’t had time to recover his expression yet.
Li Jingyu felt a chill down his spine and shoved the last bit of bread into his mouth in one bite, then chewed laboriously with full cheeks: “What is this made of ah, it’s too delicious!”
Papa.
There was the sound of someone slapping the window from outside.
The four people in the room all jumped and neatly turned their heads in one motion only to see Luo Geng’s face plastered to the glass pane.
Song Fei quickly got up and opened the window for the other: “Why are you here?”
Luo Geng dexterously slipped in, then responded naturally as he helped Song Fei lock the window: “You guys entered this room and never came out again. Everyone was worried, so I valiantly volunteered to come over and take a look.”
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.
Vbcu Mfl gjlrfv jc fsfygbk lc vlryfilfo: “. . .”
Hl Tjc rlhfv tlw eq: “. . .”
Oeb Xfcu: “Mlcf, P ibra ja gbmx-qjqfg-rmlrrbgr.”
Oeb Xfcu rfmegfv atf klcvbk atfc aegcfv jgbecv. Lf jigfjvs mjeuta j uilwqrf bo atf batfg akb regnlnbgr ogbw bearlvf atf klcvbk, yea la kjr bcis ktfc tf fcafgfv atf gbbw vlv tf gfjilhf atja atlr kjrc’a atf jawbrqtfgf bo ygjnfis rjnlcu ecojwliljg mijrrwjafr, yea wbgf ilxf ubbv oglfcvr gfeclalcu jujlc: “Tbe uesr xcbk fjmt batfg?”
Song Fei familarily patted Wang Qingyuan on the shoulder and declared heroically: “My roommate, Wang Qingyuan.”
Qi Yan squeezed Li Jingyu’s shoulder and enthusiastically introduced: “My friend, Li Jingyu.”
Song Fei somewhat unhappily stared at Qi Yan’s pair of hands as he launched a search engine on his memories to rapidly look for Li Jingyu’s honorable name and at the same time, turned Qi Yan over and over in his mind as he stabbed him with metal chopsticks.
Qi Yan was instantly revived and couldn’t help but hook the corner of his mouth up.
Wang Qingyuan looked back and forth between the pair’s faces several times then suddenly raised his arm to pull down Song Fei’s head. He rubbed his chin lightly against the other’s hair and murmured: “It’s great to be able to see you again.”
Song Fei was a little bewildered.
On the other end, Li Jingyu’s shoulder was almost broken by Qi Yan.
Luo Geng swallowed down hard with difficulty. The objective of his mission was to check on his comrades’ condition and see if they were safe, but looking at it now, those two were the danger factors themselves alright!
That Wang something Yuan still seemed to be somewhat energetic, but that Li Whale or whatever fish looked like he wouldn’t be able to hold out for much longer. . .
“Cough, um, Qi Yan, let go of him first.” Luo Geng couldn’t stand it anymore and went over to physically pry Qi Yan’s arm off to rescue Li Jingyu.
Li Jingyu tried his best to stand up and decided that he would stay far away from this opponent whom he previously defeated and who now seemed particularly vindictive as a result.
Luo Geng didn’t expect Li Jingyu to still have the strength to stand up, but what was more unexpected was: “Hey, you’re shorter than me ahhahahaha!”
“. . .” Li Jingyu felt that this classmate didn’t truly want to save him.
After confirming his comrades-in-arms’ safety, Luo Geng promptly grabbed Song Fei’s flashlight and signaled the other side a few times. This is the code that he and the main unit agreed upon, two flashes means all safe and one flash means trouble. Of course if there was a crisis and he couldn’t procure Song Fei’s flashlight in time, then he would just immediately scream bloody murder directly. Although it may attract the zombies that might be in other rooms on the fourth floor, under those circumstances, you wouldn’t be able to take all of that into consideration.
Zhou Yilu and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the flashlight signals.
Only—
Qiao Siqi was confused: “Since they’re safe, what are they doing wasting time over there?”
Lin Dilei took a guess: “Maybe they found other lucky survivors?”
Zhou Yilu made a face: “Only one or two is okay, but if there are more than ten then how are we all going to survive?”
Dark memories were aroused and the three of them fell silent.
After a while, Lin Dilei spoke in a low voice: “What were you guys thinking when you saved me?”
Qiao Siqi: “We didn’t have time to think, saving a life was more important.”
Lin Dilei smiled, but it rapidly faded away: “Then what should we do in the future?”
Qiao Siqi mulled it over carefully, then replied honestly: “If the ones we meet later are all b*stards like the ones from the supermarket, then I’ll turn to the dark side.”
Zhou Yilu was amused: “And how do you plan on doing that?”
Qiao Siqi rolled his eyes: “How would I know now ah. Oh, as a successor of an all-around education that is the driving force behind socialistic advancement for 19 years, now, you’re suddenly telling me now that society doesn’t need you to carry on its socialist ideals anymore and that you should just take yourself ba, would I suddenly know how to take?”
Zhou Yilu: “. . .”
Lin Dilei: “Why is it that every time I hear him insert English into Chinese that I always really want to beat him up?”
Zhou Yilu: “Me too.”
The windows of the library all mimicked the ancient grid window lattice design. Although this would affect how light would filter through, the school leaders inexplicably insisted on this classic ancient Chinese style which, as a result, the architect increased the number of windows as much as possible in order to ensure the illumination of the interior during the day.
The advantage with this type of window is that if you want to break in through it, you would only need to shatter a palm-sized section then reach a hand in to unlock it and mission accomplished. Followed up by finding a piece of copy paper or plastic bag to cover that little portion and them my mom wouldn’t need to be worried about me getting buffered by the cold winds!
—And so that’s exactly what Zhou Yilu did.
The three from that side entered the closed stacks but on this side, Wang Qingyuan and Li Jingyu’s bodies didn’t recover that quickly and because the three-man team wasn’t in a hurry, they just exchanged intel with each other first in the meantime.
Song Fei watched over Wang Qingyuan as he sat down, and the first sentence he blurted out was: “What about Xiang Yang and Ren Zhe?
This was something Song Fei wanted to know desperately, but when the words finally left his lips, he realized that he was afraid of hearing what the answer would be.
Wang Qingyuan shook his head lightly: “I don’t know.”
Song Fei was puzzled: “Weren’t you guys together?”
Wang Qingyuan explained as he recalled: “As soon as we sat down that day, Xiang Yang heard from a classmate who returned from outside the university that there was a pretty serious accident that was blown out of proportion in the Foreign Studies Institute the day before. Xiang Yang was a little worried about his girlfriend and the phones had no signal. So after seeing that he still had time and that it wouldn’t delay the exam in the afternoon with this one trip, he immediately headed for the Foreign Studies institute.”
Song Fei caught on: “Then Ren Zhe decided that he had to follow?”
Wang Qingyuan sighed then nodded.
—Ren Zhe has never let go of any opportunity in which he would be able to come into contact with a large number of female classmates. This kind of unrelenting spirit for courtship could be crowned as the glory of 440.
“I hope they’re okay.” At this moment, no news was the best news.
“Don’t worry,” Luo Geng comforted, “The Foreign Studies Institute is girls only and would a place where girls are present be lacking in food?
“. . .” This reasoning was flawless and Song Fei couldn’t find any words to refute that.
Then Li Jingyu on the other side told everyone about the situation in the library. In fact, it was the same situation in the canteen, at the supermarket, even in the dormitories. Quiet study was interrupted by the sudden chaos so he fled for his life in a panic. He and Wang Qingyuan could be considered to be really lucky that when the outbreak occurred they just so happened to be in the breakroom. Wang Qingyuan had promptly locked the door and so they made it through the disaster.
Of course, Li Jingyu refused to narrate their ten-day coffee tour that occurred afterwards.
In return, Song Fei also told the others what his team experienced in these past ten days, from the dormitory to the supermarket, then from the supermarket to the library. As for the incidents such as the jumpers, or the supermarket bullying, although he had passed them off with one sentence, both Wang Qingyuan and Li Jingyu could imagine it. After all, in these ten days, the activity they did the most was overthink. Just like the little match girl, they would drink a sip of coffee and conjure up beautiful visions. Sometimes it was their parents, sometimes their classmates, other times they would ride with the wind and overlook the thousands of miles of rivers and mountains in the motherland. Then the vision would dissipate, but supplement with another mouthful of coffee and the cycle would continue.
“What are your plans?” Wang Qingyuan asked.
Song Fei replied testily: “It’s not yours, it’s ours!”
Wang Qingyuan smiled: “En en, ours, what are our plans?”
“Go to the canteen.” The one who answered was Qi Yan, “The food we have is limited, it won’t last more than a few days. If we want to survive, then we have to get to the canteen.”
Wang Qingyuan pondered for a moment then lifted his gaze: “Is there a certainty for success?”
Qi Yan didn’t avoid his gaze: “No.”
Wang Qingyuan: “Then why not return to the supermarket?”
Qi Yan: “Going to the canteen is just slaughtering zombies, but going to the supermarket is a matter of killing people. In fact, both are feasible, it just depends on your choice.”
Wang Qingyuan: “Both sound plausible.”
Qi Yan: “So toss a coin?”
Wang Qingyuan: “They were all tossed into the coffee machine.”
一In the corner.
Li Jingyu asked quietly: “What are the three of them doing?”
Luo Geng answered concisely: “One is watching the other two show off.”
It wasn’t early anymore and the two lucky survivors seemed to have recovered some of their spirits. Luo Geng climbed back over to the closed stacks to give a detailed report on the situation while Qi Yan and Song Fei stayed behind. Soon after, the remaining companions came over to greet Li Jingyu and Wang Qingyuan one after another. They were able to put their guards down and relax completely now, especially after they heard that Wang Qingyuan was Song Fei’s roommate and Li Jingyu was Qi Yan’s close friend.
In the following two days, Li Jingyu and Wang Qingyuan both rested in the breakroom. Only after the third day, when they restored about 70-80% of their strength, did they follow the others to climb into the closed stacks.
Actually, the breakroom had a water source, the door lock was sturdy and reliable, and it’s hardware was actually slightly better than the closed stacks where a small piece of glass had been shattered. However, after only drinking, pissing, and sh* tting for ten days in there, the air wasn’t that fresh anymore. Besides, based on the principle of the more the merrier, and the fact that the five comrades-in-arms had now resolved where they would sh*t and piss as well— except Lin Dilei who sought a separate, isolated place on her own. And while the other companions were curious, under the eye daggers they received, they all wisely didn’t ask.
Li Jingyu immediately spotted the suitcase on the floor when he entered the stacks. He was stupefied on the spot and commented with overflowing admiration: “Running for your life with a vacation mentality, respect.”
“It’s not that exaggerated la, this is also for survival.” Lin Dilei hurried to explain.
Li Jingyu watched as she continued to pat toner on her face and felt that this explanation was very dry.
Zhou Yilu pulled the two of them to sit down and said: “Since the two of you have pretty much recovered, let’s analyze how we’ll take over the canteen.”
Li Jingyu gulped: “Actually, I haven’t fully recovered yet. . .”
Wang Qingyuan, who was next to him, already selected a fruit knife. His eyes were fixed on the sharp blade: “I want this one, it’s easier to use.”
Li Jingyu: “Don’t you think you’ve adapted way too quickly!”
Author's Chapter Summary:
A cup of coffee preserves life, eight brave heroes gather in the stacks!
The translator has something to say: Qi Yan can be so childish and Wang Qingyuan, best wingman? Also welcome our two new additions, brave heroes, step forth to receive your weapon and baptism into our sunflower crew!
Thank you for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter!
thanks for the chapter
Thank u for the chap<3
Thank you for the chapter 🥰
Thanks for the chapter 😘
Thank you for the chapter 💜
I like Li JingYu.