"Who the hell told you to close the door?!"
The moment the elevator doors closed, Song Fei nearly collapsed. However, He Zhiwen was practically embracing him with his life, his arms wrapped around him like an iron barrel. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't break free. He could only watch helplessly as the gap in the door narrowed and Qi Yan's figure became more and more blurred until it disappeared completely.
He Zhiwen had already pressed the button for the 12th floor as soon as he entered, but now that the elevator was starting to rise, he still dared not let go of Song Fei.
"Let go!!!" Song Fei shouted as he struggled, and the elevator car trembled violently with his movements.
That swaying wasn't from an elevator, it was He Zhiwen's heart pounding!
"Don't forget our objective! If you rush out now, we'll all be wiped out! You think closing the gate is unfair to Qi Yan? Then how can you face the others if you fail at this crucial moment?! Qi Yan is still alive and kicking, while we don't even know if the others are alive or dead!!!"
He Zhiwen had never shouted at anyone like this before. He'd barely argued with anyone in his entire life, but now he couldn't help but yell. It wasn't anger at Song Fei's impulsive behavior, but rather the suppressed frustration and helplessness of wanting to rush out and save people but being forced to submit to reason. Song Fei was suffering, but how much better could he feel?
Song Fei regained some of his composure amidst his comrades' harsh rebukes, but immense distress churned within him. The thought of possibly losing Qi Yan… no, he dared not even contemplate it.
He never thought that his relationship with Qi Yan was anything earth-shattering. It was just two clueless kids having a childish romance that they would be ashamed to look back on years later. He never even thought it would last forever. His biggest expectation for this relationship was that they would stay together until graduation and break up, and that they would be loyal to each other and not have any affairs.
However, he now realizes he was wrong. He underestimated the relationship and overestimated his own carefree attitude. Perhaps years later, he will still think the relationship was naive, but at this moment, he was just as naive as the relationship.
Who he might meet in the future, what kind of love he might experience, whether there would still be a place for Qi Yan in his life—to hell with it all. He liked that person, and with the shallowness of his twenty years, he liked her purely and completely.
When Song Fei bit his arm, He Zhiwen broke out in a cold sweat. It took him a while to realize that Song Fei had only bitten his clothes, not actually nibbling at his flesh.
Song Fei bit very fiercely and with all her might.
He Zhiwen held him, letting him vent, deliberately ignoring the water droplets hitting his sleeves.
This is brotherhood, He Zhiwen thought. It's more direct than love, more intense than kinship; no man can resist such a righteous and heroic spirit. Even a good-natured man like him has one or two brothers like this, brothers he would risk his life for. So he understands Song Fei's tears of masculinity.
*Smack*
Clang!
The elevator car suddenly stopped, and the lights went out.
Song Fei, who was chewing on his sleeve, and He Zhiwen, who was reminiscing about his hometown and his brothers, were both stunned and wide-eyed in the darkness, their eyes blank and lost.
Before they could realize what was happening, the elevator car suddenly plummeted!
He Zhiwen, who was already holding Song Fei, instinctively hugged her even tighter, and Song Fei instantly became like a little bird, wishing she could burrow into his chest!
However, the descent quickly came to a stop. As the emergency lights overhead came on, the elevator car gasped for breath, relieved to have survived the ordeal.
After a long while, the carriage finally stabilized, giving those inside a sense of security and groundedness.
"The power's out?" Song Fei was still in shock, feeling as if he had taken a short half-second stroll to the gates of hell.
"It should be…" He Zhiwen was also quite frightened; his legs were still weak.
"Temporary or permanent?"
How would I know?
"Won't the elevator keep falling?"
"I already told you I don't know!"
"Isn't this your building? What use are you if you know nothing about everything!"
"Okay, this elevator is always severely overloaded by students during peak get out of class hours, so the gravity sensor overload alarm and emergency braking may not work very well. There was even an accident where it fell directly from the second floor to the first floor. Fortunately, no one was injured, so it was left unresolved."
"..."
"You forced me to do it."
Did I ask you any of these questions?
Honest advice is hard to swallow.
The emergency lights were very weak, barely illuminating the entire elevator car, casting only a small band of light above their heads—less bright than moonlight. But something was better than nothing; even a light that could only be seen by looking up offered some comfort to the two people in the darkness.
"Why did the power have to be cut off right after we came in? What a coincidence!" Although things were still in chaos, there wasn't much time to panic or feel lost. He could only force his brain to work.
"You mean someone deliberately cut the power?" He Zhiwen asked, only realizing after speaking that he was still holding Song Fei, and quickly let go of her arm.
His upper body was finally able to breathe freely, and his mind became clearer: "It might not be a person. This pitch-black environment is of no use for escaping. Zombies can't see but they can still smell, but people are completely blind."
"If it's not human, it could be a zombie?" He Zhiwen scoffed, but as soon as he finished speaking, he felt uneasy, and a chill ran down his spine. "Could it really be a zombie?"
Song Fei remained silent.
He Zhiwen couldn't see his comrade's expression, nor did he know whether his comrade was just guessing or genuinely believed it. In any case, he himself didn't believe it: "Even I don't know where the power switch is in this building, how could the zombies know? And with their intelligence, would they weigh the pros and cons of cutting off the power, or even conclude that cutting off the power is more beneficial to them and then carry out the operation?"
After He Zhiwen's analysis, Song Fei hesitated: "It doesn't seem very scientific..."
"It's very unscientific," He Zhiwen always said, "It's true that zombies are adapting to this environment, but like us, they are evolving gradually. Overstating this kind of evolution is unrealistic and does not conform to objective laws."
"Could it be that we've overcomplicated things?" Song Fei tentatively guessed, leaning towards the simple and straightforward direction, "Is it really just a simple power outage?"
"That's entirely possible."
"Did it cause the explosion at Qiushi Building?"
"Maybe, maybe not."
Song Fei stared resentfully at the emergency light: "Can we still report it for repair now?"
He Zhiwen remained silent: "What do you think?"
"Perhaps some of the surviving electricians are still holding fast to their posts..."
He Zhiwen sighed. Although they couldn't make eye contact in the darkness, he still gave the other person a look of admiration: "Optimism is a personality trait, but optimism like yours is a gift."
Song Fei was just trying to find some joy in his misery. Since he was trapped here and couldn't do anything, fantasizing wouldn't break the law.
He Zhiwen didn't understand the "spiritual victory" approach; he believed more in creating miracles with his own hands.
A blinding light instantly illuminated the elevator—He Zhiwen turned on his phone's flashlight.
With such strong contrast, emergency lights are practically negligible.
Song Fei blinked hard twice, and before he could fully adjust, He Zhiwen had already shoved the phone into his hand: "Take this for me."
Song Fei was confused until He Zhiwen started prying open the elevator door with his hands, at which point she suddenly realized what was going on. Song Fei naturally hoped the elevator door would open, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy: "Is it going to work? Don't be so rough. I remember many elevators have signs saying that for safety reasons, you can't pry open the door."
"Usually there's another sentence next to this: If there's a power outage, don't panic, wait for rescue. Are you going to wait now?" He Zhiwen exerted force with his hands while complaining, multitasking without disturbing each other.
Song Fei was speechless for a long time before weakly saying, "Xiao He, you've gone astray..."
What a simple and honest good child he was once.
He Zhiwen also realized his own subtle changes, and his view on this was very pertinent: "It's not entirely due to my personal efforts, but more so to the collective strength."
—The martial arts troupe is a melting pot; everyone who gets immersed in it grows. From the first day they step in, their destiny is irresistible.
In the end, He Zhiwen, whose fingertips were almost worn raw, gave up.
This elevator has problems with everything from the alarm system to the gravity sensor to the emergency brake, but its sealing system is perfect.
While holding his phone, Song Fei wasn't idle either; he kept observing the top of the elevator car. If he remembered correctly, many foreign movies featured protagonists nimbly removing the elevator car's roof panel, either climbing out of the car or climbing in through the shaft. Of course, the former's purpose was mostly to escape, while the latter's was usually assassination.
But movies serve the plot, not elevator escape guides. Who would describe in detail how to remove the ceiling panel? Usually, in one shot, the elevator opens up, and then the actors happily climb in and out.
But in reality, it's not like that at all!
In the white light of the phone, the top of the car is a single piece of frosted plastic panel, similar to a suspended ceiling. It's a fake, aesthetically pleasing ceiling made of building materials, placed under the real car top. The panel has holes for lights, and the back structure and wiring of the lights are hidden in the gap between the panel and the real car top.
If the top of this elevator can indeed be opened, then it would be necessary to smash the decorative ceiling, tear off the light wiring, and then look for gaps in the ceiling panels to see if there is a place to dismantle it.
Song Fei told He Zhiwen his idea, and after listening to it all, the latter rekindled his enthusiasm for prying open the door, which he had previously given up on: "I'll look for some tools to stop the door from opening; they all sound more reliable than your idea."
"Don't even think about prying the door open. If you could pry it open so easily, it wouldn't be an elevator..."
Click.
Song Fei froze, his mouth agape, forgetting to close it.
He Zhiwen quietly put down the dagger, equally bewildered as he stared at the elevator door, which now had a one-centimeter gap.
"It's done?" Song Fei asked incredulously.
He Zhiwen did not answer immediately, but instead put his fingers into the gap, held one side with one hand, and pulled hard to both sides.
With a rattling, scraping sound, the elevator doors slowly opened.
Finally, when the gap was large enough for someone to enter and exit freely, He Zhiwen stopped, turned to look at the still bewildered Song Fei, and replied, "It's done."
Happiness came so suddenly that Song Fei didn't know how to respond.
He Zhiwen said with a smug look, "This is our building's elevator, what do you think?"
Song Fei nodded, praising from the bottom of his heart: "That's fucking indecent."
Although the elevator car door was open, they were only halfway to being truly free. Besides the car door, there were also inter-floor elevator doors. Furthermore, due to the descent, the car was now stuck between two floors. To make matters worse, the floors of the Gewu Building were quite far apart, meaning that most of Song Fei and his companions' car was now wedged against the wall between the upper and lower elevator doors, with only a gap of about thirty centimeters above their heads, revealing a glimpse of the upper elevator door's metallic sheen.
If they had slipped just a little bit more during their fall, they would have been completely stuck in the wall!
Thinking about this, both of them broke out in a cold sweat from the shock.
"What do we do now?"
"Keep prying."
He Zhiwen looked up at the seemingly unreachable gap between the floor doors and felt a profound sense of powerlessness: "It would take Yao Ming to pry this open."
Song Fei went all out: "I'll hug you."
Without waiting for a reply, he wrapped his arms around He Zhiwen's waist and picked him up.
He Zhiwen resisted inwardly, but for the sake of the overall situation, he maintained a smile. When Song Fei lifted him to the highest point, he struggled to reach out, but the tip of the short knife in his hand was still a long way from the bottom of the door crack.
Undeterred, Song Fei wrapped her arms around the other person's knees a second time and lifted them up!
He Zhiwen has really messed up this time!
"Can you hurry up!"
"How can I aim when you keep shaking me like this!"
"How can I not sway when you're so heavy!"
"You're so tall and light, go find Josh!"
"Why are you still jealous at a time like this!"
"Your comprehension is amazing... Wow, wow, wow—"
Bang!
Clang—
Men and horses fell to the ground, and short swords lay scattered on the floor.
"I need to rest for a while..."
"Zhao He should be allowed in."
"Don't talk like that when you're not in my shoes. If you're so capable, hug me."
"..."
"No, no, I was just saying! At least give me a knife!!!"
Bang!
Once again, everyone and everything collapsed.
Song Fei was speechless; He Zhiwen was definitely doing it on purpose!
But it was this fall that confirmed one of Song Fei's guesses.
He Zhiwen looked at his comrade sitting on the ground and smiling, and felt a chill run down his spine: "Are you alright? I was wrong, I shouldn't have retaliated. Can you please stop laughing like that..."
Song Fei glanced at him and turned off her phone's flashlight. Since she wouldn't need it for the time being, she figured saving some battery was always good.
The elevator car went dark again, returning to a state of chaos with only a faint emergency light. But whether it was because a door had opened or because the surrounding environment had been assessed, the feeling of isolation and helplessness was no longer strong. Instead, the hope for survival, like a flame, slowly illuminated the heart in its predicament.
He Zhiwen belatedly realized Song Fei's pleasure and said with dissatisfaction, "What are you so happy about? It's shameless to hide it and enjoy it by yourself. Hurry up and share it."
Song Fei hadn't intended to hide anything: "We made such a commotion just now, but we didn't hear any zombie sounds, not even banging on the door or howling."
He Zhiwen immediately understood: "You mean it's safe outside?"
"At least there are no zombies in front of the elevator on this floor."
"Safety is useless," He Zhiwen's tone suddenly became dejected. "It's too high; we can't pry it open at all."
"well."
"Unless I step on your shoulders!"
"How about we reconsider adding a skylight..."
Song Fei's struggles were ultimately in vain, and he resigned himself to carrying He Zhiwen on his shoulders. The latter lived up to expectations, prying open the elevator doors between floors in all sorts of ways.
But whether it was because the pry point was too close to the bottom of the door, or because the inter-floor door was inherently more difficult to pry open than the car door, Song Fei almost couldn't hold on any longer. The inter-floor door remained completely unmoved, while He Zhiwen's short knife, with a crisp snap, had its hilt and blade separated.
Helpless, He Zhiwen saw Song Fei collapse to the ground.
Happiness comes suddenly and disappears just as suddenly; the ups and downs of life truly catch us completely off guard.
"Do you think God is playing a joke on us?" Song Fei said in despair. "We didn't get bitten to death by zombies, we didn't freeze to death by the weather, we didn't fall to our deaths from jumping off buildings, we didn't die of fright while trying to escape, and in the end we died in an elevator, surrounded by empty cans and poop."
"...Can't death scenes be depicted in an impressionistic style?!"
"Hmm, I thought realism would be more appealing."
"Feeling good doesn't mean it has flavor!"
Song Fei was amused by He Zhiwen's accusations. After laughing enough, she put away her nonchalant attitude and said seriously, "I apologize for complaining about you closing the elevator door before."
He Zhiwen was stunned: "How come you suddenly have such a profound realization?"
Song Fei spoke frankly: "If Qi Yan is also trapped here, then our radio will really be doomed."
He Zhiwen also wanted to believe Qi Yan, but said, "He's the only one left. There's hope, but it's slim."
Song Fei curled the corners of his mouth: "You don't understand, he's an incredibly capable person. There's nothing he can't do, only things he doesn't want to do."
In the darkness, no one saw the glint in Song Fei's eyes when he mentioned Qi Yan. He himself was unaware of it.
The lobby on the first floor of Gewu Building.
Qi Yan: "Keep singing—"
The big tree at the main entrance.
Zhao He: "My voice is completely hoarse, are you even capable of this?!"
Lobby: "This thing keeps spinning!"
The tree said, "Why did you climb up there for no reason?!"
The lobby: "I'm missing the ball in my five elements!"
Big Tree: "...You win."