translator: transcendentwings
CW/TW
Mentions of death and suicide
In the second round of the Vending Machine Battle, Mighty and Unyielding Fighting for Survival Class 1 learned from Song Fei’s experience and watched their backs as they charged onwards. As such, they successfully took down the third floor with the whole process a copy and pasted version of round one.
After a short break between classes, the students whose confidence gained a huge boost started the reconnaissance for their third round— The layout of the second floor was unlike that of the third and fourth floor as it was mostly made up of large-scale reading and self-study rooms. The companions’ thoughts were very optimistic, they’d clean up any zombies in strategic zones first, and if it was impossible to clear them up, then they would switch to another room nearby. Anyway, as long as Song Fei and the others in the interference team had a place to take cover in general then it was doable.
However, they accounted for all of the possible accidents that may occur except for one.
It was the audio-visual collection and projection room located on the second floor in the southwest corner which was roughly perpendicular to Song Fei’s position during the first battle. However, different from the bright and clean windows in that archive room, because of the need to project materials from time to time, the curtains here were drawn all-year round and were specially selected to be made of heavy materials that were pretty much completely opaque.
This room wasn’t normally accessible to students so this was also the first time Song Fei and the rest of the group entered it as well. They followed the same method as the closed stacks and cut a small section of the glass, then opened the window. Only this time, they added one more step— drawing the heavy curtains open.
Qi Yan was the one who completed that action. It was unknown from what point in time, but he became Fight for Survival Class 1’s default striker and was always at the forefront in all of their actions as a group. He had no complaints nor any regrets and everyone trusted in him. Therefore, when Qi Yan pulled open the curtains, but didn’t take a step in even after a long time, everyone knew that something was wrong.
Very quickly, a stench wafted out. Without the glass to seal it, without the curtains to block it, the smell blasted them directly until they wanted to vomit.
The first assumption the group had was that it was zombies. However, looking back at the brief encounters with the zombies since the incident, although they carried a slight odor of spoiled food, it was still far less intense and rich.
In the end, only when Qi Yan stepped aside did everyone get the full view— the bodies of five classmates were curled up in the corner under a dazzling light that was shining for who knows how long.
They were tightly huddled together. Maybe too much time has passed since their time of death, but their facial features and the posture of their bodies were both deformed. However they didn’t seem injured. Even if they didn’t approach them, they could still clearly see that they were intact from head to toe, just like this audio-visual room with its clean, white walls and shiny floors.
—They were trapped to death in here.
Lin Dilei was the first one to cry out. She covered her mouth with her hand and tried to suppress her sobbing, but she couldn’t stop her tears and the back of her hand was soaked instantly.
Song Fei and the others also couldn’t bear to look anymore and turned their backs one by one to take huge breaths of the cold air outside.
Qi Yan dropped the curtains and didn’t speak for a long time.
In the past half of a month, they’ve seen too many zombies. So many that extreme fear and weakness became diminutive, that extreme nausea was completely whittled away into a new norm. However, in the face of classmates, they still couldn’t take it. They had also seen classmates being bitten, classmates jumping off the building, but when the former happened, they were mostly focused on trying to escape and while the latter happened late into the night. Never was it as close to home, in plain view, direct and tragic as it was now. It was like if they just closed their eyes, they would be teleported back to the pain and despair of that moment.
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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Perhaps they were all thinking of the same thing in their hearts— the tragedies of the past could be concealed by them, but what about the path before them, the day they are shrouded in misery, who will let them rest in peace?
The battle for the second floor ultimately didn’t take place. The direct reason that caused everyone to give up was that there were too many zombies. In fact, they already noticed it when they cleaned them up while they ran the first two instances of interference. When they cleared the last point and started to experiment with fixed-point tactics, it became exactly as they had expected. The cacophony generated by all of the second floor zombies running at once was enough to overwhelm the ring tones on the cell phones. The tactic of baiting in the west and attacking in the east would attract a portion of the zombies, but it definitely wouldn’t be all of them. As a matter of fact, they probably couldn’t even guarantee more than 60%. Under those circumstances, the comrades smashing the vending machine and blocking the staircase would be drawn into a dangerous situation.
After realizing that it wasn’t feasible, everyone gave up on it decisively and backtracked to the closed stacks.
Any plan had the possibility of failure, not to mention aiming for a place further away. Just discussing how to reach the Express Pickup Point made them alter their plan several times in a row, but never once was their fighting spirit so utterly routed like it was this time.
As for the reason, everyone had a mutual understanding, but no one was willing to speak of it and lay it out in the open.
The whole afternoon after returning to the closed stacks, everyone was reticent, just sitting by the window, lying on the books, leaning against the corner, or hiding in the bookcase. They didn’t communicate with each other and all tacitly fell into a heavy depression.
This continued until 6 PM when night fell.
In the past, the campus would be covered in splendid lights at this time, but after the zombie tide broke out, the lights that were on, were always on, regardless of night or day, and the lights that were off, were always off, regardless of day or night.
Those that were extinguished were more numerous than the ones that were still lit up.
Song Fei was leaning against the side of a bookcase, facing the window, and staring off into the night sky. In an attempt to forget the tragic sight in the audio-visual room, he forced himself to recall the small town that was his hometown. It was a simple and comfortable city, with no scenic spots and no former residences of great men, all it had were people living and working in peace and contentment. Vehicles constantly flowed on roads that couldn’t be considered too broad and the buildings lining both sides of the road weren’t too fancy. Even the train station in the city center was plain and simple.
At this moment and time, how many countless people were also staring out the window like this in that small town, not knowing where they would be tomorrow. Would it still be living and working peacefully with the lights on in their homes?
Song Fei hoped that it was the latter.
He bowed his head dejectedly, his cell phone still had no signal.
He still insisted on charging it every day, always thinking that it would ring at some inadvertent moment.
Yi?
Song Fei, who was so bored that he was idly swiping the screen with his fingers, suddenly paused as he blurted out in surprise: “Today is New Year’s!”
One sentence attracted the attention of all of his friends. Just like the surface of a lake that had just formed a thin layer of ice was smashed by a rock with a dong making the water flow again. Everyone pulled out their phones one after another—except for a select few classmates— and made their screens light up as they unlocked them. Amazingly, it was January 1st.
The first day of the new year.
They spent three-quarters of this day that they were originally supposed to spend bidding the old farewell while welcoming the new, in thrills, excitement, fighting, sorrow, and depression. When they discovered it, only six hours hours were left for them.
The eight of them looked at each other, Song Fei included, but they all couldn’t find a suitable expression to display for a while. Dazed? Bitter? Happy? Joyful? Couldn’t laugh or cry? None of them seemed fitting.
Zhou Yilu smiled bitterly and muttered to himself: “A new year, a new atmosphere, ah, it really is ironic.”
Everyone knew what he was referring to.
God gave them their first gift of the year— a spoiler.
“We will also become like that in the end ba.” Qiao Siqi gave voice to what was tumbling around in everyone’s hearts the entire afternoon, but no one dared to say.
The companions were all silent.
Only Song Fei, who like everyone else, had mulled over this question all afternoon, yet his answer was: “No.”
There was no exaltation of feigning bravery, only tranquility and tenacity.
Wang Qingyuan gave him a sideways glance and deliberately stated: “A good start is half the battle. The beginning of our new year doesn’t seem to be so good.”
Song Fei slipped the phone back into his pocket, with an infuriating look that said he was the boss, the heavens was second, no one’s words would trump his: “We didn’t realize it was New Year’s before, so it didn’t count. Therefore our New Year starts now!”
“Sureeeeee—” Wang Qingyuan shrugged as he chimed in and dragged out the syllable with a helpless tone, but a smile was already reflected in his eyes.
On the other end, Qi Yan was even more swift and had already piled the spoils of war on the “blanket of books”. He sat cross-legged and looked up at all of his comrades-in-arms: “What are you waiting for, let’s start ah!”
Even if the bunch of friends were foolish, they all still saw through it at this time, echoing each other as they pushed themselves to act entirely beyond their capabilities. . . The three of them were definitely well-coordinated enough to make their debut together!
“No matter what has already happened, from this moment onwards, it will be past tense.” Song Fei raised an AD Calcium Milk, “For the fact that we are unfortunately now a year older, cheers!”
AD Calcium Milk, Red Bull, boiled water, etc., various different drinks collided in the air with a not-at-all crisp sound, but the eyes of everyone who made the toast flashed with the same hopeful light—
“Happy New Year!”
Having been depressed all afternoon, the Fight for Survival Class 1 were like the college entrance examination candidates who finally saw the release of the examination ranking results after many arduous days of waiting. F*ck the future, laozi only wants to spend summer vacation happily right now!
Collectively taking a symbolic sip of the “wine”, everyone neatly uncovered the bowl noodles that had been soaked for a long time in one synchronized motion. Instantly, the fragrance of pickled vegetables overflowed in the closed stacks. The smell was so dear and familiar, so warm and soothing that it made everyone who was immersed in it feel that they should be able to live another five hundred years.
“This is our second holiday since the outbreak ba.” Luo Geng slurped up a mouthful of noodles and swallowed it without chewing. “No matter what you guys think, I feel better than last time. At least our team has increased its numbers, two vending machines have been successfully raided, and we didn’t meet any b*stards like we did previously. So during the next holiday and the holiday after that, our situation will only get better and better, for real.”
Qiao Siqi, who was drinking the instant noodle soup, became anxious when he heard this and nearly burned his tongue: “Why do we still have to spend the next holiday, and the holiday after that together? Can’t it be that we were successfully rescued and our entire class was able to graduate?!”
Luo Geng pondered it earnestly and nodded: “This proposal is fine too.”
Qiao Siqi made a face and a WTF almost rolled off the tip of his tongue.
The comrades-in-arms laughed uproariously and once they laughed enough, they started to chat about the canteen battle plan. After all, they already couldn’t stay at the library for that much longer and the canteen is the one and only option they could choose.
In fact, they already had a rough outline of the general scheme and only needed to work out a few kinks in the major critical actions that still need to be discussed and deliberated. Because everyone was eating and drinking, they weren’t so serious and conversed about whatever popped into their minds at that moment. There was no main topic for conversation nor a general scope for discussion. As a result, as they continued to talk, somehow they got onto the topic of the canteen’s renovations.
The first thing that was roasted was the glass window walls on the outside. The aggro that it accumulated with the comrades-in-arms simply pierced through the heavens. Following that, the doors, windows, glass, marble floors, even the row seats weren’t spared. Anyway, there was just nothing that the group was satisfied with.
The one who roasted it the most ferociously was definitely Zhou Yilu. While the others roasted it based on their emotions, he criticized it from a professional point of view. He lambasted it so fiercely that Song Fei started to feel some sympathy for this place that students relied on for survival and interrupted him straightforwardly: “Wei, you’re an architectural major ba. Shouldn’t those in architecture design the layouts of buildings or something, why do I feel like what all of your knowledge covers is in the field of redesign?”
Zhou Yilu side-eyed him: “I’d like to design buildings, but who’d let me design it ah. Did you think I would be able to become an architect as soon as I graduate ah. Let me tell you, it’d be pretty good if even 10% of those in our major can become architects. The rest either go into design or civil engineering and these are the ones who are better off, those who can’t find jobs and end up as floaters take up the majority.”
Song Fei was distressed and resonated with his feelings: “Did you think that those of us in travel management could manage scenic spots once we graduate? It’s already pretty decent to be able to become a tour guide.”
“Don’t you think we are too pitiful,” Luo Geng sighed and laid down in a “大” character position as he stared at the ceiling with a lost expression, “Since childhood, there has been nothing other than studying and getting into college. Now that we’ve finally made it to college, we have to stress over finding a job instead. . .”
Song Fei smiled bitterly: “At this point, I’d rather be distressed about finding a job.”
You don’t know what you have until you’ve already lost it, is a sentence that has been hackneyed by countless novels and movies. And Song Fei had treated it with a dismissive attitude. Only now did he understand that the reason why it was overused was because it really was very accurate— If time could reverse, then he would definitely turn over a new leaf and study hard, never wasting time in vain. Because the part of college life that he once thought was extremely dry and dull was the peace and happiness that he wanted to restore the most at this exact moment.
The author has something to say:
Celebrating New Year’s in the story while we are celebrating Chinese New Year. All of the friends commenting below, Happy New Year! Thank you for accompanying Zhuangzhuang in 2016 and in 2017, Zhuangzhuang will continue to work hard! Without you, there would be no I. I won’t say so much, heart! All of you, just get over here for a smooch!
Author's Chapter Summary:
Forget the past and events of old, it’s a new year with a new atmosphere!
The translator has something to say: so many emotions in this chapter. I love how our author-dada doesn’t shy away from the dark side, it makes the story seem so much more real
Thank you for the chapter!
Thank you so much for the chapter! 💖💖
I like how Song Fei was able to cheer everyone up, he looks at the bright side of things just like a sunflower hehe
Thanks for the chapter~~
Thank you for the chapter 💜