Translator: transcendentwings
Above the sixth floor, but not yet at the seventh, the elevator cab was stuck halfway.
Song Fei sat on the floor and leaned against the wall of the box. He knew that He Zhiwen was opposite him, in the same posture, however, he wouldn’t be able to see anything unless he made his phone light up.
Two minutes ago, the emergency lights went out. According to He Zhiwen, the thing was powered by a battery that could last up to twenty to thirty minutes and the time clearly displayed on the phone also indicated that from the time they’ve been trapped since the power outage, twenty-seven minutes had already passed.
The elevator cabin stripped of the emergency lights was only left with endless darkness, the kind of murk that could nearly seal off one’s senses. Song Fei even had to deliberately blink his eyelids every once in a while to assure himself that his eyes were actually open.
“We won’t be able to leave.” He Zhiwen shrank in the corner, experiencing the feeling of being so close to death for the first time.
This sort of depression and despair didn’t arise abruptly, rather it accumulated little by little with the passage of time, from shallow to deep, until it finally pressed down to the point of suffocation.
Song Fei still only repeated one sentence: “Qi Yan will come.”
In the past half hour, apart from trying to pry apart the doors several times to no avail, their back and forth relay were filled with just these two sentences and even the good-tempered He Zhiwen was also deeply anxious to the point of being irritable.
“Who gave you the confidence? If he was really coming, he’d have come already, even until now there’s still no movement at all. Either he already ran or he’s looking for the radio and is prepared to leave after finding it. After all, we’ve confirmed the location of the office several times in advance already and he can stumble upon it even with his eyes closed.”
“Impossible.” Song Fei wasn’t moved, his tone was even insipid, but the hand he placed against the floor unconsciously clenched.
“There is no absolute in anything. In this kind of situation, even if it were you and I on the outside instead, it would still be impossible to turn back to save the rest.” He Zhiwen sighed as he tried to calm his emotions and also make Song Fei accept reality, “First of all, he doesn’t even know which floor our elevator is stuck between, would he search floor by floor? Secondly, if he really is looking for us right now, how come we didn’t hear any noises? If he wanted to guarantee that we were inside, wouldn’t he need to call out or slap and knock, after all, it couldn’t be that he is relying on telepathy?”
“You’ve also mentioned that he may have gone for the radio first.”
“I said that he’d leave after retrieving it.”
“He’d definitely come rescue us after finding it.”
“. . .” He Zhiwen surrendered and could no longer be bothered to quibble with Song Fei.
Although he couldn’t see his expression, Song Fei knew that He Zhiwen was mad at him. In fact, if it were a different companion on the outside right now, he may not be confident in his conjectures at all. However, that was Qi Yan ah. The Qi Yan who scaled the fourth floor balcony of the dormitory at the risk of being chomped on by a zombie or even slipping and falling from the building. The Qi Yan whose reconciliation request was rejected by him twice. . . uh, that’s right oh, was already rejected twice.
F*ck is it too late to have regrets now ahhhh!!!
As the saying goes, there can be once, then twice, but never thrice.
After that, Qi Yan didn’t seem to have brought up getting back together again. So would he really risk his life to save the life of an ex-boyfriend, whom he didn’t even know where that ex was currently trapped?
He Zhiwen’s silence was because he didn’t want to be angered into vomiting blood at the end of his life.
He didn’t know that under the cover of darkness, Song Fei had already gone through a complete series of psychological changes from furiously ripping out his hair while silently screaming out his soul to beating his chest and stomping his feet. Now, he was just leaning into the dark, watching the little flame of hope in his fantasies gradually become vanquished and snuff out.
“Hey, how come you aren’t saying anything anymore.” He Zhiwen waved his phone in concern and was almost alarmed by the heavy face full of dread, “What kind of expression is that, it can’t be that you were bitten earlier and now you are ready to mutate ba?”
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.
Song Fei regarded his comrade in the dim lighting and posed with his last ray of hope: “If, I’m saying if ah, you have a good friend and the two of you have a really good relationship, but then one day you break off this friendship completely. He doesn’t want to stop being friends and begged for reconciliation numerous times, but you didn’t agree and was even cold to the other in various ways. However, when you encounter danger one day, do you think this friend could still risk their life for you?”
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“. . .” Song Fei gulped and continued with difficulty: “If, I’m saying if it’s actually like that ne?”
He Zhiwen was taken aback and commented sincerely: “That your friend didn’t take advantage of your illness to silence you could only be true love.”
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Thinking about it, that really seems to be the case. To charge up to the twelfth floor, retrieve the radio, and then retreat safely was already tantamount to hell mode with nine bad ends and one good. Only a madman would search for their ex and a fellow classmate from a sibling major who they’ve only known for a few days.
Five hours later.
Song Fei couldn’t tell whether he was asleep or awake anymore. His eyelids were heavy and he was tired to the extreme, but his mind was very active, you could even say energetic. The two extremely contradictory states made the passage of time abnormally painful to endure.
“What time is it?” The voice of his comrade-in-arms suddenly rang out in the darkness.
Song Fei was surprised, he thought that He Zhiwen had already fallen asleep. After all, in such an enclosed and dark environment, slumber was a relief.
After turning his cell phone back on, the long-lost light made Song Fei squint reflexively, it took a long time for him to see clearly: “Five past midnight.”
“It’s a new day.” He Zhiwen’s voice had energy, but no strength, there wasn’t the slightest sense of joy in welcoming the new day.
The phone still had 70% battery left.
Although the strength of the domestic product in terms of battery life was obvious to all, Song Fei was still reluctant to use it too quickly. After checking the time, he subconsciously wanted to shut the cell down again, but with a sudden change of heart, he opened photos under a mysterious force, and scrolled down until the photo of him and Qi Yan came into view.
Song Fei carefully tapped on the photo, there were two people on the screen, one grinning foolishly and the other frowning gloomily. The one smirking was hugging the one scowling around the neck affectionately and it seemed as if the one making a face wanted to dodge, yet ultimately didn’t, leaving behind this youthful image against their will.
This was the only photo of Song Fei and Qi Yan together on his phone.
That guy didn’t like taking pictures, let alone these sorts of snapshots that exposed their private lives. Every time someone leaked pornographic photos or short AVs on the internet, he would be kidnapped to undergo safety training, raising awareness and preventing problems before they cropped up in the past. However, Song Fei belonged to the more you don’t want me to do it, the more I will to screw with you crew, thus on the journey of intimate selfies, after repeated battles and defeats, continued losses and clashes, he was finally successful this one time.
Qi Yan had secretly deleted this photo when he was distracted, but the other wasn’t aware that he had backed it up a long time ago. As such, Qi Yan just removed it a step before and he set it as his cell phone background the moment after. Qi Yan almost suffered an internal injury and finally realized that it was better to offend a gentleman than to provoke a villain. After repeated injunctions not to set it as his desktop background, not to make it his screen saver, and not to reveal it to a third-party did he allow it to exist in his cell phone.
This entire romance was conducted in such a way that Song Fei didn’t just once think that it was as if he were the mistress and the entire world was the main house that had to be avoided.
“Are you alright?” He Zhiwen originally didn’t want to chat, but he noticed that the face reflected in the bright light of the phone screen seemed like it was about to cry to the point that it was a little scary, “I know I may not be the ideal companion on the road to the underworld, but who let it be me who got caught in it ne. It just so happened that I was stuck with you, it’s too late to substitute with others even if you wanted to.”
Song Fei was amused by He Zhiwen, but also felt that it was incredible: “Just before you still had a bitter look on your face, how is it that after a short while, you’ve already thought it through?”
“Crying will end in death just like being joyful will also end in death, so just stay cheerful bei,” He Zhiwen contemplated the bright future for a bit, “This way, when our bodies are found later, it won’t be too ugly.”
“Already becoming a corpse and you still expect to be as beautiful as a flower?”
“At least it won’t be scaring others.”
“Two bodies grinning from ear to ear would be even more terrifying, okay!”
The joy of briefly bickering was like the soap bubbles that pop up, then disappear without a trace as the two quieted down again.
Song Fei stared at the photo for a very long time.
Just the one, from left to right, then right to left, from top to bottom, then bottom to top, he examined it over and over. Without exception, his eyes were ultimately drawn to that grumpy face. He couldn’t even explain what kind of mood he was currently in. In short, just looking at it like this, he would completely calm down magically.
Just like in the past, every time he sought trouble for himself, that person would always tack on a sentence after the routine criticism, it’s okay, leave it for me to handle. As long as Qi Yan uttered this sentence, no matter how complicated the situation was, he would instantly be put at ease.
He wondered where that guy was now.
Song Fei’s thoughts began to wander, his focus gradually blurred, and the photo distorted with a speckled halo.
Still in the Gewu building? Already escaped back to the canteen? Ran to the other buildings to assemble with the other companions? Still, safe ma. . .
Da.
A very slight sound came from above.
At first Song Fei didn’t pay it any attention because the disturbance was so slight that there was no sense of it being real.
However, the rhythmic sounds as if a fingernail was tapping on a table pressed on relentlessly and if one listened closely, it actually carried a certain rhythm—da, dada, da. Da, dada, da. Da, dada, da, dada, da, dada, da.
That person was tapping very lightly and extremely cautiously, even deliberately slowing down the speed of the tap so that the beat that should have been short, but powerful was extended at a uniform speed.
However, the overall rhythm wasn’t affected.
Song Fei abruptly widened his eyes, it was Qi Yan!
He subconsciously wanted to respond aloud, but the moment he opened his mouth, he suddenly realized that the reason why Qi Yan chose such a method was that he couldn’t speak aloud, or even make any noise louder than the current knock.
Song Fei could barely hold back his excitement as he shot to his feet!
He Zhiwen also picked up on the strange tapping sound and was feeling confused and tense when he abruptly felt a gust of wind blow past him. Before he was able to identify what the demonic wind immersed in darkness was, a group of percussion sounds similar to the previous ones, except with a different rhythm, length and frequency, rang out.
And it wasn’t muffled as if it were ringing out in this cab directly—
Dada, dadadada, dada, dadadada, dada, dadadadada.
It was Song Fei responding to the one outside!
He Zhiwen, who realized this, was suddenly excited. He swiftly whipped his phone out and turned it on, then tapped on the flashlight without hesitation, illuminating the entire space. Sure enough, Song Fei was already standing up and plastering himself against the half-open elevator doors, trying hard to look up!
The sound from outside traveled from the upper floor.
While Song Fei’s knocking came from the car doors.
This kind of sound transmitted through a solid medium wouldn’t easily become scattered and could be clearly heard by those who were sticking close to the reverberating object!
He Zhiwen pulled on Song Fei’s arm and mouthed wordlessly when the other party turned around, Qi Yan?
Song Fei nodded his head firmly without any hesitation!
There was another tapping sound from above and this time the rhythm was faster than before, obviously demonstrating that the person beyond had also picked up on the response. Yet, after all, the inter-floor door and the door of the elevator cabin weren’t the same medium, the already low sounds would inevitably be transmitted incompletely and some would be invariably lost making the one outside not dare to confirm or unable to lock on the exact position, so they attempted to make contact once again.
Indeed, in He Zhiwen’s view, this was using code to communicate!
Before this, he always believed that the only reason Class 1 had been able to survive was reliant on 60% luck + 40% capability. After all, in terms of physical strength, they weren’t as well-endowed as Zhao He and Wu Zhou, in terms of thoughtfulness, they weren’t as thorough as Huang Mo. The eight of them each only had the power of one and were the most ordinary classmates while one could even say that those like Qiao Siqi, Li Jingyu possessed courage lower than that of the average strength of the flowers of the motherland.
But it was just these eight like this who were able to storm the supermarket, clean the Express Pickup Point out, and occupy the canteen. What they were capable of doing and what they didn’t have the ability to accomplish, they completed it all. If one said it wasn’t due to luck, who would believe that?
Yet now, he believed.
Did you think that the dadada rhythm was chaotic and random? No, that must be the legendary Morse code ah!
A class that was able to use Morse code to communicate, a class that would push to the best of its ability to not leave any comrade behind, for what reason should they not be able to achieve victory?
Perhaps, He Zhiwen forcefully blinked his sore eyes, unable to suppress the heat welling up from the bottom, they would really be able to escape! Not just escape this elevator, but even make it out of this campus, this calamity!
Seventh floor, outside the doors of the elevator shaft.
When he heard the response, Qi Yan’s anxious heart almost leapt out.
He finally found Song Fei and that fellow was currently safe. This realization made Qi Yan ecstatic and when Song Fei responded back with the same method, this ecstasy became mixed with a little sweetness.
His original intention was just to make some sounds that wouldn’t provoke the nearby zombies and could only be heard by the people in the elevator, so using a solid medium was the most suitable. As for having the rhythm be recognized and even replied to by the other party, was a completely unexpected pleasant surprise.
At first, it was just because once on a certain date, it was extremely boring waiting for their meal to arrive so he casually recounted some interesting childhood anecdotes of his own then tapped on the table with his finger, beating out a rhythm in order to prove it. He just didn’t expect the other party to actually remember.
That scatter-brained guy also had such diligent episodes.
Qi Yan didn’t want to base his joy on such minute details, but unpromisingly, he just couldn’t control the corners of his mouth from curving upwards—this just proved that it was necessary to show off one’s artistic career to their significant other occasionally, even if it was just being the drummer of the military band in elementary school.
Author’s Chapter Summary
The chilling endless darkness makes one’s heart tremble, unflagging efforts to seek out comrades!
The translator has something to say: out of curiosity, I checked the “Morse code” in this chapter even though I knew it didn’t make sense because there were no dashes, but to resolve my own and maybe your curiosity, too bad it seems to just be gibberish
Translator note: due to the lateness of this chapter, there will be another chapter coming up, remember to check shortly!
Surviving through love!!
I just ate so much dog food T^T
Maybe our couple will finally get back together.
Thanks for the chapter!