Zombie UniversityCh4 - Canteen Encounter

Translator: phizzlepop

Editor: mantou ftkGAW

Qi Yan took second place in the end, while first place went to the Department of Liberal Arts. At first, no one took the plain-looking boy very seriously, but during the last five laps, he was neck and neck with Qi Yan, while the remaining opponents had all been left in the dust. Qi Yan was tall with long legs, and took long strides while running, maintaining a steady rhythm, a pleasant feast for the eyes. That student was a solid head shorter than Qi Yan, his stride length at a disadvantage, but his step frequency superior, so when he ran, there was a special kind of determination.

Song Fei was clutching his phone, but during the second half, his eyes practically never left the field. He could tell that Qi Yan had already tried his best, but ultimately, still was three steps behind his opponent when he crossed the finish line. The broadcast congratulated the Department of Liberal Arts on placing first, and the Department of Life Sciences on placing second, while also announcing the names of the athletes. Song Fei wasn’t really listening, all of his attention focused on Qi Yan.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

That person was hunched over with his hands on his knees, still trying to catch his breath. Song Fei knew that he was already exhausted to the max, and that final sprint was just him trying to surpass his limits. If it was him, Song Fei thought, by now he would’ve collapsed with a loud bang and lay sprawled across the floor, doing whatever he wanted to do. But that was Qi Yan, who had to maintain his image no matter what. Who knew whether this kind of near-abnormal self-discipline was the result of nature or nurture.

The finish line was near Song Fei’s zone. If Qi Yan looked over at this time, he would absolutely be able to meet Song Fei’s gaze. Plus, Song Fei and them all had identical, bright white uniforms on, so not locking onto them was difficult. But from beginning to end, Qi Yan kept his back to this side. Up until he left the sports field, he still hadn’t looked over at all. eC8omX

Roasting him was a separate matter, Song Fei still honestly felt sorry for him. With this guy’s personality, not taking first place was equal to failure, there was no difference between second place and last place. Thinking of this, then looking at the lonely view of his back, he still felt some heartache despite himself.

The sports meet lasted two days. On the afternoon of the second day, the Sports program students who had busied themselves with organizing the matches, and holding key positions such as referees, scorekeepers, and so on, finally transformed from floor-sweeping monks— the exhibition matches began.

Usually, there was no harm without comparison. But, when the disparity between two people was too great, even if the weak were taken out of the equation, the strong would still make you stare dumbfounded. The skilled athletes were just like a huge gust of wind, whooshing right past in a split second, not giving nearly enough time to catch even a glimpse of a figure with the naked eye, leaving only the clamor and dust behind in their wake.

In the end, the 440 classmates came to a conclusion— each area of expertise had its own knowledge and skillset. Best if we just obediently practice Tai Chi, ba.

As the curtain came down on the sports meet, the weather gradually shifted and became colder. Some of the tender broad-leaved trees on campus had already begun to yellow. Occasionally, a few leaves would flutter along the wind and land on the conifers still proudly standing tall and straight. The golden leaves paired with the dark green pine needles gave off a unique sense of beauty.

Song Fei had resumed his exclusive, regular schedule— taking compulsory courses, skipping elective courses, catching up on new series, and scrolling through his phone. But after a week of this, he was beginning to feel awkward. Normally, the dormitory would only have Wang Qingyuan either reading or doing practice questions by himself. Xiang Yang would usually be off on his phone being affectionate with his wife, while it was difficult to even catch a glimpse of Ren Zhe’s figure from dawn till dusk except in classes, as he was either picking up girls or en route to pick up girls. But in the past few days, 440 was filled to capacity day after day, and with the exception of Song Fei holding onto his laptop, the remaining three were all hard at work at their desks. The two words “very diligent” could virtually be seen just by looking at their backs.

Since he had no classes this afternoon, Song Fei slept until the evening. Originally it’d been a great time, but it ended tragically when he “woke up with a start to a bizarre and terrifying silence”. Saying it this way was because this type of silence wasn’t a pure silence, but was 99% silence + 1% subtle, low-decibel sound. This low-decibel sound was a combination of the occasional hualala from the flipping of a book and the tip of a pencil scratching shashasha at a piece of paper. When placed against a backdrop of 99% silence, it was especially “stimulating”.

When Song Fei sat up in his loft bed, the setting sun was just perfect. A warm and gentle halo of light shrouded 440, along with the “muddleheaded one” up on the loft bed and the three “good students” down at their desks. The backs of his roommates hunched over their desks at this moment perfectly coincided with his ex-boyfriend’s, and a sense of horror akin to “coming out of a tiger's den just to enter a wolf's den” emerged within Song-tongxue who had already weathered many a storm. 9PtaKi

“Ke,” Song Fei cleared his throat, and asked very cautiously, “Um, may I interrupt your two esteemed selves for a bit?”

These words were said to three people, but Wang Qingyuan very tacitly didn’t move in the slightest, while Xiang Yang and Ren Zhe raised their heads enthusiastically—

”What’s up?”

”What is it?” zdltNW

Song Fei was very gratified. At least his roommates were still aware of their own identities.

“It should be me asking you two that ba. Are you guys bewitched or possessed, being this studious like you’re trying to send yourselves straight to the heavens?”

Ren Zhe gave Xiang Yang a look, signaling, you say it.

The latter nodded, looked up and over, gently persuading, “Comrade, grinding the spear a moment before the fight, even if it’s not sharp, at least it’s still bright ah.” 5LlD8

Song Fei seemed to be able to see the practice question book on the other’s desk emit blinding, multi-colored rays of light.

“The problem is, haven’t you both passed the CET-4 already?” It wounded him to say it out loud, but Song Fei couldn’t afford to care anymore. He had to defend his dignity as “the only real man of steel who disdained passing the CET-4″.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

At this, the two roommates looked at each other, finally replying unanimously, “Yes ah, so we’re reviewing for the CET-6.”

Now was Song Fei’s turn to be stunned silly. He suspected he was having auditory hallucinations. “You two want to take the CET-6? Yang-zi, didn’t you say before that you’d never touch any more English books in your entire life after the CET-4 ma, not even for compulsory courses! Ren Zhe, Chinese should be a universal language around the world, wasn’t this something you said? 7zS8Mm

Xiang Yang put down his pencil, and as if chasing the memories of his youth that had slipped away like flowing water, his carefree and unrestrained self, there was a faraway look in his misty eyes. A short while later, the mist dispersed, leaving only bleakness behind, and he looked toward Song Fei and heaved a faint sigh, “Young one, you don’t understand. There’s a type of studious called, your wife thinks you ought to be studious.”

Song Fei swallowed a bit, and had a sudden urge to give Xiang-tongxue a comforting hug.

“And you? It’s not like you have a wife ba.” Xiang Yang’s helplessness was understandable, but there was hardly an explanation for Ren Zhe’s efforts ah.

Unexpectedly, Ren Zhe gracefully flipped his luscious hair, “Buddy, have you not woken up to reality ma. There are less than three years left for us to pick up girls by relying on academic performance. Laziness in youth spells regret in old age!” wpdOtT

Song Fei swallowed a bit once more, at last feeling that going back to sleep would truly be a sin worthy of capital punishment.

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.

“I’ll go downstairs and fetch some water, anyone need some…” Song Fei jumped off the bed and decided to go to the water room to readjust his state of mind.

Qjcu Hlcusejc: “Rb.”

Efc Itf: “Aera uba rbwf atlr joafgcbbc.” NZkJvK

Wljcu Tjcu: “P’ii ub lc j yla, jcv ugjy j ylaf lc atf mjcaffc ktlif P’w ja la.”

Upon stepping foot into university as deep as the sea, thenceforth, an academic underachiever became a passerby. They didn’t even need him anymore for things like fetching water. Song Fei felt sorrow welling up inside him.

Snfg rlcmf atflg lwwfgrlbc tfjafgr tjv yffc mbcolrmjafv jcv atfs’v yffc rlcuifv bea jcv mglalmlhfv ys atf jvnlrbg, Vbcu Mfl’r vbgwlabgs tjv xfqa atflg cbrfr mifjc, jcv ygbeuta atflg atfgwbrfr vbkcrajlgr ab ofamt kjafg atfrf vjsr. Vbcu Mfl kjr ublcu ab ub fja olgra yfobgf ofamtlcu kjafg, rb tf qea tlr fwfgjiv ugffc atfgwbr lc ogbca bo atf kjafg gbbw jwbcu atf ybecvifrr rfj bo atfgwbrfr, nfgs mbcrmlfcalberis qgbqqlcu la eq jujlcra atf ecvfgrlvf bo atf kjafg gbbw’r klcvbkrlii. Ycf, yfmjerf atlr ibmjalbc kjr fjrs ab gfwfwyfg, jcv akb, yfmjerf atf klcvbk tjv rfmeglas yjgr bc la, rb tf mbeiv mbcnfclfcais erf atf ylmsmif ibmx atja tf ygbeuta fnfgsktfgf klat tlw ab rfmegfis ibmx eq tlr atfgwbr ab jc lgbc ugliif.

Fire-prevention, theft-prevention, thermos loss-prevention, what a painful realization. melZsq

The canteen right at five o’clock was completely deserted. The dishes weren’t out yet, let alone the students. At a glance, there were only a few heads around, and the rest were rows upon rows of empty plastic stools. Song Fei walked straight to the first window, got a helping of white rice, then shifted over to the second window. As expected, the new dish had already been eagerly put out again.

“You’re here pretty early today ah.” The aunties who served food in this area year round all recognized Song Fei. There were students who dared to challenge the new dishes, but those who always came to challenge new dishes were unicorns, and over the course of time, she no longer had the heart to display her “wrist shaking” skill as she was serving food.

“En, no class.” Song Fei gave a well-behaved smile, but all of his attention was in fact on the dish. The alternating reds and whites of the new dish stirred up his fond memories of practicing the Tai Chi fan. But even for him, who had already sampled countless dishes, he was a little uncertain about this one, “Auntie, what’s this one today?”

“Stir-fried rice cake with watermelon.” 5n uUP

“Okay, I’ll have a helping of mapo tofu.”

—Song Fei liked tasting new things, but also wasn’t lacking in discernment.

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

While he was in the middle of his meal, the canteen started to fill up with people. There was still at least half an hour before the peak period, so Song Fei didn’t mind too much, and continued to eat his own food. Right up until someone sat down opposite him.

Song Fei’s first reaction was to furrow his brow. He raised his head, wanting to say, tongxue, there are lots of seats over there, why bother squeezing in with me like this. But, once he saw Qi Yan’s face, he instantly choked. Fortunately, he was eating tofu, and not meat, so he just barely managed to swallow it. jUTy2V

“What a coincidence.” Qi Yan was smiling with that same old look of harmony and friendship.

Song Fei scrutinized the alternating reds and whites on his plate, and couldn’t help but ask, “Did you even ask what this dish was before you got a helping?”

Qi Yan, without any hesitation: “No need to ask. You can tell at a glance, it’s stir-fried rice cake with watermelon.”

Song Fei had nothing to say in response. Only admiration was left. xRiUfr

Fine, since he could already tell, then he wouldn’t delve into this topic any further. But, the problem was: “You didn’t have such heavy tastes before…” He remembered that when they were together, every time he got a helping of a new dish, it would always provoke the other into looking speechlessly towards the sky.

Qi Yan froze for a bit, then lowered his head and began to eat, “Occasionally, it’s good to switch things up.”

Song Fei couldn’t see his expression clearly, and only felt that the atmosphere between the two of them was a bit odd. But as for what part was odd, he couldn’t tell either. Luckily, this trying, subtle feeling was soon blown away by the other’s “hard to describe” expression.

Song Fei held back a laugh, “Come, warrior, give us a taste test review.” VhDirs

Qi Yan spat out the rice cake, and unprecedentedly spoke one word, “F*ck.”

It forced this triple-merit student to swear while ultimately gifting the leftovers to the food scrap cart. Qi Yan stiffly scraped himself one-third a share of Song Fei’s mapo tofu. Even if the food serving auntie hadn’t skimped ba, he really couldn’t bear to share like this ah. Also, why did it seem like there was something off about the two of them eating from one dish. Towards the end, Song Fei really couldn’t carry on like this anymore, and went to get a helping of kung pao chicken. But, Qi-tongxue wasn’t polite at all, and his chopsticks also went over and poked at the diced chicken.

Song Fei was angered, “Exactly which one are you going to eat?”

Qi Yan’s face specked with grains of rice was full of confusion and innocence, “Can’t the two of us eat it together, ma…” QCbvnw

Song Fei had a helpless look on his face. When he thought about it, it seemed that he could only answer like this, “There’s no particular reason we can’t…”

Qi Yan was beaming again. With the grain of rice stuck at the corner of his mouth, his face value magically climbed up several steps again.

Song Fei was almost blinded, so he simply stopped looking at him, and lowered his head to fiddle with his rice.

Actually, when Qi Yan wasn’t criticizing him, he was pretty nice, like just now, cool with a touch of softness, handsomeness hiding adorableness. Like that one time back then, when he’d fantasized about being on top and… forget it, the past shouldn’t be brought up anymore, life was already full of storms. AhuZFr

“By the way, don’t go out these days if you don’t have to,” Qi Yan suddenly put down his chopsticks, all of that soft cuteness gone without a trace, the usual imperativeness back again.

Song Fei subconsciously wanted to contradict him, “Like it’s any of your business.”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Qi Yan’s brow wrinkled, and it was clear he was trying hard to be patient, “A student from the Archaeology program is dead, you know?”

Song Fei was alarmed, “Really dead? Didn’t they say that he lost contact, or that he dropped out of school himself.” hWEnQ8

Qi Yan felt defeated. “You live on the same floor as him ba, so how are you still this easy to fool. In the end, is that head of yours actually filled with tofu or with paste!”

Neither option was very popular with Song-tongxue.

Qi Yan, however, was feeling refreshed. He’d found that using love to inspire change was too tiring, while directly firing shots back was far more comfortable. “Really dead, plus the corpse was dismembered. When he was discovered, there was only half a leg left, and his identity was also confirmed through DNA testing.”

Song Fei still had his doubts, “You’re talking like you saw it with your own eyes.” dO2NDo

“I heard it when the deans were discussing it.”

Song Fei was silent. Qi Yan had never beat around the bush before, but also wouldn’t fearmonger others either. He thought of that photo again, and then looked at his mapo tofu and kung pao chicken, completely losing his appetite.

Qi Yan had no idea about Song Fei’s psychological shadow, and continued, “That thing also happened the day before yesterday in front of the gates of the University of Science and Technology. I’ve had this feeling that our university town hasn’t been too peaceful recently. You should still try to go out as little as possible.”

Song Fei was puzzled, “What thing with the University of Science and Technology?” Lz6EMn

Qi Yan raised an eyebrow, “That face-gnawing thing, you don’t know about it?”

“Wait, hold on,” Song Fei felt cold all over, “What thingie, say that again?”

“Face-gnawing,” Qi Yan was very understanding of this request, and repeated each and every word very clearly, “The video has been spreading like crazy all over Weibo, you haven’t seen it?”

Song Fei shook his head dumbly. There were 10,000s of trending topics on Weibo every day. He usually went through 9,999 of them, but still hadn’t been able to prevent himself from missing out on the only one that was most relevant to him. IO2dW9

Without another word, Qi Yan took out his phone, opened up Weibo, and found the video that had yet to be deleted for him to take a look himself.

There was no WiFi in the canteen. Even if it was the other’s, Song Fei still felt very distressed thinking of the data that would be drained away. But soon, he didn’t have the mindset to care about this tidbit anymore. The video was very shaky and unclear, and the frames were extremely blurry, but it could vaguely be seen that one person had knocked down another person, and seemed to be gnawing at him, but could almost be mistaken for kissing him, if you ignored the blood-curdling screams from the one being “kissed” and the exclamations from the videographer.

The video was only a little over ten seconds long, and soon came to an abrupt end.

Song Fei opened the comments section below. The top comment was breaking news saying that the face-gnawing man had been killed by the police who’d rushed over. But, the victim had suddenly stood up and attacked the police, so the police had no choice but to kill him as well. Later, the injured policeman had been carried away in an ambulance. MbdN0h

“Is this real?” Song Fei pointed to this piece of news, and asked.

Qi Yan shook his head honestly, “I don’t know.”

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Song Fei looked down again. Most people suspected that both the biter and the bitee had been on drugs. Under the influence of drugs, one of them had first attacked the other. Later, after the one who’d been attacked had finally been freed, he’d been driven by his hallucinations to lash out. Further down, there was someone who’d made a connection. There’d been a similar case abroad, where a drug-user had attacked a homeless person, also gnawing at the face. In the end, the drug-user had been killed, while the homeless person had been left severely injured. But, there was also a good portion of people who were jeering, saying that this was exactly a zombie movie in the flesh. Someone who was gnawed on, and could then crawl up to attack was absolutely an infected person ah. Below that, there were enthusiastic netizens who’d supplemented with several domestic videos of questionable plausibility, saying that these were candid shots collected from all parts of the country, through the internet, of what was suspected to be an outbreak of a biochemical crisis. All of them exhibited shaky footage, all of them showcased passerby being attacked, encompassing those near and far in distance, those high and low in resolution, actually appearing to be a masterpiece comprised of different people on different phones from different locations. Finally, this group of netizens had concluded that earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear explosions had all dropped by, so it was time for “2012” to take the stage.

Song Fei didn’t believe in the apocalypse or whatever. They’d said the earth would be destroyed in 1999, so his dad and mom had stuck to each other like glue, while his two-year old self had remained healthy and strong; they’d said the apocalypse would arrive in 2012, and he’d naively believed it, and the result of letting himself go was placing at the bottom of his class at the end of the semester, thus receiving a violent round of beating from his dad. Now he strongly adhered to the Scientific Outlook on Development, and strove to build a harmonious society. eOblMq

But those vicious cases were placed so clearly in front of him, and even showed up two cases at a time during one meal. The University of Science and Technology was right next to the Institute of Foreign Languages, and was also very close to them. At the thought of such a thing happening right next to him, Song Fei felt his scalp tingling for some reason.

No longer having an appetite, Song Fei and Qi Yan carelessly put up their plates, and quickly left the canteen.

Next to the canteen was the water room, and next to the water room was the supermarket, and moving deeper into the area next to the supermarket were the dormitories. The four of them together constituted the entire commercial-residential zone.

“I’m fetching water, you go back first ba.” Song Fei didn’t know what else to chat about with Qi Yan, and simply tried to split up on the spot. 2iZ5HU

Unexpectedly, Qi Yan tilted his head, “Coincidentally, I’m also going to fetch water.”

Song Fei snorted with contempt, directing a pointed look at his empty-handed state, “Please, are you going to use your hands to fetch some ah.”

Qi Yan pointed to the entrance of the water room, “I put my thermos over there.”

Song Fei had a bad premonition. Ugx8fG

Sure enough, this b*stard walked together with him up to the window, where he saw that next to his securely locked up green thermos was an impressively bright pink companion.

“You f*cking did it on purpose, ba.” An interrogative clause, but Song Fei was almost completely certain. After all, looking through the entire school, there wasn’t another person who would use a bike lock to lock up their thermos ah!

Qi Yan shook his head, looking dead serious, “I put mine here first. Didn’t you see it when you locked up your thermos? I should be the one saying that you recognized this one as mine, so you locked yours up beside mine on purpose.”

Song Fei was stunned, completely struck dumb. 3 0ZBO

Qi Yan’s thermos was a popular model in school. Within an area of ten meters, he could find more than a hundred identical ones. Furthermore, he didn’t put a unique marking on his thermos like most of the students did, so this bright pink ‘little sister thermos’ was ever so clean and aloof, slim and graceful. Song Fei really couldn’t recall whether or not this one had been present beside him when he’d been locking up his thermos.

Fine. No matter if it was true or not, wasn’t it just fetching some water together, just half a minute’s work.

In the blink of an eye, two male students with an overly complicated relationship walked out from the water room together, each carrying a heavy thermos.

Song Fei zealously tried to split up on the spot for a second time, “I’m going to the supermarket to buy some stuff, you go back first ba.” g5F0DO

Qi Yan tilted his head, “Coincidentally, I’m also going to buy stuff.”

F*ck, forget using the same reason twice, can you at least change up the beginning when you’re phrasing it ah, can you not put in some effort, ma!!!

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Song Fei swore if he said, then I’m not buying anything anymore, I’ll go back to the dormitories, this guy would undoubtedly also tag along.

No doubt he’d lost it. fRGhAw

Qi Yan very rarely acted crazy, but him doing it every once in a while was already more than enough for Song Fei. His past experiences told him that the best way to deal with it, was just to let him act out however he wanted to.

Their university supermarket had originally been called “Xi Yang Yang“. The school had managed it themselves, and the square footage was pretty substantial, but the inventory had neither been comprehensive nor up-to-date, and even the displays had still been styled like they were from over a decade ago. It’d been clear it wasn’t encouraging consumer motivation, and it’d been apparent they’d go bankrupt in the foreseeable future. Later, the school had gritted its teeth, and sought foreign investment. Soon, “Xi Yang Yang” had become “Fen Duo Duo“. The inside had taken on a new look, appearing to be in line with the setup of large, international supermarket chains. Before long, business was booming.

Same as usual, before entering the supermarket, Song Fei locked his thermos to the handrail next to the stairs in front of the supermarket.

Qi Yan watched him locking the bike lock once more, and inexplicably felt some heartache for that little green thermos, “Since you’ve already written it like that, you don’t need to lock it up, ba.” vdBaGC

Unlike the smooth and clean body of Qi Yan’s thermos, Song Fei’s thermos had impressively been written on with a marker pen and had twelve thick, large-print characters in black— This thermos contains a cursed whirlpool, steal it and fail a course!

Song Fei shook his head, feeling that Qi Yan was being overly naive, “Our school has many proletarian warriors who don’t engage in feudal superstition. For them, intimidation is ineffective. There’s no choice but to lock it up.”

Qi Yan shrugged his shoulders, too lazy to listen to his crooked thinking.

Ten minutes later, the two returned loaded up. Song Fei’s haul mainly consisted of instant noodles, beverages, and melon seeds. Qi Yan’s was much simpler— one ice cream cone. lGTZ1I

Song Fei was too lazy to roast him anymore, “Da ge, the temperature dropped today.”

Qi Yan happily took a bite rather deliberately. Right now, he was in an excellent mood, even sweeter than ice cream. It seemed that occasionally leaving the library early was also… uh, wait a minute.

Song Fei watched in bewilderment as Qi Yan’s expression suddenly darkened, then followed his gaze toward the handrails next to the supermarket stairs—  Little Green was completely safe and sound. Little Pink had vanished without a trace.

Song Fei burst out laughing, and experienced a moment of unparalleled schadenfreude, “This is what you get for bragging about not marking it ba, hahahaha, hurry up and take another bite of ice cream for that burn, hahahahahaha…” hC5 nz

Qi Yan was standing still, nowhere in the mood to eat ice cream.

Song Fei shook his keys with pride like he was showing off, then hummed a little song while he unlocked his bike lock, “See that, in the future you should learn everything from this brother, guaranteed you won’t… ai?” When Song Fei lifted his thermos, he realized that something was wrong, and quickly put down the thermos, and opened the lid. Sure enough, it was empty inside, and the hot water he’d just fetched had already disappeared into thin air.

“F*ck, who even steals 20 cents worth of water ah!”

Qi Yan put some ice cream inside his mouth once again, and felt it was incomparably sweet. BpvNtw

Author’s Chapter Summary:
The thermos conceals waves that place a curse, whoever steals it must fail a course!

The translator has something to ask: so… hypothetically speaking, what’s it like to give up your tastebuds and your integrity to pursue an ex, asking for a friend. in other news, why do my tastebuds scream of dog food… (´･ε･｀)

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

P.S. For anyone who’s interested, there’s an audio drama for ZU, here’s Ep 1, and this is the opening theme if you’d like to jam out to it.