Leave a comment

CatatoPatch is a freelance translator, you can support them on:

“Here’s the food. Each person gets one bottle of mineral water and two packs of biscuits. That’s all for today’s ration. During the wait for rescue, try to minimise any unnecessary activity. Although we have some food reserves, with so many of us, it won’t last for long,” said Old Liu as he distributed the supplies and placed a bundle of mineral water against the wall in the hall.

“Oh, by the way, why hasn’t Group 5/6 arrived yet?” Old Liu turned to one of the older boys among the eight who had just arrived from Group 3/4.

“They… They said they can’t make it. They feel that the classroom is safer,” replied the boy.

“What! Are they crazy? Someone call them; we need to talk out of this madness,” Old Liu instructed, looking at the others.

Group 5/6 was the last group, and it had the most girls. Initially, they were the ones most reluctant to leave the classroom and even suggested waiting for rescue in the classroom.

Yan Aoxue took the phone from Old Liu and dialled the number of one of the students from Group 5/6 and passed the phone back to Old Liu.

“Hey, Chen Lingling? What’s taking you guys so long?! Your group is the only one missing. What! Run! Run fast.”

“What happened? Mr. Liu?” Yan Aoxue took the phone back from Old Liu, noticing his gloomy face.

“Group 5/6 is gone,” Old Liu didn’t say much and resumed distributing supplies to the others.

Yan Aoxue understood without needing any further elaboration; her face turned grim as well.

After settling Chen De, Lin Feng returned to the hall and began inspecting the floor. There were three rooms and one staircase. The first room served as a rest area, with foldable beds and several sofas for teachers to rest. On the right was the warehouse, where they stored food and miscellaneous items. The room connected to the staircase seemed to be intended as an exhibition hall, with some nails already fixed on the walls, likely for hanging things.

The current layout with the unfinished staircase was actually a recent renovation. The principal had found the original layout and its old staircase an eyesore, which to be fair, was only to be expected given that this floor was meant to be used for storage. Thus, he wanted a new stairwell built. Thanks to the principal’s nitpicking, they now had a natural fortress against the zombies.

Having grabbed his food—a couple of packs of green tea-flavoured biscuits (6+3) and a small bottle of mineral water—Lin Feng sat on a piece of wrapping paper on the floor next to Liu Mengqi to eat.

“Aren’t you scared?” Liu Mengqi asked as she took a bite of her biscuit, looking at Lin Feng beside her.

“Of course, I am, but you know I’ve liked watching horror movies since I was a child. By the way, did you watch the VVVIP version of Toilet Horror that I sent you recently?”

“Nope, and who even sends a horror flick to a girl for her birthday? And why didn’t my parents scold you for that?”

“Hey, that wasn’t just any old horror flick. You know how rare it was? I had to beg a foreign friend of mine to send me the film. Then I had to personally translate and subtitle it. Do you know how much time I spent on that gift?”

Lin Feng took a bite of his biscuit, realising that it was matcha-flavoured and too sweet for his liking. He reached over to grab one of Liu Mengqi’s biscuits.

Liu Mengqi evaded his hand, and Lin Feng, who had expected this, playfully reached for her white stockings instead.

Liu Mengqi sighed and handed him her lemon-flavoured biscuits.

“You’re incorrigible. At this point you might as well just propose to me?” Liu half-jokingly chided her childhood friend, though rather than a laugh, she was probably expecting something more.

“Next thing you know, we’ll both be sent to jail for our close-relation marriage.”

“Close-relation my ***, we aren’t even related!”

“Hey, look at him,” a male student interrupted their conversation, pointing at Zhang Yicheng.

All attention turned to Zhang Yicheng, who had been bitten earlier. He was convulsing violently to the point where more and more students were stopping their meals to stare at him.

Unlike Chen De, Zhang Yicheng couldn’t cut off his limb due to the location of the bite. Several students who knew him quickly improvised, using a rope they found in the rooftop warehouse to tie him up.

His girlfriend, Tan Xin, stood next to him, holding a biscuit and water, feeling helpless as she watched her boyfriend transform.

Zhang Yicheng’s face began to develop spots, and his skin turned green and smooth. His muscles slightly enlarged, and the rope slowly loosened due to his slippery skin.

This mutation was much more bizarre than that of the zombies, as at least the zombies maintained a human shape.

Old Liu commanded the others to stand behind him, holding the fire axe warily as he watched Zhang Yicheng.

“Uh, teacher?”

Zhang Yicheng, now transformed into a monster, looked at the people in front of him with confusion.

“Zhang Yicheng, who… what are you?” Old Liu interrogated the monster while keeping the fire axe in hand.

“What am I? Don’t tell me I’m a zombie, too? No,but that’s not possible, I still have my consciousness. So why are you all so afraid of me?”

Old Liu furrowed his brow and asked a girl nearby for a small mirror. Kicking it to Zhang Yicheng’s feet, he didn’t put down the axe.

Zhang Yicheng picked up the mirror, slightly puzzled by his teacher and classmates’ strange actions

“Monster! Wait, that’s…” trembling, Zhang Yicheng put down the mirror and looked at the people in front of him.

“Tan Xin, I… I don’t know why this happened. I thought I would… turn into a zombie.” Zhang Yicheng felt overwhelmed as he looked at his frightened girlfriend hiding behind his teacher.

He stood there in a daze for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Zhang Yicheng glanced at the terrified crowd. A tear rolled down his already swollen eyes, and with a sprint, he dashed past everyone at an astonishing speed and rushed down the stairs.

The relieved crowd watched the departing monster, except for Tan Xin, who couldn’t stop crying.

“How did it end up like this?” Yan Aoxue looked at the departing Zhang Yicheng, puzzled.

According to what they’ve seen so far, Zhang Yicheng had been bitten by a zombie, so why did he mutate instead of getting infected?

“Who knows? Maybe he was a frog spirit in the first place, hahaha. I heard his family sells frogs. Perhaps eating too many of them brought about retribution,” Zhu Hanfang said cheerfully after finishing his biscuit.

“His family sells frogs?” Yan Aoxue rubbed her fair chin, lost in thought.

“That’s enough. Everyone, go back to your spots. Tonight, the boys will take turns guarding the stairs. Zombies may not be able to come up, but spiders can. Be careful, everyone,” Old Liu dispersed the gossiping crowd with a wave of his hand. He didn’t mention Zhang Yicheng’s recent transformation. At this moment, nobody knew what was happening in this world, so Old Liu didn’t wish to pass judgement on Zhang Yicheng’s situation. Especially from what they had just seen, it seemed like Zhang Yicheng still had his consciousness intact.

Currently, there were 21 people in total. The first group that came up had three boys and one girl, totaling four people. The second group had two casualties, bringing the count to nine people. All eight members of the third group made it. As for the last group, there seemed to be no survivors, and they couldn’t contact them via phone or messaging.

“Due to the limited number of beds, two people will share one foldable bed. Before going to bed, you can make sure your family members are safe. As long as our phones have signal and battery, try to save battery power for as long as possible. Our phones are our only hope for survival,”

Old Liu took out the foldable beds and thin blankets. “The weather has been fluctuating between cold and hot lately. If it gets too cold at night, we can huddle together around the fire for warmth.”

Lin Feng and Song Zhe naturally shared one bed, since it would be more convenient when they had swap shifts on night duty.

Liu Mengqi reluctantly shared a bed with Yan Aoxue. Her best friend, Ruolan, had gone to comfort Tan Xin, who couldn’t stop crying. Although Liu Mengqi herself was pretty attractive, she was often around Lin Feng and Song Zhe, leaving her with only Ruolan as her close female friend.

Zhu Hanfang slept with Liu Tao. With the two of them being “jocks”, the sight of two robust men sleeping together naturally drew some playful suggestions from some girls, but the two of them didn’t mind.

Picking up his phone, Lin Feng dialled his home number with some nervousness.

“Hello?”

“Hello? Mom, how is everything at home?” The voice from the other end of the phone greatly relieved Lin Feng. If even his parents were in trouble, he wouldn’t know what to do.

“Well, everything is fine at home. Your dad is okay too. However, the entire neighbourhood is experiencing a power outage. How are you, my child? Where are you? Is it safe?” His mother’s voice sounded a bit shaky.

“Don’t worry, Mom. The school has organised everyone, and our class is currently on the top floor. It’s safe, and the teacher is with us. We have enough food and water for now.”

“Oh, I see. Listen to Mom and take care of yourself, okay? Take care of Xiao Qi too. You two have grown up together since childhood. You can’t abandon her, understand?” His mother’s voice was filled with concern.

“Sure, Mom. I will take care of her. Don’t go out too much for now. I remember we still have plenty of rice and noodles, which should last for a while. We can decide on a course of action later.” Lin Feng replied, glancing at Liu Mengqi, who was tidying her bed.

“Okay, Mom will hang up now. My phone is running low on battery, but I’ll try to contact you every now and then. Be careful outside, my child. Remember to follow your teacher.”

After hanging up the phone, Lin Feng’s heart warmed. His mom was as chatty as always. And speaking of his parents, his dad was quite strong himself, protecting his mom shouldn’t be a problem.

“Did you ask about your home?” Lin Feng walked to Liu Mengqi’s side and looked at her with furrowed brows.

“I asked. Your parent’s house and mine are facing each other from their balconies. However, I don’t know if there’s enough food at home,” Liu Mengqi looked somewhat melancholic.

“Don’t overthink it. There’s nothing we can do now. As they say, an old ginger is spicier. They will figure it out.”

The two families weren’t all that far apart at all in reality, merely ten kilometres away, with both families being located in the E city district. One was merely located in the southern side while the other was located in the northern side.

“Yeah,” after checking the news and finding no updates, Liu Mengqi shut down her phone. Although the rooftop had electricity, the students were too rushed to bring their chargers. They had to conserve energy for now. Their social circles largely overlapped, and the two of them only needed one phone.

As the weather gradually darkened and the sunlight disappeared completely, everyone lit their portable heaters and prepared to sleep. The season was transitioning to autumn, and the weather was unpredictable. Although it wasn’t particularly cold that day, the warmth from the fireplace brought a comforting glow to everyone.

“It’s your turn,” Lin Feng woke up gradually from being patted and sat up slowly, giving a slight yawn.

“Is it already 1 am?”

Without hearing a response, he turned to find that his buddy had already fallen asleep on the foldable bed.

“Damn, and you have the nerve to call yourself a college student? You can’t even stay awake past 1 am.”

After yawning several times, Lin Feng was thankful that they had water and electricity on the top floor. Although it was only available in the rest area, it still provided fresh water after the bottled mineral water was used up.

He walked to the vanity in the restroom and yawned again, splashing his face with cold water.

Buzz.

The pain from his arm jolted Lin Feng to full wakefulness after washing his face. He looked at his arm.

The scratch from the cat had already healed, but the area was unusually painful, with a burning sensation.

“Are you awake?” Just as Lin Feng was observing his arm, a voice came from behind.

“Liu Tao? Are you also on the night shift?” Seeing Liu Tao, who appeared sleepy, Lin Feng instinctively pulled down the sleeve that he had lifted.

“Yeah, cursed spiders, cursed zombies. They really won’t let people get a good night’s sleep.”

“****. Lin Feng, your eyes! Oh my God, you’re a monster!”