On a dark and windy night, at the base of the wall behind the courier station. ( )
Zhao He, Feng Qibai, and Wu Zhou formed the base, while Qi Yan and Zhou Yilu stepped on their shoulders to create a second layer. At this moment, the two of them were working together to pull Qiao Siqi upwards.
"Don't just think about relying on us, you have to put in the effort yourself!" Zhou Yilu didn't dare to raise his voice, and could only squeeze out his anger through his teeth.
"I tried my best!" Qiao Siqi felt like he was going to die. He didn't care about the 3-2-1 human pyramid formation, but he didn't volunteer to be the number 1. Why should someone who is light be forced to do something?
"He really used his strength, don't ask me how I know." Zhao He looked up at the sky, his eyes filled with desolation, and the faint pattern of the sole of his shoe on his profile had a unique hazy beauty in the moonlight.
After a frantic push, Qiao Siqi finally managed to step onto Zhao He's shoulder, reaching the same height as Qi Yan and Zhou Yilu. Then, their help could be changed from pulling him by the arms to supporting his feet, making it much easier to get onto Zhou Yilu's shoulder. Standing on Zhou Yilu's shoulder, the rooftop went from being impossibly high to barely reaching his waist. Qiao Siqi easily flipped himself up, using his hands to push off and his thighs to straddle the roof.
With someone arriving at the high point to provide support, the process of getting onto the roof was much faster, and in no time, all nine people had reached the roof.
"These are corrugated steel sheets, so try to step on the middle and avoid the edges," Zhou Yilu reminded him.
Zhao He's raised leg froze in mid-air. After regaining his composure, he carefully avoided the sides and stepped onto the center of the tile.
As his entire weight fell onto that foot, he could clearly feel the sole of the shoe slowly sinking in...
The somewhat thin roof material creaked under everyone's footsteps. Song Fei originally wanted to turn around to see if his friends had followed, but instead witnessed a figure slowly falling down.
"Are you planning to crawl forward?" Song Fei looked at Zhao He, who was lying down, with a bewildered expression. Zhao He was using his elbows as a fulcrum to inch forward, as if there was a bunker waiting for him to blow it up.
"I'm tired. Walking is easier. Do you have a problem with that?" Zhao He raised his chin provocatively.
Song Fei squatted down and patted his bald head: "As long as you're happy."
Zhao He felt a chill and raised his hand to call out.
Song Fei had anticipated this and swiftly withdrew his hand.
*Smack*
Zhao He's hand, big enough to hold a basketball with one hand, slapped his own head.
Song Fei was overjoyed, but when she turned around, she saw Qi Yan frowning at her, looking at her with a disappointed expression.
Song Fei shrank back, knowing he had made a mistake again. He quickly lowered his head and adopted a good attitude of knowing he was wrong—a conditioned reflex that he disliked but was deeply ingrained in him.
"Can't you be serious for once, especially at such a dangerous time?" Qi Yan's criticism came smoothly. It takes two to tango; Song Fei readily admitted his mistakes, so he naturally needed Qi Yan's cooperation in pointing them out.
"Okay, okay, okay." Song Fei agreed naturally, but then realized that they were no longer related, so why should he lower himself?
However, putting aside the issue of attitude, Qi Yan's criticism was not wrong; it is indeed inappropriate to joke around at this time.
but--
Song Fei opened his palm, facing up, and stared at it quietly for a while. With a hint of reminiscence, he sincerely suggested to Qi Yan, "You should touch it sometime. It feels really nice."
Zhao He: "Get lost!"
Qi Yan: "..."
During their courtship, Qi Yan hadn't actually made a point of learning about Song Fei's preferences. To some extent, Qi Yan's confidence was tinged with arrogance, though he concealed it well. The most direct consequence of this arrogance was that he valued himself more than others, and preferred to lead rather than try to match the other person's pace.
So, does Song Fei actually like this style?
Or maybe he could try shaving his head?
But it's the dead of winter now, and it's really cold without hair...
Under the bright, half-moon, Qi was filled with deep anxiety.
The agile Johns was the first to reach the top of the main entrance. He nimbly lay down, grabbed the eaves, and leaned out to shout down at the doorway: "Listen up, you zombies inside! You're surrounded! If you know what's good for you, come out and surrender!"
Zombies probably can't understand human speech.
Therefore, the effect of Josh's shout was basically equivalent to singing.
There were no streetlights around the courier point, and the lights inside were also off. Under the pale moonlight, the dark entrance appeared deep and mysterious.
As Josh's voice faded away, everyone was already lined up neatly at the edge of the roof.
There was no sound at the door; everything was extremely quiet.
"Are there no zombies inside?" Qiao Siqi muttered to himself, not quite sure.
This is a remote place. The last time they visited, it was during the day, so there weren't many zombies. Now that it's night, and they've killed four that escaped from here, it wouldn't be surprising if it's empty now.
"I'll go," Song Fei volunteered, making his second attempt. "My dear girl, you have to listen to me~~ Back in the day, I was a real handsome guy~~ But time has been cruel and has taken its toll on me~~ But in my heart, I'll always be the most beautiful~~"
Still, there was no movement.
The students in the martial arts class looked at each other and nodded in unison, "Yeah, that's all."
—If there's only one thing left in the world that can hold the zombies' hatred back, it has to be Song Fei's songs.
Zhao He and Qi Yan jumped down first and quietly approached the door from the base of the walls on both sides, while the remaining seven people remained on the roof.
Soon, the two arrived at the left and right sides of the main entrance. Qi Yan gave Zhao He a look, and the latter understood. As Qi Yan counted one, two, three with his fingers, the two took a step to the side at the same time, quickly turned around, and formed a position facing the entrance but still a step away from it. At the same time, Qi Yan snapped on his flashlight!
The bright light instantly illuminated the entire entrance. Because of the goggles, neither Qi Yan nor Zhao He were blinded by the bright light, so they were able to see the zombies inside the door the moment the light came on!
But the zombies were faster than them, and almost the instant the flashlights came on, they pounced out!
With his body reacting faster than his brain, Zhao He plunged his bayonet into the zombie's right eye and, with a burst of force, shoved the zombie, along with several others behind it that were still trying to rush out, back into the doorway!
The zombies were pushed to the ground, and the two inside fell backwards on their backs!
"Six in total!" The moment Zhao He stabbed the first zombie, Qi Yan had already regained his senses and counted the number of enemies in a very short time.
Without saying a word, Song Fei jumped down, along with Zhou Yilu, Wu Zhou, Yu Zisheng, and Feng Qibai.
"You two stay put and wait for me on the roof!" Song Fei instructed He Zhiwen and Qiao Siqi after landing.
The two, who had not yet taken any action, nodded in unison: "That's what we're thinking."
Perhaps there was no longer any need to hide, the zombies that had risen again finally rushed out, reverting to their ferocious nature of devouring anyone in their path.
With seven against six, plus Zhao He already severely injured one of them, and the battlefield being a wide open space that allowed the teammates to move around easily, this round of battle wasn't too difficult.
But the deeper reasons behind the battle still send chills down everyone's spine.
"They already know we're using a feint," Zhou Yilu said gravely. "So no matter how much Qiao Siqi shouts or how much Song Fei sings, they stay hidden and don't come out."
Qi Yan lowered his eyes, and after a brief silence, he said, "Just as we initially guessed, they haven't completely lost their intelligence; they've just maintained it at a relatively low level."
Zhou Yilu: "Is it low intelligence to see through our seduction and know to hide inside waiting for us to walk into the trap?"
"It depends on your standards," Qi Yan explained with an example. "Some cats and dogs know how to pretend to be innocent even when they do bad things. If you think that counts as high intelligence, then just pretend I didn't say anything."
"…" Zhou Yilu took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, trying to calm himself down so he could communicate peacefully: "Do you know how annoying your attitude of 'I've said everything I need to say, whether you understand or not is your problem' is?"
Qi Yan was stunned. Judging from her slightly embarrassed and apologetic expression, she really hadn't realized it.
Song Fei pushed him away and grasped Zhou Yilu's hand: "I know!"
The lights at the courier station finally came on, filling the room with light.
Qiao Siqi and He Zhiwen remained on guard duty. They were quite comfortable lying down, and occasionally they would exchange interesting anecdotes from their respective professional fields. For example, Qiao recommended a movie that perfectly combined literature and zombies, "Pride and Prejudice and the Zombies," while He analyzed the difference between zombies and ghouls from a physics perspective.
Inside, the most exciting activity in history—unpacking together—has begun again with great enthusiasm.
Zhao He: "Men's UGG!"
Zhou Yilu: "Imported honey!"
Feng Qibai: "Pure chocolate."
Song Fei: "Steam beauty device..."
Feng Qibai: "Heartwarming patches!"
Zhou Yilu: "Coral fleece pajamas!"
Wu Zhou: "Goji berries."
Song Fei: "Play-Doh..."
"Song Fei?" Qi Yan looked at him with a puzzled expression as he put down the cardboard box and walked out.
"I'll keep watch at the door, you guys continue." Song looked up at the starry sky, wondering if he was destined to be a courier.
Qi Yan shrugged. Anyway, this trip was mainly for getting to know each other, and he didn't expect to find any surprises at the courier point. It didn't matter if there was one more or one less worker.
Turning her gaze away, Qi Yan continued to take the express boxes down from the shelf, but her eyes kept glancing at Yu Zisheng not far away.
The person didn't seem unusual. He kept what was useful and discarded what wasn't. He didn't try to get close to the martial arts troupe members, but he wasn't eccentric either. He basically kept his presence very low-key.
Qi Yan didn't know whether this situation was good or bad, but he always had a taut string in his heart and dared not relax easily.
The rectangular cardboard box was removed, and Qi Yan used a knife to cut through the tape, opening it to reveal a similarly rectangular gift box inside. The gift box was slightly smaller than the cardboard box, and with the clearly carefully wrapped bubble wrap, it fit perfectly against the cardboard box.
Breaking through the bubble wrap, the blue gift box finally revealed itself. It was a beautiful deep blue, like both a clear night sky and delicate blue velvet. Opening the lid, inside was a black wallet, lying quietly amidst a bed of light turquoise raffia.
There was a card under the wallet.
Qi Yan, as if possessed, pulled it out. The handwriting on it was neat and beautiful—[Happy birthday, my husband! Remember, I'll be with you for every birthday from now on, your forever loving tomboy!]
Clearly, this was a birthday gift from a lively girl to her boyfriend.
For a fleeting moment, Qi Yan experienced a subtle sense of temporal displacement. It was as if he were back in his dormitory a year ago, opening a package with a bewildered expression, only to find a wallet nestled among countless crumpled pieces of newspaper used for shock absorption.
It was a week ago, Christmas. Song Fei insisted on dragging him to go shopping in the city. The pedestrian street was packed with people, and he had only taken a few steps in the crowd when someone stole his wallet. He realized what had happened immediately and even caught a glimpse of the thief, but with so many people around, he couldn't chase after him for more than a few steps before the thief made a comeback.
Ultimately, the culprit was Song Fei. When the other party suggested strolling along the city's pedestrian shopping street, he had already warned that it would be crowded. In the end, he was practically dragged there and ended up losing his wallet in the process. But Song Fei didn't see it that way, insisting that he hadn't taken good care of his belongings—a completely absurd argument.
The two argued more fiercely than the holiday atmosphere, and in the end, they had to walk back side by side—the buses had stopped running, and most taxis were unwilling to go to such a desolate suburb, feeling it wasn't worth returning empty-handed, and would rather refuse passengers. The two had no choice but to continue walking back and trying to flag down a taxi.
Perhaps to fit the occasion, after walking about two miles, snowflakes suddenly began to fall from the sky.
Both men, caught off guard during the Cold War, were taken aback.
"It's snowing," Song Fei said first, her voice low.
Qi Yan hummed in agreement, almost in a whisper.
Song Fei lowered her eyes, thought for a while, and then suddenly took out her phone and started fiddling with it.
Qi Yan turned her face away, deliberately avoiding looking.
Unexpectedly, my phone, which was in my pocket, soon rang with a WeChat notification.
Qi Yan took out his phone in confusion and found that Song Fei had sent him a picture. He opened the picture to view the full screen; it was a deep, snowy street with a couple walking hand in hand, leaving the viewer only with their intimate backs against the backdrop of heavy snow.
At the bottom of the picture is a line of text: "If we keep walking like this, can we grow old together?"
Qi Yan had no idea how much random stuff Song Fei usually looked at online to find such a fitting picture so quickly, and he really thought the sentence was incredibly cliché and pretentious.
However, the body wouldn't listen to the brain, and it forcibly pulled the person close and kissed them passionately.
If he could, he would even like to meld this bad guy into his own body.
Song Fei is as uninterested in studying as she is in flirting with men, a trait that Qi Yan both loves and hates.
So when he received the package without warning a week later, and then found his wallet and cards in a pile of old newspapers, he stopped fighting with his emotions. When he was angry, he'd just explode with anger; when he was happy, he'd be overjoyed. Being with Song Fei meant his mood would be on a rollercoaster ride, and he accepted it.
The card bore a bold, unrestrained handwriting: "Handsome, I've replaced your wallet, but I won't replace the money. I couldn't accept it even if I offered it to you. Come on, give me a kiss!"
Even now, Qi Yan still remembers that when no one was in the dormitory, he still quietly squatted down and, with a perverted sm
ile, secretly kissed a piece of paper.