Translator: transcendentwings
TN Note: Just wanted to explain the title as it’s very poetic in Chinese. The title is 镜花水月 (jìnghuāshuǐyuè) which directly translates to “flowers in a mirror (镜花) and moon in the water (水月)” aka illusions
Within the dark canteen, a few rays of bleak moonlight shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows on the desolate tables and chairs. A messy blur revealed itself at the end of the beam of moonlight. Only after adapting to the darkness, could one see the silent but terrifyingly suffocating ongoing chase.
Qi Yan had already run to the end of the serving counter. The two zombies that were attracted over by him first were less than five meters away from him and a third zombie was ten meters away as it climbed over the glass partition.
Qi Yan rapidly scaled the glass barrier and left the serving area behind. He turned around and quickly glanced in Song Fei’s direction, however, except for the dark figure of a zombie, he didn’t catch a glimpse of anyone else. The TV screen was also still black and showed no signs of turning on.
When the two zombies saw Qi Yan emerge, they immediately supported themselves on the railing and started to flip over it stiffly.
When the third zombie finally crawled inside after much difficulty, seeing the new developments, it could only follow suit and clamber back out again.
Qi Yan didn’t waste any more time thinking. Although he couldn’t see it, he knew that Song Fei must be hiding in that darkness, waiting for the opportune moment to seize success in one shot. Qi Yan had no idea when this trust came into being, but when he realized it, it was already so natural and unequivocal.
The two zombies already vaulted over. Qi Yan took a deep breath and lifted his legs to sprint in the direction opposite to Song Fei according to the original plan!
In the distance, in the direction where Qi Yan couldn’t locate anyone just now, Song Fei silently prowled underneath a table that was only three meters away from the TV like a cat. In just a few steps, he would be able to jump on top of the table, turn on the main switch of the TV, and then begin operating the remote control.
However he couldn’t.
It was unknown if the fourth zombie, who was originally heading for Qi Yan, realized something the instant it passed by the TV, but it actually paused its steps and didn’t move! It cast its gaze around in confusion and occasionally sniffed the air.
Song Fei was so anxious. He could hear messy footsteps wandering around all over the place, but couldn’t get a good view of the situation from where he was hidden under the table. However, he was aware that Qi Yan was already trying his best to lure the enemy away according to their previously laid out tactics!
I can only go all out!
Song Fei climbed out from beneath the table and suddenly shot to his feet!
The confused zombie halted and finally locked onto its target.
Their four eyes met and Song Fei trembled so much that all of his hair stood up. Those were no longer the eyes of a human being at all!
The zombie lunged towards him at once, but there was still a row of tables and chairs between it and Song Fei. With a guang, its waist slammed against the edge of the metal table!
Song Fei originally wanted to lure it away and then dash back to turn on the TV by taking advantage of his edge in speed, yet that one crash not only knocked into the opponent, but also woke him up with a slap.
He rapidly whipped around and stepped on the chair behind him, before turning back around and leaping onto the opposite table. The whole process flowed smoothly and only took an instant! In the split-second he turned, Song Fei had already landed on the metal table and resting right below his eyes was the top of the zombie’s head standing beside the table. The chopstick in Song Fei’s hand stabbed downwards mercilessly!
But who would’ve thought that the zombie would look up at this very moment. The chopstick stabbed through its gaping mouth and pierced through the lower jaw!
Song Fei didn’t have time to withdraw his strength and the chopstick was completely buried inside while the hand holding the chopsticks directly collided into the zombie’s teeth!
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.
He was startled and almost instinctively yanked his hand back at the moment of collision, abandoning the chopstick without hesitation. Then just after he retracted his hand, he heard a “ka” as the two rows of that zombie’s teeth suddenly slammed shut violently, smashing into the steel chopstick that was sticking out. If he hesitated to retrieve his hand for even a moment, then it wouldn’t be the chopstick, but his hand that got bitten!
Ktf hbwylf mbeiv offi atja lar ylalcu wbalbc tjv fcmbecafgfv jc byrajmif jcv iloafv j tjcv ab abemt lar wbeat lc mbcoerlbc. Qtfc la olcjiis ibmjafv atf mtbqralmx, la aglfv rfnfgji alwfr sfa ralii mbeivc’a ugjrq la, cba ab wfcalbc jaafwqa ab qeii la bea.
Ktlr kjr atf rjwf qglcmlqif jr kts atfs mbeivc’a ugjy j tbiv bo gbqf. Ca ifjra, wbra hbwylfr kfgf ecjyif ab mbwqifaf atf olcf wbabg wbnfwfcar atja gfdelgfv qfglqtfgji cfgnf mbcagbi ab mbwqifaf.
The structural column behind the zombie was the one with the TV hanging from it and the TV was currently right above the zombie’s head. The height was directly opposite Song Fei’s chest from where he stood on top of the table. Seeing that the zombie was still entangled with the chopstick, Song Fei made a decisive move and directly lunged forward!
With one hand stuck to the cold pillar, Song Fei supported himself against it forcefully and hastily ran his other hand along the side edge of the TV. He soon encountered a different sensation on the lower right corner of the otherwise smooth edge and pressed on it hard!
The lower right corner of the TV lit up with a red light!
Song Fei was overjoyed. Just when he was about to back away, he suddenly felt that something was off. Lowering his head, he realized that the zombie had already bitten his thigh!
At that height, the zombie was facing that section of his body directly!
Song Fei felt a burst of pain, but fortunately, it wasn’t because he was bitten, but due to being stabbed by the chopstick. It was also as a result of the chopstick that it became an barrier between the zombie’s sharp teeth and his flesh.
However the zombie refused to give up and actually wrapped an arm tightly around his thighs!
The horrifying numbness instantly ran from the soles of his feet to the tips of his hair. Song Fei felt that the skin on his scalp was about to split open and subconsciously kicked out his legs hard!
The zombie clung onto his legs and tried to bite him unrelentlessly!
One was kicking.
One was in a deadlocked hold.
If you look at the silhouette from the distance, it’s as if you were the wind, and I was the sand, intertwined with each other to the end of the world!
The loud and clear Style of Chinese resounded into the heavens. Wang Qingyuan, Li Jingyu, and Lin Dilei in the kitchen were guarding the windows at the front, middle, and rear areas respectively to ensure that the zombies who couldn’t scale the walls to the second floor, weren’t charging straight at the windows on the ground floor or the situation would be very disastrous. The remaining three were huddled by the door together, clinging to the gap of the door to peek outside—
Luo Geng: “Qi Yan asked us to improvise when necessary, but this opportune moment is too difficult to grasp.”
Qiao Siqi: “I think that now is the right time, that zombie seems to have already fallen in love with Song Fei.”
Zhou Yilu: “How about this, I’ll go while you two continue to keep an eye on the stairs on both sides, and be alert for zombies running down.”
When discussing the plan, someone proposed to make an attempt to directly lock the three doors of the hall, but it was quickly rejected because no one knew how many zombies remained on the second and third floors. Besides, with the door open, if the zombies were actually afraid of the cold, then they would come back after the music ended. In a sense, they were helping to clean up and reduce the number of zombies wandering outside. If the situation changes in the future and they end up being forced to leave the canteen, even if they only needed to leave the canteen temporarily, it would make it more convenient and safer. Later, someone had also suggested to clean up all the zombies directly, but after everyone mulled it over, they realized the number of living humans would easily stimulate the zombies into howling in excitement and the fighting would also agitate them enough to roar wildly. If they ended up attracting the zombies from the outside or those upstairs to come down, then their gains would outweigh the losses. As such the final plan they set was for Qi Yan to lure the zombies, Song Fei to turn on the TV, and the rest of the companions to remain on standby.
However, now that Song Fei had started up battle mode, the companions couldn’t just stand idly by. Zhou Yilu clenched the sushi knife spear tightly, shifted, and slipped out silently!
At the same time, the TV screen suddenly brightened!
In order to guarantee that nothing would go wrong, Song Fei didn’t dare hold the remote control directly in his hand. What he decided was to press the power button before all else and then carry on from there, but unfortunately he was latched on by a zombie as soon as he pressed the button, thus he could only arduously pull the remote control out!
Zhou Yilu halted his footsteps, Luo Geng and Qiao Siqi, who were watching from the gap, also widened their eyes. Everyone’s hearts were in their throats. . .
The picture finally stabilized itself. The screen rapidly flashed with messy snowflakes like countless gray and white bacteria densely packing the petri dish that was the TV screen.
Song Fei used all his strength to muster the most ruthless kick he could manage up until now and was finally able to kick the zombie off! Just when the zombie’s back slammed into the pillar, he jabbed the remote control frantically unresigned, flipping through dozens of channels in a row.
It was still the same.
The densely flashing snowflakes of noise were like this campus after the viral outbreak, lost, crazed, desperate.
Song Fei eventually brought his thumb to a standstill and became absent-minded for a moment.
It’s not that he’d never considered this possibility. However, he told himself over and over again that the TV and cell phone shouldn’t be running on the same signal ba. The TV uses a cable-modem and even if there was no signal on the cell phone, the TV may not be bereft of one. In the end, he was almost doubt-free. This near-persistent persuasion was more like self-hypnosis than optimism as if the straw clenched in one’s grasp will really save oneself if one believes as such.
When people are thrown into desperation, they always need a glimmer of hope.
It’s just that the action of shattering it came a bit too rapidly, so swiftly that it caught everyone off guard.
“Careful—”
Abruptly there was a cry from Zhou Yilu in the distance!
Song Fei only felt a black shadow approaching from below, and just when he wanted to kick out reflexively, the zombie abruptly grabbed hold of his legs and yanked hard!
He lost his balance instantly and was forced to sit down on the table so suddenly and roughly that his rear end was about to be split into eight petals!
A severe tingling pain radiated from his tailbone. Song Fei didn’t even have any time to recover before the zombie had already pounced on him to gnaw on his stomach!
Fortunately, Song Fei was wearing a cotton jacket so the zombie only bit into a mouthful of cloth and cotton!
But just this was already enough to make Song Fei break out into a cold sweat—that zombie had already gotten rid of the chopstick at some point in time.
Zhou Yilu’s roar also made Qi Yan, who was still running laps with the zombies at the other end of the hall, jolt in surprise. When he looked over reflexively, he saw Song Fei sitting on the table engaged in a scuffle with the zombie!
There were already zombies emerging from the entrance of the stairs. It was unknown if it was the shouting or intermittent sounds of fighting that they heard.
Since the TV still only displayed white noise, Qi Yan was no longer overzealous over the fight and leapt onto the table directly, sprinting all the way over to Song Fei’s side via the table tops.
When he arrived, Zhou Yilu had already stabbed the knife into the zombie’s head. Of course, before it was given the final blow, it had already been beaten to an inch of its life by Song Fei.
After reassembling, the three of them didn’t need to communicate and tacitly crossed the serving area’s countertop at the fastest speed as if oil had been applied to the soles of their shoes, aiming straight for the door to the kitchen.
Qiao Siqi and Luo Geng, who had been waiting at the door since the beginning, didn’t miss the right opportunity to open the door and after they received their comrades, they rapidly reengaged the lock after closing it.
Song Fei and Qi Yan slid down to sit on the floor as soon as they made it through the door. The former was tired because of being tied up in a fierce struggle with the zombie and the latter was fatigued due to all the running around as he took the zombies for a walk.
When the three people who were guarding the windows saw them return, they immediately came over to ask about the situation.
Li Jingyu: “What did they say on the news?”
Lin Dilei: “How was it?”
Wang Qingyuan: “Was there any signal?”
Three questions, three different attitudes, from optimistic to neutral, then from neutral to realistic.
It’s not like they hadn’t considered the possibility of a negative outcome, but before it was verified and confirmed, no one was willing to give voice to it. It seemed that if anyone acknowledged it out loud, it’d really be like the good wouldn’t come true but the bad was set in stone. Thus it was only after the dust settled that the question became so ruthlessly blunt.
Song Fei felt unwilling, but he could only shake his head slowly, trying his best to give his companions a less bitter smile: “No signal.”
“Ah?” Li Jingyu was startled at first and then the disappointment that replaced it was hard to describe in words.
On the other hand, Lin Dilei and Wang Qingyuan were quite unperturbed. Although they were also dismayed, it wasn’t that heavy of a blow.
Luo Geng and Qiao Siqi already knew the result from peeking through the crack by the door and only shrugged helplessly.
“Ya, upstairs!” Lin Dilei suddenly exclaimed.
Only then did everyone react. Class 2 was still howling ne, and their voices were already nearly hoarse to the extent of sounding like heavy metal rock singers.
Lin Dilei ran to the other end that was the farthest away from Class 2’s chosen window. After confirming that there were no zombies in front of the window, she hastily shoved it open and hollered loudly: “Operation over—”
Lin Dilei’s voice has a special texture which may or may not be related to the method broadcast hosts enunciate things. It had a very penetrating quality without the need to roar and pierced through the earth-shattering omnipresent Style of China with a single sentence.
The harmony finally stopped and the night returned to tranquility, leaving only the zombies congregating at the base of the window, making noises from time to time.
“F*ck, my throat is about to start smoking,” Zhao He looked up at the sky and sighed deeply, exhausted to the extreme, “The intensity almost catches up to singing KTV all night long.”
The companions all had throats so sore that they didn’t want to say another word. All of them could only nod their heads vigorously and express their agreement with their liveliness!
Huang Mo fared better and was still able to inquire loudly in the distance: “How was it—”
Soon, Little Landmine’s answer resounded from the direction diagonally opposite: “No signal, it’s all just white noise—”
Huang Mo lowered her eyes, sure enough.
Zhao He wasn’t as cool-headed as Huang-tongxue. If he hadn’t been restrained by his companions, he would have leapt down directly: “No one hold me back, I’m going to kill them!!!”
Author's Chapter Summary:
Hopes were originally just the moon reflected in the water, a bout of joy ends in complete disappointment!
The translator has something to say: despite being let down, I’m so glad that they knew not to put all of their eggs in the same basket and still have the courage and determination to make it through. I just love how realistically the story is progressing, it’s refreshing that no one has a gold finger and suddenly become OP with powers to defeat the zombies like a mainstream manga
wahh too bad, thanks for the chapter!
thanks for the chapter <3
Still waiting for the next update. Thanks for the chapter 😊