translator: transcendentwings
While the intruders were stunned by the bomb, Qi Yan, Wu Zhou, Fu Xiyuan, Wang Qingyuan, and Luo Geng immediately unleashed their weapons. He Zhiwen, Li Jingyu, and the thirteen youths of the chemistry department reacted slightly slower, but seeing the actions of the other five, they immediately responded and followed suit.
The insanity that took over the intruders seemed to have been held back by a single breath.
In fact, not all of them had withdrawn their weapons. Some of them carried sharp weapons but didn’t take them out in the end and just relied on hand-to-hand combat while others didn’t possess any weapon at all and just relied on a burst of madness.
Now that their hysteria was allowed to dissipate, most of them became depressed. Just like a lantern blown out by a gust of wind, they were no longer ferocious and even their faces were ashen.
Song Fei watched Qi Yan rally his comrades to drive the intruders into the corner and observed as those people squatted down slowly with unfocused gazes as if all their three immortal and seven mortal souls had been stripped, leaving behind only a numb shell of a body.
They weren’t even desperate.
They wanted to live, yet could not, thus they felt that all hope was lost, but they didn’t even reveal this bit of emotion in their eyes.
Song Fei didn’t know if the fierce battle just now had exhausted all of their final thoughts, so now that there was nothing left to support their physical bodies, let alone their will.
From inside out, they completely crumbled.
“Ahhhhh—” The hostage in his arms abruptly struggled free and charged towards Wang Shan like crazy!
The party secretary of the chemistry department, who was used to blowing up bunkers, was startled silly, as if he had suddenly run into a lunatic on the way to school, and felt instinctively frightened. He dashed away to escape and even forgetting to adjust his posture as he held up the explosive while sprinting!
This scene was so peculiar that even all his companions were dumbfounded for a moment.
Song Fei was the first to come back to his senses as he shot forward with a ceng!
However, he was ultimately still a step too late. Seeing that the tall and burly male student was about to catch up with Wang Shan, whose four limbs were toiling away futilely, the other’s outstretched hand had already brushed against Wang Shan’s back!
Pudong—
The purser suddenly lost his balance and fell forward with a bang, face-planting heavily onto the marble floor!
Song Fei hurried over and saw Qiao Siqi, who crawled halfway out of his futon and was now hugging his opponent’s calf tightly. Just clutching it wasn’t enough, after the opponent fell down, he even opened his mouth and bit him without any warning!
The completely crazed male student no longer registered pain, or recognized faces, thus the gnawing on his calf was entirely negligible. However he wanted to get up, thus he bucked his legs desperately in an attempt to kick the person who hindered him away!
Song Fei straddled the opponent’s body with one leg, plopped down on his back with his face turned towards the direction Qiao Siqi was in and pressed down on his comrade’s hand firmly: “Qiao Siqi!”
Qiao-tongxue, who was almost delirious from the fever, was taken aback when he heard this and was dragged away by Lin Dilei who rushed over afterwards.
Song Fei immediately rotated 180 degrees with his butt as the axis and yanked on the opponent’s hair to lift his face off the ground. Hardening his heart, he disregarded the bloody red-stained face of his opponent caused by the other’s nosebleed and roared with all his might: “Are you f*cking done acting psychotic—”
“Had enough you d*mned bastard! Even if I die, I’ll take you guys down to join me!” That man sprayed bloody spittle all over Song Fei’s face.
Song Fei really wanted to open up the opponent’s skull and see how his brain was wired and structured: “No one wants you to die! We don’t want to die either! Can you let your IQ come online and listen to us properly!!!”
“If you don’t want to kill me then you guys take out the food ah, pull it out ah!!!”
“Luncheon meat or mashed potatoes?”
Huang Mo appeared beside the boy like an apparition as she opened the can with one hand and topped up a small bowl full of an enticing aroma with the other.
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.
No one knew when she approached, as if she had been crouched there ever since Pangu created the sky and the earth and was only waiting to be summoned to reveal herself.
Vtf jrxfv nfgs ufcais jcv atf ybs ilrafcfv ojcajralmjiis.
Vbcu Mfl mjwf yjmx ab tlr rfcrfr jcv ibbrfcfv tlr uglq atja kjr afjglcu ja atf batfg’r tjlg, rilqqfv tlr yjmxqjmx boo lc j ufcaif wjccfg, olrtfv bea atf tjio bo atf gfwjlclcu qijralm ybaaif oliifv klat yblifv kjafg jcv boofgfv la yfobgf atf ybs’r ojmf: “Lbk jybea, sbe ajxf akb rlqr olgra?”
No sound, complete silence.
The preset scene was vastly different from the actual situation and the boy with the nosebleed needed to restart his system.
The twenty-eight walking dead who were encircled off to the corner also had their berserk BUFF dissipated at such a magical turning point and restored a shred of their red and blue bars.
“Listen carefully,” Song Fei lowered his voice and stated word by word, firmly and forcefully, not only to the boy sprawled on the ground, but also to all the uninvited guests in the corner, “We are all classmates of the same university, no, even if we were just strangers to each other in society, when we are gathered together in a shared environment, we should all think and act upon a united front and aid each other to survive. We aren’t planning on monopolizing the canteen, but it is also impossible for us to allow you to smash and loot it. If you want to live well, we will have to keep the order here, share resources, and face difficulties together. What we have to deal with are those monsters outside, not classmates, and if anyone wants to start something with ill-intentions, don’t blame us for not holding back. As a friendly warning, when we don’t act like human beings, even we are afraid of ourselves.”
“. . .”
“Do you hear me or not, speak!”
“Have another bite ba.”
“. . . Huang-tongxue can you wait until I’m done speaking before feeding him!”
Kazi.
Kazi, kazi.
Huang Mo didn’t feed him a second morsel and the unwelcome guests in the corner were still digesting Song Fei’s declaration of the social order so the entire kitchen space was mired in a state of disheveled silence, thus the crisp and clear noise became even more frightening.
Li Jingyu, who had been standing next to the kitchen island, kept having a niggling feeling that the source of the sound was close at hand and after sweeping his gaze around, he suddenly bent down and looked beneath the counter.
A frail male classmate was holding a huge white radish and had been secretly nibbling it there, he scarfed it down so ferociously that he was chewing the skin along with it.
Judging from the remaining radishes, he might have hid there and started munching away since he entered the kitchen, but due to the fierce battle just now, no one had paid any attention to the ruckus here.
“Ding Shiyuan?!” The Little Whale recognized a student from his club.
The young man was stunned, the radish slipped from his hand and dropped to the floor with a dong, rolling a few times until it stopped a short distance away. He didn’t notice at all and just stared in disbelief at the familiar face that abruptly appeared in his field of view as if he witnessed a miracle: “Li Jingyu?!”
The rim of his eyes grew red: “Xiao-Ding!”
The boy choked up and cried out: “Lao Li—”
Perhaps those who were involved in literature were naturally sentimental and full of romanticism, so a surprise reunion with classmates became a tear-jerking scene where the party working underground finally got in touch and reconnected after innumerable trials, various tribulations, and untold hardships.
The Wusheng class and the thirteen youths of the chemistry department just let the two of them embrace each other and wail under the countertop while they had more important things to do—distribute rations to the uninvited guests.
The twenty-nine students were obviously starving and after being provided with food, they just devoured it voraciously. Friends and foes, good and evil, past and future, existence and destruction, all of it could just go to hell ba.
A few students who possessed more extended reaction times had not yet adapted to the sharp turn of the plot and stood there in a daze, not daring to reach out to pick up the food. In their habitual thinking, obtaining food was a matter of life and death. Now that they were defeated, only death would follow and the most merciful thing was to leave them there to fend for themselves, so how could food still be distributed for them to eat after being subdued by a greater force?
That was sustenance ah, a non-renewable resource that decreases by a bite with each mouthful, only maniacs would share it with others?!
The Wusheng class and the thirteen youths of the chemistry department all took this sight to heart and felt extremely distressed. The hatred brought down by the violent battle just now could not be dissipated in an instant, but there was indeed no way for them to connect the incident with this group of refugees currently before him.
Their behavior seemed to be drastically different if view in comparison as a before and after, yet when the human spirit was tortured to the limit and driven to madness by hunger, it seems that whatever they do would no longer hold any surprises.
Crying in the previous second, laughing in the next, vicious as a violent ghost in the last second, then weak as an ant in the following second.
Human willpower was as fragile as a piece of paper in the face of disaster and desperation.
Qi Yan walked up to the three patients and handed the medicine to Lin Dilei, who also grabbed warm water, feeding the medicine to their three companions. Zhao He had already swallowed the anti-inflammatory pills immediately and was now guarding the uninvited parties who were now gorging themselves along with Wu Zhou, Fu Xiyuan, and the others.
Song Fei was finally able to take a breather, but another matter suddenly popped into his head again. He swiftly dragged Wang Shan into a secluded corner and asked solemnly: “Is it safe to put your bomb here? The trial version was already so menacing, if the official version were to explode here, wouldn’t we be blown sky high with the canteen?”
“There is no genuine article ah.” Wang Shan gave him an experienced look of “you’re still too young”, “That is a model we made out of soil, If it really was filled with flammable and explosive materials, how would we still live, after all, one spark and we’d be sent to join the heavens.”
“Then the explosives you were talking about. . .”
“They’re all the same kind of miniature bang snaps tossed by Hao Bin. Didn’t you say that the emphasis was on intimidation and not a journey to the western paradise.”
“But you can’t not possess any weapons of mass destruction at all, what if we run into. . .”
“In case we encounter a place that needs a big explosion, disassemble all the trial kits, pour all the contents together, it’ll be a perfect amalgamation and no matter where you detonate it, the very same place will be obliviated.”
“. . .”
“How about that?” Wang Shan’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
“Assault is possible if advancing is needed and defense is available if a retreat is nigh,” Song Fei patted the other on the shoulder in relief, “You’ve grown.”
“Song Fei.” Huang Mo came over at some point.
Song Fei finally couldn’t help it and pursued the question that had troubled him for a long time now: “Do you not make any sounds when you walk?”
Huang Mo grinned: “No, actually I have no feet at all.”
Song Fei gulped, correcting her attitude: “Huang-laoshi, please state your business.”
“Go and see if the two under the island have finished sobbing. If they have finished crying, ask Ding Shiyuan what’s going on with them, where they came from, and what they’ve experienced.”
“And if they haven’t finished bawling?”
“Then interrupt them and interrogate Ding Shiyuan about what’s their deal, where they fled from, and what they’ve gone through.”
“. . .”
She obviously just repeated herself twice using the same tone, so why did he end up developing the fear that he would be stabbed to death if he couldn’t accomplish it ah!!!
Under the kitchen counter, both Lao-Li and Xiao-Ding wept until they looked like rabbits.
When Song Fei ducked underneath with canned luncheon meat, the two of them were still sniveling, reminiscing about the joy of being in the club in the past.
With meat, everything was easy to spill. Regarding Song Fei’s inquiries, Ding Shiyuan poured out all his knowledge without holding anything back in reserve, he even blabbed about things that Song Fei hadn’t brought up.
Ding Shiyuan was a underclassman who was one year below Li Jingyu, however because he went to school a year earlier and skipped another grade in elementary school, he was in actuality three years younger than Li Jingyu, thus he still gave off the impression of being a high school student.
According to him, they had fled from the dormitories. Counting him, the thirty people were actually divided into two groups, one from the male dorms building No. 5 and the other from No. 6. Among them, the economics and finance department and the computer science department accounted for a majority while there were a rare few from various other departments.
After a month of suffering, almost everyone in the dorms lost their minds and those who weren’t insane were almost driven to their deaths.
The long-term isolated and extreme environment had alienated them both physically and psychologically. Every day, some would take a dive off the building or simply open their doors to invite the monsters to bite them, but more were snatching things. With someone stealing things, another would be resisting, thus the robber was no longer a human being and the robbed were forced to ascend Liang Mountain.
Later, those of them who were driven into a corner could only discuss fleeing outside.
In fact, no one knew what would happen if they left, but if they stayed, then they would definitely die so even if it was a life-saving straw, even if their ultimate end was still to sink to the bottom, they still wanted to capture it and attempt one final struggle.
Ding Shiyuan didn’t know what the circumstances of building No. 6 was, but judging from the way the refugees from the two buildings hit it off, their experiences would be quite similar.
There were more than 50 people who broke out, but only 30 of them had made it to the canteen. Many were taken down on the way, but Ding Shiyuan couldn’t identify who they were.
In the final analysis, they were just a group of strangers who temporarily assembled for the sake of survival, but they couldn’t even be considered to be familiar with each other, let alone having forged friendships and tacit understanding with each other.
If they hadn’t just heard Luo Geng calling out to Lin Dilei when they were sprinting over, they might’ve just headed for the main entrance of the canteen in a muddled and clueless manner.
If so, a completely different ending might have occurred.
“I don’t even know how I spent these past couple of days,” a dazed look flashed across Ding Shiyuan’s face as if he were recalling the hellish scene at the dormitory, “It was just like a dream.”
When Song Fei crawled out from underneath the table, the kitchen had already reverted back to its rowdy state.
Lin Dilei was being pulled by Luo Geng to check the various black and blue bruises on her arms while Qi Yan stayed by the side of the three patients who were obviously in a better state now.
It may be that the medicine had a quick effect, or it may be that the act of consuming medicine itself offered some psychological suggestions similar to the placebo effect for the comrades-in-arms, but no matter which it was—Song Fei sniffled and suppressed the growing heat in his eyes—The life or death struggle from that night was worth it.
“Jilin, Liaoning, and other places gradually had their heat restored, Heilongjiang. . .”
The pleasing broadcasting voice was full of a penetrative power even in the cacophony of fifty or so people.
Obviously, it had only been a few hours since the last time they had tuned into the radio—Just before heading to the hospital, they listened to the broadcast to boost their morale, yet listening to it now, it still felt as if a long time had passed.
The content of the news wasn’t much different from a few hours, though of course it wasn’t for him to hear.
The tape recorder was placed in front of the twenty-nine people, and it had been playing for an unknown amount of time. The news was chattering in a loop and the twenty-nine of them listened to it on repeat like the wheels of a vehicle. This kind of wheel was like a psychotherapist’s hypnotic medium, swinging back and forth, going from the end back to the beginning, making the tense nerves of the patients with anxiety slowly relax and stabilize while being caught in its mechanical movements.
Sitting next to the cassette player, Huang Mo wasn’t only to guard their source for survival and hope, but also to accompany the new classmates. From time to time, she would insert a few mundane words during the news break, nothing sensational, nor indifferent, just the right kind in a natural way, making it inexplicably soothing.
The hunger gradually faded and rationality slowly returned.
A few students were already crying with emotions of unbelievable pleasant surprise, the lingering fear of escaping death, as well as their unspeakable hardships.
Song Fei didn’t know how many times he was grateful that he had left the dormitories behind early.
If he was still trapped in 440, would he also be driven to insanity like these people?
Ding Shiyuan called it a dream.
Song Fei hoped that these people would regard all of that as an actual dream.
No matter how painful and dark that dreamscape was, now they’ve woken up, opened their eyes and captured the light peeking out from behind the curtains.
Author’s Chapter Summary:
Don’t be afraid of the visitors who are on the verge of insanity unconcealed, alternating force and benignity will control the entire field!
The translator has something to say: SF and HM acted out the stick and carrot method quite smoothly, such that it was so natural despite being unrehearsed, although it was funny that HM was dismantling SF’s stage through her overly “gentle” manner (in fact, she’s the most cunning)
LoL bad cop and good cop play.
Thank you for the update.
I really like how rather than recreating hierarchy and being at the top like the usual course of events depicted in other BL apocalypse stories, the MC and ML are more concerned with preserving and expanding in numbers. This is the complete opposite to the mindset of only our small group can be trusted and everyone else is bad, evil etc.