Translator: transcendentwings
“Who the hell let you close the door?!”
The moment the elevator doors closed, Song Fei almost had a breakdown. However, He Zhiwen desperately caged him in his embrace, his arms like steel bars. No matter how hard Song Fei struggled, he couldn’t manage to break free. He could only watch as the gap between the doors grew narrower and narrower until Qi Yan’s figure became more and more blurred and then disappeared from his view completely.
He Zhiwen pressed the 12th floor as soon as they entered. Even though the elevator started to rise, he still didn’t dare let go of Song Fei.
“Let go!!!” Song Fei roared as he bucked, making the elevator car shake with his violent movements.
But what truly shook wasn’t the elevator, rather it was He Zhiwen’s little heart ah.
“Don’t forget our purpose! If you rush out now, then our entire squad will be wiped out! You feel that closing the door is letting Qi Yan down, then if you fall short, will it be fair to the others! Qi Yan is still alive and kicking, but whether the others are still alive or dead now, we have no idea!!!”
He Zhiwen had never yelled at a person like that before. There had only been a handful of times he had become so red in the face since he was a child, but now he couldn’t resist shouting. This wasn’t anger directed at Song Fei’s impulsive behavior, but the repressive and helpless feelings resulting from his equal desire to charge out and save the other but having no choice but to kneel in defeat in the face of reason. Song Fei was pained, yet how could he be any better off?
Song Fei recovered some sanity from the scolding of his comrade, but the overwhelming discomfort was overturning the seas and rivers. Just thinking of the possibility that he might lose Qi Yan. . . No, he didn’t even dare to think about it.
He never felt that the feelings between Qi Yan and himself was an earth-shattering love. It was nothing more than two little brats who didn’t understand a thing, conducting a childish romance that was destined to make them feel ashamed and blush in retrospect after a few years. He’d never even considered that it could last forever. To at least last until graduation before breaking up and being loyal to each other with no occurrence of infidelity during this period had been the greatest expectations he had for this relationship.
Now, however, he found that he had been wrong. He had underestimated the weight this relationship carried and overestimated his nonchalance after. Maybe while looking back many years later, he will still feel that this love was childish, but at this moment, he was just as naive as their feelings.
Who he will meet in the future, what kind of romance he would encounter, whether there was still a place of Qi Yan in his life, could all just go to hell ba. He liked this person, so just let him use his mere twenty years of shallowness to like him purely and passionately.
When his arm was chomped on, He Zhiwen broke out into a cold sweat. It took a long time for him to realize that Song Fei was only biting on his clothes, stopping before sinking his teeth into his flesh.
Song Fei bit him very fiercely, with force.
He Zhiwen hugged him and let him vent, deliberately ignoring the splotch of fluid on his sleeve.
This was brotherhood, He Zhiwen thought, more direct than romance, more staunch than familial love, the loyal and prideful relationship that couldn’t be resisted as a man. Even a good boy like him had one or two bros who would die for each other. So the tears Song Fei shed as a man was something he understood.
Pa.
Guangdang!
The elevator cab screeched to an abrupt stop and the lights went out.
Song Fei, who was gnawing on his sleeve, and He Zhiwen, who was recalling his bro back in his hometown were both stunned and stared blankly into the darkness.
Before they realized what had happened, the elevator car suddenly descended rapidly!
He Zhiwen, who was originally holding onto Song Fei, instinctively embraced the other tighter, and Song Fei also instantly wished that he be an endearing little bird and huddle tightly against the other’s chest!
However, the drop quickly ceased. The elevator cabin sputtered a death’s rattle after this little episode as the overhead emergency lights snapped on.
Only after a long time did the body of the car stabilize, giving the people inside a slight steadfast, down-to-earth peace of mind.
“An outage, power outage?” Song Fei was still in shock, feeling that just half a second ago, he had taken a stroll around the palace gates of hell.
“It should be. . .” He Zhiwen was also quite frightened, his legs were like jelly even now.
“Temporary or permanent?”
“How would I know?”
“The elevator won’t plummet again, will it?”
“I already told you that I have no idea!”
“Isn’t this the building of your department, what’s your use if you don’t know the answer to any of my questions!”
“Well fine ba this elevator has always been severely overloaded by classmates during peak hours when students start and get out of class so the weight detector overload alarm emergency brake and whatever else may not be in relatively good working order and there has also been an accident where it directly plunged from the second to the first floor fortunately there were no casualties thus nothing ever came out of this incident in the end.”
“. . .”
“You forced me.”
“Did I ask you all this!”
“Heartfelt advice offends the ears.”
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.
The glow of the emergency lights were very weak and couldn’t illuminate the entire elevator cab, at most, a narrow strip of light was reflected on the top of the two’s heads which wasn’t even as good as the moonlight at night. But having it was still better than nothing. Even if it was radiance that could only be seen when looking up, it still offered some comfort to the two in the dark.
“The blackout couldn’t have happened a little earlier or later, the power just had to be cut off after we came in, could there be such a coincidence ah?” Although it was still a mess, there wasn’t much time allowed for panic and confusion to take over at the moment, so he could only force his brain to work.
“Cgf sbe reuufralcu atja rbwfbcf vfilyfgjafis qeiifv atf rklamt?” Lf Itlkfc qbrfv yfobgf tf olcjiis gfjilhfv atja tf kjr ralii ijamtfv bcab Vbcu Mfl jcv rkloais ifa ub.
Qlat tlr eqqfg ybvs olcjiis jyif ab ygfjatf ogffis, fnfc tlr atbeutar yfmjwf mifjgfg: “Pa’r cba cfmfrrjglis j tewjc yflcu. Ktlr rbga bo vjgx fcnlgbcwfca lrc’a yfcfolmlji obg frmjqf. Ktf hbwylf mjc’a rff, yea mjc ralii rwfii, tbkfnfg j tewjc yflcu kbeiv yf mbwqifafis yilcvfv.”
“If not a human being, are you trying to suggest that it’s a zombie?” He Zhiwen sneered, yet after he finished, he also started to feel uneasy and a chill gradually creeped up his spine, “It couldn’t really have been a zombie, could it?”
Song Fei didn’t speak.
He Zhiwen couldn’t see the expression on his comrade’s face and didn’t know whether his comrade was just guessing or if he really believed that. Anyway, he definitely didn’t believe it: “Even I don’t know where the electric switch in this building is and the zombie somehow would? Besides with their intelligence, would they be able to weigh the pros and cons of a power outage or even come to the conclusion that an electrical failure would make it more beneficial for them to make their move?”
After listening to He Zhiwen’s analysis, Song Fei also hesitated: “It does seem to be somewhat unscientific. . .”
“It’s very unscientific,” He Zhiwen always sought the truth from cold, hard facts, “It’s true that the zombies are adapting to this environment, but just like us, it’s a gradual evolution. The possibility of such a leap in growth is unrealistic and also doesn’t conform to the objective laws.”
“Could it be that we are complicating the simplistic?” Song Fei tentatively ventured a guess in the artless and crude direction, “It’s actually just a simple interruption of service?”
“That’s entirely possible.”
“Caused by the Qiushi building explosion?”
“Perhaps, perhaps not.”
Song Fei glanced at the emergency light resentfully: “Can we still apply for repairs now?”
He Zhiwen was speechless: “What do you think ne.”
“Maybe there are surviving brother or uncle electricians who are stubbornly guarding their posts. . .”
He Zhiwen sighed. Although it was impossible for them to convey their thoughts to each other through eye contact in this gloom, he still didn’t hesitate to give the other a look of admiration: “Optimism is a type of character, but being positive to your extent is a talent.”
Song Fei was just trying to lighten up a bit in the midst of hardship. Well, they couldn’t accomplish anything while they were trapped here anyway, it’s not against the law to fantasize a bit.
He Zhiwen didn’t understand the way of spiritual victory, he believed more in creating miracles with one’s two hands.
A dazzling light instantly blazed through the entire elevator space—He Zhiwen turned on the flashlight function of his phone.
With such a strong contrast in brightness, the emergency lights could basically be ignored.
Song Fei blinked rapidly, but before he could fully adjust to it, He Zhiwen had already stuffed the phone into his hands: “Shine it for me.”
Song Fei didn’t follow. Only when He Zhiwen started to pry the elevator door with his hands did he become enlightened. Of course, Song Fei would have wished that the elevator doors could be opened, but he also couldn’t help the building apprehension: “Can you do it? Don’t try it so violently. I remember that many elevators have it written that for safety reasons, that the doors shouldn’t be jimmied.”
“Usually there is another accompanying sentence. If you encounter an outage, please don’t panic and just wait for rescue. Would you like to wait right now?” He Zhiwen applied more force with his hands while his mouth took over roasting him, his attention was divided, but didn’t interfere with each other.
Song Fei was rendered speechless after being fed this sentence. Only after a long time did he comment weakly: “Xiao-He, you’ve picked up some foul habits. . .”
Once upon a time, this was such a pure and unsophisticated good child ah.
He Zhiwen was also aware of his subtle changes and his opinion of it was very apropos: “It’s not all due to my personal efforts, it’s more of a collective strength.”
—The Wusheng class was a big dye vat. Anyone who soaked in it would grow up. From the first day he stepped in, his fate was set in stone.
In the end, He Zhiwen, whose fingertips were almost worn down until they bled, gave up.
This elevator was faulty from the alarm system to the weight sensor to the emergency braking. Only the shuttering system was impeccable.
Song Fei wasn’t fooling around when he held up the phone either and kept observing the roof of the elevator car. If he remembered correctly, many foreign movies have the protagonist remove the ceiling panel and either climb out of it or crawl in from the shaft. Of course, the purpose of the former was mostly to escape and the purpose of the latter was usually for assassination.
But movies serve the plotline and were not elevator escape guides, no one would describe in detail how to remove the ceiling panel ah. In general, it only utilized one take for the elevator to open a skylight and then the actors would start to climb in and out happily.
In reality, however, this wasn’t the case at all!
Bathed in the white glow of the cell phone, the roof of the cabin was a single piece of plastic board with a sandpaper finish, similar to a suspended roof where under the real ceiling of the elevator cab, building materials were used to create a fake and more visually appealing surface. Holes were opened onto the board, lighting was inlaid, and the rear panel and the wiring of the lights were purposely hidden in the gap between the fake sheet and the real roof of the car.
If the elevator panel could really be opened, it was also necessary to smash the decorative ceiling, tear off the light circuits, and find the gap in the roof to see if there was a place able to be dismantled.
Song Fei told He Zhiwen his thoughts and after the latter listened, it rekindled his enthusiasm for levying the elevator doors apart when he had all but given up: “I’d better keep looking for a tool to pry the doors apart ba, it sounds much more reliable than your idea.”
Ka.
Song Fei was stunned. He opened his mouth so wide that he forgot to close it.
He Zhiwen quietly laid his short dagger down and was equally astonished that he had managed to maintain a gap of one centimeter between the elevator doors.
“It’s done?” Song Fei asked in disbelief.
He Zhiwen didn’t answer right away, instead he tentatively felt the gap with his fingers and pressed one hand against each side, tugging violently in opposite directions.
Amidst the kelala grinding noises of friction, the elevator doors were gradually pulled apart.
When the gap was large enough to allow free entry and exit, He Zhiwen finally stopped and turned to look at Song Fei, who was still astounded, replying: “It’s done.”
Happiness came so suddenly that Song Fei didn’t know what kind of expression he should use to respond.
An arrogant look adorned He Zhiwen’s features: “This is the elevator of our department, how about it?”
Song Fei nodded, admiration shone from the bottom of his heart: “It’s seriously so f*cking abnormal.”
Although the elevator doors were open, they only made it half-way out of trouble. Because in addition to the elevator doors, there were still the outer doors between floors. And due to the drop, the elevator cab was stuck between two floors at this time. What’s worse was the floor spacing in the Gewu building was relatively higher so most of the car that Song Fei was in was stuck between the walls of an upper and lower floor. There was only a gap of about thirty centimeters left above their heads that revealed a dash of the metallic luster of the outer doors on the upper floor.
If they slipped a little lower when it fell, then they really would be stuck between the walls!
Thinking of this, both of them were so scared that they broke out into a cold sweat.
“What should we do now?”
“Continue to pry ah.”
He Zhiwen looked up at the unreachable gap between floors and felt powerless down to his soul: “Yao Ming would have to come jimmy this.”
Song Fei went all out: “I’ll pick you up.”
After he finished speaking, he didn’t wait before he wrapped his arms around He Zhiwen’s waist and lifted him up.
He Zhiwen resisted inwardly, but in order to take into account the overall situation, he maintained a smile on his face and when Song Fei lifted him to the highest point, he stretched out his hand, but the ultimate result was that the tip of the short dagger in his hand was still a long distance away from the base of the outer doors.
Song Fei wouldn’t admit defeat. For the second try, he wrapped his arms around the other’s knees and raised him up!
This time the tip of He Zhiwen’s knife touched the crack between the doors!
“Can’t you hurry up!”
“How can I aim properly if you keep swaying!”
“You’re hella heavy, how do you expect me to not wobble!”
“Qiao Siqi is light and tall, why don’t you look for him ah!”
“What kind of situation is it already and you still have time to be jealous!”
“Your comprehension abilities are truly. . . Aiaiai—”
Guang.
Danglang—
Both the man and the steed tumbled off balance and the dagger fell to the ground.
“I can’t anymore, I have to recover for a bit. . .”
“We should’ve let Zhao He come in.”
“It’s all very well to just say it, but actually doing it is another matter. If you’re so capable then raise me up.”
“. . .”
“No, don’t, I was just randomly saying, f*ck, at least give me the knife ah!!!”
Guang.
Once again, the man and steed were sprawled on the floor.
Song Fei made a face, this was definitely deliberate on He Zhiwen’s part!
However, it was also this fall that confirmed Song Fei’s conjecture.
He Zhiwen watched as his comrade sat on the ground with a grin spreading on his face and instantly felt horrified: “Are you okay? I was wrong and shouldn’t have taken advantage of the situation to get revenge. Can you not act so pleased. . .”
Song Fei rolled his eyes and turned off the flashlight on the cell phone at the same time. Anyway, it won’t be of any use temporarily, so they might as well save some battery.
The elevator cab darkened again and returned to the hazy state with only the dim glow from the emergency lights. Who knew if it was because they already pried the doors open, or if they’ve confirmed their current surroundings, but the feeling of isolation and helplessness was no longer as strong, instead it was the hope of survival, like a ball of flame, slowly illuminating their hearts while trapped in this predicament.
He Zhiwen also gradually had an inkling of why Song Fei was elated and muttered unsatisfactorily: “Exactly what are you so delighted about ne. To sneakily hide it away for your own pleasure and not share it is too shameless, hurry and tell me.”
Song Fei originally didn’t intend to hide it: “We made such a loud noise just now, but we didn’t hear the sound of zombies whether it be slamming on the doors or howling, nothing at all.”
He Zhiwen got to the crux of the matter: “You mean it’s safe out there?”
“At least there are no zombies in front of the elevator doors on the upper floor.”
“It’s useless if it’s safe,” He Zhiwen’s tone suddenly became frustrated, “It’s too high, we can’t levy any force to pry the doors.”
“Ai.”
“Unless, I step on your shoulders!”
“Why don’t we try to consider opening the ceiling again ba. . .”
Song Fei’s struggle ultimately didn’t come to fruition and he continued to hoist He Zhiwen up resignedly. The latter also lived up to expectations and attempted to tear the outer doors between floors to his heart’s content, utilizing various shimmying and tricks.
It was unknown if the fulcrum of their force was too close to the base of the door or if the inter-floor doors were more difficult to open than the elevator cabin’s doors, but in the end, Song Fei couldn’t hold on any longer and the doors between floors still didn’t even budge even when the short knife in He Zhiwen’s hands were separated at the blade and hilt with a crisp pa noise as it fell to the ground.
He Zhiwen called it quits helplessly and Song Fei collapsed onto the floor.
Happiness came suddenly and disappeared just as swiftly. The ups and downs of life were really unable to be guarded against.
“Say, do you think that God is playing with us ne.” Song Fei was a little desperate, “We weren’t bitten to death by zombies, weren’t frozen to death by the weather, didn’t fall to our deaths from jumping, didn’t get scared to death on our escape, but in the end we’ll die in this elevator, surrounded by empty cans and sh*t.”
“. . . Can’t you write a more picturesque death scene!”
“Wu, I thought it would be more immersive if it were more realistic.”
“More emotional isn’t the same as a better experience!”
Song Fei was amused by He Zhiwen’s accusations. After having a good laugh, he reigned his languidness back and replied earnestly: “I apologize for begrudging you about closing the elevator doors before.”
He Zhiwen was taken aback: “Why did you suddenly become enlightened?”
Song Fei told him the truth: “If Qi Yan was also trapped here, then we would really have no hope for the radio.”
He Zhiwen also wanted to believe in Qi Yan, but: “He’s the only one left, there is hope, but it is slim ba.”
Song Fei curled his lips into a smile: “You guys don’t get it. He is extremely amazing. There is only what he doesn’t want to do and nothing he is unable to do.”
In the darkness, no one saw the light that lit up Song Fei’s eyes and brow when he mentioned Qi Yan. Even he, himself, was unaware of it.
The Gewu building lobby.
Qi Yan: “Continue singing—”
The big tree directly in front of the entrance.
Zhao He: “My throat is already f*cking hoarse, can you do it or not—”
The lobby: “This thing keeps spinning ah!”
The tree: “Let me ask you, what the hell were you thinking when you chose that to climb onto!”
The lobby: “My five elements lack a sphere!”
The tree: “. . . You win.”
Author’s Chapter Summary
Stuck in an elevator completely helpless, expending all abilities and efforts for success!
The translator has something to say: SF has finally decided to face his feelings~
…you both win
…
I’ve caught up!
I breezed through most of my backlog chapters last night and ended up sleeping super late orz
no regrets!
thanks for the chapters! <3
That elevator how will they get out.
Thanks for the chapter!
I still don’t support this marriage until they have a real conversation about their relationship tbh. Liking each other is one thing, being compatible for a relationship is another…