The "friendly" conversation between Qi and Song abruptly ended due to the forceful intervention of their friends. In fact, both of them knew the conclusion in their hearts. Just as Qiao Siqi said, the ship of love had crashed into an iceberg, and words were about to sink it, and no one could stop it.
Hmm. Josie.
It was 7:30 PM. The six friends, having prepared their weapons, returned to their makeshift beds and sat in a row. Qi Yan discarded the dull fruit knife he had brought from the dorm and picked out a sharp pair of scissors from the supermarket, fiddling with them in his hand. Sometimes he brought the two blades together as if stabbing, sometimes he separated them, making snip-snip cutting motions. After playing around like this for about a minute, he smiled and asked Johns, who was sitting opposite him, "Do you think this is better than my old fruit knife?"
"Well…" Josh turned his face away and slowly looked up at the ceiling. "Urse…"
Qi Yan pressed further, "What's so good about it?"
Qiao Siqi wanted to cry: "It would definitely hurt more if I poked myself..."
"Alright," Lin Dilei couldn't stand it anymore. She snatched Qi Yan's scissors and slammed them on the ground, saying disdainfully, "If you're really capable, then force yourself on him and make it a done deal. Let him deny it with his mouth but his body tells a different story. Otherwise, go find a corner and reflect on what you didn't satisfy him in."
Song Fei: "..."
Qiao Siqi's wide eyes were filled with gratitude, as if he had seen Guanyin Bodhisattva descend to earth!
The other three male students secretly gave a thumbs up. While others spoke with wisdom and eloquence, Sister Landmine's words were like daggers to the heart!
Qi Yan felt so choked up that his internal organs were injured, and in the end, he pursed his lips tightly and remained silent.
Song Fei was caught in a dilemma: should she respond or not? In the end, she simply slapped the map she had drawn onto the quilt and forcefully changed the subject: "Let's study the route!"
Hiss—
Because Song Fei used too much force and the quilt was soft, the map was unfortunately struck by the force of his palm, resulting in several vertical cracks.
The map was already poorly drawn, and now it's all crumpled up; it looks like a piece of scrap paper.
Fortunately, the four friends didn't mind and came over to try to identify it. After a long process, they finally recognized it as a school map.
"I must say, you drew it quite detailed." Luo Geng gave sincere recognition.
"What route do you want to take?" Zhou Yilu understood the map, but he still didn't understand Song Fei's intention.
Song Fei pondered for a moment before speaking: "This is what I think. We've already survived, which is probably luckier than many of our classmates, but just surviving isn't enough; we have to keep going. How can we keep going? We have to make use of our advantages. In addition to our advantages in action and intelligence, we also have geographical advantages."
Lin Dilei: "What do we know about the school?"
Song Fei: "Yes, no one knows this school better than us. The basketball court, the auditorium, the library, even that completely inhuman Lu Ban Building in the School of Architecture and Engineering—they can all become our refuge when necessary. The more complex the structure, the more advantageous it is for us..."
"Excuse me for interrupting," Zhou Yilu said seriously, raising his hand. "I don't like your assessment of the Luban Building. It's the building in our school that best embodies structural aesthetics. It's a passionate collision of ingenuity and skill, a perfect combination of dynamism and practicality!"
Song Fei: "..."
Lin Dilei: "..."
Qi Yan: "..."
Qiao Siqi: "..."
Luo Geng: "I might be an outsider, and I don't understand structural aesthetics or anything like that. I just have one question: why do I always get lost in your building?"
Zhou Yilu: "That's a ridiculous question. Don't you think I ever get lost?"
Qiao Siqi: "..."
Song Fei: "..."
Qi Yan: "..."
Lin Dilei: "I can't take it anymore, my chest hurts too much, let me rest for a while..."
Luogeng: "I'll massage it for you!"
Lin Dilei: "Get lost."
The discussion on survival strategies restarted five minutes later, because everyone needed to cover their chests and roll around on the blankets for a while to avoid exploding on the spot.
"I completely agree with using the terrain," Luo Geng, who recovered quickly, spoke first. "But no matter how we use it, I think that's a matter for later. The immediate question is whether we should fight a positional war or a breakout."
"I'll go first, I support positional warfare." Johns had somehow managed to get his hands on a bag of beef jerky again; ever since Lin Dilei forbade him from smoking, he'd been practically constantly snacking. "Right now, none of us know what's going on outside. Maybe if we hold on for a few more days, the rescue teams will arrive. This isn't some ordinary minor illness or disaster. To put it bluntly, if control measures are delayed even by a day, it could lead to the fall of a large part of the city. Can the country just sit idly by?"
"I also agree with positional warfare," Qi Yan said in a deep voice. "A forced breakout is too dangerous. There is plenty of food here, enough for us to hold out for a month or two. There is no need to take the risk."
Zhou Yilu: "What if we wait for a month or two and still don't receive any rescue?"
Lin Dilei: "The situation outside the school can only be worse."
Luogeng: "Damn, is it really the end of the world, like in the movies, with ruins, yellow sand, and deathly silence?"
Joss: "Or a new world and order."
"Hey, can we get out of this sci-fi movie phase?" Song Fei couldn't take it anymore and had to pull his comrades' wildly racing thoughts back. "We're in the information age now. Scientists are even figuring out how to keep Earth from asteroids. I don't believe we can't even handle a zombie virus. Of course, that's a grandiose view. On a smaller scale, even if this virus only affects China, I believe our country has the capability and means to control and stabilize the situation. Think about the evacuation of our citizens from Libya, think about those islands in the South China Sea that have secretly transformed from barren reefs into bases. Without strength and confidence, could we do that?"
"Wow, you've really got me all fired up." Luo Geng stretched his muscles, feeling an urge to rush out and fight the zombies right away.
Song Fei: "Of course, we have to look at things from both sides."
Luo Geng: "...Can't you fucking stop panting?!"
Song Fei patted his shoulder apologetically, signaling him to calm down, before sighing, "We've definitely started moving, but before the rescue efforts, stabilizing the situation and preventing it from worsening is the top priority. We still have water and electricity, which is what we're relying on. But even if the situation stabilizes, maintaining it long-term will still require a significant amount of manpower and resources, so the manpower and resources available for rescue are inherently limited. Given the rate of the virus's spread, how many areas do you think will need rescue by the time the situation is basically stable?"
This is a judgment based on optimism but also forced to consider the realities of the situation; it shines with hope yet is tinged with bitterness.
"The whole country." In the silence, Qi Yan gave the answer. "If only one or two provinces were experiencing an outbreak, the entire nation would have been mobilized to provide aid long ago. The fact that they haven't arrived yet only means that the scope of the outbreak is far beyond our imagination. It's not that it's absolutely uncontrollable, but at least it's very difficult to control at this stage. Unlike other infectious diseases, where patients are conscious and can be monitored in the source area, this one is completely disorderly and spreads rapidly. At this rate of spread, no province except the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau can escape it."
Zhou Yilu: "The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is not necessarily safe. If a tourist gets sick, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will send a whole train to the plateau."
Qi Yan: "..."
Ignoring Zhou Yilu's concerns, Lin Dilei asked directly, "Song Fei, what exactly are you trying to say?"
Song Fei lowered his head, seemingly considering the matter. After a long pause, he said seriously, "What I want to say is that even if the rescue begins, the limited rescue resources will dictate a certain order of rescue. What do you think that order will be?"
Qi Yan: "The heart region of Beijing, Tianjin, and Tangshan."
Luo Geng: "The Yangtze River Delta region (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai) with free shipping."
Zhou Yilu: "Fujian is located in the coastal area."
Qiao Siqi: "The border region between Mongolia and Tibet."
Lin Dilei: "Then gradually shrink the encirclement until... our Central Plains region?"
Song Fei: "Of course, it is also possible that after the Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian and Guangdong regions are settled, they can directly advance from east to west."
Qiao Siqi: "That wasn't that much earlier... Mom! Why did you insist on making me apply here?!"
Song Fei gave Qiao Siqi's head a shove, interrupting his wailing. Right now, they could talk about anything, just not their parents. Once emotions got the better of them, no one could hold back; they'd all be crying their eyes out, what was the point of discussing anything?
"What I want to say is that we need both positional warfare and breakout warfare, and we need to do both at the same time. It would be good if we could wait for reinforcements, but if the reinforcements don't come, and we can't hold our positions first, or we run out of food, then we must make a decisive decision and move the battlefield. If the whole school can't stay here anymore, and the water and electricity are still running out, then running to the city is our only hope."
Qi Yan asked, "Why don't we go to the city center now?"
Song Fei looked at him seriously: "Nobody knows what the situation is outside. Outside the school, it's all wasteland. There's nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. It's a matter of life and death. So this is a last resort. We shouldn't do it unless absolutely necessary."
"Exactly. If we escape and die, and then get rescued after only two weeks of guarding this place, what a waste it would be for us to die," Qiao Siqi chimed in.
Qi Yan understood this principle, of course. He didn't really want to ask Song Fei a question. He just found Song Fei, who was clear-headed, logical, and trying to help everyone, particularly refreshing: "Before, you would die if I asked you to use your brain. How come you've suddenly started thinking about problems so seriously?"
Song Fei rolled her eyes: "Because you'll die if you don't use your brain now."
Qi Yan sighed: "If you had put that same effort into your studies earlier, you wouldn't have failed English so badly last semester."
Song Fei: "But I got the highest score in management in the whole class, why don't you mention that?"
Qi Yan: "There's nothing to be proud of in being good at only one subject."
Song Fei: "...Damn it, where are my chopsticks?"
Zhou Yilu: "Calm down! When love reaches its end, it's like spilled water—it can't be retrieved. Love lingers, and so does hate. Don't wait until it's too late to remember his tenderness!"
Qi Yan: "..."
Song Fei: "Yi Lu, let go of me. I've calmed down, really."
Ultimately, everyone agreed on a comprehensive plan that combined holding the position with a breakout strategy. They also devised a plan to rush to the rooftop through the ventilation windows if the supermarket fell, and then seize the canteen. Whether to continue advancing or hold the position again after capturing the canteen would be discussed later based on the actual situation.
Of course, it would be ideal if we could stay safely in the supermarket until the rescue.
Although everyone rationally knew that the supermarket could fall at any moment, and tried to stuff their backpacks with filling food and put them next to their pillows along with their weapons, as the night deepened and the eerie noises outside gradually subsided, they still couldn't help but lie down and seek some of the peace and warmth of the past in the soft blankets.
It was a long and exhausting day, both for the five people who ran out of the dormitory and for Lin Dilei who escaped from the water room.
The five people lay side by side on the floor, close enough to touch but not shoulder to shoulder. Lin Dilei was placed at the very back, against the shelves and the windowless wall. She knew this was the safest spot, and although she didn't say much, she truly appreciated the gesture.
While trapped in the washroom, she imagined many scenarios: being bitten to death by a monster that stormed in, or being rescued by a group of classmates fighting off the monster. But the latter wasn't enough to put her at ease. In this situation, a girl might be at best seen as a burden, and at worst, she dared not even think about it. Call her despicable or pessimistic, but when death looms large, no one can guarantee that humanity and morality won't be distorted even slightly.
As a result, she was proven wrong.
However, she was very happy to be beaten, and all the negative energy she had accumulated in the washroom disappeared.
She attended a great school and met a group of wonderful classmates. Although she was trapped in a water room due to a sudden virus outbreak and also had her period, she believed that the night would eventually pass and the dawn would surely come.