translator: transcendentwings
When the singing started up from the window on the first floor of the canteen, there were already zombies who had already exited the supermarket one after another, wandering aimlessly anew. Bright red and dark red marred their faces, clothes, and hands as the old blood was already dry and the new blood was still warm.
The kitchen window was on the north side facing the back of the canteen which was in the opposite direction of the main entrance of the supermarket. Thus, it was impossible to know what was going on outside from there, making Zhou Yilu, the three of them, just continued to proceed according to plan. After achieving an all-clear in the kitchen on the first floor, they began another serenading session to attract the zombies congregating below the tree in order to rescue the comrades on the tree who were responsible for luring them away initially.
“If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands~~ Papapa! If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands~~ Papapa!!!.”
The harmony of the three young men was majestic like a rainbow. Not only the zombies under the tree in the distance, but even Song Fei and Lin Dilei who were still immersed in their depressed emotions jumped in surprise. In addition, the portion of the song where clapping was prompted was replaced by their roars. The three reduplicated monosyllabic sounds were very rhythmic and dynamic under their hoarse voices and were quite avant-garde like B-Box and western music.
The two who were on the south side of the roof staring in the direction of the supermarket immediately leapt up and dashed to the north side. They clung to the edge of the eaves and then cast their gaze downwards. The sound seemed to drift upwards from the easternmost window on the first floor, but because the window panels opened inwards, nothing could be seen from the roof, so Song Fei and Lin Dilei couldn’t pinpoint which window the trio of men were singing from.
However, the thunderous voices had a remarkable effect as there were already zombies running over from the west side. In the blink of an eye, the fastest three contestants had already arrived to the east side of the ground floor and dozens of others followed in the distance.
The window pane was slammed shut with a guang sound.
Soon after, the same clapping song rang out from the window around the middle of the first floor, but this time the chorus of three people dropped into a duet. Regardless, to the hoard of zombies that had gathered at the base of the building, this volume was sufficient.
The zombies who ran to the east side first were confused briefly and then ultimately still followed the source of the sound. The zombies who arrived later, however, stopped running further ahead and all crowded around the central area at the base of the building.
This was their plan. In order to prevent zombies from besieging the window panes, they must rotate attack positions to bait them. First the easternmost, then the central area, and finally randomly selected loci between these two sites. In short, the goal was to keep the zombies firmly attracted to the central area, leaning towards the eastern section of the ground floor so that the harassment team on the west side could dash over smoothly and vault over the westernmost window on the first floor. Thus, after the initial clapping, someone must split off and be assigned to the westernmost window on the look out to immediately open it when they see their comrades.
The plan was easier said than done and only when they actually carried it out did they understand how dangerous it actually was. Putting aside the fact of whether all of the zombies lurking under the tree could be attracted in the first place, just rotating numerous points one by one was a very arduous job. The so-called multifocal points, were in fact at very close intervals, it was nothing more than moving from this window to that window. With so many zombies clustered together, just standing still, the range already covered three or four windows so the singer could only close the window and migrate to another three to four windows away. However, even from this window three to four down, the true distance from the nearest zombie may only be merely a few meters away which was a distance the other party could close in two steps. This was why the policy was to open the windows steadily, accurately, and decisively while closing the windows only involved speed, speed, and more speed!
The most direct result was that the song being sung became shorter and shorter. After a few times, the first half of the beautiful melody was completely omitted by their comrades and only papapa rang out the instant the window was opened!
This was not only an issue of danger, but also a problem of efficiency. Such a short song simply didn’t have enough time to attract all of the zombies to a certain focal point. Over time, there were inevitably zombies in front of every window from the central area to the east side and the companions became unable to open any window! If at that time, there were still zombies under the tree, and they were unable to be continuously lured over to the canteen, then it would only spell disaster for the comrades squatting in the tree!
Song Fei sprung up and cast his gaze westward, sure enough, there were still more than a dozen zombies under the tree unmoved by the singing, and resolutely waiting for the fruits of their efforts! However, why were there three silhouettes on the tree? Looking at that height, it seemed to be Li Jingyu, but didn’t he charge into the canteen with himself and Lin Dilei? How did he end up hanging on the tree in the opposite direction?
Song Fei was puzzled, but the current situation didn’t allow him to conduct an in-depth analysis of such a miraculous event because the clapping sounds from below stopped suddenly and the zombies seemed to have begun dispersing.
Song Fei was extremely anxious. He had a lot of energy but distant waters were unable to quench the present thirst. . . f*ck! Song Fei suddenly gave himself a slap on the forehead and almost swore. He had only been fixated on the original plan, how could he have forgotten that he and Lin Dilei themselves had already deviated from it. Now was the time to make the best out of a mistake already made!
Taking a deep breath, Song Fei hollered at the top of his lungs: “Lin Dilei and I are on the roof, we’ll sing, you guys just take responsibility for receiving—”
The final syllable for “Ying echoed in the air for a long time. Only when it was about to fade completely did the sound of a window opening up again travel up from below as Zhou Yilu’s inquiry drifted upwards–
“Song Fei?”
Song Fei made a face: “You don’t need to go out of your way to confirm identities at this time!!!”
As the window was drawn shut again, Song Fei dragged Lin Dilei to the northeast corner of the roof. He didn’t dare delay any longer and hastily commanded: “Together!”
Lin Dilei understood that he meant for them to sing together, but she was stuck in the conundrum of having the heart to, but not the knowledge to do so: “I may. . . No, I definitely can’t keep up with your playlist.”
Song Fei didn’t believe in this hearsay and furrowed his eyebrows as he racked his brains for a solution. Finally, his eyes lit up as he was abruptly enlightened: “This song is simple, I’ll sing, and you’ll just follow along and shout the second half of it! Also, after listening to it twice, I guarantee that you’ll be able to sing it as well!”
The tree shaded avenue, fifth tree.
Li Jingyu was already frozen to the point that he could barely hold on and the snow was only getting bigger and heavier, from shattered gem fragments into two carats, and from the looks of it, it was competing to become the size of pigeon eggs. There were still thirteen zombies beneath the tree, from the number to the appearance, all were unfavorable and unfriendly.
And the worse thing was—
Li Jingyu: “Why did the papapa stop?”
Qi Yan pushed aside the branch that was poking at him as a shadow settled above his brow: “The distance between the windows is too close. Didn’t you realize that the singing intervals were getting shorter and shorter, that means the opportunities available for them to open the windows were also getting shortened.”
Li Jingyu wanted to cry: “But our downstairs neighbors haven’t been completely cleaned up yet, what should we do?”
Wang Qingyuan at the topmost location sent down an indifferent answer: “Go down with force.”
Li Jingyu raised his head tremblingly and bypassed Qi Yan to look at Wang Qingyuan: “How. . . much force?”
Wang Qingyuan smiled at him: “Three against thirteen.”
If it wasn’t for the fact that he was too far away, Li Jingyu wanted to scratch him: “What’s the difference between that and suicide!”
The one who responded was Qi Yan: “At least it’d take more time to die.”
Li Jingyu: “. . .”
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.
Why did he have to climb up this tree!!!
Ljio j wlceaf ijafg.
Hl Tjc: “Cgf sbe gfjvs?”
Wang Qingyuan: “En.”
Ol Aecuse: “Cyrbieafis. Rba. Ca jii!”
Hl Tjc: “Ccs wbgf vfijs jcv atf hbwylfr atja kfgf jigfjvs iegfv jkjs klii gfaegc jcv atfc kf’ii gfjiis yf ifoa klat cb wfjcr obg regnlnji. Dfrlvfr, vlvc’a sbe tjnf j gjmf klat atf hbwylfr pera cbk jcv ifjnf atfw lc atf vera? P tjnf ojlat lc sbe.”
Li Jingyu: “Aowu, I just knew that you’re still holding a grudge over me for beating you at the sports meet. . .”
Qi Yan: “How could I, I really amn’t la.”
Wang Qingyuan: “A sudden coy denial is entirely unconvincing.”
Qi Yan smiled, but quickly returned to sternness, after all, time waits for no one: “I’ll count one, two, three, and we’ll all jump down. Pull up the zipper on your clothes, wear the hood on your down jackets, however tightly you can wrap yourself, do it. Their teeth are still ordinary people’s teeth, even if they bite through the padded clothing, they may not be able to draw blood, and even if they draw blood, it may not get contaminated by their saliva. The areas that are most vulnerable are the neck and hands. Remember, don’t engage with them. Our advantage is in our agility and our only goal is to sprint as fast as we can to the base of the westernmost window. OK?”
Wang Qingyuan who had already made his way onto a lower branch: “OK.”
Li Jingyu took a deep breath and slowly exhaled: “Ready.”
Qi Yan clenched a can of Red Bull he had fished out from his backpack and chucked it hard. The Red Bull flew past the heads of the zombies and landed on the asphalt road dozens of meters away. With a pa sound, the can burst!
As soon as the aluminum can was launched outwards, the zombies already instinctively followed it with their eyes. In the end, with the sound of it exploding, it attracted their attention briefly albeit firmly.
Qi Yan narrowed his eyes rapidly, the time was now!
“One, two. . .”
“Lin Dilei and I are on the roof, we’ll sing, you guys just take responsibility for receiving—”
“SSS. . . Wait a minute!”
Qi Yan felt very fortunate that he si-ed for a long time and didn’t si into a san, pulling the emergency break successfully. The wind and snow brought the holler from the roof word by word into their ears, clearly and audibly.
Wang Qingyuan retrieved the leg that he had dangled in midair and his tense nerves relaxed slightly. Although it seemed like his heart took a ride on a roller coaster, having miracle soldiers descend the heavens was definitely better than crossing a mountain of swords and a sea of fire.
However, Wang Qingyuan still looked up in the direction the voice was transmitted from: “How did he end up on the roof?”
“I don’t know,” the corner of Qi Yan’s lips curled upwards and his eyes brightened, “He always had all kinds of weird methods.”
Wang Qingyuan made a face: “He was the one who climbed onto the roof, so what are you acting all proud for.”
Qi Yan was stunned and seemed to realize that this was the first time he felt prideful because of Song Fei. It wasn’t because he liked this person, so it was easier for him to see the other through rose-tinted glasses, rather it was because the way the other shined was really dazzling. So when others also stumble upon this realization later, as the person who unearthed this treasure first, he felt pride in having exceptional vision.
But did he really have exceptional vision?
If there was no viral outbreak, if this disaster didn’t exist, would he still have come to find and learn about Song Fei from a new perspective? He had no confidence. He may have continued to stay immersed in his one-sided denial of the other party and have continued to regard his own foolishness as rationality, his rough negligence as progress.
Fortunately, he still had a chance to make amends.
Thinking as such, Qi Yan raised his brow at Wang Qingyuan: “I have such a great eye, why can’t I be proud?”
Wang Qingyuan rolled his eyes and was about to roast him when Li Jingyu’s miserable voice drifted up from below—
“Can you two pull me up before continuing to chat idly. . .”
The two were startled and swiftly looked down, only to find Li Jingyu grasping a branch at the lowest part of the tree canopy with both hands in a death grip. His entire body was dangling in midair and was swinging back and forth in the night wind.
Qi Yan made a face and rummaged through his backpack for a rope while he asked: “Why did you jump down?”
Li Jingyu was sorely innocent: “You said you’d shout one, two, three, then jump ah!”
Wang Qingyuan was also puzzled: “He didn’t yell three in the end though.”
The rope was finally steadily lowered and Li Jingyu stretched out his hands to grab it with all of his strength: “Wasn’t I afraid that if I hesitated before I jumped and landed later, I would be looked down upon by you guys!!!”
Just when Li Jingyu was hauled up half a meter by Qi Yan, he hadn’t reached a safe branch yet when a husky male and female duet was like Pangu’s giant axe that created heaven and earth, splitting the firmament—
Song Fei: “Where did all the good men die off to, die off to la~~~”
Song, Lin: “Die off to, die off to!”
Song Fei: “Good women are in long queues waiting to be married off~~~”
Song, Lin: “Waiting to be married off, waiting to be married off!”
Song Fei: “It’s a little frightening watching the people coming and going on the streets~~ Where is the Prince Charming in my heart hiding ah~~”
Song, Lin: “Hiding where, hiding where ah!”
Lin Dilei: “F*ck me, I’ve learned it now!”
Song Fei: “What did I say, let’er rip!”
Song, Lin: “Where did all the good men die off to, die off to la~~~ Good women are in long queues waiting to be married off~~~”
Little Whale’s was startled and almost let go of the rope.
Qi Yan was prepared for it, but still needed two seconds to recover before he was able to stabilize his mind.
Wang Qingyuan held his forehead. When their dormitory room went to K to sing, he had personally witnessed the lethality of Song Fei’s library of local music that was comparable to weapons of mass destruction. It couldn’t be helped that as long as the other still breathed, the updates were forever forthcoming.
The reaction from the zombies was much more enthusiastic than before. First, two of them charged over without sparing any looks back and following that, when Song Fei and Lin Dilei cycled back to the chorus for the third time, there wasn’t even one left underneath the tree.
The three of them on the tree exchanged looks and were flooded with emotions—
Li Jingyu: “Was it really necessary for them to barrel over so quickly ah.”
Qi Yan: “An amazing tune, truly miraculous, a legend at birth.”
Wang Qingyuan: “I get the feeling that they already can’t wait to take a bite out of them.”
No matter, now was the perfect opportunity!
Qi Yan: “This time when I count one, two, three, we’re really going to jump ah.”
Wang Qingyuan: “En.”
Li Jingyu: “You two first!”
Northeast corner of the roof.
Song Fei and Lin Dilei were choking on the cold winds as they roared their legendary tune, their faces were flushed thoroughly red because of the lack of oxygen, but the two of them didn’t dare to relax for even a moment. The song may be mischievous, but running for your life was no joke. Now, almost all of the zombies were assembled at the bottom of the eastern wing. All they needed to do was preserve, stick it out some more!
Finally, the figures of their three comrades appeared at the tip of the northwestern corner of the building, and almost in the blink of an eye, they vaulted into the westernmost window on the ground floor one after another. Following the guang sound of the window being slammed shut thoroughly and securely, the singing stopped abruptly and Song Fei and Lin Dilei finally let go of their hanging hearts.
At some unknown point in time, the roof and the ground were blanketed in a thin layer of white. Although it didn’t completely cover the color of the ground, Song Fei and Lin Dilei could both still feel the sharp drop in temperature. This was a snow shower drastically different from the one during the daytime. It lost the softness of rain and only contained the biting chill.
“They are safe now, but how are we going to get down?” Lin Dilei sniffled from the cold and inquired helplessly, “We can’t use the stairs, right?”
Song Fei looked around and only saw the neatly arranged oil fume exhaust pipes on the roof of the canteen, other than that, it was entirely barren.
After pondering for a moment, he asked Lin Dilei: “Do you still have a rope in your bag?” His own was already wrapped around the door handles.
Lin Dilei got the gist of his intentions and speedily dug the rope out of her bag and handed it over to him.
Song Fei tied the rope to the closest welded iron band that was used to secure the exhaust pipes to the roof at the northwest corner. After tying it, he pulled on it twice to ensure its stability, only then did he toss the other end of the rope downwards.
Lin Dilei walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. The rope just so happened to dangle two-thirds of the way down to the second floor window. The rope originally wasn’t prepared for climbing the building so its length was already limited. Just coiling it up tightly and placing it in the bag as it was, already made it take up quite a bit of space. However at this moment, Lin Dilei wished that if only the rope was a little longer, just a teeny bit longer.
“It’s still at least more than five meters to the ground. . .” Lin Dilei pointed out to Song Fei hesitantly, “Do you think we can still make it?”
Song Fei mulled it over very thoroughly and analyzed: “I’m 176, you’re 172, if we hold the end of the rope vertically, our feet will only be a little over three meters away from the ground. A mere three meters and a bit, I think that we should give it a shot.”
Lin Dilei listened to Song Fei “what if”, then “ba” for a while, and then “I think”, these phrases all offered no sense of security so she was unable to set aside her concerns: “Why don’t we just take another swing at the stairs, what if it actually works ne.”
Choosing between whether the probability of getting injured from jumping down from a height of more than three meters was higher or if the probability of getting gnawed to death in a hoard of zombies was higher wasn’t a hard choice to make. So very quickly, the six comrades in the kitchen on the first floor who were fraught with anxiety heard a cry from the roof—
“We’re going to climb down using a rope, be prepared to wait upon us at any time from the first window on the west side!”
The six classmates looked at each other and rolled their eyes. In the end, the representative Qiao Siqi quickly opened the window and responded: “The red carpet is already laid out for you, the two of you honorable personages should just hurry up ba—”
Song Fei didn’t inform them that the rope wasn’t long enough. Since there was no solution to this problem, saying it would only cause them unnecessary anxiety.
After rubbing his palms vigorously until they regained a bit of warmth, Song Fei picked up the rope and walked to the edge of the roof. He turned his back to the open air and instructed Lin Dilei: “I’ll descend first, you should observe carefully. If you see that the situation isn’t looking good, just think of another way. Don’t take the stairs unless there really is no other way.”
Lin Dilei blinked her eyes hard, forcing the heat back, and snapped angrily: “What do you mean by the situation not looking good, the situation has never been right! You must touchdown safely!”
Song Fei bared two rows of his snow-white teeth: “En!”
The palms of his hands were already slightly damp. Song Fei loosened up his grip a little, calmly adjusted his breathing, and then swiftly grasped it tight anew. He took a step back, and the rope was pulled taut instantly!
The curtain of glass windows provided even less friction amidst the snow and Song Fei’s foot slipped the moment he stepped on it. Fortunately, he was able to rapidly adjust his balance and refocus his center of gravity on the upper half of his body. Most of the leveraging force was concentrated in his upper body, while his feet just acted as a simple pivot.
When he reached the middle of the layer of glass on the third floor, he basically didn’t even need a fulcrum and just kept his body upright, relying on his alternating tight and loose grip strength to support himself and slid down.
Accompanying the rope burn on his palms, the speed of his vertical descent was significantly higher than before.
After an unknown amount of time passed, maybe it was only a couple of minutes or maybe it was an entire century, but Song Fei finally reached the middle of the second floor. There was still a short length of rope dangling beneath his hands, but he didn’t dare to continue rappelling downwards. The consequences of him accidentally losing his grip and him jumping down voluntarily were two completely different scenarios.
Lin Dilei’s singing rose again from the northeast corner of the roof and Song Fei knew that this was her attempt to help him contain the zombies wandering down below. At this time the area below his feet was about thirty to forty meters away from the hoard of zombies on the east side. He had never been so tearfully grateful for the vastness of the area covered by the canteen in his alma mater.
Without further ado, Song Fei lowered his head to gauge the situation below. Even though the height made his heart tremble, and even though he was facing the concrete floor directly, luckily there was some shrubbery about a meter and a half away. He only needed to descend obliquely, avoid the brutal concrete ground, land on the soil, and there would still be some hope.
He shouldn’t hesitate any longer!
Song Fei retracted his gaze, He maintained a vertical position by turning his back away from the building, steadily raised his right foot, allowing his toes to press against the glass, and then kicked off hard!
The rope swayed outwards and was about to reach the maximum angle!
Song Fei. . . froze.
His body swung back with the momentum of the rope and he smacked into the glass on the second floor with a guang!
There was only some residual back and forth swaying before it finally came to a rest. Song Fei was still holding onto the rope that was pulled taut vertically, but his expression had changed from a martyr’s to extreme surprise. His eyes were open so wide that his eyeballs seemed like they might fall out.
Ka.
The window pane that was closest to him was opened from the inside and the youthful face that was having a stare down with Song Fei through the window before became so clear that even his pores could be seen now that the barrier of glass wasn’t in the way.
It was a bald male classmate. Either his hair was trimmed very short, or it was completely smooth and clean like an eggshell, but he had a handsome face, so handsome that sporting such a hairstyle couldn’t hide how handsome he was.
“A person?” The male classmate’s voice sounded very pleasant, low and a little husky.
Song Fei nodded his head in a daze: “Should be. . . yes.”
The male classmate looked at his rope set up: “Where are you going?”
Song Fei answered honestly: “The first floor.”
The male classmate nodded his head, relieved: “Pay attention to your safety.”
Song Fei replied in a conditioned reflex: “I will.”
Guang!
“. . .” Song Fei finally snapped out of his trance that was due to the other’s looks, “Who the f*ck allowed you to close the window. If I have you, why would I jump down from the building ah!!!
Behind the first window in the northwest corner of the first floor, Qi Yan, who had been holding his breath and scrutinizing the outside for a long time, didn’t meet the beauty he had expected and only got the beauty’s angry roar instead.
The companions who were similarly on standby together exchanged glances—
Zhou Yilu, Luo Geng, Li Jingyu: “It sounds like it’s from upstairs?”
Qiao Siqi, Wang Qingyuan: “It sounds like cheating.”
Qi Yan: “. . .”
Author's Chapter Summary:
A meeting by chance is always part of fate, dangling in midair to flirt with a beauty!
The translator has something to say: Qi Yan is really becoming more and more likeable and is this a new comrade I see?
P.S. Also from what I’ve seen, most of you guys are all okay with the translator’s notes as is, so I’ll continue on with them as I have. Also thank you for all of the well wishes! The same goes to all of you as well!
Thank you for the chapter!
Ah poor Qi Yah not another rival? The beauty can’t be caught like this! I expected Qi Yan to catch his man
😭
I laughed when Song Fei sing the song of 好男人都死哪去了. So funny when I heard it from the audio drama.
Thanks for the chapter