Translator: transcendentwings
The companions of the Wusheng Class ultimately did not end up discussing how to start a car without the keys.
Qiao Siqi gave a description based on his rich movie-watching experience that “you can turn on the engine by making two wires touch”, but when it came to his companions inquiring about exactly which two wires they were or whether all cars could utilize this method, Qiao-tongxue couldn’t elaborate any further.
In the end, Zhou Yilu was the one who brushed up everyone’s knowledge on this subject where that simple and crude method was only applicable to old-fashioned cars and that the current cars have long since been upgraded to guard against this method. Now, there was a chip in the car key and the chip required a matching coded signal, thus without the key, the engine would remain locked. Let alone two wires, even if you yanked all the wires out and tried them one by one, it was futile. He also kindly reminded Qiao Siqi to rewatch some movies that had come out in the past two years and swore that he would never see someone start the car like that again in them.
Qiao Siqi didn’t need to watch any movies that came out in recent years and was already convinced by Zhou Yilu’s professional explanation.
Cooking, guitar, cars, including his architectural major, all came together to constitute a very typical refined urban youth.
Qiao Siqi was very reluctant to admit that Zhou Yilu was better than himself, but whether it was in regards to the other party’s reserve of knowledge or the pursuit of beauty in life, all were things he couldn’t keep up with even if he sprinted until he vomited blood.
As such the only thing that he could present to save his honor was—
“Although I don’t understand cars, I own one.”
Zhou Yilu side-eyed Qiao Siqi who inexplicably tossed out this sudden strange remark, then after a pause, he nodded and admitted: “En, not only do you have a car, but you are also ill.”
The most painful thing in life was not losing to an opponent, but it was the fact that they didn’t regard you as an adversary at all.
On this side, Qiao Siqi’s heart was shattered and the pieces were scattered all over the floor, while Song Fei on the other side realized that what his companions were discussing back and forth seemed to revolve around “how to find a mode of transportation”, and were clustered around this topic very seriously, thus he attempted to confirm it very solemnly: “So, you all agree with the proposal I made of rushing out?”
The companions of Wusheng Classes 1 and 2 all turned to look at him in unison with the same implication being expressed from their gazes—No kidding.
“Otherwise, why did we try to start the engine for such a long time ma, just to take a spin on campus?” Zhao He’s voice had obviously recovered well and had become unusually talkative since the day before.
However, his words inspired Li Jingyu’s innocent and artless fantasies: “This proposal isn’t bad ai. We are in the car, the zombies can’t get in, so we can just drive all over campus bei. Think about it ah, our car is driving in front, the zombies are chasing behind, yet they can’t catch up no matter what, how thrilling!”
Zhao He made a face: “Who the hell suggested it!”
Zhou Yilu implored: “Can you kindly fill your stomach up first before enjoying this perverted psychological desire?”
Li Jingyu was scolded by two gods of war in succession making him flatten his lips in response as he stopped talking.
He Zhiwen, who was next to him, patted him on the shoulder and sighed: “I get you. They have no sense of humor.”
Li Jingyu hated that he couldn’t just clasp the other’s hands and weep tearfully on account of their grievances together.
Song Fei was too lazy to bother with those two little princes and cut to the chase right away: “Since we decided to leave, how we are locating a car and how we are starting it are both just a matter of methodology now. Let’s not debate about the way now and discuss the destination first, where are we headed to?”
“I think it’s pretty good to go to the urban center,” Fu Xiyuan insisted as before, though it was evident that he lost some steam, “But everyone disagrees. . .”
“I didn’t disagree ah.” Zhou Yilu was the first to clear up the misunderstanding, “I just wanted clarification on where exactly our destination was.”
Zhao He: “I didn’t disagree either, I just thought that adventure movies aren’t bad, at least there’s a 50% chance of survival.”
Luo Geng: “I just wanted to point out that we can’t zip around like headless flies.”
Li Jingyu, Feng Qibai: “All we discussed was the cars!”
He Zhiwen: “I was only wholeheartedly concerned about Little Whale.”
Qiao Siqi, Lin Dilei, Huang Mo, Wu Zhou: “. . .”
Wang Qingyuan, Qi Yan: “Okay ba, this motion is passed.”
Fu Xiyuan: “. . . You two hide your thoughts too deeply!”
It was a unanimous decision.
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.
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At the beginning of the establishment of the university town, the suburban area was originally basically included in the scope of planning, and the original land didn’t need special arrangements, it was just left there waiting for high-rise buildings and the commercial district to be built upon it. However, after a few years, other than the university city that was constructed in the innermost area, there were no signs of activity anywhere else.
Consequently, if one were to ride the bus now, what could be seen most of the time was just endless empty lots of barren lands. Occasionally, some fields could be spotted with growing crops, but most of the land was just desolate and abandoned.
Now that they decided to leave, the only place they could replenish their supplies was the urban center.
As for the village opposite the university?
The neighboring universities?
The residential buildings in the living quarters for families?
It was only just another cage. Without the air-dropped supplies, they would still run into the same food shortage issues along with the in-fighting between survivors robbing each other. Similar to what Qiao Siqi illustrated, the only solution was to await intervention via external forces, or break out of the encirclement.
And what they were about to do now was a combination of both.
Extricating themselves from this enclosure depended on themselves while the air-dropped rations were the external forces.
As long as the airdrops continued and the supplies were still being provided, the urban center would transform into a sustainable refuge, no longer a cage of animals.
All they could do now was pray that the country’s airdrops to the city would be sufficient and frequent enough to provide for them.
“Assuming that we have already started the car and even drove all the way to the city, where should we go next?” Qi Yan started the next stage of planning directly.
The rhythm was brought forward too swiftly and the companions couldn’t turn the page past the underground garage dilemma for a while.
In the end, it was Wang Qingyuan who answered first: “The place most likely to receive airdrops.”
Qi Yan continued: “Such as a public disaster shelter like a stadium?”
Wang Qingyuan added: “Also high-density residential areas.”
Qi Yan: “Then should we head to the provincial stadium or to the residential gardens?”
Wang Qingyuan: “We’ll follow the central axis, run through from the north to the south, cross the provincial stadium, district office, city office, and the northern railway station in one line.”
Qi Yan: “If we run into any problems at any juncture, roads would be accessible from all sides with densely populated areas in any direction.”
Wang Qingyuan: “You catch on quick.”
Qi Yan: “Your praise sounds very reluctant.”
Wang Qingyuan: “Don’t worry about it, subjective emotions don’t affect objective judgment.”
Qi Yan: “I take it to heart more when you put it like that. . .”
Qi Yan and Wang Qingyuan were people who, upon encountering any problems, would immediately kick their brains into gear to ponder it over thoroughly, so when the proposal to find a car to go to the city was initially brought up, they would end up being plagued with various concerns. However, at the same time, they were also the type who were good at solving issues efficiently. Once they skipped over the technical difficulties of how to start the car, and temporarily ignored the possible scramble for resources in the urban center, the entire route was clearly revealed to them.
The eyes of their companions flicked back and forth between their faces and soon discovered that their destination was settled in this way.
This feeling was like when one sat next to the academic tyrant during an exam who swiftly finished the test and allowed them to copy it as they pleased. No, it was to secretly pull one’s own exam and help them write it.
Uh, excluding Qiao Siqi.
Apparently he had his own ideas about how to answer the question and tried several times to interject but wasn’t able to voice his thoughts. He was so anxious that he was about to break out in a sweat when he was finally able to see the two come to an end with their banter and swiftly raised his hand: “Can I say something?”
Everyone’s eyes immediately shifted onto Qiao-tongxue.
“Of course,” Song Fei responded on behalf of the other two, “We are a democratic, not a tyranny.”
Qi Yan and Wang Qingyuan nodded their heads in unison, accepting this statement happily.
The more proposals, the better.
“Actually, I don’t have any objection to the escape route,” Qiao Siqi organized his words before continuing, “I just thought that if we want to rush into a densely populated area, instead of aimlessly trying to get lucky and being in a bind about which building is easier to climb, if we could even enter the building, whether there were any zombies ah or whatever, isn’t it better to just have a place in mind that is clearly accessible and has a high safety index?”
Qi Yan: “That’s for sure ah.”
Wang Qingyuan: “The question is whether there is actually such a location.”
Qiao Siqi: “Jinse Lanwan, sector A, building 2, unit 1, 9th floor.”
Qi Yan: “Nine O what?”
Qiao Siqi: “Two households on each level, the 9th floor is the top, the penthouse is a duplex, with only a single family residing there.”
Wang Qingyuan: “How much is the monthly rent?”
Qiao Siqi: “3800.”
Zhou Yilu: “The point isn’t to exclaim that the housing prices in inland areas are still cheap! Rather, can’t you just disclose to us how much property your dad has purchased for you all at once!”
Qiao Siqi: “That’s really all of it! My dad follows the principle that if you have a car, you have to have a house too, we can’t act like hooligans. . . Aowu, you guys didn’t mention that we would be going to the city before ah, so I didn’t dare mention it. . .”
—That’s why people say that hating the rich is wrong because you never know what other fanciful props those extravagant and decadent friends could fish out from their pockets the next time.
Qiao Siqi’s father rented this apartment for him on a yearly basis and the lock was changed as soon as the unit was rented out. Originally, he intended to change the door out all together, but the developer had installed a door that was already very sturdy in this high-end residential area before the previous owner renovated it himself and replaced it with a stronger one already. Thus when it finally fell in Qiao Siqi’s hands, if he wanted to switch it again, he could only aim in the direction of the security that a bank’s underground vault door would bring.
As such Father Qi gave up and with the consent of the owner, he installed a guardrail outside the window, saying that it would be removed when the lease was over in the future—the landlord didn’t think that it was necessary for the top floor to be outfitted with a guardrail, but Father Qi insisted upon it. It was unknown whether he was ill at ease towards his son or if he was just apprehensive about this dangerous society.
In this way, Qiao Siqi had a comfortable home in this place of academic studies. Every weekend, he would bring along three to five good friends and drive to the city to have fun, other times he would simply take his whole class to his place to have a Party. . . Oh, that’s not it, class meeting, en, a class get-together. At any rate, there were two floors, one above and one below, plenty of space.
More importantly, Qiao-tongxue mentioned that his refrigerator was full now because he originally planned to go to his apartment for a class gathering after the CET-4 and CET-6 exams, thus the girls went to buy and stock up on things a week in advance, yet who would’ve guessed that the incident would happen right after? Moreover, their apartment complex was all built to be rather spacious so the occupancy density wasn’t particularly high, and his place was also on the ninth floor, making the possibility of it becoming raided, trashed, and robbed relatively low.
Even if it were really wrecked and looted, or if the entire building had a power outage and the refrigerator was scrapped, Jinse Lanwan was definitely situated in the city center, which meant that even if wasn’t chosen for the supply drops, it wouldn’t be too far off from it, not to mention there were also various restaurants and shopping malls in its vicinity.
“This is what I was thinking,” Qiao Siqi worked hard to erect a map of the urban area in his head, a rare action on his part to actually rely on a logical analysis instead of his intuition or usual sudden epiphany, “The provincial stadium is the location closest to us in a straight line, so we can just advance along the central axis and if the stadium could be our shelter, there is no need to take any further risks. However, if the stadium is no good, we would need to randomly choose a residential area and try our luck, which at that point, we might as well just head over to my house. Anyway, I am familiar with the surrounding terrain and building conditions ah.”
He waited a long time without receiving a response.
Qiao Siqi raised his head hesitantly, and swept his gaze across his companions, diffident: “Were my conclusions incorrect?”
All his comrades-in-arms: “No, we think you are electricity, you are light, you are the only faith.”
Qiao Siqi chuckled with a heihei, abashed as he scratched his head shyly.
—It was a joyous event to be affirmed by others. Qiao-tongxue was rarely able to experience it, as a result, he was so happy that he was about to ascend to immortality.
All the routes were sorted out and the companions discovered the obstacle, forcing them to return to their starting point.
Transportation was a huge problem, such that the quick thinkers, Qi Yan, Wang Qingyuan, and the clever Song Fei, who had many tricks up his sleeve, were at their wits’ end as well.
“Fifty-seven people ah,” Luo Geng glanced around the kitchen and clearly reported the number of passengers, “A normal car can pack eight people in a bout of insanity, but we’d still need to obtain seven cars.”
Zhao He: “Do you know how to math ah, seven times eight is fifty-six, you’re missing one ne.”
Luo Geng: “D*mn, about equal don’t you get it? And you’re asking me if I can do math?”
Zhao He: “. . .”
Ding Shiyuan: “No one is missing, it’s just right. I’m not leaving.”
Ding Shiyuan, who didn’t participate in the discussion from the beginning to the end, slapped an exclamation mark on the preparations for escape meeting.
Li Jingyu didn’t even think before he blurted: “Why aren’t you leaving?”
Ding Shiyuan had the same expression on his face as Li Jingyu: “Why leave?”
Li Jingyu: “If you don’t leave, there is no way out ah.”
Ding Shiyuan: “It’s if we leave, that we’d cut off our survival route ba.”
Li Jingyu: “Didn’t you listen to our discussion before?”
“I heard it, but I can’t understand why you take it for granted that you would definitely be able to make it out of the university grounds safely, drive a car smoothly, arrive in the city in one piece, locate a shelter successfully, and be able to wait for rescue in the place where supplies will be airdropped.” Ding Shiyuan was very serious, he didn’t mean to raise the bar on purpose, but he really wanted to communicate to Li Jingyu regarding his doubts on this matter which he couldn’t figure out the more he listened, “The food in the canteen is far from finished and the relief force is also anticipated to arrive within in the month. Fine, I understand that you may be apprehensive that more students will come here in the future, worried that the stock wouldn’t sustain so many, fret about raids, trashing, looting, but aren’t those all just mere concerns, things that haven’t happened yet, so why would you still take the initiative to choose a path of narrow escape?”
Ding Shiyuan’s string of questions stumped the Wusheng class.
It’s not that they couldn’t answer his queries, but that these questions made the Wusheng class realize the essential difference between them and the other party when considering issues.
They have been engaged in conflicts since the beginning of the zombie outbreak and have been fighting all the way until now. They were still afraid of zombies, but this fear would only make them more careful when locked in a struggle and wouldn’t dispel their combative spirits—And a combative spirit wasn’t something that one would just be born with. When they escaped from the dormitories using bed sheets as a rope, when they sacrificed their cell phones in order to lure the zombies away and then broke into the supermarket, their thoughts were merely occupied by the thought of locating a refuge in which they could take a temporary respite and preferably stay there until the zombie outbreak was over.
But then circumstances changed.
They formed classes, they went on a mission to the Express Pickup Point in order to break the ice between them, they sought out the radio, and including now, they wanted to go to the city.
No one knew when their fighting spirits were tempered, and when they became aware of its presence, they had already become accustomed to seizing the initiative. This habit made them no longer willing to be led around by the nose.
Facing this disaster, they were grateful to have luckily survived, but they possessed the will to live even more.
Ding Shiyuan couldn’t understand it, he considered things from a different angle, but the companions in the Wusheng class could understand each other very well.
From the outbreak of the zombie tide until the present, Ding Shiyuan only traveled the short distance from the dormitory to here. He was just like them at the beginning, gaining a new life after the catastrophe, sunken in shock, he didn’t want nor did he believe that he could successfully breakthrough any further and only lived for the momentary safety he currently possessed.
The Wusheng class no longer disclosed this action plan to only their own and told everyone their idea of heading to the city.
The answer they got was the same as Ding Shiyuan’s, they weren’t budging.
The new classmates had no plans to leave and neither did the thirteen youths of the chemistry department.
“This is a plan of last resort for you guys in a worst case scenario, just like when we were in the Qiushi Building at that time, if we weren’t driven into a corner, who would be willing to risk their lives and venture outside. . . If we remained in the labs, we wouldn’t be left with only thirteen people.” When Wang Shang stated this, he struck his fist against the ground suddenly and the knuckles of his hand instantly became red, just like the rims of his eyes.
Before Ding Shiyuan spoke, the fourteen companions making up the Wusheng classes never entertained this situation.
Yet now, they could fully appreciate it.
These students may embark on the same journey as them one day in the future, or they may always just stay here, waiting to be rescued. However, either way, it was an individual’s choice.
They couldn’t force others to take risks.
Because every person who took their chances, couldn’t become responsible for anyone’s life but their own.
Author’s Chapter Summary:
To be luckily saved is to survive, to actively fight is to persist
The translator has something to say: I really apologize for the radio silence, there was a lot of RL stuff and I needed to take a little break
Although it is true that they could only really be responsible for their own lives, we know that each member of the two classes would do whatever it took to have everyone make it out alive, I hope we get updates on what happened with those left behind later
Update 1/2 for this week and I’ll try to push out two more chapters next week
Lanwan refers to a residential sector (referred to as a bay as the residential buildings are in a bay like layout where the different apartment complexes can be considered the sea and the area that they are in is considered the land that curves inward)
I love this author so much. They always bring in fresh perspectives, interesting twists and logic. Not to mention their spendid writing (and translator transcendent.wings’ amazing translations.)
I wish the best of luck to these comrade who have decided to stay behind. Hopefully they can find rations.
I love love the characters who all have believable intricate personalities and stories…I love the translations as well that makes it all SO EASY to understand despite some phrases and words not having an English alternative… I appreciate and love this so much.